‘Today I break my silence’: Perspectivization in Egyptian women's stories on sexual assaults

Combatting gender-based violence and sexual harassment has been at the core of cyberactivism in post-revolutionary Egypt. Numerous studies have focused on the 25 January 2011 Revolution and the role of technology-mediated tools, both in driving the events and empowering many silenced women to find their voice and stand up to their sexual aggressors. Expanding on this, the present paper aims to explore the ways in which survivors of sexual violence are developing online strategies for assessing and acting upon allegations of sexual assault. It investigates the discursive construction of the ‘survivor’ identity in 15 online stories on sexual violence posted by Egyptian women between 2020-2023. Using a discourse-historical approach, the study examines the linguistic choices employed by the female survivors in their self-presentation alongside their male perpetrators in the light of the discursive strategy of perspectivization. Although the findings reveal that the ‘survivor’ is predominantly portrayed as a weak and vulnerable participant, pressured by the abuser, feelings of shame and passiveness of society, some narratives depict more resilient women who are willing to challenge the victim-blaming culture, reflecting a shift in women’s understanding of gender roles and behaviors. The analysis also identifies other social actors who contribute to exacerbating the survivors’ struggle, such as the survivors’ families and witnesses. The work advances the developing area of digital feminism research and adds to the limited research that explores sexual violence discourse in contemporary Egyptian society.