Women anti-harassment activists and their mediated visibility in post-uprising Egypt

This article examines how anti-harassment activists in Egypt used mediated visibility through visual materials to address sexual harassment from the 2011 uprising to 2025. It argues that shifting power dynamics transformed mediated visibility from a complement to on-the-ground activism after 2011 into its primary strategy on digital platforms after 2014, culminating in Egypt’s #MeToo movement in 2020. Drawing on interviews, visual materials, and secondary sources, the article shows how activists used mediated visibility to advance their activism by securing recognition of sexual harassment as a public issue, challenging patriarchal state discourses, and influencing public debate, policy, and legal reform. Mediated visibility provided political legitimacy for activists and initiatives while advancing a rights-based alternative to the regime’s protectionist discourse and negotiating relations with feminist organizations and international donors. Yet it remained an ambivalent space of political struggle, sustaining anti-harassment activism even as the regime appropriated women’s visibility, regulated sexual harassment discourse, and constrained dissent.