Months after being held in detention, Egyptian authorities have finally released prominent activist Amal Fathy after criticizing Egypt's failed attempt at protecting women.
In a video uploaded in May, Fathy detailed her vile encounter with sexual harassment whilst visiting a bank in Egypt. A couple of days after the post, Egyptian authorities raided her home, arresting her, her husband, and son.
The latter two were ultimately released.
Fathy has since been released
On Thursday, the Egyptian activist was let go from a police station in Cairo. This comes over a week after a court ordered her "conditional release," according to The Guardian.
Fathy is currently under house arrest, and can only leave for medication or visits to the police station or court.
In another trial, Fathy faces charges of "misusing social media networks to spread material that could hurt Egypt's security and public interest" as well as "belonging to an outlawed group."
Najia Bounaim, Amnesty International's North Africa campaigns director, said Fathy's conditional release was "not enough."
"The Egyptian authorities must now drop all charges against her, quash her earlier conviction and two-year prison sentence and ensure she doesn't face any further reprisals for freely expressing her opinions," she said in a statement.
In September, Fathy received a suspended two-year prison sentence "for insulting employees in the bank and using abusive language to criticize state institutions and decry sexual harassment against women."
The ruling has been appealed and a verdict is set to take place on Dec. 30.
Not the first case of its kind
Earlier this year, a Lebanese woman was detained in Egypt after calling out sexual harassment in the country in a video that ultimately went viral.
In July, Mona el-Mazbouh was sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of "spreading false rumors that would harm society, attacking religion, and public indecency," according to Reuters.
In the footage that got el-Mazbouh in trouble, she detailed her experience with sexual harassment while vacationing in Cairo, and referred to Egyptians as the "dirtiest people on earth."
The 24-year-old also called Egypt "the country of pimps ... the country of beggars" and went on to criticize the country's President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. "You deserve what Sisi is doing to you, I hope God sends you someone more oppressive than Sisi," she said.
In September, el-Mazbouh was released from prison. According to her lawyer, she went back to her home country after paying a fine of 10,700 Egyptian pounds ($598.)
Sexual harassment continues to be an issue millions of Egyptian women face on a daily basis
According to a report released in 2013 by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, 99.3 percent of Egyptian women have experienced some form of sexual harassment.
A recent study conducted by UN women and Promundo, a Brazilian organization campaigning for gender equality, also revealed that around 43 percent of men in Egypt actually believe women enjoy getting attention and have no problem with being harassed.
In 2017, Cairo was named as the "most dangerous megacity in the world for women" in a poll conducted by Thomson Reuters Foundation.