10 times videos capturing sexual assault led to arrests in Arab countries

Decades ago, sexual harassment wasn't an issue Arab women could openly talk about, but things have certainly changed.

Brave women across the region are breaking their silence on the issue, standing up to their harassers and making sure abusers are held accountable for their crimes.

Some are even using video evidence of assaults and social media to ensure that action is taken against perpetrators of attacks against women. Here are a few clips capturing sexual assault that have recently led to the arrest of harassers in the region:

Earlier this year, a woman got a taxi driver who harassed her arrested after she uploaded a video of the assault on social media.

In the footage, the abuser was seen making "inappropriate" gestures and verbally harassing the victim who made sure to film the entire ordeal. At the time, Saudi authorities identified the harasser, arrested him, and referred him to the public prosecution.

In February, an Egyptian man was arrested and sentenced to three years in prison after CCTV footage captured him sexually assaulting a woman in the street.

The brave woman, identified as Rania F., refused to let the abuser escape after he groped her. She chased, beat, and led him to the police station to report his actions. Even after receiving threats, she never backed down, gathering evidence against her attacker and going through with her case against him.

Dr. Samar Khan, a Saudi woman who was harassed by a male driver while driving her car on one of the kingdom's highways earlier this year landed her abuser in jail after she made sure the incident was caught on video. 

In a viral Twitter thread, Khan explained that she refused to let her harasser go unpunished and decided to teach him a lesson instead. Using the video of the incident, she reported the man to police, leading to his detainment. 

Explaining why she decided to share her story online, she wrote: 

"Case in point: To every woman out there, don't remain silent when it comes to your rights! Police were beyond responsive to my case and all the reporting procedures only took a few hours. Even if the harasser didn't get punished over this because I forwent my rights in the case (for the reasons I explained in the thread) I still taught him a lesson he'll never forget."

Last year, horrific footage capturing the gang rape of a woman in Morocco sent shockwaves across the Arab world. 

Identified only as Zeinab, the 26-year-old victim can be seen attacked, beaten, and raped by several teenagers in the vile one-minute-long video. The clip eventually led to the arrest of the rapists, after it was used to help identify six teenage suspects in the case.

In 2017, Saudi authorities arrested a man after a video of him assaulting a domestic worker went viral on social media. The footage had been secretly captured by the victim herself. She also later uploaded it to Facebook, pleading for help. 

After the man's arrest, Riyadh Police issued a statement on the matter, revealing that the abuser, who's in his 30s, is a relative of the family sponsoring the domestic worker. He confessed to his crime during investigations and was immediately transferred to the country's public prosecution.

Saudi authorities arrested seven men who were involved in an incident that saw a group of men harass women in Jeddah's Dorrat Al Arous in January. The arrest came after several videos capturing the assault went viral on the kingdom's Twitter, angering thousands. 

According to Al-Madina, Jeddah police officers would not have been able to identify suspects had it not been for the viral clips. They made several arrests in the case after going through tens of videos shot at the scene.

In March of this year, Saudi police arrested a taxi driver after a video of him sexually harassing a female passenger sparked outrage across the kingdom. The viral footage captured the assaulter groping and abusing a woman in the back seat of a car. 

When he noticed the victim was filming the incident, he pulled out a knife to try to threaten her. The man was detained shortly after the incident went viral and was later transferred to the kingdom's public prosecution.

Last year, a Saudi man identified as Salem Al-Zaharani was arrested by Riyadh police after a video capturing him sexually abusing a domestic worker went viral online. 

This time, the offender was the one who posted the video on social media, even boasting about the incident. However, just hours after the footage started circulating online, thousands called on authorities to take immediate action against the shameless abuser.

An Egyptian woman who was sexually harassed by a taxi driver refused to let him go unpunished. Filming him, the woman beat the abuser, shamed him, and stopped a police car to report him. 

The man was later taken to a police station. 

In 2016, an Egyptian harasser who was caught on tape by several people in Egypt's Corniche Al Nile was hackled by security personnel and arrested. His arrest was also captured on camera by people at the scene and went viral in the country shortly after.