Radius

In 2012, the promise of the democratic Egyptian Revolution was tempered by revelations of sexual assault in Tahrir Square in Cairo, the uprising's symbolic birthplace. Among the calls for freedom and liberation, there were also circles of dozens and sometimes hundreds of men that would form around a woman, isolating her, assaulting her, and challenging a woman's right to be in a public space. Radius recounts the formation of Opantish-Operation Anti-Sexual Harassment-which deployed hundreds of volunteers, scout rescue teams, and getaway drivers to intervene in the spiraling cases of sexual violence in the square. Organized and led by women during the final, chaotic months of the revolution, Optantish teams fought their way into circles of men to pull thewoman at the center to safety. Often they risked assault themselves--