A not-so-playful police sting in Cairo netted about 400 teenage boys accused of flirting with girls [1]. Just yesterday, law enforcement rounded up the underage wannabe-seducers in front of schools, universities, or other public places where teens hang out. The teens will most likely face fines.

While a crackdown on innocent flirting seems oppressive, something beyond prudish attitudes motivated the sting. Egyptian women deal with an extraordinary amount of sexual harassment and assault in public. In Egypt, two-thirds of men admit to harassing women in public.

Last month, an Egyptian court handed down a sentence of hard labor and three years in jail [2] for a man convicted of groping a woman in public. Now it looks like officials want to teach younger males a lesson before they graduate from flirting to groping. Do you think the Casanova roundup will work?

Source [3]