Back in August 2018, a man approached a woman in front of “On the Run” in New Cairo.
According to the woman, he had been “allegedly” circling her in his car multiple times before getting out and asking her to get coffee at On the Run.
She filmed the encounter, told him he was bothering her, and he apologized after several unwanted justifications, and then left. She posted the video online, and Egypt lost its collective mind.
And now, seven years later, the man is trending again – this time puffing on a cheap cigar in what looks like an expensive car.
Egyptians are eating it up, making memes about how the woman should have “taken the drink” because look how rich he turned out to be.
The 2018 Circus That Made a Harasser Famous
What happened next was peak Egyptian social media. Instead of discussing why a woman felt unsafe enough to film a stranger who had been following her, we turned the man into a celebrity.
People took selfies with him in the bars of Gouna. A nightclub made a remix of his pickup line.
He got a coffee commercial deal and was even offered movie roles.
Meanwhile, the woman was forced to deactivate her social media accounts after facing a barrage of victim-blaming and harassment – and lost her job.
While the man was being memed into stardom, other women were facing far worse. Right after this incident, which happened right before Eid, women were publicly sexually assaulted in Damanhour during Eid. A man was threatened, and his dog was stabbed to death for trying to protect his wife from harassment at a beach in Alexandria.
But sure, let’s keep making jokes about “coffee invitations.”
The government even passed a 3000 EGP fine for verbal harassment directly after the “On the Run” incident.
Laws changed, but attitudes didn’t.
The double standard was glaring. People dug up photos of the woman from her Facebook profile, using them as “proof” that she deserved to be approached.
Comments ranged from questioning what she was wearing to suggesting she should be grateful for the “polite” attention.
The phrase “On the run” even became a trending meme.
Even now, you can read the comment sections from those 2018 posts and see the same victim-blaming arguments: “he was respectful,” “she overreacted,” “she made up the stalking story for attention.”
Because nothing says comedy like a woman losing her livelihood for feeling unsafe.
The Uncomfortable Statistics
Here’s what makes this whole situation even more disturbing: we’re not talking about an isolated incident in a country that’s getting better at handling harassment.
A UN poll found that 74% of Egyptian men and 84% of women agreed that “women who dress provocatively deserve to be harassed“.
Nearly 60% of Egyptian women reported being sexually harassed, and a study ranked Cairo as the most dangerous megacity in the world for women.
We live in a society where harassment is so normalized that when a woman films it happening to her, she becomes the villain in the story.
2025: Money Changes Everything
Fast forward to 2025, and the man is viral again. This time, it’s not because of anything he did – it’s because of what he appears to have.
A video showing him with an expensive car has reignited the same toxic conversations, but with a new twist: now people are saying the woman should have “taken the drink” because look how rich he turned out to be.
The messages flooding social media are nauseating. Comments like “she missed out on a good life” and jokes about him being “the man behind the good old harassment days” are getting thousands of likes. As if wealth somehow retroactively justifies making a woman feel unsafe on the street.
This isn’t just about one man or one incident. It’s about a society that consistently chooses to celebrate the wrong people while punishing those who speak up.
It’s about how we’ve somehow decided that a man’s financial status is more important than a woman’s right to exist in public spaces without being bothered.
What This Says About Us
The fact that we’re still having this conversation seven years later proves that nothing has changed. We’re still the same society that would rather make memes than address the real issue. We’re still more interested in defending men’s “right” to approach women than women’s right to feel safe.
The “On the Run” viral moment isn’t just a random resurgence – it’s a reflection of our values. When we celebrate someone’s wealth while ignoring their past behavior, we’re sending a clear message about what matters to us. And spoiler alert: it’s not women’s safety.
The Real Question
The question isn’t whether the man was being “polite” or whether the woman overreacted. The question is why, in 2025, we’re still having the same conversation about the same guy while completely ignoring the woman whose life was turned upside down for speaking up.
Seven years ago, this woman faced harassment twice – once on the street and again online for daring to document it.
Today, she’s been forgotten while her harasser gets to enjoy his moment in the spotlight again, this time because he apparently has money.
If that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about where we stand as a society, I don’t know what will.
And finally, shouldn’t this be a case of distracted driving?
What do you think? Are we doomed to keep having the same conversations about harassment while celebrating the wrong people?
