Kimberly Adams sent out a series of tweets Saturday morning, describing how she was allegedly harassed by a fellow passenger on Egypt Air.
So on my @EGYPTAIR flight back to #Cairo, I wake up to find the guy next to me groping my leg with his other hand under his own blanket. #SH
Pt. 2 I threw him off me and told him to get away from me. He moved to another seat when he saw me calling the attendant.
pt 3. I told the (male) flight attendants I wanted the police waiting when I arrived. They tell me the guy is claiming it's an accident.
Adams later tweeted this photo of the man she said harassed her on the plane.
This is a blurry pic of the guy who groped me.
Adams claims officials from the airline repeatedly tried to dissuade her from filing a report against her harasser.
Pt 4 and since no one saw it I can't really prove it, but it's "my right" to have the police and thy call them anyway to be waiting for us.
So did police, who she said "gently encouraged" her to drop the matter.
Pt. 5 Police were waiting, and airport people gently encouraged me to drop it. I asked to file a report anyway.
Pt. 6 been working through the report process for over an hour now.... Looks like they are going to arrest the guy.
She detailed some of the arguments police allegedly made to her while trying to get her to drop the complaint against her harasser.
Some of the things said to me today while trying to file a sexual harassment report: "but he wasn't aggressive, right?" Pt. 1
Pt. 2 "but he's willing to apologize." "Are you AMERICAN American?" "You should be more careful in the future [when sleeping on a plane]"
Pt. 3 "but if you file a report, they might arrest him and take him to jail. Is that what you want?", "There's no way you can forgive him?"
BuzzFeed News reached Adams hours after she sent her original tweets. She was still at the Cairo airport, trying to get a copy of the report.
"They asked if I would be willing to accept a report where I would accept his apology, and he would promise never to do it again," said Adams, who spoke to BuzzFeed News by phone. ""No one ever discouraged me but they would say, 'Are you sure… really? Are you really sure? It's your right, but…'"
She said that police also appeared to have no sensitivity training on how to deal with a victim. After pulling both her and her harasser off the plane, they had them stand on the tarmac and go through immigration together. They then sat them both down in a small police waiting room, until Adams complained and got up.
"They kept saying it wasn't a big deal and didn't understand why I didn't want to be seated a couple feet away from him," said Adams. "They asked me my address right in front of him. And I was like, 'He is right there, and I don't want him to know where I live.'"
Adams has lived in Egypt on and off since 2005, and works for several news outlets. She's had one previous incident where she was harassed at the hands of Egyptian police.
"I'm not someone who thinks that all Egyptian men are awful, but Egyptian men on the street do have an awful reputation, and it is there for a reason," said Adams. "Still, I think we should really avoid painting with broad strokes here."