EDMOND ROY: Earlier this week a Dutch journalist was raped by a group of five men in Cairo's Tahrir Square during protests there.

At least 46 cases of sexual assault have been reported in Egypt since the beginning of the protests.

The Egyptian Center for Women's Rights says 83 per cent of Egyptian women and 98 per cent of foreign visitors experience one or more different forms of harassment in the country.

These attacks led to the rise of organisations that track sexual assaults across the country and aim to protect women.

Tahrir Bodyguard is one such organisation. It was co-founded by Maria Munoz in response to violent attacks that took place during protests against the country's president last November.

She's speaking here to Peter Lloyd.

MARIA MUNOZ: A group of people, a group of men would isolate the girls. Start like, doing a big circle around them - 10, 20, 30 men, 40 men, up to 100 and 200 - and would just start, literally rape the girl with their hands, tearing her clothes apart and completely like, destroy her and traumatise her.

PETER LLOYD: And these, the victims of these attacks, where they Egyptian nationals or foreign nationals?

MARIA MUNOZ: First of all I would like to call them, instead of victims, survivors, because it has a special connotation. And these survivors were both Egyptian and non-Egyptian, foreigners and Egyptian woman.

PETER LLOYD: One United Nations press report says that on one day in January this year there were 25 attacks and assaults in Tahrir Square.

MARIA MUNOZ: Yes, actually two days ago there were 46 cases reported.

PETER LLOYD: Of sexual assault?

MARIA MUNOZ: Yes, a lot of violence in many case. We're talking about people with sticks, people with knives. So it's not sexual harassment as standard sexual harassment anymore.

PETER LLOYD: I understand there's actually a video of one instance where a woman was attacked by a group of men and her genitals were cut out.

MARIA MUNOZ: Some of these woman, they suffer really bad injuries; they have to go to hospital. Sometimes they are about to die and thanks to the volunteers of groups like (inaudible) they live.

PETER LLOYD: Now I understand that you're not Egyptian, you are Spanish. But can you try for our listeners to put it into a cultural context, explain for us how common this kind of assault against woman is in Egyptian society.

MARIA MUNOZ: So sexual harassment in the streets is also a phenomenon that takes place every single day in forms of looks, calls, comments, men that follow woman, men that touch woman etc. This is one thing, and then there is the mob assault which is complete crime. That takes place whenever there are demonstrations that are happening in the square.

PETER LLOYD: What kind of response have the authorities mounted against these criminals?

MARIA MUNOZ: So until now, no response whatsoever. They, the response is the silence, complete silence.

PETER LLOYD: But you're saying these attacks take place in broad daylight and the police do nothing?

MARIA MUNOZ: Exactly, they do nothing. Mohammed Morsi, he also announced the creation of (inaudible) police force to patrol the streets in order to fight sexual harassment. Until now this police force, we haven't seen it yet, it hasn't been created.

So all these measures are on the air and nothing's happening. So the government, they don't do anything. These harassers, they enjoy complete impunity.

PETER LLOYD: So in response to this, this lack of law and order being maintained, you have set up these body guard units. Tell me how they operate.

MARIA MUNOZ: We recruit volunteers that go to Tahrir Square, wear neon vests and yellow helmets. They patrol the square and prevent sexual harassment from taking place and indicate of a woman being attacked, they intervene to take her out of the square and put her in a safe place.

PETER LLOYD: How do you know that the people that you're putting these woman in the hands of are safe people to be with?

MARIA MUNOZ: We work with different organisations; we have several safe houses around the demonstration areas. And they come with prepared team of psychologists and doctors to know how to deal with these survivors.

PETER LLOYD: Do you have any support in the media in Cairo; do you have anyone in the government who champions this cause, who talks about this in public?

MARIA MUNOZ: The thing is like until now this issue is still a taboo issue. The media is started to talk about sexual harassment and mob assault in Tahrir Square, but the government doesn't acknowledge the problem until now.

EDMOND ROY: That's the co-founder of the Tahrir Bodyguard, Maria Munoz, speaking to Peter Lloyd from Cairo.