by JayJay
The life of a Pakistani woman is not easy. It is not a hidden fact that she is subjected to discrimination and harassment, within and without the so-called sanctuary of her home. However, harassment and bullying becomes more intense and blatant when she steps out of her home for work or education. From catcalls to verbal innuendo to physical harassment, she has to endure it all, mostly at the hands of strangers, on the streets and on public transport. This harassment does not stop, or rather become more palpable in many cases, at her place of work. The act of harassing women, with sexual tones and motives, by fellow employees or supervisors/managers is referred to sexual harassment. Wikipedia defines sexual harassment as:
Harassment or unwelcome attention of a sexual nature. It includes a range of behavior from mild transgressions and annoyances to serious abuses, which can even involve forced sexual activity. Sexual harassment is considered a form of illegal discrimination in many countries, and is a form of abuse (sexual and psychological) and bullying.
An editorial from The News on October 1 has summed up the issue well, by pointing out to the absence of appropriate legislation to deal with this growing phenomenon. Offering some the broad suggestions, the editorial reads:
As a first step, the government and the private sector should join hands to start a campaign in which sexual harassment in the workplace is defined. This will make working women understand what is acceptable and what is not acceptable behavior in a workplace. The second step in this national exercise would be to ask employers to put into place a proper policy that defines sexual harassment and clearly spells out what action is to be taken against someone found guilty of it. In addition to this, employers need to have a mechanism which enables any employee subjected to such harassment to approach an appropriate forum for filing a complaint. The complaint should be treated confidentially and investigated, and if guilty the offender should be punished according to the employer’s code of ethics for employees. Of course, given that many companies have an environment which is more or less male-dominated and where men are in most decision-making senior roles, it may be a bit much to expect that things will change overnight. However, to do nothing would also be a sign that we as a nation are not willing to evolve and provide justice to those who are victims of this menace.The menace of sexual harassment at the place of work has been comprehensively and effectively addressed by the West where workplaces are no longer the sole domain of men. Pakistan has a lot to catch up on this matter, and quickly so, as more and more women are entering workforce. It makes economic sense both for employers and the government to have an effective and clear legislation and corporate policies to protect women against harassment. Not only skills and talent of education women can be brought to use more effectively by attracting them in a safe workplace but it has been seen worldwide that presence of women in offices helps boost productivity, besides infusing fresh ideas and way of thinking.
While enacting a piece of legislation and formulating policies is most critical step, a concerted awareness campaign is necessary to influence general attitudes and social behaviors. Without bringing about change to prevalent perception of working women in Pakistan, there is little chance of success in overcoming the problem of sexual harassment. The fact of matter is that most women in Pakistan brave into men-dominated workplaces out of economic necessity, rather than to fulfill career aspirations. The position of women in workplace in Europe, North American and even South East Asia has become entrenched, still it is not odd to come across a public service announcement to press the message on the issue. Such public service announcements are even more necessary in a society like Pakistan where we leg behind even comparable countries in accepting the role of women at work.
Anwar
This is a pretty common issue everywhere; in all societies… the sexual harassment of women is a problem in western nations aswell who don’t have an “ideology” and “theological” solutions… so what kind of multi-prong strategy you are talking about? it is certainly not working in the west; I see it everyday here….
Qandeel
We have other things too to worry about. Like I said we need to solve our issues one by one… The root cause of certain evils will eliminate a lot of issues that spawn from these evils…. If our men and women are taught social ethics and respect for each other then this problem can be solved… you are talking about clipping the leaves of an unwanted plant… we need to root it out…
Having such policies may be a step foward for a country like Pakistan, but the bigger question is who’s going to enforce these policies? What monitoring body is in place to ensure that the male powers-to-be in a company are adequately responding to female complaints? The girl is dependent on the company leaders to insure her against sexual harrassment, but those leaders are not answerable to a whole lot.
If I were to take to trial any man in Pakistan for sexual harrassment, half our population would be behind bars. Its in that smutty ‘nazar’ of theirs; its in that air of condescension that is forced down my lungs whenever I’m in their company; its in that self-congratulating grin of theirs every time they realize that they can inflict many a evil with perfect impunity. It is so deeply encoded in the male genes to look down upon women that I don’t think any policy can put asunder (!).
The problem boils down to ‘respect.’ Have to change the basic mentality of Pakistani men. At home and at school Pakistani boys need to be taught to respect women. Gotta nip the chauvinism in the bud.
(PS. I speak generally and from my experiences living in Pakistan. I’m sure there exist half/full-decent men, too.)
I would not indulge in theological remedies or discussion about the idealogical foundations of Pakistan, the bottom line is the education, poverty reduction, and enforcement of whatever laws there are on the book.
Another grim picture is that of women trafficking to Gulf and other rich brotherly states…
A multi prong strategy is needed to alleviate the sufferings of women.
the issues should be dealt with one by one… there are alot of problems that are caused by other evils in the society… so if you deal with the root cause then it will eliminate a chain of issues… like the sexual harassment of women is caused by the lack of quality education that is not available to all… in offices educated people work so you cant say that they are uneducated, the problem is that they are not taught the real moral values and respect and the real teachings of Islam never reached their ears…
secondly the definition and examples and solutions you have given here are westerly… they may and they do work in western societies but they cant work here… our religion has everything in it so we don’t need to look elsewhere…
the problem is we don’t want to adopt the teachings of Islam; because we don’t want to give up the things we do… we consider the practices in Islam as difficult and ancient because we want to be considered modern and now enlightened and moderate… the solutions to all evils is there in our holy books but we don’t want to look in them… we have the solutions but we want a different ones….
Once discussed this subject in detail…here…that how slogans of women empowerment ..are effecting our world..specially muslim culture….and its effect on women ..sexually ..cultutrally and socially….
http://www.paklinks.com/gs/showthread.php?t=248169 &highlight=ruined+our+generations
http://www.paklinks.com/gs/showthread.php?t=266492
Human
Agreed, are the Pakistani men do’nt deserve the same
worrys , why only Bint-e-Hawwa and not Ibn-Adam ???
well there are a lot of evils in our society… the issue u have highlighted here is one of the several problems we have… we need to educate every member of our society and social ethics should be made part of the curriculum; this problem stems from the lack of quality education that teaches moral values and respect for others… secondly with the kind of “enlightened moderation” creeping in that only circles around sexual freedom and mixed with the lack of education will make things even worse… we need to strengthen our society and family system; we need to respect each other and be tolerant…
JayJay,
A fine post that highlights a key issue. It makes no sense that in Pakistan a so-called Islamic country women have to endure such ignomy. What is worse is that as a nation and I point to the men in particular here we are complicit in the evil by design or default through OUR SILENCE.
We need to develop an ‘other’ Pakistan, see how you can all play your part via link here http://www.otherpakistan.org/archive.html
Feimanallah
Wasim