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.
tina if infertility is a third world problem then why do we have this huge population growth??? and why in europe we have more old people then young people??? why is the west countries bringing in young people from abroad for work??? why is europe trying to put a ban on what they call “importing wives” for immigrants??? Why is Kylie Minogue and other women like her now resent their decisions for holding on for a little while longer for babies??
dont think of every western action as modern and good… Ghori is right
I am fairly orthodox, but I fully agree with Qandeel here. With the exception of decent educated families, attitudes towards women – young women in particular – in our society are apalling; at time it makes one want to die of shame.
One may not agree always with a woman’s point of view on these issues, but it is invaluable nevertheless. Education to instill respect in attitudes towards women is extremely important.
As for the infertility issue, it is a fact that poor women in the third world suffer from infertility more than rich women in the West. Reasons are poor nutrition (which leads to cessation of menses), injuries incurred through previous births/female circumcision (scarring, infection), general lack of medical care and exposure to pollutants. Age is one factor, but only one, a woman in good health should be able to have children well into her thirties (I won’t say forties although many women manage it).
So if the men are oh so concerned about infertility and the pain of childlessness they can quit pointing their fingers at the West and again look in their own backyards. But that fact is they really don’t care, it’s all just propaganda to them.
Give the choice or the control to women themselves and they will always choose to have children–only a very tiny minority forgo it, and they probably should if they feel so strongly about it–but they will have fewer and under safe, healthy conditions after completing education and so on.
I am sitting here desperately racking my brains to figure out how anybody can possibly think this is a BAD thing.
Can someone enlighten me?
Sultan Ghori (name says a lot by the way), with the world population what it is, women having less children is a huge plus, not a minus. The growth of the human population in India is about the only thing impeding their economic success at this point, marking the difference between India and Europe and China.
Rest of your argument is just typical male chutzpah, AIDS and other diseases are exploding in conservative societies and are on the wane in Western world. Please educate yourself on this issue. South Asia is the world’s STD hot spot right now. Liberation of women does not spread diseases, rather prevents it.
I don’t really know or care who “Professor” Ledger is (for that matter also some Nazis have PhDs), but teenage pregnancy is undesirable and detrimental to the health of the mother. The greatest health risk and cause of death to all women is childbearing and the fewer children they bear, the better health they enjoy. BBC did a news piece on this recently and the places where maternal health was the most dismal were Pakistan, Afghanistan, and subsaharan Africa. So for all your talk Pakistan is one of the three worst/dangerous places on Earth to become a mother. Again I would encourage you to educate yourself on this issue.
Dawa-i-Dil, I don’t see how your heart can be in your Da’wa when you clearly hate women so very much, think they should not drive or be allowed to borrow money, etc. One feels very sorry for any women in your household unfortunate enough to be dependent on you.
I am disappointed that so few men have shown up to lend their voices to Akif and others. When people stay silent, it feels to me like they must agree with the staus quo or feel the issue does not concern them.
At the end of this post you find a LINK to a very interesting article related to the latest research on population growth in Europe and the factors involved behind the scene. The two main reasons for Infertility in EU are working women that keep themselves busy in the building of their career and STDs (Sexually transmitted diseases) that are being spread due to changing and changing sexual partners (with will/merzi ke saath).
Before that we continue to that link, I am presenting two Ahadith from Sahih Bukhari.
Sahih Bhukhari:- Volume 7, Book 62, Number 128:
Narrated Ibn ‘Umar: The Prophet (SAW) said, “All of you are guardians and are responsible for your wards. The ruler is a guardian and the man is a guardian of his family; the lady is a guardian and is responsible for her husband’s house and his offspring; and so all of you are guardians and are responsible for your wards.”
Sahih Bukhari:- Volume 7, Book 62, Number 4:
Narrated ‘Abdullah:
We were with the Prophet (SAW) while we were young and had no wealth whatever. So Allah’s Apostle (SAW) said, “O young people! Whoever among you can marry, should marry, because it helps him lower his gaze and guard his modesty (i.e. his private parts from committing illegal sexual intercourse etc.), and whoever is not able to marry, should fast, as fasting diminishes his sexual power.”
Now days in Pakistan women are being stimulated to leave their homes and to come to the streets, to work and to do whatever a man is doing. Aren