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Women
at Work
Yet
to be Freed
Kajalie
Shehreen Islam
Violence is a frightening reality
for everyone in our society today, and probably more so
for women. Blatant crimes against women such as acid-throwing
and rape, which are more visible, outrage people. Others
are hardly talked about -- or even recognised or understood
correctly -- even by women themselves.
Sexual harassment is one such reality of
every woman's life in every field, from the media to law,
politics, medicine and teaching. Sexual harassment, according
to Dr. Shahnaz Huda, Associate Professor of Law, University
of Dhaka, may be defined as “unwanted, non-consensual, unreciprocated
and offensive behaviour with sexual connotations in office
or other workplace, street, education institution and so
forth, where such sexuality is not desirable nor acceptable.”
Sexual
harassment has always existed, says Huda, as a misuse of
power by men. In a paper presented at a dialogue on “Sexual
Harassment and Professional Women: Perspectives, Experiences
and Responses”, Huda went on to define the act as commonly
referring to “sexual exploitation, humiliation, or causing
embarrassment to women in a manner which is an expression
of male superiority or a perceived dominance by men who
believe that they have an inherent right to victimise women”.
Forum
on Women in Security and International Affairs (FOWSIA)
organised a dialogue on sexual harassment and professional
women.
The dialogue, organised by the Forum on
Women in Security and International Affairs (FOWSIA) on
August 2, focused on sexual harassment against professional
women, as opposed to all women in general. Much research
has been done on harassment against, for example, garment
workers in Bangladesh. Supported by the Bangladesh Freedom
Foundation, the dialogue sought to bring to the fore issues
regarding sexual harassment of women in the workplace.
For this purpose, the definitions of “working
women” and “professional women” were separated -- the first
referring to women who are “employed in lower paid jobs
or engaged or employed in primarily manual and mechanical
labour”
while the second referred to women “engaged in a profession
or employment which is not manual labour and which requires
some degree of higher learning or expertise”. Huda believes
that though garment workers and domestic servants face greater
harassment where they work, live, etc., even women in less
vulnerable and more powerful positions, regardless of where
they work, may be sexually harassed.
Sexual harassment may be quid pro quo, writes
Huda in her paper, which refers to “sexual advances or requests
for sexual favours when presented as a condition of work”
(“Go out with me or you'll be fired/not be promoted”) or
it may take the form of the creation of a “hostile, intimidating
or offensive workplace” such as male colleagues viewing
pornographic material at the office. Harassment may be “physical,
verbal, gestural, written, graphical or emotional and the
spreading of sexual rumours", for example, about a
“bad” female colleague all entail forms of sexual harassment.
All men are not harassers, of course, but
men also need not be in superior positions to harass their
female colleagues. Although they are the usual perpetrators,
co-workers, colleagues, outsiders and even subordinates
may be harassers. Men seem to do it simply because they
are men, wrongly thinking that their sexual impulses are
unavoidable and that they actually please women, oblivious
of how offensive and even terrifying it may be for women
who are subjected to it.
So why do women remain silent about the
harassment they face? Though not well documented, says Huda,
reasons include fear of reprisal as well as that of losing
one's job and thus one's livelihood. Not only will it make
those at work more hostile towards the accuser, but if a
woman publicly claims to being harassed, her family may
also stop her from working, not to mention the social condemnation
which follows along with the initial hostility for crossing
social barriers of private and public life when getting
a job in the first place. Some women remain submissive to
the male-dominated society in which they live. Others do
not know from whom to seek advice or assistance to stop
the harassment. Professional women also have somewhat of
a position to uphold and respectability to maintain for
which they may not report harassment.
The
keynote paper presented at the dialogue also sought to clarify
some common misconceptions regarding sexual harassment.
One, it is not rare or harmless as is thought by many. Women,
no matter what their “reputation” may be like, do not “ask
for it” and being dressed “provocatively” or “unconventionally”
or venturing into unsuitable areas unaccompanied does not
justify harassment against them. Neither are these the only
circumstances under which they are harassed. It is not only
young and attractive women who are harassed. Some women's
vulnerability even increases because of their marital status
or their belonging to a minority group or religion such
as for separated, divorced or widowed women who are not
only more likely to be subjected to sexual harassment but
also to the strongest forms of harassment.
There
are ways to prevent sexual harassment, of course, and the
first thing to do is to report it. Section 10 of the Women
and Children Repression Prevention (Amendment) Act, 2003
deals with sexual oppression and harassment by which perpetrators
of the crime are legally punishable. Different organisations
have their own gender policies and some, such as CARE Bangladesh,
have a zero tolerance policy towards sexual harassment.
Policy formation is probably the most important and effective
step towards preventing sexual harassment at the workplace,
agreed speakers at the dialogue. A clear definition of sexual
harassment and its prohibition in the workplace must be
known to all, not only in the form of policies but also
through intra-organisational training programmes, leaflets,
etc., disseminating the information as well as publicising
cases taken up where harassment has been proved and the
perpetrators punished.
Silence about such crimes eats away at the
system like a disease. Only by understanding what sexual
harassment actually is and gathering the courage and support
to speak out against it can we take effective measures in
preventing it.
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