Do you know that in Pakistan over 45% of the population is illiterate of the term harassment. It’s a pity how many of us don’t even realize what is harassment and what can be done to avoid it. Anyway, first thing first we all must know what exactly is mental harassment? Well, Harassment be it sexual, racial, religious or gender biased is a humiliating practice that results in violating any individual’s dignity. Mental harassment is basically harassing someone verbally, it mostly happens when constantly a person is tortured with remarks or doing regarding their age, sex, appearance, any disability, religion or any other ground that conducts discrimination.
What most of us do not realize is the fact that mental harassment is one of the major causes that leads to very extreme situations. The issue in our society is that mental harassment
is not even addressed as a problem. If we know in depth the consequences many individuals have to go through because of getting mentally harassed we might want to consider this as one of the major stigmas in our society. Believe it or not extreme mental harassment cases have also resulted in suicide attempts and being victimized by excessive depression and anxiety.
Let’s educate ourselves with some of the facts related to mental harassment so that we are able to put up with the situation in a better way and with ideas to help make things better for any mental harassment victims around us.
Main causes leading to Psychological Harassment in Pakistan?
Mental Harassment exists everywhere is Pakistan, it is not restricted to urban or rural areas, neither does it has anything to do with possessing a particular status. Today in Pakistan, Psychological harassment occurs in workplace, education system and domestic living. Thousands of woman mostly become of target of immense mental Bullying each year , who are force to even suppress their need to help themselves with a way out of the situation. In Fact most of the Pakistani woman don’t even know if there is anything that can be done to stop mental harassment be it of any kind.
Let’s have a look at some causes of mental harassment in our society.
1. The brought up:
Well, let just face it, it is true that a man only preaches what he has been thought. In a typical Pakistani Culture discrimination based mainly on gender is considered “OK”. Men in our society are given the power to abuse or humiliated anyone in terms of religion, culture, gender, race or even lifestyles. The fact about mental harassment is that it is directly linked to the sexist perception and the prejudice. Believe it or not the Macho man belief has also lead to the prevalence of the thought that harassment of woman is a achievement in itself.
On the other hand woman in Pakistan mostly poses a submissive nature and are thought to always keep quiet when it comes to issues like harassment. In many families it is also thought their value is lesser then any male member of the family and that’s where the discrimination starts. A fear of losing the dignity or value accompanies woman throughout if they try to speak up against mental harassment. In a society where the discrimination is inbuilt, problems like emotional harassment’s are not unusual and will only grow.
2. No never means no:
One of the major reason why individuals become harassers is because the can’t take a no, for many a No doesn’t means a no. If a woman rejects or condemns any verbal or physical behavior that she dislikes that becomes almost a challenge for the harasser. Psychological harassment is considered an easy tactics to keep the victim under pressure and which results mostly in lack of mental capability and fearful attitude for the victim, leading them to anxiety, depression and other mental issues. It’s true that under emotional distress people become less prone to positive things and may end up doing things that are not good for them and that’s exactly what a mental harassers wants.
Be it at workplace or domestic life if a woman says no to something it hurts the so called fragile ego of a man. He believes that a tease is the best way to help make the no a yes and mostly he succeeds in this too. Since mostly woman give up the fight and let go of their own stand in order to maintain their stance n the society.
3. Blow the whistle on the victim:
In most cases of mental harassment the blame is easily put on the victim itself, and this is one of the main reason the practice still continues in Pakistan. In most cases the victim is embarrassed or lacks the courage to report the events, also most of the psychological harassment victims are afraid that the might be ridiculed for taking such steps. Mostly likely the victims waits for the right time to to gather the courage to help the matters but mostly the time only comes when things have gone out of hands and it’s then that the victims is blamed for being OK with the situation and not protesting against. Also it is thought that the victim must be playing along the situation to attain personal benefits.
Other parties are not the only one blaming the victims but it is often the victim. Most Pakistani woman are brought up with a school of thought that the any wrong behavior of an individual is a result of an action attempted by the girl herself. The self blaming game makes the victim think that they must have given the chance to invite the harasser/ Also many woman believe that becoming a victim of mental harassment is fairly okay as there are thousands of other women living with the same problem.
One of the major reason why mental harassment is not taken very seriously in our country is because of the simple fact that in Pakistani people are raised with a particular mindset that is ignorant of many important issues we have around. We are taught that there is nothing such as mental health and as long as a person seems to be physically well he is good enough to live. However globally mental health of any individual holds quite some significance because they believe that only a mentally healthy person can help generate better living. Mental harassment is a physiological issue which requires a lot of attention and recognition.
Muhammad Usman Awan is a Blogger and Social Entrepreneur who founded first Anti Harassment Awareness Campaign “Stop Harassment Now”. The Purpose of this campaign is to empower and educate our Girls and Working Women against Harassment.
