The modern era has a fair share of its pros and cons. Pros can be anything that has made our life simpler and easier and cons could be the highest level of exposure to just about anything. Harassment has been a practiced course to date; either in developed or underdeveloped countries, developed countries is seen to be taking measures in eliminating this issue because of enforced laws and education system but it is not completely gone, while underdeveloped still has to struggle with it and they are somehow striving towards taking initiatives. Women usually experience a lot in harassment, varying from their workplace to their institutions. Pakistan does not hold a very good reputation when it comes to harassing girls, exactly like many other countries which are equally witnessing this concerned problem. Following are the reasons that the issues of morality ignite to issues of mortality and girls become the victims of harassment.
Reasons of Women Sexual Harassment in Pakistan:
We conducted a research recently, where we catered 20 women of different sectors and they spoke of harassment, weaknesses, and flaws that ignite the fire to such situations in Pakistan. Listed are the factors they boldly mentioned,
1. Self Defense:
Women do not usually focus on practicing self-defense for the severe situations. Hence, when they encounter one, they are unable to fight back. Or maybe the way they respond to the victimizer is poor. This is one valid reason, harassment is massive in Pakistan. People react violently to such situations and if she reveals her problem in real life she is highly criticized. Instead of focusing on the victim, people get aggressive towards them.
2. Lack of Self Confidence:
The clichéd concept in our society that narrates a girl; is to be weak and a boy; will always be tough. Hence, the weaker side is always suppressed. When females are harassed or sexually abused, they merely take a stand for themselves and consider them weak. This way the abuser takes benefit of it. Society should prohibit the usual concept that a woman is weak and conceptualize them as a strong entity to the society. A woman is not meant to be weak instead she is a pride to our nation.
3. Communication Gap:
One of the core reasons to harassment in Pakistan can be the communication gap between the children and parents. I don’t deny that only women are abused, a man becomes the victim too, at times. But, if we talk in numbers, women stand out the most.
Solution and support were easier if the girl could easily approach her parents for the abuse she suffered from. But, parents in most cases misunderstand the situation and blame the girl for this act, in extreme, they force their daughters to drop out from schools and colleges. Parents should not doubt their daughter’s character instead provides her with the help she requires. In most cases, females usually build up mental health problems or they either suicide.
4. Inappropriate Law Enforcements:
Law enforcement agencies past performances have not been excellent, even if they tried, it somehow has escalated to the problem like it was previously. Sometimes, the actions are long due which situates the people to lose faith in them. Moreover, the ones who are unwilling to conduct an action towards the culprit end up not taking it because sometimes they are self-involved, which makes it impossible for them to take action against themselves.
5. Law Awareness:
Even if there are some laws, which would compensate such a brutal act, fewer people are aware of it. There is no point of eradicating a social cause when people have not studied about it. Asking a room full of audience, the minority would know about the laws. School and colleges have not taken much initiatives or steps for the awareness of laws for sexual abuse or harassment.
6. Poverty:
Many of the women belong to the lower class of the society and sometimes, for supporting their surrounding and maintain a healthy life, they take low profile jobs or even normal jobs where co-workers harass them in multiple ways. Females in that scenario become helpless, for they have to financially support their families. And, they are afraid to expose of the reality, just in case they are fired from their designated jobs for having issues on the workplace. Poverty is a strong factor to harassment being practiced in the society. Pakistan is involved in this issue equally.
7. Physical training:
It is considered very odd for a woman to opt for physical training in Pakistan. Firstly, they are not motivated to go for it. Secondly, no source or education sector informs them about physical training’s necessity for girls. Men are tough and sometimes overpowering, in times of crucial moments, girls are helpless and they are unable to fight back. Why? Because they are never trained for the cause, instead of females cry and beg for help, which is not an appropriate solution to the problem.
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.
