With strong taboos about sex and gender roles festering in the public’s mind, society fails to understand that sexual harassment is less about sex and more about the abuse of power.
“Women are necessary evils” - Old English Proverb
“A colleague and I were driving to a meeting and while he was shifting the gear, his hand ‘accidentally’ brushed against mine. At first I thought it was a mistake but when it happened every time he shifted the gear, I realized it was deliberate and moved my hand. He then started ‘accidentally’ brushing his hands against my knee.” - Saira, marketing executive, 30
"I was interviewing an executive for the magazine and five minutes into the interview he got a phone call. I heard him say ‘Right now, I am sitting with a babe in front of me.’ I was very annoyed, but had to carry on with my work, so I didn’t confront him. By the time I got home I was outraged.’ - Nusrat, journalist, 24
“After my divorce I moved back to Pakistan and joined a multinational company. My boss would often call me to his room and talk about how difficult things were for divorced women in Pakistan. He also said that if I needed to talk about anything I could call him and we could go out for coffee. When I resisted, he told everyone I was stupid and eventually fired me.” - Farheen, accountant, 27
“It comes with the territory. I once walked into a room where a patient was exposing himself to me. I just pretended I didn’t notice and carried on with my duties but when I came out, I was trembling.” - Samina, nurse, 32.
why is this happening? cant we women get a bit of security?? even without our mistakes we r the ones who end up feeling guilty. why should we bear this pain?? what do we have to stop this??
its a sad fact but i guess women will have to live with it. Women will always be physically weaker than men and they shall forever be trapped in that cycle.
But again, its not that women are the only one who are abused. Its a fact that * Men are slaves to women and women are biologically slaves to the children and the race * ...this is how the nature designed it, the best possible solution isnt always fair. (u win sum, u lose sum :) )
The other side of your story would be how men litrally run around making fool of themselves for women and get abused hoping to win their favours . Your beauty and our power is our assets. Use em wisely... as uncle ben once said to adolescent peter parker "with great power comes great responsibilty"
[QUOTE] Originally posted by monasha: *
**why is this happening?* cant we women get a bit of security?? even without our mistakes we r the ones who end up feeling guilty. why should we bear this pain?? what do we have to stop this??
[/QUOTE]
Education, empowerment, will power, assertive, aggressive
Sometimes I feel that women take a lot of crap from everyone. It doesn’t have to be this way.
Sorry, it’s MOST likely that i’m misinterpreting your post, but - why should women stop working because they are facing harassment at the workplace? First, shouldn’t the guys who are being sick perverts seek therapy and modify their behaviour and mentality?
Nadia, come come, people like armughal are of the mentality that if women are in the work place, the men will most definitely abuse them... it's not the men who need to change, it's the women who need to stop working.
What about women who “need” to be working? Why should they be used and abused particularly by Muslim men at work? Or do you think women should not be working under any circumstance?
I guess nobody wants to work if he/she doesn’t have to work. These days, it’s not easy to live only on husband’s, father’s or brother’s income because in present day world a person doesn’t only need clothes, food and shelter to live a good life…There are more things such as education which is highly expensive and I think it’s impossible for the whole family to depend on only one person’s income(unless he’s making $30,000 per year). And Islamically, it’s not wrong for a women to work when she needs to work. Islam isn’t about suffering, believe me!
.. its abig world .. as there r many perverts we also have decent people around us who r never appreciated..
.. likewise there are many women working who wear clothes that are so revealing at workplace.. and that is unfair too.. just drumming the drum for women harassment wont lead us anywhere.. good and bad peopel are everywhere ..
>>I guess nobody wants to work if he/she doesn’t have to work. These days, it’s not easy to live only on husband’s, father’s or brother’s income… And Islamically, it’s not wrong for a women to work when she needs to work.<<
Good point, CurruptAngel :k:
Degas is accurate, there are good and bad individuals everywhere.
Look at Khadijah (ra) - she worked, she was a business woman. The problem is NOT that women are working - it’s the society that does not punish such offenders, that does not place a high enough status upon females. If Muslims really behaved as Muslims are meant to (and that goes for both males and females), then we wouldn’t have sick pervs doing stuff like this. If women don’t go to work, that won’t solve anything - harassers will find a way to do it anyways even in mundane places: grocery stores, out in the playgrounds if they take their kids out, etc etc.
There needs to be a zero tolerence and tough laws against the following crimes against women:
1) Marital Rape
2) Sexual harrassment
3) Eve teasing
4) Domestic Abuse
The day we take tough action against there crimes and set precendents you will see the culture change over night.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Gamma Dilation: *
^ err pardon my ignorance but what exactly is eve teasing?
[/QUOTE]
I believe its a slang, and refers to harassing women in public places. Mostly referred to activities where a boy, or group of boys, stand outside girl colleges, and make loud and lewd noises to attract the attention of girls. In some cases, it also refers to following the girl to her home or actually physically manhandling a girl in the street or other public place.
I've heard the term "street romeos". Hey, how about "raastey kay romeos"?
armughal - I did read this, and it only opens my eyes more to the TRUTH. Men need to stop abusing women (rape, harassment, eve-teasing, groping, etc).
You talk about Islam, right armughal. I recall that there is a big thing in Islam about RESPECTING women. As for women being active in society, whether that means having a JOB or a CAREER (or both), there is definitely nothing unIslamic about it as you can see from many prominent women like Khadija and Aisha and Fatima. Maybe they were not typing data into a computer or performing surgery, but they were all ACTIVE in society. And that is what having a career is ALL ABOUT.
You can't expect HALF of your population to sit at home and not be involved in public matters. Society doesn't work that way. The Third World Muslim countries are proof of this.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by PyariCgudia: *
You talk about Islam, right armughal. I recall that there is a big thing in Islam about RESPECTING women.
[/QUOTE]
i talk about Islam, Islam has a big thing about respecting women....
but dear sis, not all men out there r me....
and not all of them r muslims....
and not all of them follow islam (or whatever religion they come from)....
and i am sure there r better jobs for women than being a secretary or going out with colleagues in their cars and all....
and u see the more i read this, the more my eyes open to the TRUTH....
no matter how hard we try, women who go working r still being abuse....
and the figures r on the rise, never slowing down....
(please keep out the issue of women being abused while going out shopping and all, we've discussed that earlier)....
From personal experience, I have never been abused living in the United States - because there are laws here to protect women against such abuse - and sure abuse will still happen, but it will be minimized to an extent.
On the other hand, in Pakistan (lets leave out religion here for the moment), you see there are no repercussions for males who abuse women. We all know how easily one can get off a rape accusation thru the Hudood Ordinance loopholes, for example. To be honest, I have ONLY faced sexual abuse in Pakistan (groping, street romeos, etc).
I realize I'm lucky that I haven't faced abuse here in the US, and many women do. But the figures are probably much higher in places like Pakistan, where the laws are not enforced. Also, you have to take into account that the vast majority of cases go unreported in Pakistan, so I'm not even sure if pulling out statistics will really prove your point, armughal.
and FYI, being in the company of "strange" men is not something that is necessarily unIslamic. If a woman is working with men to accomplish a task (as Aisha did MANY times), then there's no harm in her being in their company, is there? Not everything boils down to a sexual affair in the office room. I'm sorry for you , if you think it does.
