Women feel insecure at workplace
KARACHI – Rubina Shaheen’s black veil hides her black-belt and her prowess in javelin throw. But neither saved the 28-year-old policewoman from the unwanted advances of her male colleagues.
A graduate in physical education and a national gold medal winner, Shaheen used to work in the police department in Sindh. But after she complained about the advances of her seniors, she was transferred around more than dozen times over an 18-month period and eventually sacked.
Shaheen is one of many Pakistani women who are subjected to workplace harassment, but one of the few to speak out. “The reported cases are only the tip of the iceberg,” said psychologist Qurat-ul-Ain who works with Bedari, an organization devoted to improving the status of women.
“Innumerable incidents of physical battering, rape, killings remain unreported. Silence prevails due to culture, religion and family honour.” “A lady professor at an agriculture university was so severely harassed by one of her seniors that ultimately she had to quit the job,” Naureen Ashraf, a counsellor with the Working Women’s Association, told AFP.
“We get hundreds of cases reported to us, but we pursue them in strict secrecy as women are subject to scorn in such cases,” Ashraf said. Grinding poverty, afflicting at least one-third of the 145 million people, means many women give in to advances of their bosses and seniors for fear of losing their wages.
“Severe poverty offers another encouraging factor for the persons in charge or colleagues at the offices to exploit the economic helplessness of their female subordinates or mates,” Ashraf said.
“Our police, being part of our social and cultural setup, usually patronize traditions and customs instead of enforcing laws, and are found to be biased in such cases,” psychologist Ain said.
Government-set quotas of female employees – officially at least five per cent of workers must be women – are largely unfulfilled, women’s rights activists said.
Nine NGOs have formed the Alliance Against Sexual Harassment to combat sexual harassment and devise a workplace code of conduct. Coordinator Aqsa Khan, however, said while 24 private companies have adopted the code of conduct, there has been little response from government organizations. “Unfortunately no public sector company considered it worthy to be adopted,” Khan told AFP.
Source: Dawn
Date:5/7/2004
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