Sexual Harassment: Recreation or Crime?

sexual harassment needs to stop.

It’s a matter of absolute shame that more than 68 percent of women in Pakistan are sexually harassed. It is one of those grave issues that have plagued our society for as long as we can recall. Every single day countless women are tortured, raped, assaulted in ways that are ridiculously painful. Whether you are in a workplace, educational institution, and recreational spot or even in a bus or a rikshaw, no matter how conscious or covered you are, few men will cunningly find their way into making some kind of physical with you. It could range from touching and fondling you when you are standing in a cramped bus or grabbing your hands while you are paying them money to fixing the front mirror in order to have a closer look at you if you if you ever happen to travel alone in a rishaw. Moreover even educated individuals in offices and schools do not refrain from any kind of inappropriate behavior be it sexually explicit remarks or vulgar messages and phone calls. Things are already too hard for women and the above mentioned vices turn their lives into an ordeal every time they step out of their homes.

What’s more saddening is that victims of sexual harassment so often stay quiet over this injustice because they do not want to embarrass themselves or their families by talking about something as insulting as this. These matters are hushed up as no single woman wants to become the trashy talk of the town. That practice has given even more power to some of those sick men out there who treat women as mere objects of interest that can be toyed with whenever there is a need.

It’s about time that men should learn to respect females not only because there someone’s daughter, wife or sister but because they are fellow human beings that have been granted equal rights in life.

There are strict laws in our constitution regarding sexual harassment and people should be forced to follow them or otherwise penalized. Laws are made for the empowerment of the citizens and until and unless there is strict implementation on them, a society cannot flourish in a positive environment. Furthermore media is highly influential nowadays and it should also work towards highlighting this issue in order to counteract its emotional after effects. But it shouldn’t be done in a way that indirectly glorifies this act. Rather than that sexual exposure in the movies and dramas should be excessively minimized and highly discouraged. It might not be the ultimate solution but it could surely help us in weakening the basis of this menace that has rooted itself so deeply in our society.