Kashmala Tariq clarifies on ‘good morning’ harassment controversy

KARACHI: After her recent comments about unwanted good morning texts constituting harassment created a stir, Kashmala Tariq, Federal Ombudsperson for Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplaces, made an appearance on Geo News morning show Geo Pakistan to clarify her stance on the statement, on Thursday. 

Tariq who had earlier said that all unwanted or unwelcoming messages are counted as harassment, urged women to speak up and have awareness about their rights.

She said, "It wasn’t about some ordinary good morning message but what people send to the person they don’t know on a daily basis and keep on pestering them even if they are not liking it. Such messages can be charged under harassment."

Tariq added, "But it is really sad to see that media just picked up a particular line and didn’t clear the context of the point that followed after."

In response  to a question about the number of cases regarding harassment decreasing after the regulation of laws, she stated that people are not much aware about the laws regarding harassment and don’t know about this platform of Federal Ombudsperson Secretariat for Protection against Harassment (FOSPAH) and are not aware of where to file a complaint regarding harassment issues. At the moment, the decrease in number of cases is not the point, but what’s important is that people should report against these offensive natured behaviors.

"Our forum indicates a way forward to give people that confidence that they should come to FOSPAH if they face these kinds of issues at their workplaces," she said.

Earlier, Tariq had also tweeted regarding her statement saying:

“I said unwelcoming n unwanted text messages n stalking on social media is also harassment. And then I gave examples. Media shall not take just one line out of context pls.”