Addressing a discussion, titled ‘Breaking the silence on sexual harassment’, held at the Centre for Excellence in Journalism (CEJ) at the IBA, panelists spoke about the changing patterns of survivors addressing abuse and workplace harassment as well as the conversation about responding to those speaking up.
The panel was moderated by Fareiha Aziz, co-founder Bolo Bhi, and comprised Sadia Khati, writer and a part of Girls At Dhabas, Afiya Shehrbano Zia, feminist scholar and author, Sara Malkani, advocate of the Sindh High Court, Shahzeb Ahmed, lecturer at the CEJ-IBA, and Razeshta Sethna, assistant editor at the Dawn newspaper.
Speaking about the recent call-out culture as a result of the ongoing ‘MeToo’ and ‘Time’s Up’ movement about survivors opening about their abuse, Sadia said that it was partially linked to the failure of the legal system due to which they turn to social media.
“When survivors go to report their cases, they receive a backlash from society as well, and at times families, and due to a lengthy and tiring process, many are left disillusioned so calling out gives them a regaining agency over themselves while attacking power,” she said.
She added that many times, the healing process for the survivor was missing because of regenerative abuse, which the survivor went through during the course of a case.
Afiya, however, felt that irrespective of the failure of the law to support the survivors, its importance must not be undermined owing to a crisis of expectations.
“We have a presumption that we have the law on our side, which is not correct. Law acts as a mediator between the state and citizens and, without the law, the vacuum gets filled by patriarchal patronage in the form of alternative form of customs for justice,” she explained.
She also added that the reason shelter houses were built by NGOs was in a reaction to the failure of the law to provide healing to those who did come forward. “Earlier, state was the enemy, but with the law, state becomes the patron. The reason the law has failed is because it still hasn’t changed the gender relation. Negative laws like the Zina Ordinance worked very well for many years because the state colludes with the men, hence they have to be fought against,” she said.
She pointed out that pro-women laws were needed, and the fact that an FIR could now be registered against sexual offences and domestic violence showed a trajectory of success.
“I strongly feel that we need to have an honest conversation about sex because either we have complete abstinence or we have a gender apartheid. We need a sexual conduct because while male behaviour has to change, women also need to be given agency on their bodies as there isn’t any conversation about the latter,” Afiya said.
Explaining the workplace harassment law of 2010, Sara said that passing sexist remarks or creating an uncomfortable environment also comes under sexual harassment. She however lamented that attacking the modesty of a woman is considered criminal which strongly leaves the burden of proof on women who might be dubbed immodest.
Speaking about the need for evidence, she felt that the survivor mustn’t be expected to show a tremendous amount of patience and perseverance because of the existing trauma but the legal proceedings often did not help with that.
Razeshta, discussing the report on the workplace harassment law of the country, said that the law was pervasive in universities and more so in legal domains like courts.
She added that women who were working in the tech field also faced a lot of harassment because workplaces were small with the majority being men, so there was an absence of policy regarding it.
Referring to a case of workplace harassment involving a senior professor at the University of Karachi, she said that the complainant, also a faculty member, was dubbed insane by the initial inquiry committee despite an additional 16 women sharing their accounts.
“She later went to the ombudsman office to file the case, upon which another committee was formed and, in January, the professor was proven guilty,” she said.
Ahmed, pointing out the backlash faced by women after they shared their accounts of abuse on social media, said that when women felt hesitant about going to their workplace committees to register a complain then it was absurd of people, usually men, to think women did it for fame.
Sadia also said that the conversation about consent should be seen in terms of accountability rather than ignorance, because men, due to their privilege, were not blind to consent so it was more than just sex education.
