Women experience sexual harassment at public places in Peshawar

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Anmol Sheraz

PESHAWAR: When a renowned Austrian woman anthropologist, Renate Korber, who had visited Peshawar in 2002, was asked about her unforgettable experience in Peshawar, she simply replied: “Staring. Most men, young and old, constantly stare at women’s bodies. You can read in their eyes what they think. I never experienced staring at this level anywhere in the world.”

For Ms Korber, it was an educational experience. She was safe. She was important. The state had provided her full security protocol. She was always encircled by nearly a dozen security cops. But the experiences of local women in this city are entirely different. It is hard to imagine what they go through when they leave their homes. They frequently encounter unwanted sexual advances, violence, or threats in public places. They wish to be accompanied by kids, elderly family members or friends to feel safe. They are unable to move in public places without the risk of being subjected to physical and verbal harassment.

A survey conducted by Daily Lead Pakistan revealed that nine out of 10 women experience sexual harassment when they move in the city. The city does not provide safe spaces for them in public places.

The dilemma of just being outdoors to enjoy or have some fun is not available to most of them in this dry provincial capital. Women are only expected to be at public spaces for a specific purpose. They either go out to fulfill their academic duties, doing jobs or to meet their domestic needs such as shopping, and that too at assigned hours of the day. A significant number of the city’s sexual predators have even noted these timings to harass them through weird gestures, such as opening top buttons of their shirts and scratching or rubbing their body parts.

“Undoubtedly, the core reason of harassment is a deep disrespect or disregard for women as equals, as someone more than a body, object or a sexual being,” said Ifrah Saeed, a housewife, who came to Peshawar’s Saddar area for shopping. “I just confront, snub or shout when I notice any incongruous gesture from a sexually frustrated man,” she added. Ifrah is brave enough to challenge the inappropriate behavior of men but many others are not.

Sharing her own experience with DLP, Aina Khan, an elderly woman, said: “Me and my daughter were on foot to our home. As we walked along a narrow lane with a high wall on the side, talking to each other, I observed a sudden change in my daughter’s gait. Her shoulders slumped forward, she composed her body and picked up her pace, then she nudged me and softly said to cross the area quickly.”

“I looked around confused, up ahead, I noticed a bunch of teenage boys standing at the corner of the street and smirking at her. With a sinking feeling, I thought, so it begins for my daughter – beginning into the world of the male gaze – and the probability of harassment, comments or worse – and the dwindling effect it might have on girls and women,” Ms Khan said.

Among the number of women interviewed by DLP, 95 percent said they had experienced sexual violence in public spaces at some point. They faced jokes, comments and obscene gestures while 80 percent of women admitted that they were inappropriately touched or groped.

Shifa Sohail, a university lecturer, says that women generally do not report the violence or harassment they come across in life. “Majority of women that I know do not even react to indecent exposure from men,” she said, adding that this defensive behavior of women emboldens men to make sexual advances on them. “It is a grave problem that girls think that if something happens to them, they’ll be blamed, without realizing that if a man is being punched for his wrong act at a public place, he won’t react and will run away,” Sohail said. Many women don’t agree with Ms Sohail’s argument, fearing that such an act by a woman would attract vengeance from the concerned perpetrator.

Of the women who faced obscene gestures and comments, eight out of 10 did not report it, believing that it will hurt honour and reputation of their families.

“Most of the women feel embarrassed and ashamed to share sexual harassment incidents that they that have faced while travelling in public transport,” says Shaista Ali, a nurse at a private hospital. “They fear that if they share their experiences, they will be asked to stop going out by their strict male-dominated families.

Leave alone crowded places, they even feel unsafe in nighbourhoods where they reside. “This is not a safe city. The neighbourhoods too are unsafe. Women faced sexual violence and harassment in their localities,” says Rida Mukhtiar, a bank accountant.

“Stay aware and careful. Remember that you are the disadvantaged gender. It does not matter how educated you are, how much money or resources you have, or the places you visit, your well-being is a matter of chance,” she said.

Among the people that this correspondent spoke to, seven out of 10 women do not step out of their homes alone even in broad daylight, while none of them can go out alone in the dark.

Social activist Shakeela Tabasum says, “The attack or intolerance of women in public places is an attempt to keep male dominance in this overwhelmingly patriarchal society. These men are against emancipation of women. All these harassment related incidents reflect that men want to enforce their superiority. They want their authority to remain unchallengeable.”

“It is a patriarchal backlash that is confining women to stay at home. It is a matter of identity – women have always been seen in conventional characters of a mother, sister, daughter or wife. And once they get the courage to step out, they become public sexual property,” Tabasum added. Ends