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প্রকাশনা

Eve Teasing A Treat on Women's Mobility
২২ জুলাই, ২০২১



Introduction:

Violence against women has become one of the most visible and articulated social problems around the world. It is a critical human rights and serious development issue. It is a universal phenomenon but takes different forms in different forms in different socio-cultural and religious contexts. Eve teasing is one of the most serious forms of violence committed against women by men in more or less all over the world.

Definition of Eve Teasing:

Eve teasing is a euphemism, primarily occurring in Indian English, used for public sexual harassment or sexual assault of women by men. The name "Eve" alludes to the Bible's creation story concerning Adam and Eve. Considered a problem related to delinquency in male youth,[2] it is a form of sexual aggression that ranges in severity from sexually suggestive remarks, brushing in public places and catcalls, groping.

Eve teasing is a euphemism used in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan for public sexual harassment (Street harassment) or molestation of women by men, with eve being a reference to the biblical eve considered a problem related to delinquency in the youth a form of sexual aggression, and a growing menace throughout the Indian subcontinent; eve teasing ranges in severity from sexually suggestive remarks, inadvertent brushing in public places, catcalls, to outright groping, and sometimes with a coy suggestion of innocent fun, just as euphemism used to describe it in the region, making it appear innocuous and hence warrant no liability on the part of the perpetrator, that is why, many feminists and voluntary organizations have suggested that the expression 'Eve Teasing' be replaced by a more appropriate expression.
According to them, considering the semantic roots of the term in Indian English, eve-teasing refers to the temptress nature of eves, making teasing a norm rather than an aberration. Eve teasing in the university campus is unwelcome behavior of a sexual nature that interferes with a student’s ability to learn, study, work or participate in educational activities. Eve teasing is also known as sexual harassment. It comes in all forms, and in all spheres of a woman’s life. For centuries the academy has been idealized as a liberal, democratic institution that fosters equality and enlightenment. Recently, however, critics have exposed some of the problems inherent in its organization and processes. Among the most vocal expressions of concern has surrounded the issue of women how they are treated and especially their vulnerability to eve teasing. During the last decade, numerous studies of the incidence and prevalence of eve teasing of university students have shed a new and disturbing light on academic life

History of Eve Teasing:

The problem first received public and media attention in India in the 1970s  In the following decades, more and more women started attending college and working independently, meaning that they were often no longer accompanied by a male escort as had been the norm in traditional society. In response, the problem grew to alarming proportions, despite this not being the case in other cultures where women come and go as they please.Soon the Indian government had to take remedial measures, both judicial and law enforcement, to curb the practice. Efforts were made to sensitize the police about the issue, and police started to round up Eve teasers. The deployment of plain-clothed female police officers for the purpose has been particularly effective. Other measures taken in various states by the police were setting up of dedicated women's help lines in various cities, police stations staffed by women, and special police cells

 

Content of Eve Teasing:

The concept of eve teasing vary among and within societies, depending on whether individuals are born and socialized as men or women in a specific socio economic class in a society, universal consensus exists on the key characteristics of definitions on eve teasing or sexual harassment. Generally speaking, definitions used in laws, codes, policies, court decisions and collective agreements throughout the world may differ in details, but contain the following key terms:

       Eve teasing is probably the most common act of public violence against women which includes various forms of harassment like making vulgar comments, making indecent proposals, making unwelcome comments, gestures with hands, legs, fingers or other organs, attempting to make physical contact etc.

       Many kinds of verbal, non-verbal, physical conduct or display of objects or pictures can also be considered as eve teasing.

       Comments about a woman’s looks or body.

       Conduct of a sexual nature and other conduct based on sex affecting the dignity of women and men, which is unwelcome, unreasonable, and offensive to the recipient.

       Conduct that creates an intimidating, hostile or humiliating for the recipient.

Eve teasing is a typical social crime. It is a traumatic experience which can leave deep psychological scars and has negative consequences for the greater community. Parents, who are concerned about their daughter's honor or safety, sometimes keep them home from school or marry them off at an early age. While Bangladesh has declared sexual harassment illegal, state interventions have been inadequate in stopping it to date. It is a crime easy to commit, but difficult to prove, as eve-teasers often devise ingenious ways to attack women, even though many feminist writers term it as little rapes, and usually occur in public places, markets, in front of school, colleges, universities, streets, public transports and so on. In Bangladesh various reports and research findings show that at least several dozens of girls committed suicide in the last five years and they did so to get a respite from incessant teasing and bullying by males. (The Daily Star, May 8, 2008).
Eve teasing is a serious problem that not only dehumanizes those who are harassed, but also inevitably influences the effectiveness of activities and diminishes the quality of work life. It promotes distrust and hostility between those individuals who are the initiators and targets of eve teasing.
In Bangladesh eve teasing in both public and private university campus initiated by students is most common, it can also be perpetrated by teachers or other employees, and the victim can be a girl student, a female teacher, or other employees. Because of the strict patriarchal social system, it is almost daring for a woman to protest against teasing in the university campuses. That may further endanger her security, on the one hand, and there is possibility that she herself will be held responsible for the incident. In our society, it is usually the girl who is finally held responsible for such incidents.
 In fact, within the patriarchal social fabric, eve teasing is a weapon to weaken, hurt or force women to consign to domestic affairs. It restricts women's mobility in the public sphere, which contributes to their diminishing participation in outdoor activities.
There is increasing realization that eve teasing is a huge threat to women's empowerment. Altogether, though apparently invisible, the cost of eve teasing in our national and individual life is huge. The picture of eve teasing in the university campus is quite upsetting. Women face different types of sexual harassment in every sphere of their lives. A number of incidents of sexual harassment in some renowned educational institutions and in our society were reported in the country’s national newspapers.
Some Brutal Eve Teasing.

. Incidents in the university atmosphere first came to light in August 1992 when a male student of Jahangirnagar University sexually harassed a girl on the bus. On 31st December in 1999, a female student of Dhaka University named Badhan was harassed at TSC (Teacher and Students Center).In April 2009, a male student harassed a female student in Dhaka University. The name of the accused is Shimanta. On 21st February in 2010, a girl was harassed in Dhaka University campus by five male students. In the Rajshahi University, students of the Botany department enforced a strike on the campus demanding removal of Prof Nurul Aman for alleged sexual harassment of a female student of the department. (The Daily Star, May 8, 2006). The sociology students of Rajshahi University went out on demonstrations on the campus demanding punishment for and dismissal of a teacher of the department for his alleged sexual harassment of a female student of the department. (The New Age, May 10, 2006) BNWLA (Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association) recently disseminated studies on eve teasing and violence against women at Dhaka Press club on 25th May 2010. From the research published by BNWLA, it has been seen that 91 percent women have become the victim of eve teasing at some stage of life. Especially 87 percent girls between 10 to 18 years of age become victim of this kind of harassment; the data has been cited by the researcher Nazmun Zaman of BNWLA. From another publication of BNWLA named Violence against Women in Bangladesh, 2008-09, Advocate Soma Islam has presented data of different types of violence in the program. The chief guest, Author Selina Hossein said that, people should be concerned about their moral responsibilities and also encourage others to be responsible about their moral obligations to stop violence against women. The Executive Director of BNWLA, Advocate Salma Ali said that eve teasing is the first step of sexual harassment, so there is no reason for taking it lightly. Professor Shahin Islam, Department of Psychology, Dhaka University emphasized on the responsibilities of family to rare up children and providing them with psychological support.
 There is increasing realization that eve teasing in educational institutions(from secondary level to higher education) is a huge threat to women's education as well as empowerment. In summary it can be said that Bangladeshi social norms place many limitations in the way of female students. The increasing politicization of the universities in recent years has led to campuses being dominated by male student cliques allied to whichever party is ruling at the time. This has further worsened the situation of female students, as a recent series of events at Jahangirnagar University, the second university of Dhaka, illustrates. 

Mode of eve teasing:

In the most field, the eve teasers use the following signs to attract the women’s attention.

      Unwelcome comments,

      Making indecent proposals,

      Gestures with hands, legs or fingers,

      Aimlessly laughing,

      Vulgar comments,

      Many kinds of verbal, non verbal physical conduct,

      looks or body,

      References about dress or appearance,

      Conducting creates an intimidating, hostile or humiliating for the women.

If we go into the depth it is clear that 75% eve teasing occurs in the institutions’ campuses. The rest of 25% of it occurs outside the campuses.

Those who tease women are culturally, mentally blocked and though the world has changed a lot they have not changed much. Mentally they live in mediaeval ages physically though in 21st century. But again it is a matter of wonder when those men of letters, men of reputation also being indicted for the offense.
In fact, both educated and uneducated men who resort to eve teasing are of inferior quality. Only education does not enlighten men because the family he comes from, the culture he inherits all contributes to the making of man. It is all the same whether he is educated or not.”
It is found that, female students are harassed by their classmates, senior students or unknown persons. But nowadays it has been widely ranged that female students have to put up with inappropriate behavior from male teachers. The perpetrators belonged to, the student wing of a political party. Irrespective of which party they belong to students who are cadres of political parties often harass them who are too frightened to report or talk about such harassment.
 .
The Consequences of Eve Teasing:

Eve teasing has a wide range of consequences identified the respondents from both Public and Private University are given in the below:

       The victims feel insecure, fear, depression, anxiety, powerlessness and mental disorder,

       Women’s  mobility and participation in all spheres are becoming restricting day by day.

       The victims feel low self-esteem. They develop a sense of distrust and hatred towards men. Thus

       social isolation and humiliation also occur.

       The guardians also remain tensed when they stay in the campus,

       Besides these  the consequences of eve teasing may turn into forced suicide and murder.

Above consequences made it clear that, eve teasing is a violation of countless human rights. It has a wide range of consequences, from the social and economic to physical and psychological. It is a threat to a woman’s position, dignity and existence. It imposes profound implications on a woman’s body, mind and soul as a whole. The impact of eve teasing on women’s mental health leads to severe and fatal consequences. The victim women have a high incidence of stress and stress related illness, depression, sleeping and eating disturbances and low self esteem. For some girls and women fatally depressed and demeaned by their abuser, there seems to be no escape from a violent relationship except suicide. These experiences severely hinder women's productivity as well as mobility. Eve-teasing is a weapon to weaken, hurt or force women to consign to domestic affairs. It restricts women's mobility in the public sphere, which contributes to their diminishing participation in outdoor activities.
In the long run, these women and girls are alienated from the society, which Alison Jaggar identified in her Theory of Alienation.
Recommendation for diminishing Eve Teasing: 
To curb down eve teasing from the institutions society in Bangladesh, social, and economic measures are necessary in which the Government, NGOs (Non Government Organizations) Political Leaders, Women’s Organizations, Human Rights Organizations and other members of civil society need to contribute.
 It is strongly recommended to address the following elements to curb down the eve teasing from the educational institutions.

       Educational institutions should clearly define the nature and scope of faculty –student, male- female student relationships

       Strict laws should be made and implemented properly.

       Patriarchal social system has to be eliminated from Bangladesh.

       It is need to change the mindset and attitude of people to eliminate eve teasing.

       Concepts of gender equality, women’s rights should be included in our socialization process.

       Government and the institution authority must strongly deal with this violence. Exemplary punishments must be enforced for certain cases.

       Media should be used to promote more positive images of women and practice culture against eve teasing.

       The victims of eve teasing must be encouraged to break the silence and to protest the offence

       It is needed to educate the educational community regarding legal and ethical issues through seminars and symposiums.

       Need to educate the c educational community about the student vulnerability.

       Need to educate the community regarding the faculty-student, male-female student dynamics related to roles and gender.

       Need to clarify institutional and individual responsibilities and defining appropriate professional boundaries.

       Need to develop a consensual relationship policy that prohibits faculty student sexual involvement.

       Need to develop a strong research program to investigate issues related to faculty student sexual involvement or any kind of harassment in the campus.

       Need to establish a complaint cell for students to lodge a complaint and make it aware to all.

       Laws dealing with eve teasing should be implemented properly.

       Patriarchal values should be changed from society.

       Culprits should be punished strictly.

       It is needed to change the mindset and attitude of people to eliminate eve teasing from the educational institutions

       Government and the institute authority must strongly deal with this violence. Exemplary punishments must be enforced for certain cases.

       Concepts of gender equality, women’s rights should be included in our socialization process.

       Need proper education for building a culture of non-violence.

       Need to raise awareness and advocacy.

       The victims of eve teasing must be encouraged to break the silence and to protest the offence.

       Media should be used to promote more positive images of women and practice culture against eve teasing in the educational instructions

       The law enforcing agencies should have to be made corruption free.

       It is needed to raise awareness through various program and activities.

       There is the need to acknowledge and raise awareness of the issue of eve teasing in Bangladesh. It is the time to confront the existence and pervasiveness of the problem of eve teasing in Bangladesh and to recognize it as a violation of the human right of women.

       Gender biasness should remove from curriculum.

       Collecting information on eve teasing and disseminating them to the public through seminars and conferences and so on.

Policy Implications on Eve teasing in Bangladesh:
In Bangladesh there are some laws, which may be said to relate to sexual harassment although not specially stated. But recently High court declared a policy Sec. 509 of the penal code of 1860 states:
Whoever, intending to insult the modesty of any woman, utters any word, makes any sound or gesture or object shall be seen, by such woman, shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both.
The Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance of 1992(which had a stated life span of two years in sec. 2(3) (Gha) made the annoying of any girl, teenager, including any minor or adult woman in the roads vehicles, educational institutions or in any public place an offence.
In 1988, the government proposed the enactment of a new piece of legislation, Women, Children and Terrorism related Offences (Special Provision) Act], Sec. 11 stated:
Annoying any woman other than the wife of the accused on telephone or by any other means in the roads, vehicles, educational institutions in any public place or house. (Huda, 1999)
The Suppression of Violence against Women and Children (Amendment) Act, 2003 has been enacted to combat the crime of violence against women. But this act is seriously misused. This law is being used as an instrument of humiliation, extortion and harassment. The result of making the law is disheartening.
 
 Judgment of High Court Protecting Women, Girls and Children from Eve Teasing:
In Bangladesh there are some laws which may be said to relate to sexual harassment although not specially stated. But recently High court issued Judgment protecting women and girl children from sexual harassment at workplaces, educational institutions and public places The High Court on May 14, 2009 issued a set of guidelines defining what would be called sexual misdemeanors and asked the authorities concerned to stop it at workplaces (non-government, government and semi government), educational institutions and public places with a view to protect women and girl children. The guideline provides clear definition of physical, sexual and psychological harassments that might be conducted through SMS (Short Message Service), wall writing, pornography, eve teasing etc. The judgment also elaborately directed the government and other concerned to form committees in the spirit of the constitution, the rules and procedure of the committees and the power of the committee to deal with complaints, to look after the incidents of sexual harassment against women and girl child. The guideline also mentioned not to disclose the identity of any individual unless the complaints are not proved. But the compliant shall be tried based on the merit and nature of the offense, if it is found true. The guidelines, which emphasized to aware, mass people about sexual harassment and its punishment, will be considered law until necessary laws are enacted by the government on the basis of the guidelines to be followed by the institutions mentioned. It is worth to mention that a writ petition 5916 of 2008 was filed by Advocate Salma Ali, Executive Director of Bangladesh National Woman Lawyer's Association (BNWLA) for direction against "Sexual harassment on Women and Girl Children at Workplace, Universities, educational institutes" on August 07, 2009. In the Court of Honorable Justice Mr. Syed Mahmood Hossain and Honorable Justice Farid Ahmed. One week Rule was given on the government Ministries and Universities including Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, Ministry of Labor, Ministry of Education, University Grant Commission, University of Dhaka, University of Jahangirnagar, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA), Bangladesh Police, Bangladesh Bar Council and Ministry of Information. For enactment of Legislation and Policy or Guideline or procedures for addressing sexual harassment. On behalf of Bangladesh National Woman Lawyer's Association (BNWLA), Advocate Fawzia Karim Firoze, the President of the Association appeared as lawyer and moves the writ petition while Advocate Rebeca Sultana, Advocate Seema Jahur was in the panel. (The Daily Star, June 6, 2009).

 

Conclusion:

Eve teasing is a very pervasive, serious social malady in both the developed and developing countries. In Bangladesh the culture of patriarchy is deeply entrenched, making a strong foundation for gender biasness. To conclude it can be said that some effective measures should be taken to change social attitudes and beliefs that legitimize male violence and the notion of male supremacy. In this connection the role of government, NGOs (Non Government Organizations) Political Leaders, Women’s Organizations, Human Rights Organizations and other members of civil society need to come forward to make a common platform to combat any forms of violence against women like eve teasing in the university campus which is absolute necessary for the development of any country like Bangladesh.
It is also to be remembered that the educational institutions should foster an open learning and working environment that is free from eve teasing and from the fear that it may occur is implicit. The entire collegiate community suffers when eve teasing is allowed to pervade the academic atmosphere through neglect, the lack of a policy prohibiting it, or the lack of educational programs designed to clarify appropriate professional behavior on campus and to promote understanding of what constitutes eve teasing.
 
Finally it can be said that eve teasing is a complex issue one which changes over time and places. So, further investigation may explore new ideas and different viewpoints with the change of time, place, culture, people and locality.

 

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