Predators in the Calssroom





Sexual harassment is in academia


MAHTAB BASHIR

Violence against women is a universal phenomenon and it needs to be condemned in the strongest possible terms particularly when the crime also tarnishes the sacred teacher-student relationship. Gone are the days when teachers – once revered as father figuresby the students – put in all their efforts to imparting  their knowledge to their  wards Unfortunately, now, a few among them have turned into beastly creatures and exploit their  female  students to satisfy their carnal desires. They sometimes entice their unsuspecting students with the ‘incentive’ of awarding them higher marks, and sometimes take advantage of their helplessness to take them ‘under their wing’  for this purpose. .
A university education plays a vital role in ensuring career success and long-term economic security for women. Without a university degree, women earn substantially less pay, receive far fewer employer benefits, and are less likely to be financially independent. Sexual harassment in educational institutions ranges from touching and standing too close to sharing vulgar jokes and sexual invitations. The problem is so deep-rooted that sexual harassment of women is considered a form of recreation rather than a crime, with the focus on the victim’s conduct and appearance rather than on the aggressor.
There is an inherent problem in Pakistan’s higher education system ever since the universities and colleges became autonomous and degree-awarding. The teachers control the grades, transcripts and the test results and there is seldom a re-evaluation. The prestige of teachers who are doctorates with plenty of experience (domestic and abroad) is very high and they become potentates of their small empires. No one dares to question the moral uprightness, interpersonal relations or even the past record of these campus Romeos.  
Nearly 51 per cent of our population, which consists of women, is daily subjugated to culturally-sanctioned homicidal violence ranging from feticide, infanticide, acid- throwing, honor killing, being buried alive, public flogging, dowry killing, physical and psychological torture and sexual harassment.  Pakistan has one of the world’s worst indicators of women’s human rights record and the situation is worsening with the passage of time. Apart from the multifarious problems faced by working women in their offices, the female students in educational institutions too are facing the same dilemma, as the cases of sexual harassment and exploitation of students have started surfacing more frequently in educational institutions.
Over the last couple of years, incidents of sexual harassment have increased manifold in public sector universities, triggering a wave of insecurity and vulnerability among the female students, who enter the alma mater with dreams of making this nation proud after their graduation.
At the beginning of 2012, two separate incidences of immoral activities were reported at the International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) similar to the cases at the Quaid-e-Azam University in 2011. A few months back, a professor of Economics Department was allegedly caught red-handed by students while engaging in immoral activities with an MSc final year student in his office. The matter was reported to the office of the rector, but the university administration did not take any serious action against the professor and the matter was hushed up. The incident had actually occurred a few months back in 2011, but came to the public knowledge only in February 2012. When the faculty members came to know of the incident, they expressed their concerns to the varsity officials. The administration then provided a safe passage to the professor and he was sent to the National Management Research Centre Chak Shahzad on deputation. A group of students had captured footage of the professor and the student on their cameras from a ventilator in the formers office. The students later blackmailed the professor and obtained a hefty amount of money in exchange for their silence.
The other incident surfaced in November 2011, in which a senior librarian engaged in immoral activities with two of his female subordinates. The incident was also captured by hidden security cameras placed in the library. In this case too, the university administration initially kept silent on the issue and took action only when pressurized by the university students. The IIUI Vice President Professor Dr Sajid-ur-Rehman said the three had been found guilty of the allegations and dismissed from service. He also confirmed that the Higher Education Commission (HEC) had directed the IIUI to probe the matter. The HEC Executive Director Dr Sohail Naqvi remarked that the HEC had a zero tolerance policy regarding harassment cases in the public sector universities and any cases reported were investigated fully and strict action taken against the accused.
In June, 2011, the then controller of examinations at Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) was also found guilty of sexual harassment of a female M.Phil Natural Sciences student. The student reportedly went to the official for settling her early arrangements of her degree, and the latter instead of helping the student, locked the door and started molesting her. During the probe of the above mentioned unfortunate incident, another case of sexual harassment surfaced in the same QAU that has recently been declared as the first ranked public sector university of the country by the HEC.
In July 2011 an Information Technology (IT) department lecturer sexually harassed a female student allegedly for ‘improvement of grades’. The issue became public knowledge when a group of female students led by the victim submitted an application against the accused with the QAU Vice-Chancellor. A female student of MSc second semester of the IT department, after taking the examination on June 27 talked to her teacher (in BPS-17 grade) regarding low percentage in the semester and sought his help for ‘improvement of grades’. She was asked to meet him alone in his office to decide whether she will obtain an ‘A’ grade or an ‘F’. When the girl entered his room, he allegedly grabbed her hand and tried to make indecent advances to her. Just at that moment she managed to free herself and flee from the room. Meanwhile, a few passersby gathered outside the lecturer’s room to take up the matter but the administration of the QAU again tried to hush up the matter.
This was the first time that a group of female students courageously registered their complaint against the immoral activities of a teacher and filed an application with QAU VC, Masoom Yasinzai. On July 23, 2011, the QAU administration broke its long silence and finally showed the door to two of its officials, the controller of examinations and the Information Technology department lecturer. In May, 2011, the University of Peshawar (UoP) suspended a lecturer following initial investigations into sexual harassment charges levelled by female students. The presence of such sexual predators in a university endangers the girl students, and the law needs to act, according to rights activist Dr. Farzana Bari. “The Women Protection Law is a very effective legislation to protect women against excesses, especially the workplace harassment of women,” she said, noting that it requires a committee to investigate such complaints within three months. But women also need to be aware of the law to benefit from it. Such anti-female acts need to be condemned wholeheartedly and severe punishments under the law will certainly curtail, if not eliminate, them, she added.
Prior to these unfortunate incidents, to eliminate the increasing incidents of sexual harassment in educational institutions, the HEC in 2010 decided to take stern measures to implement the ‘Protection Against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act 2010’ in 128 public and private sector HEIs across the country, but unfortunately these have not been implemented anywhere so far. Besides the absence of a control mechanism to effectively restrain such morally and ethically unscrupulous faculty members and staffers from exploiting students, the issue also lies with their lack of training and orientation. “Many young people join the teaching profession without any proper instruction and orientation. They are unaware of the ethics of this pious profession,” said a senior teacher at QAU. He said that all universities must include strict terms and condition in employment contracts of teachers to effectively control such acts of exploitation and harassment, adding that the contract should be duly signed by the faculty members before joining the institution. However, he also called for protective mechanisms for teachers who could be victimized under the anti-harassment law through false allegations levelled against them by the students.
Dr Farzana Bari, the head of Gender Studies department at the QAU who is also a human rights activist said, “Most of the sexual harassment cases in educational institutions are never reported due to the social complications of discussing such issues publicly.” She added that there was an urgent need to educate teachers about the moral and ethical boundaries of the teaching profession, which is the duty of all educational institutions. The professor noted that teachers have a dominating role in almost all educational institutes and they misuse their powers particularly by threatening to fail students in their examinations. She suggested that teachers should avoid holding individual meetings with students in their offices, and instead, should either call group meetings with the students or give them extra time in classrooms, when needed.
A senior administrative official in the National University of Modern Languages (NUML) said, “The focus should be on creating awareness among the teachers and students, rather than amending teachers’ contract documents by inserting clauses to control exploitation and harassment of students”. HEC Executive Director Sohail Naqvi believed that exploitation of students in educational institutions has been ‘part of our culture’, which needs to be shed and ‘teachers need to be taught what is right and wrong’. He said that the commission aims to address the issue by creating awareness among the teachers as well as the students. Although over two years have passed since the HEC issued instructions to establish sexual harassment committees in educational institutions, 98 out of 138 universities and degree awarding institutes (DAI) in the country had yet to comply. An officer of the HEC, requesting anonymity, said that “government universities do not take such instructions seriously while private universities see it as a waste of money and try to avoid the extra work in establishing these cells and they are hesitant in complying”.
According to a spokesperson of the HEC, only 40 institutes have provided the names of the committee members. The commission only pursues those cases in which a complaint is lodged directly with the HEC. Sexual exploitation is prevalent everywhere and universities and colleges are no exception. It exists as much in the private sector universities as it is does in the government institutions of our country. Some cases come to light, but many others go unreported for various reasons. The university employees at all levels are also involved in the sad saga from the very top to those working as drivers and such like. Whatever chance they get of sexually exploiting females on campus, they use it to their advantage.
When contacted Dr Nadia Mehak, a psychologist who is also running her private clinic at F-11, said that women in educational institutions want to learn and later to earn and to do something better for themselves as well as society. She blamed the western sexual mores behind this obsession among the men of our society as well as lack of interest in religion. Talking about tackling the issue, Dr Mehak said, “If the women of today keep quite and do not expose these ‘spiritual fathers’ who are actually wolves in sheep’s clothing the male dominance and exploitation would not be eliminated. Speaking for their rights is the only solution that could resolve this grave issue at a macro level.” In reply to a query as to how many girls speak up against this kind of harassment and exploitation, one female faculty member from the QAU said “I estimate that about five to ten percent of girls harassed or exploited take the courage to speak up against it, and that is usually when they experience it for the first time. Most, however, remain silent for the fear of getting a bad name and public attention in a bad situation. Some choose to seal their lips in order to ensure their career prospects won’t be damaged. Then there are a good many of those who remain silent because they believe that they won’t get justice even if they muster up courage to speak up,” she maintained.
The present democratic government has introduced various legislative measures such as ‘Women Protection from Harassment at Workplace Act 2010’ (Amendment in Section 509 of the PPC), ‘Acid Crime Prevention Act 2011’, ‘the Prevention of anti-Women Practices Act 2011’, ‘Fund for Women in Distress and Detention Act 2011’, and the landmark ‘Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act 2012’, despite the fact it is enmeshed in numerous national and international crisis. The laws were passed and widely welcomed but many women are still not aware of them; they continue to suffer due to ignorance. In addition, passing a law does not promise its implementation.
To protect women from harassment and exploitation, enforcing the law in its true spirit is required, which is certainly not the case in our society.

*Names have been changed to protect privacy.

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