red cat
7th March 2011, 11:21
Eve-Teasing: The Struggle Against Sexual Harassment (http://southasiarev.wordpress.com/2011/03/06/eve-teasing-the-struggle-against-sexual-harassment/)
This article originally appeared at eKantipur.com (http://www.ekantipur.com/2011/03/01/south-asia/women-rally-against-eve-teasing-in-s.-asia/330314.html). As we approach International Womens Day, the Revolution in South Asia team will increase our focus on the struggles of women, and their participation in liberation movements. We present this article which details the harassment of many women in South Asia known as eve teasing. Please contact us if you have suggestions for pieces to publish as we celebrate International Womens Day on March 8th, 2011.
http://southasiarev.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/eve_teasing_sexual_harassment_india_nepal_rising-culture-in-delhi.jpg?w=350 (http://southasiarev.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/eve_teasing_sexual_harassment_india_nepal_rising-culture-in-delhi.jpg)
Women rally against Eve teasing in S. Asia
NEW DELHI, MAR 01 -
It sounds almost playful, but Eve teasing is a daily torment for many women in South Asia, who are now trying to call time on what they see as a bland euphemism for sustained sexual harassment.
Widely used for decades by the media and police in India and Bangladesh, and to a lesser extent in Nepal and Pakistan, Eve-teasing is a catch-all term that encompasses anything from lewd comments to assault.
As a reference to the biblical Eve, women activists argue that it carries an additional offensive inference that of the woman as temptress who was complicit in her own downfall.
Its a dismissive term, said Jasmeen Patheja, founder of an Indian community performance art group called Blank Noise that combats the abuse of women in public areas.
Calling it Eve-teasing is actually a denial that it is sexual violence, she told AFP.
Following a spate of suicides by victims of sexual harassment, activists in Bangladesh successfully petitioned the High Court which ruled in January that the term Eve-teasing belittled the seriousness of the behaviour it described.
The ruling sent a message to the local media, police and the educational establishment it should be dropped and replaced by appropriate terms like sexual harassment, abuse or stalking, said Salma Alik, head of the Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association.
From January to November 2010, 26 women and one father of a bullied girl committed suicide in Bangladesh, and 10 men and two women were murdered after protesting against sexual harassment, according to a local rights group.
Estimates differ on when the phrase Eve-teasing came into common usage, although it appears in newspaper articles dating back to the 1950s and 60s.
There are suggestions that it was appropriated by the media in order to avoid the word sexual which might offend sensibilities in culturally conservative countries.
Even though todays Indian newspapers are laced with sexual references, the usage has persisted often in headlines to stories which, on closer inspection, detail cases of women being slapped, groped and having their clothes torn off.
As a result, activists say, the common perception of an Eve-teasing incident is often one of young men having some innocent fun at womens expense.
A recent survey by the International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW) of 1,000 teenaged boys in Mumbai showed that the overwhelming majority viewed the practise of Eve-teasing as harmless and inoffensive.
The Hollaback! movement an international e-activism network against street sexual harassment opened its first Indian branch in Mumbai last month and has begun a campaign to expose the reality behind the euphemism.
Calling it Eve-teasing trivialises the act; it isnt teasing, its harassment, said Aisha Zakira, Director of Hollaback! in Mumbai.
And sexual harassment on the street is a gateway crime that creates a cultural environment which makes gender-based violence okay, Zakira added.
There have long been complaints that police in countries like India and Bangladesh are dismissive of sexual harassment as a serious crime and many argue that this mentality is reinforced by the idea that victims are only being teased.
Many incidents go unreported, activists say, because women believe they will simply be courting ridicule and even further harassment.
Most victims are ashamed to tell even their mothers because they fear being stigmatised, said Madhumita Das, a senior specialist in ICRWs Asia regional office in New Delhi.
http://southasiarev.wordpress.com/2011/03/06/eve-teasing-the-struggle-against-sexual-harassment/#more-10850
This article originally appeared at eKantipur.com (http://www.ekantipur.com/2011/03/01/south-asia/women-rally-against-eve-teasing-in-s.-asia/330314.html). As we approach International Womens Day, the Revolution in South Asia team will increase our focus on the struggles of women, and their participation in liberation movements. We present this article which details the harassment of many women in South Asia known as eve teasing. Please contact us if you have suggestions for pieces to publish as we celebrate International Womens Day on March 8th, 2011.
http://southasiarev.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/eve_teasing_sexual_harassment_india_nepal_rising-culture-in-delhi.jpg?w=350 (http://southasiarev.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/eve_teasing_sexual_harassment_india_nepal_rising-culture-in-delhi.jpg)
Women rally against Eve teasing in S. Asia
NEW DELHI, MAR 01 -
It sounds almost playful, but Eve teasing is a daily torment for many women in South Asia, who are now trying to call time on what they see as a bland euphemism for sustained sexual harassment.
Widely used for decades by the media and police in India and Bangladesh, and to a lesser extent in Nepal and Pakistan, Eve-teasing is a catch-all term that encompasses anything from lewd comments to assault.
As a reference to the biblical Eve, women activists argue that it carries an additional offensive inference that of the woman as temptress who was complicit in her own downfall.
Its a dismissive term, said Jasmeen Patheja, founder of an Indian community performance art group called Blank Noise that combats the abuse of women in public areas.
Calling it Eve-teasing is actually a denial that it is sexual violence, she told AFP.
Following a spate of suicides by victims of sexual harassment, activists in Bangladesh successfully petitioned the High Court which ruled in January that the term Eve-teasing belittled the seriousness of the behaviour it described.
The ruling sent a message to the local media, police and the educational establishment it should be dropped and replaced by appropriate terms like sexual harassment, abuse or stalking, said Salma Alik, head of the Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association.
From January to November 2010, 26 women and one father of a bullied girl committed suicide in Bangladesh, and 10 men and two women were murdered after protesting against sexual harassment, according to a local rights group.
Estimates differ on when the phrase Eve-teasing came into common usage, although it appears in newspaper articles dating back to the 1950s and 60s.
There are suggestions that it was appropriated by the media in order to avoid the word sexual which might offend sensibilities in culturally conservative countries.
Even though todays Indian newspapers are laced with sexual references, the usage has persisted often in headlines to stories which, on closer inspection, detail cases of women being slapped, groped and having their clothes torn off.
As a result, activists say, the common perception of an Eve-teasing incident is often one of young men having some innocent fun at womens expense.
A recent survey by the International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW) of 1,000 teenaged boys in Mumbai showed that the overwhelming majority viewed the practise of Eve-teasing as harmless and inoffensive.
The Hollaback! movement an international e-activism network against street sexual harassment opened its first Indian branch in Mumbai last month and has begun a campaign to expose the reality behind the euphemism.
Calling it Eve-teasing trivialises the act; it isnt teasing, its harassment, said Aisha Zakira, Director of Hollaback! in Mumbai.
And sexual harassment on the street is a gateway crime that creates a cultural environment which makes gender-based violence okay, Zakira added.
There have long been complaints that police in countries like India and Bangladesh are dismissive of sexual harassment as a serious crime and many argue that this mentality is reinforced by the idea that victims are only being teased.
Many incidents go unreported, activists say, because women believe they will simply be courting ridicule and even further harassment.
Most victims are ashamed to tell even their mothers because they fear being stigmatised, said Madhumita Das, a senior specialist in ICRWs Asia regional office in New Delhi.
http://southasiarev.wordpress.com/2011/03/06/eve-teasing-the-struggle-against-sexual-harassment/#more-10850