Dr Fouzia Saeed has worked on the issue of sexual harassment for over two decades. She is known for the work she did on the legislation for sexual harassment in Pakistan. She filed her own case of sexual harassment in United Nations in 1997 and fought the case for two years. The case was the landmark in the history of Pakistan and UN. Subsequently she led a movement called AASHA with several stakeholders, for ten years and brought on board the private sector, Government of Pakistan and working women from all sectors. The movement culminated in establishing an anti-sexual harassment policy in organizations and passage of two laws by the parliament of Pakistan, against sexual harassment. These laws were the first in south Asia. Her book “working with sharks” is an important reference which is an autobiographical case study.
Dr Fouzia Saeed was instrumental in forming a network called AASHA(An Alliance Against Sexual Harassment, www.aasha.org.pk) in Pakistan. Six organizations form the core membership of AASHA with several hundred individuals and organizations that serve as partners and friends of AASHA and are fully committed to eradicate sexual harassment in Pakistani society.
A documentary on her struggle against sexual harassment in Urdu and English
Dr Fouzia Saeed was adamant that the Alliance should be focused on sexual harassment at the workplace first as the structured environment of a workplace, a management that has some responsibility and rules and regulations that can hold people accountable were the key elements she thought would help institutionalize some basic changes in the work culture. Eliminating sexual harassment in the streets, markets, homes and informal work places, she thought, was more challenging and should be dealt with later, once the trends of reducing sexual harassment at in work environments were in place. Thus, the Alliance first decided to deal with formal workplaces by engaging their managements, making the employees aware of the issue and its consequences and involving the government and other stake holders in developing an anti-sexual harassment policy.
A Code of Conduct was developed after rigorous consultations. Dr Saeed did the initial draft of the policy and kept making amendments according to the feedback given in the consultations by academicians, government officials, civil society representatives, intellectuals, labour representatives and those of employees. She facilitated the process on behalf of AASHA and kept the integrity of the Code which was later named as The Code of Conduct for Gender Justice.
Although Dr Saeed has been working seriously on the issue of sexual harassment at the workplace since 1997, her work on violence against women spans over two and a half decades (1984 – 2009). During this time, she also focused on sexual harassment which is one form of violence against women. Her attention became more focused on this particular issue when she found herself trapped in a systematic sexual harassment scenario by several of her managers when she was working for a agency of the UN in Pakistan. She began to fully understand the challenges that a woman faces in those circumstances. Despite being competent, well respected and committed to her career she had to take the huge risk of reporting the main culprit. She and ten other colleagues, who joined her in making the complaint, fought the case for nearly two years and finally won. The case changed the work environment in the entire UN system with changes to tighten up their own policies and currently this is one of the most important issues on which their management is trained and assessed.
In Pakistan, the 22nd of December is marked as the day to address sexual harassment at the work place by civil society because of this case. Dr. Fouzia Saeed and the other ten women submitted their complaint on the 22nd of December in 1997 to the UN management. Their effort in fighting the landmark case has been acknowledged by the UN system as well as the Pakistani civil society.
Awareness programs on the issue
Dr Fouzia Saeed had been developing several training packages for raising awareness on Sexual harassment. These are in Urdu, English and in Dari. They were for a variety of audience. She had also been developing training videos so that Human Resource managers could train their employees or other people in the field of education could make their students aware of the significance of the issue.
Now Maliha Hussain- Director, Mehergarh is steering the whole process. She has conducted several training sessions for the HR and Legal departments of the organizations regarding the conceptual clarity on the issue of sexual harassment and awareness of the law against sexual harassment. She also provides training sessions for the inquiry committee members of the organizations as well in order to deal with the harassment cases effectively.
Policy and Legalisation Work
POLICY AND LEGISLATIVE INITIATIVES:
The ground work for two legislative pieces to address sexual harassment in Pakistan
- Protection Against Harassment at Workplace Bill 2009
- Code of Criminal Procedure Amendment Bill 2009
AASHA (An Alliance Against Sexual Harassment At the workplace) started working on the issue of sexual harassment in conjunction with the Government and other stakeholders in 2001, when this issue was still a sensitive topic. In December 2001, the Government agreed that AASHA should start to work on a policy framework which could become an anti-sexual harassment policy for the country and to conduct an analysis of the situation so that the policy to address sexual harassment would be based on real information from the ground.
At the time, Dr. Fouzia Saeed was the Country Director of the international development group, Action Aid. She ensured that Action Aid provided support to the creation of AASHA and funded its secretariat under her supervision. (Later when she left Action Aid in 2005 and joined Mehergarh, the secretariat was moved to Mehergarh with the agreement of the members). AASHA completed the situation analysis in April, 2002 (published the following July) and, in May, prepared a draft of the anti-sexual harassment policy in close collaboration with senior officials of the Government.
The draft policy was discussed in a series of provincial consultations to ensure that employees, employers, academicians, civil society people, government officials and any other relevant individuals of institutions are given the opportunity to express their inputs. This was truly a broad-based consultative process.
On 5th of June, 2002, the Provincial Ministry of Women Development hosted the consultation for Punjab, chaired by Shaheen Attiqur Rehman, the then Provincial Minister for Women and Development and Social Welfare. The exercise was concluded by Mr. Sohail Sikandar, from MOWD Islamabad. A total of 47 representatives from other Ministries, civil society and labour unions were present.
On 14th of June, 2002, a provincial consultation for Sindh was held in Karachi at the office of PILER, hosted by the Directorate of Social Welfare and Women’s Development. Ms. Sohaila Asif, the then DG Women’s Rights Wing of the Federal MOWD, Islamabad took the lead with Mr Qamruddin from the Provincial MOWD. Mr Mohammad Anwer Golra from the Federal Ministry of Labour was also in the forefront. Key speakers included Ms Mehtab Rashidi, Zia Awan and Dr Fouzia Saeed.
On 15th June, 2002, the Provincial Ministry of Women and Development hosted a provincial consultation for Baluchistan in Serena Hotel. It was organized by the Directorate of Social Welfare, Human Rights and Women Development, Baluchistan in collaboration with AASHA. The key speaker was Mr Tenola, the then Advocate General of Baluchistan. Participants included civil society representatives from all over the province, representatives from the Provincial Ministries of Health, Education and Interior, scholars and grassroots workers.
On 26th of June, 2002 Social Welfare and Women Development Department of NWFP hosted a provincial consultation for the province in collaboration with AASHA. The local partner was HRDMC. Among the key speakers were Ms Aliya, Secretary Social Welfare Department, Zarine Imdad Hussain, Director SWD, SSP Prisons and Secretary, Law Ministry, Additional Secretary SWD, Zubaida Khatoon, UNICEF, Dr Fouzia Saeed, AASHA and the chief guest was Mr. Qari Roohullah Madani, Provincial Minister for Zakat, Social Welfare and Women Development. Participants included representatives from the Police Department, Ministry of Interior, Health, Education, lawyers and civil society representatives from all over the province.In all the above consultations, participants discussed the Code of Conduct for Gender Justice, gave suggestions to improve it and fully endorsed its main principles. The suggestions were incorporated and the final document was prepared.
In all the above consultations, participants discussed the Code of Conduct for Gender Justice, gave suggestions to improve it and fully endorsed its main principles. The suggestions were incorporated and the final document was prepared.
An inter-ministerial committee was formed by the Federal Ministries of Women’s Development and Labour, which also included representation from the Federal Ministries of Interior, Health and Education. A series of meetings were held with the then secretary MOWD, Ms Parveen Agha, as the chair. The document was improved and vetted by this Committee and sent it for the final stage of approval at the Cabinet level.In August 2002.
In August 2002, a high level meeting was convened jointly by the Minister of Women and Development Dr. Attiya Inayatullah and Minister of Labour, Owais Ghani, at the office of ILO in Islamabad. Four federal Secretaries from Ministries of Women Development, Law and Justice, Labour and Interior were present along with their key staff. Two representatives from the labour unions also attended, representing Pakistan’s two main labour unions. Two representatives from the private sector attended, representing WEBCOP (a national platform for management and employee dialog). The attendees from civil society included representatives from Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (Mr I. A. Rehman), South Asia Partnership (Mr Mohammad Tehsin), and HRDMC (Ms. Bushra Gohar) and Fouzia Saeed with key AASHA members.Every word of the Code was discussed and agreed before the document was signed by both the Ministers from MOWD and Ministry of Labour. The Minister of Labour particularly added a section stating that the Establishment Code for the Civil Service would be amended in light of this document and the Minister of Women and Development committed that the Code would get legal cover in the form of legislation.
Every word of the Code was discussed and agreed before the document was signed by both the Ministers from MOWD and Ministry of Labour. The Minister of Labour particularly added a section stating that the Establishment Code for the Civil Service would be amended in light of this document and the Minister of Women and Development committed that the Code would get legal cover in the form of legislation.
Following this agreement, the Code of Conduct was introduced in the private sector on a voluntary basis with the permission of the Ministry of Women and Development, as it was agreed that the legislative process would take time to complete.
Mobilization of stakeholders
Dr Fouzia Saeed with her AASHA team has mobilized a wide range of stakeholders on the issue of sexual harassment at the workplace. For developing the anti sexual harassment policy the AASHA team mobilized academicians, intellectuals, experts from ILO, government Ministries, law enforcing agencies, civil society representatives, victims of sexual harassment, lawyers, private sector representatives and religious scholars.
Later when the policy got transformed into legislation Dr Fouzia Saeed developed and maintained very strong links with the Labour Unions, Chamber of Commerce, Media activists and certain Government Ministries. These partners fully supported and owned the agenda of curbing sexual harassment at workplace. They became the pillars of the movement to end sexual harassment.
Taxonomy of Sexual Harassers
In her efforts to counter the stigma that Pakistani society attaches to the victims of sexual harassment Dr Fouzia Saeed has started highlighting the role of the harasser. She strongly feels that we need to shift the spotlight from the one who gets harassed to the one who harasses in order to hold the abuser accountable and to be fair to the victim. Also she feels that it is not the person but the intimidating behavior that should be named and socially castigated. This shift in people’s perception of the problem will make a big difference in whether women start reporting and whether the harasser gets social and legal punishment or not. Together with her colleagues from AASHA, she developed a series of characters whose behavior constitutes sexual harassment, whether knowingly or not. She conceived and named them as she thinks the act of naming breaks the aura that an action has around it. Naming concretizes an issue and makes it manageable.
Sabir Nazar, a famous cartoonist in Pakistan, drew these cartoons. The humorous names and descriptions were intelligently matched with his humorous depiction of the characters. A calendar was put together for the year 2007 and a second one, with new 12 characters, in 2008. These were heralded became a major breakthrough.
The feedback received by AASHA on its 2007 calendar was overwhelming. At least four TV channels covered the calendar as a news story. The News, the English newspaper with the largest circulation, had a half-page coloured review of the calendar. DAWN, the oldest English language paper, did a special feature and a cover story on it in their weekly magazine. Several of the TV shows on social issues showed the cartoons. Even in the newspapers of India carried articles about it. Many people sent emails to the AASHA office demanding more calendars and their phones were ringing off the hook. Women and men all loved it. It was as if they knew these people all along, but had not been able to articulate that particular behaviour. This effort also made people aware of the fact that they had always paid attention to who got harassed rather than talking about the harasser.
Hero hurjai – Your usual flirt, a ladies man; He thinks he is a hero, a god’s gift to mankind or rather, womankind!, and makes a pass at every woman even when he gets older.
Luchar.com – This guy flirts with women on the internet by using seductive language, sends out vulgar invitations on msn, and diverts chat room discussions to flirtatious topics.
Namurad mobaloil – These namurads enjoy using mobile phones as their tools to harass women. They send anonymous sexual text messages and also resort to sending vulgar poetry in the hope of making a connection.
Keechar Teacher. These are the teachers that blackmail female students for sexual favours. They also intimidate female teachers at times, and abuse their authority. They give a bad name to a respectable profession.
Khumbe Shah – This sahib stands by the electric pole at the end of the street and notes the movements of his neighborhood women all day. He does not intimidate them directly but violates their privacy by keeping a tab of when and with whom they go out.
Bejamaloo – They are first cousins to Khumbe Shah but are found in offices. They are the self proclaimed information keepers of the office, especially about women. Given an opportunity they jump to provide gossipy information to others.
Libral Lofer – Some men take liberties with women under the garb of being liberal. They judge women who refuse their advances as conservative. Their age ranges from 18-95years.
Lelu Likhari – He is the one who draws vulgar graffiti in bathrooms, abandon (?) walls, tourist sights and at times on other people’s note books.
Ustad Lucha – These men include wagon drivers and conductors of public transport who touch women in a sleazy manner: under the guise of changing gears, taking money or making room for other passengers.
Gaik Julabi – These men can’t help but sing a song or whistle when a woman passes by them. It is like dysentery of the mouth where they seem to have no control over their habit.
Mogambo Black mailer – This guy takes photographs or makes a movie of a woman, putting her in compromising poses. Then he black mails her for money or sexual relations with him and his friends.
Chachu Chaskora–He is interested in sniffing out the details of affairs that don’t concern him. Wanting to hear juicy stories and details, he puts unnecessary and inappropriate questions to women that relate to their personal life.
Nikama Jumley Baz
These guys make sleazy comments at women passerbys in order to demean them. They have usually not accomplished much in their lives and look for interest in mundane activities.
Niswani Ghol
This group of women feels powerful because of their number and enjoys turning the table on a man—for instance, by embarrassing him through vulgar comments—when he is alone.
Dast daraz darzi
This is a tailor whose hands go to places that they shouldn’t while taking the measurements of his women clients.
Mr Chamkara
Fond of flashing his body, this person waits for the moment when a woman is alone in a street or an alley and then embarrasses her with the stark sight.
Dukhiari Madhobala
These women are the Dukhiara Dalip’s first cousins and they tell men their sad tales in order to gain their attention and sympathy. However unlike their male cousin, these women use this sympathy to get men to do their chores.
Darinda dukandaar
These shameless shopkeepers harass their female customers by touching them inappropriately or by uttering phrases with double sexual meanings.
Khurchu
This man keeps scratching his body parts either because he doesn’t shower or because he has the itch to touch himself, especially in the presence of women. Whatever the reason, his actions offend women.
Dost Dushman
He befriends a woman by showing her dreams of a “happy ever after” but has bad intentions. He takes her beyond the limits she has set for intimacy and at times coerce or blackmail her into other unwilling activities.
Wehshi-tendant
These men supervise the work of women labourers in the fields, at brick kilns, or in factories. Unlike the Hocha Boss, who is more subtle in his tactics these superin tendants are quite blatant in their harassment and in the abuse of their authority. .
Khabees on wheels 2
These men often stop their cars to offer rides to women walking on the street. They are also known to intimidate women drivers.
Behadetey Rakhey
These men are members of law enforcing agencies who rather than protecting women, do not let any opportunity to make passes at them or intimidate them pass them by. They are the biggest barriers for women seeking justice.
Shah Basha
These men enjoy top leadership positions in business or government. They think they own all women and feel free to make a pass at them. At times they even get them kidnapped. They are surprised at any complaints because they consider it their right as a king.
Statement of Demands from Working Women
A set of Demands from the Working Women of Pakistan
On the International Women’s Day
Dear Friends,
We the working women of Pakistan mark the International Day for Women with articulation of our demands and hope that the newly elected government will fulfill them urgently. We join hands with all the women in Pakistan in the struggle for social justice and equal rights for women in our country.
Fouzia Saeed
Representative AASHA
ALLIANCE AGAINST SEXUAL HARASSMENT (AASHA)
STATEMENT OF DEMANDS
Agreed on 31st January, 2008 at the conclusion of Working Women’s Assembly, Islamabad, Pakistan
Working women constitute a major part of the population but are unrecognized as a constituency. Working women not only contribute to the economy but are also the beacon of future. It is only their efforts of creating space in the professional fields and a wide range of careers that will pave the way for our future generations, all women and men, to fully participate in the development of our country. Working women are the secret path of salvation for our nation, a path out of poverty, where one male is left to feed a big family, a path that promises a way out from being a developing country to a just and prosperous developed country.
We the working women of Pakistan are the agricultural field workers, labourers, dairy farm workers, nurses, doctors, office workers, police women, air hostesses, immigration officers, business women, political workers, sales women, office workers, educators, managers, accountants, Theatre artists, writers, journalists, poets, administrators, development workers, , mid wives, and healers from Khairpur, Lahore, Badin, Hyderabad, Swabi, Peshawar, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Chakwal, Toba Tek Singh, Shadara, Islamabad and many other towns and villages of Pakistan.
We the working women, attending AASHA’s sixth annual Working Women’s Assembly hereby demand the following:
Women should not only be referred to as mothers, wives and daughters. We do treasure those roles but we are much more than our relations with the men in our lives. We consider ourselves to be complete human beings with our attributes and professions that we belong to. Restricting our identity to our relations with our men leaves out the working women’s identity completely thus leaving an ambiguous place for this Identity to be accepted in the society. We demand that working women should be accepted, respected and clearly have a distinct position in the society. This should be clear to media, government officials, intellectuals, politicians, and anyone else making any statements about women.Working women deserve a safe and respectable environment to work. We consider it the responsibility of the management to ensure that. However we know that the political leaders and the government have to take the responsibility to mandate the managements to do this job through legislation. We demand that our politicians through the parliament and the government machinery pass a law that mandates every registered body in private, public or civil sectors to have an anti sexual harassment policy in place.We demand that every political party should clearly state what they will do for working women in their mandate. They should also articulate their strategy for combating the most commonly experienced issue of sexual harassment at the work place. They should adopt a policy against sexual harassment in their own parties.To have legislation that gives women protection against sexual harassment at work and at public places is our right. We demand amendments in the current laws to ensure that. We want a firm accountability system for the culprits and implementation of the legislation in the true spirit.The Government was a part in developing and approving the Code of Conduct for Gender Justice, a policy document to address sexual harassment. After a long time the Government has finally made an amendment to the Civil Service Laws (Esta Code) which we are pleased about. We would like an open announcement and release of the orders of the amendment. We would also like this amendment in the provincial corresponding rules for the government employees.We demand that the Government institutionalizes the Code of Conduct for Gender Justice (anti sexual harassment policy) for all the government hospitals and health services. The ordeal of women working in health sector has to come to an end. We demand safe and dignified work environment for nurses, doctors and all the women workers in health sector.We demand that the Government institutionalizes the Code of Conduct for Gender Justice (We demand that the Government institutionalizes the Code of Conduct for Gender Justice (anti sexual harassment policy) for all the government Educational Institutions. We demand safe and dignified work environment for our teachers, students and all the women workers in Education sector.The media has been an ally in AASHA’s work and it has helped propagate the message of adopting the Code of Conduct. We demand that media, especially electronic media should show the plight of working women and the consequences of sexual harassment through its programs. TheThe media has been an ally in AASHA’s work and it has helped propagate the message of adopting the Code of Conduct. We demand that media, especially electronic media should show the plight of working women and the consequences of sexual harassment through its programs. The expantion of a woman’s traditional role to include work outside home and positive profiling of women working in general should be taken as a key responsibility by media.We demand that the Government of PakistanWe demand that the Government of Pakistan honours the International commitments i.e CEDAW, ILO Conventions 100 and 111 that cover fundamental rights of men and women at work.We demand that the Government actively facilitates fulfilling the quota specifically allocated for women within the government institutions and ensure a better and dignified work environment for them. This includes providing a clear mechanism for reporting any discrimination and harassment at the workplace and actively following the spirit of the Code.We demand that owners and managers of private sector companies, industries and businesses adopt the Code of Conduct for Gender Justice as their anti sexual harassment policy within their Human Resource regulation.We demand that all the trade unions in the country adopt the Code of Conduct for their own working. The national federations have already set an example.We demand that the civil society organization be true to their agenda of social justice and walk the talk by adopting the Code of Conduct for their own organization in order to model a dignified work environment.We demand employers as well as employees to show individual as well as collective responsibility to their staff and colleagues in creating a work environment with Zero Tolerance for Sexual Harassment.The Alliance Against Sexual Harassment has been working closely with the relevant Government Ministries, trade unions and other bodies of employers and employees. In order for effectiveThe Alliance Against Sexual Harassment has been working closely with the relevant Government Ministries, trade unions and other bodies of employers and employees. In order for effective action it is necessary that all the related parties fulfill their commitments and responsibilities and commit to create a work environment that is totally free of sexual harassment.