Street Harassment; crippling tool against women in Afghanistan

Very few number of women can be found that have not tasted sexual harassment in general and street harassment in particular, apart from other gender based violence and domestic violence in Afghanistan. And apart from overall insecurity for the whole citizens, there are always different kinds of gender based threats on the street, in office or work place and even at home for most of girls and women. Despite of the fact that a woman bear poverty, financial difficulty, insecurity and other environmental related issues along with men, street harassment is an extra-crippling issue that directly play with women’s psych and mental every day and even passing by every man. (There are very few exceptions though)

I used to work with an organization temporarily last year. It was summer time and fasting month, the month which Muslims fast one month each year as required by Islam religion. I used to leave office at 12 pm every day. I had to travel 3 hours to go to office and return back home. In hot weather, being fasted and having headache, I used to face different kinds of difficulties and oral harassments. Despite all these, one day I was chased by a man while I had to walk 10 minutes to reach home every day.

After crossing the road and entering a long alley, I felt someone was chasing me. There was no one around, as it was 1pm or 2pm and everywhere was quiet. At the end of the alley there were two directions. I tried to trick him by going a few steps into the first direction and then quickly change my direction to the second way, so that the man may feel shy and stop. While turning, he ran and grabbed me my arms. I was scared to dead that threw my books and newspaper that I had in my hands, I could not even remember if I shouted so loud since I lost my consciousness at that moment. I immediately took a stone to hit him but he was very fast and escaped. Fortunately, he did not succeed to harm me, but I will never forget how bad I had felt on that day. For a moment I decided to stay at home and give up on my dreams and work outside. However, I later thought about same conditions of other women and girls who are working and going out. They also face the same or even worse situations. I decided to fight against this big issue instead of giving up.

In conclusion, street harassment and other sexual based harassments in working places should be the main focus of women’s rights activists both inside and outside the country, Afghanistan. Even though there are very nice families who really value their female members. But street harassment even victimizes them and every woman and girl who walk in the streets, no matter who she is, what problems she has, what she thinks about at that moment and where she goes. This is very important for leading women, who relatively practice their basic rights and move around, to be secured and safe first. So that they, with a peaceful mind and full concentration, be able to help other women who are most in need. Certain written and unwritten laws should be abolished. Afghan women, with the strong support of men who belief in equality, should stand together and fight against this issue through social media, campaigns, initiating and enforcement of law against it.