Nov 22, 2011

News

Pakistan: Ending Workplace Harassment

In 2010, Pakistan enacted legislation that extended workplace protections to women and provided recourse for victims of sexual harassment. This would not have been possible without the long-time dedication of NED partner and founder of grantee Mehergarh, Dr. Fouzia Saeed.

Mehergarh, founded in 2004, is a volunteer-based organization that conducts training courses for human rights and democracy activists. Saeed is also cofounder and director of the Alliance Against Sexual Harassment (AASHA), a consortium of organizations committed to ending sexual harassment in Pakistan which includes NED grantees Mehergarh, the Potohar Organization for Development Advocacy (PODA), and the Interactive Resource Centre (IRC).

The 2010 passage of the Harassment Act required intensive, concerted effort from all of these organizations. 

In the early 2000s, it was this alliance of organizations that drew up a Code of Conduct, which defines sexual harassment in the workplace, and provides guidelines for complaint and inquiry procedures. The Code was put through a trial implementation period at companies with offices in Pakistan, such as McDonalds and Shell. After consultations with these organizations, as well as labor unions, civil society organizations, universities, and government officials, many of their suggestions were incorporated; in addition to making the Code more practical, this also built support for its eventual passage into law.

Pakistan’s National Assembly unanimously passed harassment legislation in 2009 that incorporated the Code – but when the Senate failed to vote on it within the 90 days required by law, the bill lapsed and had to be reintroduced the following year, when it was signed into law by President Zardari.

Today, the Code of Conduct is gradually going up in office lobbies across Pakistan, but only after intensive campaigning by Saeed, Mehergarh, and AASHA members. In a recent Washington, D.C., talk, Saeed noted that she learned to shift her rhetoric to show the issues in a new light: instead of talking about protecting “women,” she talked about “employees;” instead of “sexual harassment,” which tended to create awkwardness, she focused on the “Code of Conduct.” In the process, the questions changed, and they became easier to discuss; instead of asking whether or not women should be in the workplace, the public debate evolved into, “when women work, should they be protected?”

While she says it will take at least a decade to fully eliminate workplace harassment, Saeed has seen some change. She described one domestic worker who saw news about the law while watching television; the next day, she went to the police and, citing the law, gave them six names of men who had been consistently harassing her in the market. The men ended up spending a night in jail, and the woman now says she can walk through the market safely. 

In January, Saeed led the launch of a fourth installment of ASHAA’s popular calendars which feature humorous illustrations of different types of harassersincluding an aggressive boss. Saeed sees social norms in Pakistan as slowly shifting to focus on the behavior of the harasser; it will be a long road to harassment-free workplaces, but the passage of the Harassment Law was a victory that gives her hope for the future.

Read more about NED grantees in Pakistan ::more