By: ASIYA MOHAMED
I recently read about a senior county official at Wajir County government who allegedly asked for sexual favors from women who look for employment at his office. The alleged county official is a close confidante of the governor, Ahmed Abdullahi.
This is a serious matter that we sometimes seem to turn a blind eye on, and let’s be real; it happens to us, women, every day. I might be biased when I say that it happens only to us, but we know the majority are women and I even have the statistics to prove.
At least 79% of victims are women, 21% are men, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) report on sexual harassment.
As a woman, talking about sexual harassment or any other sexual advances I get from my male counterpart is very hard to share because there is a stigma associated with it and the society will view me as the evil party because as a woman, I am a vessel: nothing more and nothing less.
This person may have been indulgent in the past and other women couldn’t say no because he is a figure of authority and account of events will most likely carry the day leaving the victim unprotected and vulnerable.
Do you know how many woman undergo such and never speak up? They don’t because it will look unbelievable when you decide to rat someone out.
Let’s define sexual harassment so that you can at least get what I am talking about.
Sexual Harassment is any sexual act in a subservient-dominant relationship e.g.,potential employee-employer, student-professor, registrar-consultant which is exchanged for a career, privileged treatment in a workplace, better grades, career advancement etc.
These being a few example, (and don’t let the English fool you) it’s called sexual bribery in our country, and come to think of it, our labor laws don’t have anything against it as long as you have the evidence against the perpetrator or not.
In accordance with the Sexual Offences Act of 2006, any person, who being in a position of authority, or a person holding a public office who persistently make sexual advances or requests which he or she knows, or has reasonable grounds to know are unwelcome, is guilty of the offence of sexual harassment and is liable to imprisonment of at least three years or to a fine of at least sh 100,000 or both. (Source: §6 of the Employment Act 2007; §28 of the Sexual Offences Act 2006).
How many of us have suffered sexual harassments and seem to just bat the feeling away? There are different forms in which you classify sexual harassment, and I believe each and every one of us has either done this or still does it.
For instance, telling sexual or dirty jokes, displaying or distributing sexually explicit drawings of a sexual nature; “rating” people on their physical attributes, sexual comments about a person’s dressing, anatomy, or looks, whistling or cat-calling, sexually suggestive sounds or gestures such as sucking noises, winks, or pelvic thrusts, direct or indirect threats or bribes for unwanted sexual activity—which the Wajir county official is allegedly responsible for–repeatedly asking a person out for dates, or to have sex, name-calling; such as bitch, whore, or slut, staring in an offensive way (staring at a woman’s breasts, or a man’s buttocks), unwanted questions about one’s sex life, unwanted touching, hugging, kissing, fondling, brushing up against somebody, stalking a person, sexual assault, molestation or it can even be rape.
We are all perverts in our own distorted way, but taking this openly might cost someone psychological pain or even being shunned and I believe we shouldn’t be quite about it; I refuse to be quite about it.
Back then, I recall, there was a co-worker who always liked talking about my ‘tush’; giving me compliments about how perfect it was. Mind you, this guy was an older married guy. It was very uncomfortable and I felt if I just kept quiet and didn’t talk back or react he would stop, but no—this guy was adamant to the extent we couldn’t have a conversation without him complimenting my tush!!
Politely, I asked him to stop it and it only got worse. He started texting and reading into the lines that I was just saying no to. When he became aggressive, I decided to ask my supervisor for advice. He was summoned and told to back off or there would be serious consequences.
That’s when he stopped completely and had an enmity towards me. Had I just kept quiet, it would probably have escalated and maybe something bad (God forbid) could have happened to me and that ‘tush’ he kept talking about!
I want to know, does the County Government has a safeguard on this? Or do these pervs just walk about in our society, soiling our young hardworking women just because an opportunity arose?
The National Government and the Public Service Commission have a safeguard (I don’t know if it is upheld), but does Wajir have one?? And does the County Government need more cases of sexual harassment for it to do something about it?
Being a Majorly Muslim county and Somali populated doesn’t make it less of a playfield for these ‘men of authority’ to take advantage of women who are looking for career advancements.
And to my fellow women, when someone ogles at your tush or asks if you have had any sexual experience, do not shy off because that is a perv on the prowl—report it.
Gather all the flirty and sexual texts, record the calls, have the back up to make the perv rot in prison because once he is identified as one he won’t regain the honor he lost.
We should not leave it to the ‘Maslah’ jurisdiction because these people will have the upper hand every single time.
—The writer is a social media campaigner for Women and girl rights.
