Sexual harassment and abuse is more common than one could ever imagine
KARACHI: Sexual harassment and abuse is more common than one could ever imagine. For most of the times, the survivor fails to identify an incident as harassment, and even in more of the instances the suffering remains unsaid and unheard. Starting off with family, as it is one social institution where one looks up to for support, abuse at the hands of family members predefines and ruins social experiences and encounters for many. On the other hand, domestic male help sexually abusing young kids is another common occurrence.
The list, unfortunately, goes on with educational institutions, work and public places being no exceptions. Though women make up the majority of the survivors, men too experience such encounters. As many fail to deal with the experience effectively pertaining to lack of coping mechanism, they are bound to carry the trauma with them for the rest of their lives. Nevertheless, many private organisations are doing significant work in spreading awareness about societal acceptance of sexual abuse survivors, yet it would be rather unwise to expect a change unless the victims choose to speak out for themselves.
Sexual abuse at any age or under any circumstances can be only dealt with acceptance, help and action against the abusers.
Erum Usman
Published in The Express Tribune, October 24th, 2017.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
