Mariam*, a young journalist, deeply regrets not filing a sexual harassment complaint against her previous manager.
In 2012, Mariam worked for a Tunisian media professional who owned an audio-visual production company, but she was later dismissed from her job because she refused to give in to her employer’s sexual advances. “My boss used to insistently invite me to immoral parties, but I kept declining,” she says.
Sex for work
Mariam*, a young journalist, deeply regrets not filing a sexual harassment complaint against her previous manager.
In 2012, Mariam worked for a Tunisian media professional who owned an audio-visual production company, but she was later dismissed from her job because she refused to give in to her employer’s sexual advances. “My boss used to insistently invite me to immoral parties, but I kept declining,” she says.
Sex for work
Mariam says her manager harassed her and her female colleagues and extorted them, pushing them to have an intimate relationship with him in return for keeping their jobs. Mariam however did not file a complaint because she did not have evidence. She kept silent and continued to work in the company because she could not afford to quit her job.
As Mariam continued to reject the advances of her boss, who was 20 years older, he began to verbally abuse her in front of her colleagues before he finally dismissed her.
Mariam now works as a human rights activist, defending women’s rights while using Tunisian laws to expose and condemn violence against women. The Tunisian government’s recently endorsement of a draft law that punishes harassers by fine and up to one-year imprisonment, she says, is likely to reduce rampant harassment in public transportation, the workplace and public spaces.
Although some men have condemned the bill on the pretext that it gives women unlimited freedom, human rights activists support it.
Harassment rates on the rise
Head of the National Union of Tunisian Women (UNFT) Radia Jarbi says the increased level of sexual harassment is worrying in a country known for its leading gender equality legislation. “There are horrifying figures in this respect,” she says. “Every day, three women are raped and one woman is murdered.”
Jarbi ascribes this uncontrolled sexual harassment to many factors, including increased crime rates, unemployment and frustration. She believes that the new draft law is a good step toward restraining violence against women and improving their rights.
Legal loopholes
Jabri however, is not optimistic vis-à-vis this development, seeing that the draft law does not lay down proper mechanisms to confirm harassment offenses, especially in private spaces, like departments and workplaces. One loophole in the new law, she says, is that it does not protect harassment crime witnesses. The government should have amended the 2004 law that incriminates harassment in all places rather than in public places only.
Program Manager at the Ministry of Women’s Affairs Salwa Qiqa says the new draft law provides for appropriate mechanisms to curb violence against women. “It includes not only deterrent aspects, but also protection, prevention and awareness-raising achieved through enhancement of an anti-violence culture,” she told Correspondents.
*Her name has been changed
