Someone to talk to

When a woman just goes up to someone and complains against a colleague who sexually harasses her, she fears many things: ridicule, stigma and even losing her job. Amongst the latest to endorse this was a survey conducted recently by the NGO, Ahmedabad Women?s Action Group (AWAG), which found that while almost 48 per cent of the women surveyed said that they experienced sexually inappropriate behaviour at the workplace, most of them suffered silently. One female medical representative, who hadn?t, was insulted and chucked out from her job when she complained to the head of the company. However, Ila Pathak, head of AWAG, points to the positive changes that have come about. A number of government departments in Ahmedabad, she says, such as income tax, sales tax and BSNL, have instituted complaint committees ? headed by women.

Call to war

Fight it! Don?t take it lying do- wn. Violence against women cannot be stopped otherwise. This was the idea behind ?Pratirodh,? a campaign presented in Calcutta early this week by SWAAR, the womens? studies centre, at St Xavier?s College, Calcutta, and the Hindi Literary Society. The organisers held essay and theatre competitions, which proved to be highly thought-generating. Many institutions took part, including Women?s Christian, Shri Shikshayatan and Maulana Azad Colleges. Innovative ways to stand up to violence against women were thrashed out in a discussion by speakers who reminded the audience that resistance to the crime should not be passive. Moreover, two student films on the subject, Shayad and Cinders, were screened. Slowly ? but surely ? such campaigns will gain the victory they deserve.

It begins at home

Victims of domestic violence in developed countries are causing concern not only because they are composed of largely women and children ? those most greatly in need of protection ? but because they cost the state big bucks in reparation. In the UK, for instance, a report by Northern Ireland?s Women?s Aid Federation discloses that the cost of domestic violence to the criminal justice system is about ? 1 billion a year, to social services around ? 250 million and to the national health services a good ? or bad ? ? 1.2 billion. Prevention, clearly, concludes the report, would prove a whole lot cheaper in tackling the crime.

Save that child

Happily, yet another national anti-female-infanticide project was launched this week, part of the Union Social Welfare Board-sponsored scheme called Manavi Samrakshan Abhiyan Varsh 2004. At the inauguration in Pondicherry this week, speeches were made by eminent citizens, who talked about, among other things, the need for women to be educated. But it was Pondicherry inspector-general of police, P.R. Meena, who pointed out that female foeticide was taking place even in societies with high standards of education. What needs to change, this goes to show, is attitudes, more than anything else.

Don?t look now

Women in Iran have long been used to examining themselves very carefully in the mirror before leaving home. Any infringement of the rules imposed by a supposedly Islamic dress code, they know, can bring down on their heads punishments ranging from lessons on religious morality to fines to even custody. But that, clearly, didn?t stop some Iranian girls from kicking up their heels, at least sartorially, at an independent film festival held in Tehran on September 13. And two hardline Iranian newspapers were quick to plaster pictures of the offending females at the show in flimsy headscarves, three-quarter-length trousers and skimpy coats. Let us pray that they had the sense to wear veils.

Overheard... that a particular ?teaser? ad, for a mystery product, featuring female models suggestively holding a couple of gigantic basketballs in front of their chest, is irritating women. The visual is accompanied by a word that suggests male chauvinistic sexual innuendo. Irritating or just plain stupid?