Resident Director, Aurat Foundation, Mehnaz Rehman has urged for urgent sensitisation of law enforcers about the Protection Against Harassment of Women at Work-Place Act. Talking to APP on Thursday, she said sections of society including cops, lawyers and judges, who are expected under the law to provide assistance to the victims or complainants, must be sensitised about the issue itself and the relevant laws.
This, the senior activist said is extremely important as the rampant chauvinism and traditional approach are major hindrances for sufferers in need of justice. "It is this very approach that many of the victims themselves could not gain courage to report their plight," said Mehnaz Rehman.
She said social pressures and patriarchal paradigm are preventing women to report crimes, the commonest being the harassment, committed against them. "Introduction of the law that has also been included in the Pakistan Penal Code makes it important that all stakeholder understand it and make it work," elaborated the Resident Director of Aurat Foundation.
She agreed that there was need to incorporate the law in the training packages for police, lawyers and judges. There is also a dire need that every institution and organisation with women workforce, complying to the law itself, immediately develop a code of conduct. Mehnaz Rehman suggested that workers, be they men or women, are helped to understand the law so as to help create a safe and dignified working environment for both women and men workers.
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