Harassment of women should not be tolerated

A deeply disturbing incident happened to a woman in our offices this week. She was riding in a taxi to work, gazing peacefully out the window watching the world go by, when a frenzied motion disturbed her peripheral vision. She turned her head, and was horrified to find her taxi driver salaciously pleasuring himself. While driving. In broad daylight. With a woman in his car. Appalled, the woman leapt from the moving car, in the middle of a busy intersection, crying out “You disgust me!” as she fled the car. Violently nauseated by the experience, the woman stumbled to the curb. She was weeping and shaking. Still far from work, she decided to walk, unwilling to risk another taxi.

When she at last reached her office, she told the women she worked with what had happened. And not one of them was surprised. “This happens to all of us,” one said. “It is normal.” Since then, several other women in and out of the office have been polled, and every single one of them said the same thing. Each of them has been harassed numerous times in various ways by either taxi drivers or by men on the streets. “One time a man even offered me money to go to a hotel with him,” said one woman. “But what can we do? This is what men are like.”

This is what men are like.  What does it say about our country that it is actually considered “normal” for men to behave like depraved animals? What does it say about our men that women are unsurprised when they behave so despicably? How can Yemen progress as a society, how can it edge its way toward democracy, when this is how it allows half of its population to be treated? Men of Yemen, this is a problem that it is largely up to you to address. We urge the more enlightened of you to help educate your peers and colleagues. Women are not mere sexual objects, to be treated like dolls or prostitutes. They are the equals of men, with equally capable minds. They are full human beings who are hurt and damaged when they are treated like chattel. Even educated married men in Yemen are often seen catcalling women and yelling out sexual comments. To do this to a woman is a way of telling her that you consider her beneath you.

It is a way that men perversely try to assert their power, behaving in a way that says “You are just an object, so I have the right to talk to you in any way I see fit. Your emotions mean nothing to me.” That is why these catcalls feel to women like an attack.  This should not be tolerated. Men need to discourage this behavior in each other, and teach them how to behave like human beings. Is this how you want your sisters and your mothers to be treated on the street?  A democracy requires the full participation of all members of society. Yet how can we expect our women to participate in the public life of this country, when this is how we allow them to be treated every time they leave their house?

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