Sexual harassment is may be the most discussed topic in recent times, especially after #MeToo movement from Hollywood. Pakistan had its own #MeToo moments when singer Meesha Shafi blamed singer, actor Ali Zafar of sexual harassment and when a male model Mujahid Rasool claimed that he was sexually harassed by fashion photographer Azeem Sani.
In a recent case, a female student, while not naming her school, has alleged that her examiner sexually harassed her and “almost 80 other girls”.
In a Facebook post, the student, Saba Ali wrote: “My biology practical was held on May 24, 2018, I was in the first batch of the bio practical. I came to school at 8:00am sharp that day because I wanted to get my practical notebook checked by my teacher.”
Talking about the examiner, Ali said: “Everybody warned me beforehand that the examiner is very strict.”
Expressing shock, she said that the examiner wasn’t allowing their teacher to be present inside the laboratory during the examination, however, upon the teacher’s insistence, she was allowed in.
The student wrote: “Our teacher insisted on being there since she couldn’t just leave the female students alone with him. She got permission from the principal and was finally allowed in.”
Recalling the “horrifying” incident, the student wrote: “I don’t even have the words to describe the events that took place next but I will try. Our examiner Sadat Bashir, was a perverted a*****e who groped almost 80 students and passed sleazy comments.”
“He groped me twice, once when I went for the model recognition and he touched my butt and second when I was making the slides. He came behind me and traced my bra strap all the while pretending he was just examining my slide,” she alleged.
She went on to claim: “Thirdly, when I was doing my frog dissection he came up to me and asked what kind of a frog it was. I got extremely nervous and told him it was a male frog to which he very inappropriately replied: “It’s a female frog can’t you see the ovaries, you have them inside you too!”
The student further said that all of this made her “extremely uncomfortable” and she had “no idea what to do”, adding that none of us said anything to him because he kept threatening to deduct our marks.
She further alleged that almost all the girls of the first batch became a victim of that paedophile. “The girls of the second batch were warned by their friends so they were obviously even more careful but still some of them experienced the same harassment.
“I am still completely shaken that we had to go through this. Approximately 80 girls were sexually harassed that day and our teacher told us to keep quiet because she didn’t want us to lose marks, she said.
“Sadat Bashir scarred us for life and there’s nothing we can do about it. Women face sexual harassment on a daily basis today and are blamed for it because of the way they dress or walk or talk. But let me tell you something we were in our uniforms, performing our practical! So no it’s not the dressing or any other factor the only person to blame is that guy and his sick mentality!,” she added.
#TimesUp #metoo
[…] Mahira Khan, Meesha Shafi and Mawra Hocane have taken to Twitter to condemn and take on Sadaat Bashir, the invigilator, who allegedly harassed over 80 students at Bahria College. […]
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