Albinism and Female Harassment at Universities

08/01/2022

What does s*xual harassment include?
S*xual harassment can include someone:

touching, grabbing or making other physical contact with you without your consent
making comments to you that have a s*xual meaning
asking you for s*x or s*xual favours
leering and staring at you
displaying rude and offensive material so that you or others can see it
making s*xual gestures or suggestive body movements towards you
cracking s*xual jokes and comments around or to you
questioning you about your s*x life
insulting you with s*xual comments
behaviour on a phone call that makes you feel uncomfortable
indecently exposing themselves to you
s*xually assaulting you.
What is the difference between s*xual harassment and s*xual assault?
S*xual harassment is a much broader term than s*xual assault, and refers to a wider variety of innapropriate s*xual behaviours. S*xual harassment can include s*xual contact - like unwanted touching, hugging, or kissing.

But as we have discussed above, s*xual harassment doesn’t have to include s*xual touching or contact. It can also include s*xual comments, inappropriate jokes, or showing offensive material to you or others.

S*xual assault is when you are forced, coerced or tricked into doing some sort of s*xual activity, including toucing, kissing, s*xual acts, or penetrative s*x.

Some cases of s*xual harassment can also constitute s*xual assault. For example, if your boss or colleague forced you to kiss them, or touched you innapropriately without your consent, that could be a case of both s*xual harassment and s*xual assault.

If you believe you’ve been s*xually assaulted, you may want to find out more about what this means as well as the support options available to you. Read our article for more information about what s*xual assault is and what you can do if you have been s*xually assaulted.

How s*xual harassment can affect you
If you’re being s*xually harassed, you might:

feel stressed, anxious or depressed
withdraw from social situations
lose confidence and self-esteem
have physical symptoms of stress, such as headaches, backaches or sleep problems
be less productive and unable to concentrate.
What can you do?
No one deserves, or asks, to be s*xually harassed. Everyone has the right to work and live in an environment that’s free from harassment, bullying, discrimination and violence. S*xual harassment is illegal (under the S*x Discrimination Act 1984).

If you have been s*xually harassed, here are some things you can do:

Talk to the offender
You can try resolving the situation yourself by explaining to the person who is harassing you that their behaviour is unwanted. However, this is only recommended if it’s something you feel safe and comfortable doing.

Tell someone
S*xual harassment isn’t something you need to deal with on your own. In the workplace, it might be worth talking to a HR person, who will be able to help you decide what to do. You might also want to talk to a trusted friend or family member about what's going on.

Be informed
If you’re being harassed at work, school or uni, find out what their policies and procedures are for preventing and handling s*xual harassment. They may have processes in place already to deal with these situations and support you.

Keep a diary
Document everything that happens, including when it occurred, the names of any people who saw what happened, and what you've done to try to stop it. It can be really useful to bring these records when talking to a manager or HR person so that they know exactly what has been happening, and when.

Save any evidence be it texts or if you are able to take pictures. .. for more information you can WhatsApp

08/01/2022

Hide Id was young and naive and a soft target’ UZ, former student
I was harassed by an obsessive and delusional lecturer at university. I felt like I should protect the clearly unhappy, vulnerable lecturer, because I was young and naive and a soft target. The insistent but slightly subtle way I raised the issue with the head of studies fell on deaf ears. I had to sacrifice the one-to-one teaching I was entitled to for that course as there was no way I could be alone with the man again. I suffered academically as a result, for that paper. I felt violated and threatened and didn’t tell anyone for years.

I wish I’d been more aware of procedures so I knew what to do when it happened to me, and didn’t feel guilty about landing the man in it.

Hello l hope l find you well.As media students we decided to create this page about advocacy to help and teach those who harass women because of the way they dress etc and also focus on albinism how they are being harassed also.

08/01/2022

Hide I'd
Everyone in the field knows he is a serial s*xual predator’ – anonymous, university professor
My institution banned a lecturer from meeting students outside his office or at night for groping graduate students. I know this because he also harassed me for a decade and I have had to choose whether to add my own complaint to that of one student. I have not, I’m just not that brave. You are accused of being a hysterical liar, the man gets “censured” and then they are free to take it out on you in myriad professional and personal ways … What amazes me is that a university hired this academic, because everyone in the field knows he is a serial s*xual predator. Apparently that was less important than his list of publications

What can be done to help in situations like this?

27/12/2021

If you encounter an s*xual harrassment be free to WhatsApp so that we help each other

Hello l hope l find you well.As media students we decided to create this page about advocacy to help and teach those who harass women because of the way they dress etc and also focus on albinism how they are being harassed also.

23/12/2021

Tertiary institutions lack s*xual harrassment policies? What's your take?

23/12/2021

For Female College Students in Zimbabwe, a Shelter from S*xual Assault

The majority of female students in higher education in Zimbabwe report having been s*xually harassed, usually by teachers or non-academic staff. One NGO offers these young women a safe place to stay and the support they need to carry on with their education.
WRITTEN BYSally NyakanyangaPUBLISHED ON April 10, 2017

A 2015 survey by the Female Student Network Trust showed that only four of Zimbabwe’s colleges and universities had s*xual harassment policies in place. Courtesy of FSNT

HARARE, ZIMBABWE – Two years ago, Tambudzai Moyo* was studying mathematics at a college about 180 miles (300km) south of Harare, desperate to pass the subject, as it was a requirement for her to enroll in a teacher’s training course.
“One day after lessons, I met a lecturer who promised if I slept with him, he could help me pass and get me a place at the teacher’s college,” Moyo, 23, says. She had s*x with her lecturer three times; the last time she started bleeding so heavily during in*******se that she fainted. When she went to the hospital, the nurses accused her of having had an abortion, Moyo says – but she didn’t even know she had been pregnant.
Soon after the incident, Moyo left the college and finished her classes at another institution. Even though she passed, “I never got the place for the teacher’s training course,” she says. “The lecturer used me and dumped me.”
The experience was traumatizing for Moyo and affected her relationship with her parents. “I became a lost sheep,” she says. So she went to stay at a safe house run by the charity Female Student Network Trust (FSNT). In the one and a half months she was there, FSNT counselors helped Moyo regain her self-esteem, helping her feel strong enough to move back in with her parents and keep trying to get a place on a teacher training course.
In 2015, FSNT carried out a national baseline survey on s*xual harassment, with 3,425 students – 2,479 of them female – at 21 tertiary institutions. The results showed that 94 percent of female students surveyed reported being the targets of s*xual harassment. Researchers also discovered that only four of Zimbabwe’s colleges and universities had s*xual harassment policies in place, with a fifth working on a draft policy. The majority of perpetrators of s*xual harassment were male lecturers and male non-academic staff, the survey said.
Founded in 2005, FSNT works with 36 institutions in Zimbabwe, and since last year has been providing safe spaces for female students who experience s*xual harassment at college or vocational school. So far in its Harare-based safe houses, the organization has taken in more than 10 girls.
Young women can stay at an FSNT safe house for up to three months, and get access to psychosocial support, legal aid and counseling services, along with free meals and healthcare. The group also gives some women financial support to enable them to complete their studies after they leave the safe house.
“Students come here hopeless, destitute and rejected, but we help them not only restore their self-esteem but amend relationships with their families and ensure they continue with their education,” says FSNT director Evernice Munando.
The organization also helps students who get pregnant while at school. “Most of the families blame the girl child, throwing her out of the home, resulting in her marrying at an early age,” says Munando.
Tendai Gawi*, almost suffered that fate when she became pregnant with her college boyfriend. “[He] demanded I undergo a DNA test before he would accept my pregnancy,” says Gawi. Meanwhile, Gawi’s father was insisting that her boyfriend compensate him for the money he had spent on Gawi’s education, as she had dropped out after becoming pregnant.
“The situation had gotten out of hand and, as a result, Gawi left home, tried to commit su***de and ended up staying in the streets,” says Munando.
After three days of living on the streets, Gawi, now 20, went to an FSNT safe house, where the counselors brought together her parents and her boyfriend’s family to negotiate a solution. It paid off. “My father bought me all the supplies for my child and I am going back to school,” says Gawi, smiling. Her boyfriend’s father agreed to pay $40 a month towards the upkeep of the now three-month-old baby boy, who will be looked after by her aunt while she finishes her education.
In November 2016, FSNT embarked on a countrywide campaign, Smart Girls, to raise awareness about s*xual abuse and promote women’s empowerment. The organization has been conducting training sessions on college campuses to educate female students about their rights and how to recognize the various forms of abuse, and to encourage them to report abuse without fear.
“Our training is geared towards teaching our girls to value themselves, boost their self-esteem, and practice responsibility and leadership,” says Munando. She also calls for a national policy that clearly defines s*xual harassment and how it should be dealt with.
Moyo, who calls FSNT a home away from home, says the group’s safe house gave her the courage and support she needed to pick up the pieces from her ordeal with her lecturer and move on with her life. But she would like to see a time when those kinds of safe houses are no longer needed.
“Female students need to be educated on s*xual harassment,” she says. “Students should be able to focus on their education, and tertiary institutions should put in place departments that deal with such issues transparently.”
*The names of some of the women in this article have been changed to protect their identities.