Hare Krishna dear matajis, hope you all are well by Lord’s grace.
I wanted to share something that I have been learning for the last few days at work training as it is an important aspect for women in general to be aware of and educate themselves.
One of the important topics that we had to familiarise ourselves with was ‘sexual harassment’.
The definition below was given.
‘In Australia, sexual harassment is a legally recognised form of sex discrimination and includes any form of sexually related behaviour that is unwelcome and that offends, humiliates or intimidates a person in circumstances where a reasonable person would have anticipated that the person harassed would be offended, humiliated or intimidated.’
We were taught why many women keep quite about the harassment.
Most women keep quite for a number of reasons including:
Shame
Fear of people blaming them
Low self esteem
Fear of loosing friendships
Fear of loosing reputation
Feelings of helplessness and hopelessness
Fear of the consequences
Fear of not being accepted by their community
Lack of information and
Lack of support available for them
Cultural stigmas and
Religious convictions, etc
During the training, we learned that it is vital that women get support for themselves and educate themselves about the need to come forward. Women need to express themselves and get professional counselling and support.
In some cultures women are suppressed and blamed when a man is harassing and/or insulting them. As in some of these social/cultural contexts, it is the women who gets the blame and shame due to these societal stigmas imposed upon them.
Even though times are now changing, and more women are coming forward and reporting, a big number of women still remain quite because they don’t feel safe and secure and/or not have a healthy self esteem nor support available for themselves.
Our facilitator concluded the training module with a personal story and how as a young lady she was harassed and significant others in her life advised her to move on without bringing it out in the open. But she took a vow on that day.She vowed to herself that one day she will be in a position where she will educate others about the need to offer support to victims rather than discouraging them.
25 years later she was still teaching this as our training facilitator.
What a vow!
I want to add here and encourage anyone who has ever been or knows someone who has been……either harassed, abused, bullied or discriminated against in any form to please seek help for yourself.
You will not only be doing the right thing for yourself but for other women who may end up being the victims of such sinful acts.
A vaisnava/vaisnavi is para dukha dukhi, meaning they consider the suffering of others as his/her own. Both for your own sake and for the sake of others, as well as the future generations to come, seek help for yourself.
Sometimes that help comes in the form of trusted devotees, teachers, mentors, professional therapists, legal advisors and of course the Paramatma in our hearts. It is vital that help is received from a trusted, unbiased source who can hear you and assist you in a non judgemental manner.
Remember it is never your fault for someone to abuse or harass you. My prayers for strength and healing for you.
As women, we need to respect ourselves as daughters of the most powerful and loving Lord!
Syamanandini dasi
(Perth, Australia)