成人论坛

The 75th Golden Globes ceremony was dominated by debate about sexual harassment, with Hollywood stars wearing black to honour victims of harassment and assault and calling for changes in culture in all workplaces.

It’s an issue which extends far beyond the glamour of Hollywood, as a  showed. Two in five women in the UK said they’ve experienced unwanted sexual behaviour at work.

The global nature of female harassment and assault has been further highlighted by a survey of female journalists in Afghanistan. A report by the (AJSC) revealed that of a hundred female journalists questioned, 69 said they had been subjected to sexual harassment within and outside their workplaces. 59 said that they have been sexually assaulted by media colleagues in their workplace. They also reported harassment by media audiences during live broadcasts.

A controversial suggestion about how female journalists in Afghanistan could address the issue is put forward by the country’s National Union of Journalists: “even if you are not married,” the NUJ suggests, “wear a wedding ring or any other ring that looks like you are a married woman”. The idea is that unmarried female journalists are more likely to experience sexual harassment; wearing a wedding ring might decrease the level of harassment and abuse.

Some journalists are outraged by the advice, calling it another move to control women in Afghanistan’s male-dominated society. Naqeeba Barakzai, an investigative reporter in Afghanistan’s western city of Herat said the guidance is illogical and ineffective: “it’s a new round of restriction imposed on women. No one is advising men who are the cause of the problem. In my city, we are wearing hijab or loose-fitting clothing at work. Our bodies are all covered, but we are still being insulted. My married female colleagues have experienced the same physical, verbal and sexual harassment that I have: a ring doesn’t help them”.

The head of Afghanistan’s NUJ, Fahim Dashti defended the guidance, saying it is made in the light of Afghan tradition and culture that married women are more respected in society and are not at the high risk of sexual violence of single females.   

Another Afghan journalist, Zahra Nader, who used to work for the New York Times, was shocked with the wedding ring advice: “when I first read the news I thought it was a joke but after a while I realised that it is advice from an organization that is supposed to defend journalists in Afghanistan. It’s an absurd idea. It’s equivalent to the belief that women should wear the burka so that men are not being provoked.”

The advice made the news in some Afghan media outlets and many Afghan female journalists were irritated. However, it wasn’t such a surprise for some experienced foreign journalists. Amie Ferris-Rotman, Foreign Policy's Moscow correspondent, worked for Reuters in Afghanistan from 2011 to 2013 and founded Sahar Speaks, which provides training, mentoring and publishing opportunities for Afghan female journalists. Amie told me it has been the advice for some years now for Western female journalists travelling to countries like Afghanistan to put on a wedding ring whether they are married or not: “when I was a foreign reporter being trained to go to a hostile environment I was also told to wear a wedding ring because it would detract attention and prevent potential harassment - and in some cases, I did wear one.”

The 成人论坛’s Caroline Wyatt who has covered wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kosovo wrote a in 2012 in which she advises female journalists in some environments to consider “taking or wearing” a wedding ring: “it can help deflect unwanted attention, even if it doesn't stop questions about your marital status.”

A vibrant media is one of the great successes of post-2001 Afghanistan. The findings of the Centre for the Protection of Afghan Women Journalists (CPAWJ) shows that 474 female journalists are working for different news organizations and Kabul, Herat and Balkh cities are their main hubs. However, women’s position in Afghanistan’s media outlets is fragile. CPAWJ research also indicates that the presence of Afghan female journalists has dramatically decreased due to insecurity and various types of harassment inside and out of the workplace.

The problem of sexual harassment is much bigger than that a ring could solve. It requires an approach that involves all member of society. Amie Ferris-Rotman says that men, the potential perpetrators and harassers, must be educated to prevent such efforts at workplace, school, and society.

Naqeeba Barkzai believes that a shiny ring could actually make female hands more attractive to men because Afghans strongly believe in the tradition that a woman should maintain her virginity until marriage. So approaching or engaging in sexual activity with an unmarried woman can have consequences. If she loses her virginity, questions will be asked and names will be mentioned. But if the woman is married, there is no fear of such complications. A wedding ring could therefore actually allow men to approach a woman more confidently.

Naqeeba says many parents still stick to traditional ideas that boys and girls should behave in ways determined solely by gender. From childhood, she says, no-one tells a boy how to behave in society but girls are always being given lectures on what to do and not to do. 

“We have suggested reviewing the guidebook to omit the line about wedding rings for female journalists. It is definitely not a helpful solution.” Mujeeb Khalatgar, director of , an NGO promoting independent media in Afghanistan, told me.

A wedding ring may not help – and could even make things worse. Women’s courage to speak out, complain and share what they have gone through with managers, editors and colleagues and their  encouragement of others to do the same may be the only way to end this cycle of abuse against women - and female journalists in particular.

With thanks to Naqeeba Barakzai for the photographs, except for the bottom picture which is used with thanks to Joel van Houdt/Sahar Speaks.