News Desk |
Kashmala Tariq, the Federal Ombudsperson for the Protection of Women against Harassment at Workplace has stated that unwanted messages of ”good morning” and ”best of luck” come under the category of harassment.
Earlier, a statement attributed to Kashmala Tariq circulated on social media that skipped the word ”unwanted” and instead read that messages of “good morning” came under harassment. People had took to social media to object to Kashmala Tariq’s previous statement.
“At Women’s Day celebrations at [the] Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce today I said that people shall not use their position of power to exploit women n ask them out for lunches n teas. That tantamounts to harassment too,” she tweeted further.
Later in her tweet, she while clarifying her stance said that stalking on social media and unwanted messages came under the category of harassment. Kashmala urged the media not to quote her statement out of context which she had made during an event held on Tuesday to observe International Women’s Day.
She tweeted, “I said unwelcoming n unwanted text messages n stalking on social media is also harassment. And then I gave examples. Media shall not take just one line out of context pls.” In another tweet, Kashmala stated that people on higher positions must refrain from forcing female colleagues to go for lunches and teas with them.
“At Women’s Day celebrations at [the] Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce today I said that people shall not use their position of power to exploit women n ask them out for lunches n teas. That tantamounts to harassment too,” she tweeted further.
Read more: Women’s Day Lessons should not be forgotten post March 8
Kashmala elaborated that harassment was not just restricted to sexual harassment but it could take several other forms as well. She reiterated that the federal body not only entertains complaints but also provided justice within two months.
For this purpose, installation of the CCTV cameras have been made mandatory in places where females work, as it makes it easy to collect the footages as evidence. She urged women to register their complaints fearlessly.
Kashmala also hailed the working women who manage their domestic responsibilities simultaneously as well.
Read more: Sargodha University sub-campus: HOD arrested for sexual harassment
“The working women who also look after their homes are superwomen,” remarked the ombudsperson. Kashmala further said organizations, where anti-harassment ethics committees were not established, would be fined Rs100,000.