Of Hijabs and Harassment

In the past few days I've read two excellent newspaper articles. The first is from the Seattle Times and was sent to be by my father and can be read here: Sexual Harassment Intensifies in Egypt. My friends and I have become increasingly frustrated with the sexual harassment we've been experiencing here in Tunis. Some of us have dealt with it better than others. Coming to Tunisia, I knew that as a white female I would stick out and would experience some harassment. I prepared myself for it mentally and did my best to bring clothes that wouldn't call attention to myself. What I didn't expect was that it would eventually get to me. Walking down the street I am always met by stares from males and females. Many males, mostly young males around my age, make catcalls, hissing noises, and do other generally obnoxious things. Sometimes boys follow us. Several times girls have had men in cars follow slowly behind them. I've been having a difficult time reconciling the fact that nearly every Tunisian I have spoken to has been kind, welcoming, and very enthusiastic to meet me with the outright rudeness of these men on the streets. As you consider sexual harassment in Tunis you need to remember that you are in a large city. While many people here are religious, being on the street in a busy city lends a certain amount of anonymity which in turn leads these men to conduct themselves with less respect for others. I'm sure that if these boys heard their sisters being talked to in this way they would be furious. This article about harassment in Egypt was very interesting and I think it helps justify a little of what goes on in Tunisia. The article asserts that the high unemployment level in Egypt creates a sense of desperation that manifests itself through sexual harassment. I need to say that after talking to people who have spent time in Egypt and reading this article I feel that they have a MUCH more serious problem than we do here. That being said, I can't wait to go down south to more rural communities where (I've been told) this doesn't happen frequently. It will be interesting to contrast the way I am treated in Tunis and in touristy areas like Hammamet with towns in the desert.

The second article that I read was from today's New York Times: Youthful Voice Stirs Challenge to Secular Turks. This article discusses one young woman's attempt to pass a law that would allow Turkish women to wear headscarves in universities. This hits very close to home. Every day when I enter my school I see a man in a suit standing in the entryway. This man corners women in headscarves and demands that they take them off. Some girls brush past him. Others protest. From what I've seen, the ones that he catches do remove their scarves, only to replace them as soon as they cross through the doorway. While headscarves are not banned in schools in Tunisia, students are dissuaded from wearing them. As far as I can tell, Tunisia and Turkey are the only two Muslim countries with a policy of this sort. It doesn't appear to me that this law is very strictly enforced. In fact, it appears like an even higher percentage of women in my school wear headscarves than I see on the street. A girl in my program asked one of our directors why this is. Her response "Well, if you were told not to do something, what would you do?"