Mariam was 15 when she became
victim of sexual harassment in metro. Although many years have passed, she
remembers crowded cabin and suddenly how she feels on her body a hand of a
30-year-old- men sitting next to her. Now she says that for a girl of her age,
this was huge fear and feeling of uncertainty. Mariam kept sitting silently
until the next station, where she had no other way but to get off the train.
The stress and fear were so strong that until she got home, she had the feeling
that the man was following her.
The last research in Georgia
about sexual harassment in public transports was made in 2014 by Women’s
Information Center. During 3 weeks they conducted interviews with 200 women,
aged 18-60, who often take metro. The results show that 45% of women have
experienced harassment.
Comments of sexual character from
strange men, touching, persistent stare and sexual indecent actions – according
to the research, these are the most common forms of sexual harassment in
Tbilisi metro stations and they mostly happen during rush hours.
That part of the research about
reactions after noticing harassment cases is also interesting. 34% says that
they have noticed particular cases of harassment but 75% out of them, says they
did nothing about it, because of fear, they didn’t know what to do, didn’t
consider the situation too serious or they thought that the victims didn’t need
their help.
In both lines of Tbilisi metro
there are surveillance cameras in main halls and in and outside of the cabins.
Train drivers can also monitor the situation inside cabins and special metro
patrol, under the Interior Ministry of Georgia, watches over security in
stations. Yet the management of Tbilisi metro says they didn't have a single
complain about the cases of sexual harassment. So there are no information
desks or banners about harassment awareness in underground transport.
The head of the Women’s
Information Center, Elene Rusetskaia says that the main point to the researches
was to acknowledge that the problem is there. “We were able to see the whole
picture while working on this research. For women and especially for young girls,
this is very important topic. When we face the problem, only after that we’ll
be able to take actions for solving it”. She remembers that after this research
there was a chain of different researches conducted by other organizations,
which started looking deeper to the harassment problems in workplace and so on.
Another non-governmental body in
Georgia also started active fight against the most common form of sexual
harassment. In October 2016, Women’s Fund began a month long campaign which
holds meetings, trainings, public movie screenings and other activities in
order to raise awareness about harassment issue. The NGO promotes its
activities in social media, which is a good move to reach the segment - youths.
Georgian NGOs agree that their actions also need legislative support.
The bill on sexual harassment
couldn’t gain support on its second hearing at the parliament. In June 2016,
legislative branch didn’t vote in favor to amendments in administrative
violation code. It was about punishment for sexual harassment, which is
considered humiliating for a person. According to the amendment, abuser would
be fined with GEL 500 and in case of repeated action the fine would raise to
GEL 1000. Those who didn’t vote in favor of the amendment say that it needs to
be brushed up.
Sexual harassment, as a way of
abuse is serious problem in the world. Based on the research of Gender Equality
Council of France 2015, everyone out of the interviewed 600 Parisian women, had
at least once experienced sexual harassment on themselves.
Original story in Georgian at GINSC
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