Mistakes grow more serious and dangerous when the extremist tendency rises within a person. People also grow more frightened to reclaim or demand their moral or financial rights if judicial procedures are long drawn-out or complicated.
In newly-established cities, when an untoward incident occurs, such as a man being insolent towards a woman or when someone is exposed to practices of commercial fraud, the victims respond to these incidents by voicing their displeasure and frustration. In addition to such obvious responses, people in Third World countries resort to muttering curses under their breath or resigning to the fact that resolving backwardness in society is a long-term process, which cannot be solved through the actions of a single individual.
This raises many question. Why do we behave so negatively with victims who are exposed to such incidents and try to reclaim their right and why don’t these victims complain to the relevant authorities? Why do the victims not file a complaint with the police against the swindlers or dangerous offenders?
Perhaps the reason for this is lack of trust between citizens and the authorities concerned? Or perhaps the issue is that citizens lack the necessary awareness pertaining to their rights and therefore, cannot summon the courage to inform the authorities about such incidents. Why do we never take legal action against people who harm us?
A woman, who recently graduated from a Gulf university and is now a working mother told me that a majority of her fellow students were often exposed to actions akin to sexual harassment from their teachers, of whom some used the grading process as a tool to exert pressure and as a safeguard against students who wished to expose these uncivilised actions.
An example of such actions is as follows: A teacher walks amidst the various seats at a lecture hall and touches the shoulder of a female student. Just as the teacher begins to sense that the student may speak out and protest his action, he proceeds to apologise in a very loud voice, indicating to the other students that he is innocent and that the touch was unintentional. The reality, however, is that the touch was intentional and served as a means to find out whether the student subjected to it would accept such behaviour or not. Another example is when a university section head asks a student to give her professor a ride home. The professor does not own a car and is a foreign guest in the country, which means that he is not well-acquainted with the roads, the way back home or taxi pick-up points. The student is left feeling embarrassed and confused, because she does not mind dropping her professor back home, as long as it is just a one-off case. The professor proceeds to sit next to the student in the car, completely unaware that such a situation is inappropriate and thanks her for this great humanitarian gesture that he said he would definitely “repay” and never forget. On the way to the professor’s home, he asks the student if she can drop him to a nearby supermarket so he can buy some basic items. Upon finally reaching his destination, the professor then invites the student to join him for a cup of coffee at his home.
Anyone watching this scene from afar may reach the following conclusion: A student is simply dropping her professor, as long as his home is on the way of her daily route. In this context, the professor is supposed to be like the student’s father or big brother. After all, the student’s care is somewhat a part of his responsibility as a professor and, more importantly, the professor is dedicated to his academic duties. Such a situation is perhaps normal in the West; it is neither strange nor looked down upon. However, in conservative Arab-Islamic societies, such as in the Gulf region and other Arab countries, such a situation can be described as flagrant, is not tolerated socially and is unacceptable religiously. Even moderate Arab and Islamic societies reject and refuse to be in such a situation, which may sometimes lead to the involvement of family members and result in tragedies. The situation results in the student being caught between a rock and hard place, the first being the reputation of her family and tribe and the second her future at the university. The student studies arduously to pass her exams and aims for outstanding grades to make her parents proud of her, so that she can secure a respectable job. Therefore, the student chooses not to complain, but exercises caution to make sure that her fellow students do not find out about the situation, fearing a scandal.
Some of the students have tried to file complaints in some cases. However, both the professor and college director cooperate with one another to make sure that the complaint never reaches the relevant official or the complaint is shelved in a certain department so that it is eventually forgotten. Moreover, the student is then pressured to withdraw the complaint after the professor and his cohorts play the multidimensional “grades” card. This basically means that the student may be given “acceptable” grades, which are never satisfactory, or she would be failed in different courses that would then have to be repeated in the following semester — leading to the student wasting a year of her academic career.
The professor, however, never stops and continues to play the emotional game with students.
Mohammad Hassan Al Harbi is a writer and journalist.
