The embossing sexual harassment in Dar es Salaam city

AN Investigative piece of information can reveal that, there are some young ladies who suffer from arbitrary assault of the sexual harassments, a commonly ridiculed habit being practiced by few rowdy male teenagers at Mwenge daladala bus stand terminal on the outskirts of the city of Dar es Salaam. The mostly suffered are those young ladies of the teenage group who tend to wear shameful dresses such as mini skirts that leave them appear in half naked a situation that change their physical appearance and look like sex workers before the society. It has indeed become a common practice for male youths to jeer at those ladies when come into contact with and tend to touch parts of their bodies and make some annoying remarks, utter abusive words and sometimes when they show resistance threatens an attack. In response, the scornful ladies feel afraid and rather ashamed of such an arbitrary action and tend to run away unable to mount a counter attack against their adversaries due to their lower physical advantage and instead resort to hide from their sight far from being ridiculed. Sources from the scene have revealed that, male youths normally practices such mischief while under the influence of the intoxicating drug use, a situation which ultimately drives them into severe extreme emotion, others practices the habit while in sober mood as long as they take a practice as a normal drama. Investigations by this paper has discovered that, a temporary encroachment caused by petty traders within the bus stand which occurs as from the evening till night hours has been an exacerbating factor causing misery among women including young ladies who visit such areas with a view to acquire transport services or buy materials for personal use. Further investigations reveals that, scorers of rowdy young men pretends to be petty traders, sometimes could be seen touting for the products on sale while inviting potential customers in their unique style uses the opportunity to make fun of the ladies who passes along them. They get hold of their breasts, touching their arms and waists and without their consent are sometimes pulled forcefully as a sign of inviting them to buy their products, but ironically all this is done on pretence as though to inconvenience the presence of ladies around them, narrates Lucia Patrick in an exclusive interview when cornered by this writer early this week in Dar es Salaam. Lucia, who owns a salon nearby said that, she has since refrained from walking alone when going to buy things within the bus stand for what she claims to be a disturbance she used to experience while confronted by petty traders. She says most ladies used to walk around in company of few men in order to protect themselves from such harassments. Narrating the ordeal, Halima Mrisho a 21 year old lady became surprised one Friday evening as she was at the stage waiting to board a daladala, as a tall and black gay man grabbed her ass, she was so startled that she glared at him and walked away. Mwenge daladala bus stand has of recent discovered to have no longer enough space to accommodate as many passengers as the area has been invaded by petty traders known as ‘Machingas’.

The Kinondoni Municipal Mayor Hon. Yusufu Mwenda addressing municipal councillors in one of their internal meetings

The area becomes so congested and rather impassable to would be buyers who mixes up with commuters most of whom women who are inconvenienced whenever they visit the area to buy the most cheaply selling commodities. Plans by Kinondoni Municipal Council of removing petty traders from the area seem to have hit a snag despite of the promise by the Municipal Mayor Hon. Yusufu Mwenda which he gave earlier in March this year to look for an alternative solution of relocating them in a permanent area, but seemingly no action has been taken so far. When contacted for comments, police officer in charge at Mwenge police post who preferred anonymity told this paper in an interview that, most victims who are subjected to such sexual harassments are afraid of reporting such malpractices before the police as many of them are not well dressed, and therefore, might be ashamed to do so. “You know there are so many cases of sexual harassments against ladies, but here at a police post we mostly deal with criminal cases and such matters are not reported as mostly affected victims are afraid to expose themselves while they know are in a shameful dress:” he said. The police officer at the police post was contacted with a view to find out the truth about the matter to see if there has been any reporting of such incidences by the victims at their police station. Jehovaness Zacharia a lawyer working for the Women and Legal Aid Centre (WLAC) says that in her experience, many women do not report sexual harassment cases because most of the time the police are not helpful. She also says that there is a lot of stigma surrounding sexual harassment and women are not empowered enough to report the cases as they arise. “Sexual harassment is a criminal offence, and women are supposed to report it once attacked,” she urges. According to one report entitled ‘Stopping abuse of power for purposes of sexual exploitation’ a program of the Tanzania Women Judges Association (TAWJA) describes sexual harassment as a criminal offence as stipulated in the Tanzania’s criminal procedure code. The report notes that the specific Criminal Code offence of "criminal harassment" was only created in 1993. In the past, the police would charge a person with an offence like trespassing at night, loitering or uttering threats. These crimes still exist and may still be charged. However, since 1993 the police force in the country usually addresses this type of conduct through a charge of criminal harassment. Criminal Harassment legislation is a response to the increasing violence against women, especially women leaving a marriage or intimate relationship. As the society continues to complain about the harassments caused to women on streets and other public areas, some social studies have revealed that, there are a number of ladies who during at night hours tend to roam about on the streets looking for men in order to make them to be their friends. According to Emmanuel Shemaghembe, a social anthropologist at the University of Dar es Salaam, women who dress indecently and in defiance of socio-cultural norms are more likely to be harassed, especially in close quarters like at a bus stage, or like in public areas and in daladalas. The social anthropologist says the problem of sexual harassment is rooted in the importation of Western culture that many conservative Tanzanians are yet to adopt. “Sometimes women dress in a manner that causes men to react inappropriately,” he says. “Obviously, harassing a woman based on the way she is dressed is not the right way to address the situation. “This is because for a long time the existing tradition in Tanzania has made them believe that those who wear revealing clothes are immoral. But if a European wears the same clothing no one cares because we know that that is their culture,” he says.