Lecture # 18 Eve Teasing in Bangladesh

Presented byAbul Kalam Azad

Senior Lecturer in GEDNorthern University Bangladesh

Email: kalamadd@gmail.com

Objectives

1. To Define Eve Teasing; 2. To Discuss the Root Causes of Eve

Teasing; and3. To Discuss the Remedies of Eve

Teasing.

1. Eve Teasing Defined• Simply, eve teasing is that act by

‘Adam’ excites and sexually harasses ‘Eve’. According to the description of Old Testament, ‘eve’ is Adam’s wife and the first woman & mother of the human race. So, teasing a woman/ female is called 'eve teasing'.

• Broadly speaking, eve teasing is a euphemism for sexual harassment or molestation of women in public places. It is an appalling act that imparts humiliation, panic, repulsion and helplessness in the victim.

• Mode of Eve Teasing: An offensive watch, a sly whistle, a well-timed clap, an unwarranted knock, a seemingly casual touch, a lasting look at a helpless time, suggestive song with closed lips, slang comments, cheap gestures, the display of an indecent video, passing by in slow moving cars blasting loud music with many eyes….all these are typical examples of eve teasing.

2. Causes of Eve TeasingQ:1Who are teasers?1.Who come of Broken Family2.Deviated from social values and norms3.Who are associated with Evil Peer Groups4.Who have the lack in religious & moral education5.Most of the teasers are illiterate6.Socially Frustrated7.Drug users8.Who are failure in love9.Who don’t know formal behavior

Q: 2 Who are the victim of teasing?1.Who wear/ doesn’t Short/ Tight/ Thin dress including Shirt, Pant, Jeans etc.2.Who Take/ doesn’t take beautification tips such as bright lipstick, multi-colored makeup, brew pluck, stylish hair cutting etc. 3.Who are quite beautiful / not4.Who refuse the proposal of love/ not

Q: 3 Where is the Place of Eve Teasing?

• Eve teasing is a common incident, be it in buses, shopping malls, cinema halls,, near women's colleges, restaurants, auto/bus-terminals, railway booking counters and every other conceivable place; but the one place where it happens with alarming frequency is on the road.

• So, it may said that in most of the cases eve teasing is caused by illiterate, semi-literate or literate persons having no moral & religious education.

Q: 4 How Does Individual Behave?

• Unsocial/ uncultured man who may be considered as animal behaves in this way:

S R

• But social & cultured man who have already overcome animal character behave in this way:

S RC

Q: 5 How Does Individual Become deviant (e.g., eve teaser)/ immoral/ moral?

• To answer to the question, there are some significant sociological theories:

I. Looking Glass Self by Charles Horton Cooley;

II. Generalized Other by George Herbert Mead;

III. Sutherland’s Differential Association Theory;

IV. Ogburn & Nimkoff’s Cultural Lag Hypotheses

V. Anthony Giddens’s Agency-Structure Theory

•

I) Looking Glass Self by Cooley

Glass (mirror): Social Agents e.g., family, peer group, educational institution, mass media etc.

Self (consciousness/ imagination of one’s own identity)

System of Looking Glass

Moral Glass (mirror): Moral Social Agents e.g., family, peer group, educational institution, mass media etc.

Development of Moral Self

Immoral Glass: Immoral Social Agents e.g., family, peer group, educational institution, mass media etc.

Development of Immoral Self

Conclusion: Since eve teasing is an act of immoral self, it is caused by immoral agents.

II) George Herbert Mead’s Theory of Generalized Other

Generalized Other (viewpoints, attitudes, and expectations of society as a whole)

Self

‘I’ ‘Me’

Self

‘I’1. Seeks Immediate

response2. Unpredictable3. Incalculable4. Inner &

Subjective5. Wishes to have

free expression

‘Me’1. Adoption of the

generalized other

2. Conventional3. Habitual

individual4. Dominates ‘I’

Bad Companion (Shongo Dosh)

Deviant Behavior e.g., eve teasing

III) Sutherland’s Differential Association Theory

IV) Ogburn & Nimkoff’s Cultural Lag Hypotheses

Maladjustment between Material & Nonmaterial Culture

Deviant Behavior e.g., Eve Teasing

Gap Between Adopting Material & Non-material Culture in BD

Causes of Eve of Teasing

Structural problems

Problems of Agency

By e

nab

ling

&

con

stra

inin

g

V) Anthony Giddens’s Structure- Agency

Causes of Eve Teasing

Structural problems:Neither Open system nor Closed System but the Admixture of Both, Cultural lag (Adoption of material culture i.e., technology but less advance in adopting nonmaterial culture i.e., attitudes, behavior, beliefs etc.) Lack of Good Governance, Lack of implementation of rule of law, Lack of enough monitoring Cell, Lack of proper penal system, Lack of accessibility of young correction centers, Lack of rigid law, Capitalism uses women as commodity

Problems of Agency & AgentsLack of Moral Values & Religious Education by different agents like family, Peer Groups and Mass Media, Frustration, Psychological problem, Negative impact of Cell Phone, Failure in love.

By enabling &

constraining

Q: 6 Why is eve teasing absent in Europe & Arab but present in BD, India & Pakistan?

European Society: Open System

Arabian Society: Closed System

Indian Subcontinent: Admixture of both Open & Closed System, No Distinctive Existence

•Open system: means freedom of individual behavior but Closed system: means structural dominance on the individual

Remedies of Eve Teasing1. Social agents like family, peer groups,

educational institutions and mass media must be amended;

2. Religious and moral education should be ensured;

3. Those who are frustrated/ drug addicted should be corrected under probation centre/ adolescent correction centre;

4. Proper socialization should be ensured;5. Structural problems as mentioned before

should be eliminated;6. Dilemma of social system should be removed

but a unique one be continued; and7. Men should treat the eves as their own

mother or sisters.