Suffering in Silence: The Resilience of Pakistan’s Female Journalists to Combat Sexual Harassment, Threats and Discrimination

ABSTRACT

Pakistan’s journalists confront severe safety risks across the country and impunity to crimes against them allows the perpetrators to go unpunished. Now the country is recognized as one of the deadliest places for working journalists in the world. Given this situation, the Pakistani female journalists are more vulnerable because they are not only prone to safety risks and sexual harassment, but also they face gender discrimination when it comes to their recruitment and equal pay-scale. In the past decade, there has been an alarming increase in attacks on female journalists and incidents of their sexual harassment in Pakistan. Notwithstanding the growing plague of sexual harassment and gender discrimination in the country, the resilience of female journalists to work within a threatening and prejudiced environment has not yet fully explored and analysed. Therefore, drawing on the postcolonial feminist theory, this study aims to investigate the Pakistani female journalists’ lived experiences of sexual harassment, threats and discrimination. The study also analyses the impacts of sexual harassment, threats and gender discrimination on the country’s female journalists. To achieve the aforementioned aims, this study uses the qualitative methods of in-depth interviews and focus groups discussion, and offers a thematic analysis of qualitative data.

KEYWORDS:

• Sexual harassment
• threats
• gender discrimination
• resilience level
• the Pakistani female journalists

Acknowledgements

I am very grateful to the guest editors of this special edition and both reviewers for providing their constructive feedbacks, which were very useful to revise this article. I am also grateful to the editor of Journalism Practice, Bonnie Brennen, for her guidance to complete the submission of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

ORCID

Sadia Jamil http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0524-7355

Notes

1 “Sexual harassment is defined by law and includes requests for sexual favors, sexual advances or other sexual conduct when (1) submission is either explicitly or implicitly a condition affecting academic or employment decisions; (2) the behaviour is sufficiently severe or pervasive as to create an intimidating, hostile or repugnant environment; or (3) the behaviour persists despite objection by the person to whom the conduct is directed.” https://www.un.org/womenwatch/uncoordination/antiharassment.html

2 “Discrimination is any unfair treatment or arbitrary distinction based on a person’s race, sex, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, age, language, social origin or other status. Discrimination may be an isolated event affecting one person or a group of persons similarly situated, or may manifest itself through harassment or abuse of authority.” https://www.un.org/womenwatch/uncoordination/antiharassment.html

3 Purposive sampling refers to the “selection of certain groups or individuals for their relevance to the issue being studied” (Gray et al. 2007, 105). The rationale for using purposive sampling, in this study, is to ensure the representation of male and female journalists from Pakistan’s most influential Urdu and English-languages’ newspapers and television news channels.

4 “Depression, in psychology, a mood or emotional state that is marked by feelings of low self-worth or guilt and a reduced ability to enjoy life. A person who is depressed usually experiences several of the following symptoms: feelings of sadness, hopelessness, or pessimism; lowered self-esteem and heightened self-depreciation; a decrease or loss of ability to take pleasure in ordinary activities; reduced energy and vitality; slowness of thought or action; loss of appetite; and disturbed sleep or insomnia” (Encyclopedia Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/science/depression-psychology).

5 See laws details at: http://stopharassmentnow.org/women-sexual-harassment-laws-pakistan/

6 By definition, stress is any uncomfortable "emotional experience accompanied by predictable biochemical, physiological and behavioral changes" (Baum 1990)