Saudi Gazette report RIYADH – A recent survey issued by the Public Opinion Survey Unit of the King Abdul Aziz National Dialogue Center attributed the reasons for cases of sexual harassment in Saudi society to weak religious deterrent by those who carry out such acts. This is apart from not expediting implementing stringent penalties against the harassers, Al-Riyadh daily reported. The study, whose results the center disclosed recently, revealed that 91 percent of participants believed that a weak religious deterrent is one of the major reasons for sexual harassment in society, while 76 percent said a lack of regulations on harassment leads to an increase in such cases.
Sexual harassment was defined in the study as any intentional action, conduct, word or deed that the person is aware of and is carried out aurally, visually or physically to reach sexual arousal. The center said the issue of sexual harassment has received ample attention from the media in the Kingdom and highlighted the disturbing trend of sexual harassment turning into violence and outright physical assault. The phenomenon has numerous negative effects on members of society and if allowed to spread, can lead to the appearance of other forms of violence and the break down of dialogue between members of the opposite sex. The study included 992 people – men and women – representing a random sample that included age, gender, and geographical location of citizens from all 13 regions of the Kingdom. The percentage of male participants in the study was 47.7 percent while that of females hit 52.3 percent. The study showed that Saudi society overwhelmingly holds the weaknesses in the mechanism for implementing penalties, directly responsible for the increase in sexual harassment cases, especially with the nonexistence of a clear Shariah text that specifies the exact punishment for each case. As for the opinion that “non-implementation of the regulations led to sexual harassment”, supporters of this view was 80.8 percent while 12.8 percent did not support it. Also, 80 percent of male and female participants in the study believe that the weakness of social responsibility towards members of the society and towards one another contributed greatly to the rise of sexual harassment. The results of the study showed that 75.2 percent of Saudi nationals view weak efforts to educate the general public on suitable conduct to play a big role in the appearance of harassment cases. This is clear in the unavailability of signboards in public places such as markets and parks that educate people on bad conduct, regulations related to others' rights or conduct in public and discretionary penalties for violators.
