A survey conducted by the Human Rights Commission in the Eastern Province has revealed that 17.4 percent of the verbal and physical harassment of children comes from close relatives of the victims. The statistics were issued during a meeting at the weekend at the Women's Bureau affiliated to Prince Muhammad Bin Fahd's Youth Development Program here that was attended by mothers and female teachers. Amal Al-Dowkhi, a social expert working with the Eastern Province branch of the HRC, stated that the survey included a random sample of educated individuals over 20 years of age. The survey showed that 32 percent of participants stated that they had been subjected to harassment whereas 68 percent had never experienced any kind of harassment. “There has been a noticeable proportion of harassment in our society carried out by family members, and harassment carried out by close relatives is far more destructive than harassment carried out by strangers because it lowers human value as the person from whom the child expects protection and security is the one who harassed him/her,” Al-Dowkhi said. The social expert reviewed a number of cases the HRC in Dammam had come across and stated that many victims refuse to admit that they have been subjected to harassment and refuse to reveal the perpetrator's identity out of fear of being accused of lying and fabricating stories. She ascribed this fear to the general social tendency not to believe such stories. “Our society tends to hide such issues and does not want to highlight them,” she said.
