Pressat

Sexual Harassment of Women

Monday 6 November, 2017

The sexual harassment of women has again hit the news. It
is being treated as if it were a new phenomenon, yet the fact is that the
sexual harassment of women by men, and — though given less recognition until
recently — of men by men, has been going on since ancient times. This is why
Islam has set clear boundaries which cannot be crossed. Islam did not put the
whole burden of responsibility on women, but included men in it as well. The
Holy Prophet Muhammad (s) told men: “Be chaste yourselves, and women will be chaste as well”. These
boundaries place the responsibility on each individual, as illustrated by the
following incident from the life of the Holy Prophet (s).

The Holy Quran also commends “the men who guard their
chastity and the women who guard” (33:35). This means that men and women
are each responsible for avoiding sexual harassment by the other. In Islam, it
is simple: there are clear boundaries. There is to be no physical contact or
so-called ‘banter’ between the two. The conversation is to be professional.
Anything else simply causes confusion and leads to the situation we find
ourselves in. It is not enough to provide a procedure for complaint because
by then the psychological damage to the victim has been done.

The
Ahmadiyya Association for the Propagation of Islam (Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam) was
established in Lahore in 1914 to promote the informed understanding of Islam in
the West. In the UK it operated the Shah Jehan Mosque in Woking until the early 1960s. Its new headquarters is at Dar-us-Salaam,
15 Stanley Avenue, Wembley, HA0 4JQ, UK. In 1924, in Berlin, it built the
first mosque in Continental Europe of the modern era. The Berlin Mosque is now recognised by the German government as part of the German national
heritage. From its European and other centres around the world this
organisation has taught that Islam promotes peace, harmony and mutual respect
between all communities and nationalities.



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