8 Reasons Why Women Are Afraid To Report About Sexual Harassment And Assault

We live in a country where the crimes against women are increasing day by day. And with each passing day these criminals are achieving a new low, their crimes are becoming more and more sickening, they don’t even spare little girls or elderly women. This makes women and girls feel unsafe everywhere and every day. Alas, it goes way beyond that. Women live in the fear of not just being attacked or abused but also that they might not get the help they need if anything wrong happens to them.

Many cases of sexual harassment, assault and rape go unreported because most of the victims are still afraid to step in the light and report the horrible people behind these heinous and disgusting crimes. So the big question here is why. Well, here are 8 common reasons behind this problem. 

8 Reasons Why Women Are Still Afraid To Report Sexual Harassment And Assault

1. The Associated Shame  

We all know how easily a woman, who is the victim, is blamed for anything nefarious that happens to them. The accused person does everything in his/her power to defame the victim, they will question the victim’s character and put her through a trial much like an agnipariksha to prove her ‘pure’ character. Above all this, they are subjected to shame and scrutiny by society for being subjected to this crime, which is completely absurd. She is punished for something she didn’t do. This associated shame is one of the major reasons why women are not able to take that step and let the world know how they suffered.

2. The Fear Of Retaliation 

We have heard cases where the victim if reported the people responsible for her physical harassment have to further face mental and emotional harassment also. In some cases, her family members are harmed or even killed. This makes it a better option for her to hide her pain and move on with life without getting any kind of justice, just to protect herself and her family from further damage or harm of any kind. This sad reality is what stops many women from speaking up.

3. The Risk Of Being Judged And Blamed

The most common fear is being blamed for what happened to them. “Why were they out late at night?”, ” Why did she wear that dress?”, ” Why did she not report before?”. These are some examples of how a woman is blamed for what happened to them. The root cause of this problem is the societal attitude of acceptance that “boys will be boys” and hence cannot control themselves. Therefore it is the responsibility of the woman ensure that they don’t excite the boys. If she fails in doing this, if she fails in protecting herself then the only one to blame is the woman herself. This attitude of blaming the victim leaves them with no choice but to shut their mouths and hold their tears.

4. The Fear Of Being Socially Ostracised

A woman who has been raped or sexually assaulted is considered as ‘damaged goods’, they are treated like they did something wrong. The crime they survived becomes what defines them and being sexually assaulted or raped becomes an adjective for them. Therefore they are usually cast aside and socially ostracized. This is because of the crazy thinking of the society where a woman should be a virgin and untouched, only then she is a worthy woman. So many women, to protect themselves and to hold onto the title of being pure, stop themselves from reporting such crimes.

5. The Need To ‘Move On’ With Life

If a woman reports the crime then she will forever be labelled as the one who was sexually assaulted or raped. Moving on from the horrific incident will become an almost impossible task for her because she will be reminded of it in every possible situation. So many women don’t report it for their sanity and in the hope to move on from it. 

6. The Silence Brought By Trauma 

After these crimes, a woman is extremely traumatized by it and hence usually closes up and falls silent. After the incident, they face psychological hurt and don’t know how to lead their life normally as before. Their silence has many reasons like constantly being afraid, not revisiting the incident by talking about it or just because of the fear that no one will believe them. Many women choose silence as their cocoon to hide what happened to them from the world and even themselves.

7. The Uncertainty About Laws

Most women are unaware of the laws present to help them in these situations. This is because of the low literacy rate in women, low propagation of these laws by the agencies responsible and also that most of the women don’t expect that anything like this will happen to them and therefore don’t brush up on the laws. Also that if they do know about them, the implementation of the laws is very different from the theory. This further adds to the uncertainty of the laws which leads to women, if in the know, being sceptical about them.

8. The Fear That Nobody Would Believe Them

This fear is the most relevant reason for not speaking up. In these cases usually, there is not a lot of proof present and hence it is mostly very difficult to prove the crime with complete certainty. This creates a sense of insecurity in women that no one will believe them because of various reasons like the perpetrator being a public figure or powerful person, etc. This is a major hurdle for even women who want to speak up. This fear, however, silences more women than any other reason. 

Also Read: Malayalam Actresses Sexually Assaulted At A Mall During Movie Promotions. Women Can’t Let Their Guards Down Even With Guards Around!

This fear is what many people prey upon. They trust your fear to stop you from letting the world know what kind of a person they are and what kind of things they have done. We need to overcome these fears because all of them are based upon absurd notions of society. We, the women, need to come together and support each other because if we don’t stand up now there will soon be a time when there will be no justice left for the women of the world. We need to stop waiting for another major case to wake us up to this horrible reality. We need to start speaking up to every inappropriate touch in the metro, countering every lewd, suggestive comment by co-workers, and supporting every woman who has been wronged. 

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