melika969 wrote:adding to what event horizon explained, I am going to ask you other question dee. you mentioned that this problem roots in the society, so in your mind what does make society? One very important part of society is of course the religion. And it is interesting how in countries like Egypt and Iran, which the religion interferes in every aspect of people's life, the rate of harrasment is higher than other countries.
Hi Mel. I thought my last post was self-explanatory but I will break down/rephrase what I mean. You need to consider every factor in each country you discuss before deciding on the one to blame. For example Iran and Egypt:
Religion: Both are predominantly Muslim countries so religion (Islam) is a candidate for blame. However the problems with this logic include:
1- Egypt has a large Coptic population which behaves identically. This leaves us with the possibility that blame might rest with religion in general and not a specific faith.
2- As I have stated, the more OPENLY religious the man, the less inclined he is to harassment. Whether this is because of a true ethical code or simply hypocrisy to maintain appearances; does not matter in an analysis of cause and effect. For the sake of this argument no one cares about intention.
3- Malaysia is a predominantly Muslim country. However, it has significantly lower rates of harassment when compared with Iran or Egypt or Pakistan. That rules out the possibility of Islam. So you probably should analyse the other differences between Malaysia and the aforementioned countries. Possibilities would include literacy rates, income levels, pollution, psychological well-being, etc. Not all of these may be factors but some probably are.
4- The incidence of petty crimes like mugging and general acts of vandalism/corruption seem to coincide with these rates of harassment. Therefore, this discussion does not solely address an issue with harassment or even with women; it encompasses most forms of petty misbehavior. Even with this bigger picture, the cause of religion is negated because the example of countries like Malaysia still stands with all these forms of mass misdemeanor.
5- There are many religions whose most obvious personnel (clergy/immams....) have been found guilty of secretive sexual crimes. But how many such persons have you heard of who commit public harassment? It would have to be a mentally challenged member of these professions who would so openly risk his reputation regardless of whether he is a good or bad human being. Most of the harassment that occurs in Egypt is on the street and as I mentioned is not directly physical. Again, it does not correlate well to religious adherence.
You could take the above analysis and do a similar one for factors like poverty, lack of education, bribery, general corruption, political dissatisfaction and so on. Basically you could form a list of indicators and look for the strongest possible correlation and identify a single or a plethora of indicators that work for this phenomenon. This is actually the scientifically correct way of doing any form of quantitative analysis of a qualitative datum such as this. Let's be honest, hell will freeze over before any of us bother to do that even if we knew how to. I don't know if you trust what I am post (probably not) but I believe you will find much more concrete correlations with the factors listed above when compared to religion. Not only will you find that countries with high rates in those factors have higher harassment rates, I believe you will find that individuals suffering from the above problems are more likely to commit sexual harassment and there you will find your rationale for this crime that you find so repulsive.