Working women are facing different types of sexual discrimination at work, such as being paid unequally against doing the same job as men do, but based on the official announcement of International Labor Office (ILO), sexual harassment is the most prevalent sexual discrimination at work. This is a fact which cannot be denied.
Sexual harassment at work includes any kinds of sexual behavior which is not welcome and can desecrate women at work. These behaviors include a vast category, namely 1. Physical harassment (from not keeping the appropriate distance to assault and rape). 2. Verbal harassment: (like making sexual and offensive jokes). 3. Non-verbal harassment (like leering at someone) which can be done by a manager, client or colleague.
Taking the above mentioned points into the consideration, sexual harassment against women at work can be divided into direct harassment (like being threatened to get fired or degraded by the employer in case they deter having affairs with him), and indirect harassment (like having too much sexual talking and behavior at work which can make women feel funny and unsecure.
Of course the degree of this type of violence can be different based on some criterion such as whether the sector is governmental or private, social and economic background of women and women’s level of education. For example, small workshops with the population of less than ten people, which based on article 191 are not subject to this rule, can provide the situation for sexual harassment against working women. Although based on Iranian rules sexual harassment at work is not mentioned as a crime, it seems that imposing some rules and doing some fundamental and serious modifications in rules are among the important responsibilities of governors in creating security for making opportunity for women but they are not the only way to cope with this problem. Along with that it is the civil society that can make people sensitive through making this violence public and training the women to cope with that, as well as training through the media and having workshops. These actions can be done along with the endeavors in imposing new rules and creating the culture to cope with this problem. Besides, in long term some inappropriate rules should be modified like patriarchy. Because even the most developed rules in this area cannot be efficient as far as women reprimand themselves for being put in that situation and avoid suing those offenders just because of being afraid of losing their face in public.

• Golnaz Firouzi | Attorney