Sexual harassment of higher education female students in Afghanistan: A case study

This study investigates what behaviours female students considered harassing and to what extent they experienced them. It also explores perpetrators and locations of harassment, effects on students, coping strategies, and reasons for not reporting harassment. A questionnaire was used to collect data from 317 female students at Takhar University. The findings showed that female students experienced a wide range of harassing acts to varying extent. A stranger, taxi driver and students other than classmates were reported to be the most frequent harassers. Female students were frequently harassed on online platforms, corridors, walkways and on the way to and from university. Harassment had a variety of effects on female students, and they used passive and self-centred strategies (e.g., intentionally wearing dresses thought to draw less attention of perpetrators) to deal with harassment. Moreover, they did not report their harassment experiences for various reasons. The study suggests revisiting the existing policy on harassment and prescribing sanctions against perpetrators.