FEATURE

Contextualising sexual harassment of adolescent girls in Bangladesh

Papreen Nahar,a Miranda van Reeuwijk,b Ria Reisc
a Post-doctoral Research Associate, Department of Anthropology, Durham University, Durham, UK, and Research
Associate, Institute of Health and Society, Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK.
Correspondence: papreen.nahar@durham.ac.uk
b Senior Researcher, Rutgers WPF, Utrecht, The Netherlands
c Professor, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Leiden University Medical Centre; and Associate Professor,
Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Abstract: Violence against women is a social mechanism confirming women’s subordination in many
societies. Sexual violence and harassment have various negative psychological impacts on girls, including
a persistent feeling of insecurity and loss of self-esteem. This article aims to contextualize a particular
form of sexual harassment, namely “eve teasing”, experienced by Bangladeshi adolescent girls (12–18 years)
which emerged from a study of adolescent sexual behaviour carried out by young people. The study
used qualitative methods and a participatory approach, including focus group discussions, key informant
interviews and observation. Despite taboos, unmarried adolescents actively seek information about sex,
erotic pleasure and romance. Information was easily available from videos, mobile phone clips and
pornographic magazines, but reinforced gender inequality. “Eve teasing” was one outlet for boys’ sexual
feelings; they gained pleasure from it and could show their masculinity. The girls disliked it and were
afraid of being blamed for provoking it. Thus, “eve teasing” is a result of socio-cultural norms relating
to sexuality, as well as a lack of access to sexual and reproductive health information and services in
Bangladesh. These findings underscore the importance of comprehensive sexuality education that goes
beyond a mere health focus and addresses gender norms and helps youth to gain social-sexual
interaction skills. © 2013 Reproductive Health Matters

Keywords: adolescents, sexual harassment, gender discrimination, sexuality education, Bangladesh

In 2009 a team of four Bangladeshi boys and
four Bangladeshi girls (17–23 years old) were
trained as co-researchers to collect data among ado-
lescents on their experiences, needs and concerns
in relation to their sexuality and how these realities
(mis-)matched their access to sexuality information
and sexual and reproductive health services.
The focus group discussions and interviews
revealed that among the key concerns most
mentioned by the adolescent girls was the expe-
rience of sexual harassment in public places,
commonly named and culturally constructed as
“eve teasing”, originally an Indian-English term.
The term is widely used in South Asia to describe
the public bullying of girls and women by boys
and men, where boys intercept girls on public
transport, the street and at workplaces and shout
obscenities at them, laugh at them, force them to
talk, verbally abuse them, threaten them with
abduction, and even touch them inappropriately.1
In South Asian popular culture “eve teasing”
has been represented as a medium of commu-
nication between men and women. In Hindi films,
for example, the villain or other hero is involved
in the flirtatious beginnings of a courtship2 and
moderate sexual harassment is often treated
as being fun and romantic.3 This is particularly
problematic because of the role of Hindi films –
the most popular entertainment for young people
in the entire Indian sub-continent – in shaping
social learning, particularly for boys regarding
their interaction with girls.
The term “eve-teasing” does not capture the
seriousness of the range of behaviours it denotes,
however. Baxi2 describes it as a mechanism of
normalizing violence against women that suggests
that women are both a tease and deserve to be
teased. The Indian women’s movement was the
first to challenge this cultural perception by cate-
gorizing it unambiguously as sexual harassment.

78 Contents online: www.rhm-elsevier.com Doi: 10.1016/S0968-8080(13)41696-8

 P Nahar et al. Reproductive Health Matters 2013;21(41):78–86
Historically, “eve teasing” was first documented
by Indian women at the beginning of the post-
colonial period, when they started joining the
public sphere for employment and socializing.2
In Bangladesh the practice probably followed
similar dynamics since 1980, with free girls’ edu-
cation, women’s participation in the garment
industry and in the NGO innovation workforce,
e.g. in health, education and other development
activities.4 Whereas girls’ education is reported
to correlate with improvements in health out-
comes and with women’s overall empowerment
and mobility, certain types of gender discrimina-
tion have persisted, such as unequal pay, early
forced marriage and gender-based violence.5,6
Mobility of women and girls is much more
common today; nonetheless, only 49% of older
women and 38% of younger women feel safe
going out within their own neighborhood.5 In fact,
“eve teasing” of girls walking to school or using
public transport is considered to be one of the
major causes of dropout from school and also
of early marriage of girls in Bangladesh.7
In the mid-1990s, the feminist movement
achieved a new law in India related to sexual
harassment that included “eve teasing”.8,9 Since
2010, “eve teasing” has also been a crime in
Bangladesh and subject to punishment by the
Bangladesh state authority. The incidence increased
so rapidly that the government decided to employ
mobile courts to prosecute people accused of
sexually harassing women. Anyone convicted of
sexual harassment or stalking of women can face
fines from 7000 Taka (US$70) and up to a year in
jail. The media periodically covers cases when
men are caught and sentenced, especially the
more violent cases. Some social movements, e.g.
music concerts, are devoted to protest against vio-
lence against women, “eve teasing” in particular.
In this article, we abide with a definition of
“eve teasing” that has the absence of consent at
its core, thus, sexual behaviour lacking respect
for the other person, which can be hurtful. Unlike
rape, “eve-teasing” belongs to a grey area of
sexual violence that comprises less explicit non-
consensual sexual behaviour or expressions that
violate sexual autonomy, which may be considered
“normal” under dominant sociocultural norms.10
Local news media say that “eve teasing” is on
the rise in Bangladesh and links are made between
it and other forms of sexual harassment and vio-
lence and their consequences, such as abduction,
acid burning, murder and suicide.5,11–16 In 2010,
28 girls/women committed suicide in Bangladesh,
and another seven attempted suicide, in order to
escape frequent sexual harassment.4 As many as
90% of Bangladeshi girls aged 10–18 years are
thought to have experienced “eve teasing”.14,17
This article focuses on how adolescent girls in
Bangladesh (12–18 years) experience “eve teasing”
and what meanings they attach to it, and ado-
lescent boys’ views on and explanations for “eve
teasing” girls. We will argue that “eve teasing”
derives from harmful sociocultural norms relating
to sexuality and gender. We will look into what
the data and insights mean for the promotion of
adolescent sexual and reproductive health and
rights in Bangladesh, in terms of sexuality educa-
tion, service provision, and social change.
Methodology
The co-researchers were selected from a group of
peer educators active as volunteers for the youth
programme of the Family Planning Association of
Bangladesh (FPAB) to become co-researchers in a
participatory research project entitled “Do They
Match?”.18 They collected data on adolescents’
experiences, needs and concerns in relation to
their sexuality and whether their access to sexuality
information and services met their needs. The
research was carried out through a youth pro-
gramme run by FPAB in Jessore, a city in the
northwest of Bangladesh. The young researchers
came from four different districts where FPAB is
working (including Jessore) and were selected on
the basis of their performance as peer educators
and their letters of motivation. All were graduate
students and unmarried. They underwent an inten-
sive two-week qualitative research skills training,
and the research plan and interview questions
were developed with them.
With the support of FPAB and the first author,
the research team collected qualitative data in
28 focus group discussions (FGDs) with 237 unmar-
ried boys and girls; 48 in-depth interviews, with
6 health service providers, 11 adults, 15 girls
and 16 boys; two panel discussions with stake-
holders, consisting of community leaders, parents,
school teachers, health clinic personnel and staff
members of the Family Planning Association of
Bangladesh; and observations at a youth-friendly
service centre, two street locations where street
canvassers were selling traditional medicines for
sexuality problems, two public parks and two
cyber cafes that adolescents indicated were dating
79
P Nahar et al. Reproductive Health Matters 2013;21(41):78–86
places. Adolescent informants (12–18 years) were
selected from various socio-economic backgrounds
within Jessore municipality and included: urban
boys and girls from state and Islamic schools
and colleges (Madrasa), slum dwellers, orphans,
adolescent sex workers, visitors to youth-friendly
services and adolescents from rural areas around
Jessore town. FGD’s were held with boys and girls
separately divided into age groups of 12–15 years
and 16–18 years.
Data analysis was carried out with open and
axial coding. In addition, a content analysis was
done of questions raised by adolescents in the
question box of the youth centre and of sources
of information on sexuality that young respondents
mentioned, including local music, magazines, joke
videos, CDs, films and information downloaded
onto mobile phones. Data were presented and dis-
cussed with a panel of community stakeholders
and FPAB staff members, to gain their views, verify
preliminary conclusions and formulate recommen-
dations for interventions. Further details on process
and outcomes are described in another paper from
this study.19 Final data analysis and reporting
were done by the first author, with in-depth input
from the youth research team.
During the training and research process the
young researchers gained experience and skills
and learned to probe more and reflect on how
they influenced the information they got from
their informants through the choice for questions
they asked, the way they asked the questions, the
way they interpreted the information, how they
drew conclusions and selected what was written
down. To reduce bias, they were asked to tran-
scribe their notes immediately following the
interviews, and through debriefing and reflection
sessions after every day of data collection. These
sessions also served to discuss how the data
should be understood and interpreted and to
get consensus on preliminary conclusions.
Talking about sexuality is challenging; infor-
mants were shy to disclose very personal feelings
and experiences in the FGDs, and mostly referred
to experiences of their friends or cousins, not
their own. This did not hamper the research, as
we were interested in general patterns of sexual
reality among the adolescents. However, data
from FGDs tend to be normative and were there-
fore triangulated as much as possible with the
data from the other sources. At a later stage of
the project we also developed eight hypothetical
cases, separately for boys and girls, based on the
80
findings up to that point, which were presented
to youth centre visitors to obtain their opinions
(for more details19 ).
We were unable to explore sexuality issues
among rural illiterate young people, patterns of
rural commercial sex, or views of rural parents
and rural religious leaders. Also, not enough
exploration was done into the experiences of
orphans and slum girls, which would have pro-
vided a more comprehensive insight into differ-
ences between these groups of young people.
Findings
The study reveals differential social position of
boys and girls. It shows that if girls do not abide
by strict norms pertaining to their sexual behaviour,
they risk strong social stigma (much more than
boys), reduce their chance of finding a suitable
marital partner and risk their families having to
pay a higher dowry. This leads many girls to guard
their virginity. Social regulation of premarital sexu-
ality is imposed mainly on girls, limiting their
mobility and restricting their social interaction
with boys. It is also taboo for adults and children
to discuss sexuality with each other. Gender seg-
regation and the taboos surrounding sexuality
make it difficult to offer sexuality education
and services to unmarried people in Bangladesh.
Seeking sexual pleasure and materials on sex
Despite taboos and norms, however, unmarried
adolescents actively seek ways to find erotic
pleasure and romance. Mostly boys but also girls
talk about romance and sex with their friends,
older cousins and/or in-laws. Those who have
access to computers (at home or at a cyber cafe),
look for information and pornographic material
on the internet and through other media. Mobile
phones were widely used by boys for watching
pornographic clips seven minutes long, which
cost only three taka (US$ 0.04) from mobile
phone shops. They also downloaded pornography
from friends’ mobiles through Bluetooth for free
and had access to local erotic music, joke videos
and uncensored clips from movies with erotic
scenes. Cheaply printed magazines with erotic pic-
tures and texts were also popular, again mainly
among boys. Only a few girls said they got involved
in erotic conversations on their mobile phones
late at night with boys. Boys mentioned mas-
turbation as a way of getting sexual pleasure.
 P Nahar et al. Reproductive Health Matters 2013;21(41):78–86
None of the girls admitted to this, the main
reason being that they feared losing their vir-
ginity if they masturbated.
Boys and girls both liked to watch romantic
movies (both Bengali and Hindi) and some
engaged in romantic relationships without sexual
intercourse. Boys and girls who were involved in
a romantic relationship mentioned that it was
not easy for them to meet in a public place or hang
out together, as they were afraid of being caught
by family members, neighbours or relatives. The
only public place in which high school and college
boys and girls could meet was a park, usually
during or after school or college as the girls were
not allowed to be out after dark. Urban respon-
dents also mentioned rickshaws, cyber cafés,
cinema halls, friends’ or relatives’ houses and class-
rooms (after class) as places to meet up. The rural
boys and girls mentioned bushes (ara, bash-zhaar),
jute/sugarcane/paddy fields and bamboo gardens
as their dating places. Only some boys admitted
sexual activity; among the latter some admitted
that they had gone to sex workers, or had even
got involved in rape. Interviews with service pro-
viders confirmed that non-married adolescents,
including girls, come for services such as abortion,
and (emergency) contraception, despite the bar-
riers. Thus, strict norms do not always lead to
abstinence but rather to discretion and secrecy.
Access to publications about sex
Young people satisfied their curiosity regarding
sex and sexuality, through many sources of infor-
mation. One of the popular sources were erotic
books, commonly known as choti boi, story books
with erotic pictures where the characters get
involved in sexual acts every now and then and
the author gives a graphic description of them,
including extramarital sex and incest. Curiously,
in a society where sex outside marriage is con-
sidered to be an offence, during our data collec-
tion no book was found where the sexual relations
of married couples were described; rather, those
between stepmother and son, siblings, uncle/aunty,
niece/nephew or friends were prominent. These
books contained unrealistic and false information
regarding the size of the penis, duration of inter-
course and some sexual actions taken by the
women. On the other hand, religious life style
instruction books, commonly available in educated,
lower middle class, Muslim households, have
a chapter on prayer in relation to sex acts, officially
only targeted at married couples. In the table of
contents of these books the chapter on sex is
marked “only for adults”. As a result, even young
people who were less interested in religion were
interested to read this chapter secretly.
There were also cheaply printed Bengali maga-
zines with erotic pictures, mostly from foreign
pornographic magazines, and texts which were
popular. These were mostly available from
hawkers’ shops, set up in front of cinema halls,
local stationery shops or marketplaces. These
items were not openly displayed but kept hidden
underneath other books and magazines and sup-
plied to the customer only if asked for. In addition
to mobile phone pornography there are locally
made erotic musical and comedy videos in rural,
semi-urban and urban settings. These are made
with amateur actors unknown to the mainstream
film or music industry, though sometimes using
pictures of popular singers or actors on the cover.
Mostly, boys have access to these materials.
Usually they purchased these cheaply available
materials in turns and shared them with each
other. They kept them in hidden places at home
such as under the mattress, or inside books. Most
of the girls had access to the religious books.
Some girls admitted having access to the other
materials but said they had never bought them,
only seen from friends.
The adults we interviewed said that although
to some extent choti boi and religious books
were also available in the past, only adults
would have had access to them then. They were
unaware of the magnitude and variety of these
materials and adolescents’ access to them. More-
over, both the adolescents and adults admitted
that mobile phone and internet pornography were
unknown by most parents.
This is the consequence of it being taboo for
adults to discuss sexuality with unmarried young
people. Young boys turn to street canvassers and
herbalists (whose advice is freely available, only
purchasing a medicine costs a little) to answer
their questions and for information and help.
The information they receive from these sources
is generally incomplete and often incorrect and
leads to misconceptions, insecurities and fears,
and only reconfirms cultural ideas about gender
roles and male sexual power. Hence, when boys
and girls feel sexual desire or engage in activities
with each other to explore their sexuality or when
they seek information, eroticism, pleasure, inti-
macy and romance, they feel afraid and guilty.
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P Nahar et al. Reproductive Health Matters 2013;21(41):78–86
Adolescents’ feelings about dating
and sexuality
Boys and girls mentioned that romance and
pleasure were important to them, to their self-
esteem and to their feeling of being mature,
feminine or masculine. However, all of this must
be hidden, especially from adults. They are
afraid of stigma and punishment, especially the
girls. Adults suspect romantic relationships to be
sexual relationships. Boys and girls fear anger
from families. For girls the consequences are
worse, including restrictions on movement,
having to leave school, being expelled from an
orphanage, being forced to marry, being abused
by a future husband, bringing humiliation to
the families involved and hampering future
marriage options. If a romantic relationship does
not lead to marriage, the girl’s family might end
up paying more dowry for her.
Girls also had fears about menstruation and
of not being able to prove their virginity on their
wedding night. Boys were afraid of becoming
weak or sick because of masturbation or wet
dreams. Both sexes felt insecurity about sexual
power, sexual organs and breasts, about the
ability to perform sexually and to have children
in the future. They feared arranged and forced
marriage to someone not loved and of losing a
romantic partner of their own choice. And they
feared loss of reputation if caught doing some-
thing “bad”, and sinning against God.
“Eve teasing” from the girls’ perspective
“Eve teasing” and sexual harassment were among
the most commonly mentioned concerns relating
to sexuality by adolescents. The girls in this study
experienced frequent sexual harassment by boys
in public places, particularly erotic comments to
a girl who passes by. Most of these comments
referred to the girl’s physical appearance and
body, for example: “Look at her breasts! What’s the
size?” “Oh! Size of her buttock is 40 and breasts 36.”
“Such an awesome piece!” “Hi sexy, how did you
grow such big breasts?” “Walking, shaking.” Some-
times they would refer to the breats as a pair of
coconuts or apples. Girls would walk holding
their books to their chests. Boys would comment:
“Wish I could be that book in her hand! I could
have got closer to her breasts or heart.”
The girls said the boys would propose to start
a love relationship to a girl passing by on the
82
street, verbally or by throwing her a note, and
the boy would expect that the girl would react
to the proposal right away. If there was no
reaction or a negative reaction, the level of “eve
teasing” would intensify.
Girls said the boys would not only express
attraction through their comments but also their
distaste when they disliked a girl’s looks. For
example, they would call a thin girl shutki (dried
fish) or a tall girl logi (bamboo). When they
saw a fat girl, they would say: “Can we make use
of her?” If the girls did not respond to a boy’s
offer, the boys would say: “This girl is sour like
a green mango”. Sometimes the boys would
whistle, wink, clap, laugh loudly, sing songs
(usually vulgar), blow kisses, or act out inter-
course with body language.
When the boys made comments or tried to
touch them, most of the girls said they would pass
by silently, with lowered heads. Some girls asked
their older brothers to handle the boys. One girl
said she was very sad about this teasing and
asked her mother to make her a burkha so that
the boys would stop making comments. However,
even the girls who wore burkhas were not safe.
One of the religious school girls explained that
the boys would say: “Hi sexy, Arabian nights.”
Girls tend to get scared or upset about these
kinds of comments.
Next to verbal abuse many girls mentioned
that they had experienced physical harassment
by boys such as pinching, kicking, touching their
breasts and standing very close. Girls also knew
of cases where a boy had thrown acid over a
girl who had rejected his offer of “love”, and
about girls being kidnapped and raped for the
same reason.
None of the girls enjoyed the attention –
because the boys were “unknown” to them, it
happened in a public place, it gave them a con-
stant feeling of insecurity in public places, and
they feared being blamed for provoking it if they
reported it to anyone. Indeed, the findings from
all the focus group discussions with girls showed
that if a girl reported harassment to anyone or
if she was identified as a victim of harassment,
society, or in some cases even her family, would
blame her and humiliate her family.
“Eve teasing” from the boys’ perspective
The boys acknowledged that they engaged in
harassing girls verbally and most said also
 P Nahar et al. Reproductive Health Matters 2013;21(41):78–86
physically. Some slum boys admitted being
involved in rape; two confessed to having par-
ticipated in gang rape. Many of them admitted
that they looked for the chance to touch a girl
in crowded public places, for example at carni-
vals or festivals, cinema halls, marketplaces, or
on a bus or train. “…when the lights went off…
I pressed a girl’s breasts and buttock.”
When boys were asked why they teased/
harassed girls, most said they enjoyed it and
got pleasure from it. Some said it was to show
their masculinity in front of their peers and in
response to peer pressure. For example, one boy
said that friends told him he could demon-
strate his valour by touching a girl’s breast in
front of them. So the boy ran up to a girl and
suddenly squeezed her breast in front of his
friends on the street to prove his masculinity.
Others were fearful about punishment for “eve
teasing” girls, and did not get involved in it.
Many boys thought “eve teasing” was normal.
They thought verbal comments and touching
girls in public places were not harmful for the
girls, as they would not get pregnant, and adults
would not know about it. Some boys thought
every unmarried boy had a right to approach
every unmarried girl on the street, even if they
were unknown or unrelated to each other. How-
ever, most of the boys had never thought about
how the girls would feel about such behaviour.
Discussion
This article contextualizes “eve teasing” of
Bangladeshi adolescent girls as a gendered
response which objectifies girls. Gender inequality,
leading to sexual harassment, is deeply embedded
in Bangladeshi social structure.20–24 In Bangladesh,
patriarchy, gender norms and the custom of
purdah (veiling) result in girls being discrimi-
nated against from birth,25,26 and these are pre-
disposing factors for their experience of sexual
harassment. 27 Laws and judicial procedures
further aggravate the problem.28,29 In spite of
the introduction of mobile courts to prosecute
men and boys accused of sexually harassing girls
and women, cultural practices cannot be changed
overnight.7,11 Society tends to blame the girls,
making it hard for them to report sexual harass-
ment and violence, which does not stop after
adolescence. A 2004 report on workplace sexual
harassment in Bangladesh, for example, found
that working women were also reluctant to
reveal experiences of harassment for fear of
being stigmatised, threatened with revenge or
dismissed from their jobs.30
Gender inequality also dictates how boys and
girls perceive their roles in sexual relationships.
Among married adolescent slum girls, Rashid
found that the concept of having control over
sexual experiences was rare.31 Others in South
Asia have shown that sexual harassment is a
mechanism of social control, deeply linked to
patriarchy and power structures, and a reluctance
to address the sexual abuse and exploitation of
women and girls.32–34 An anthropological work
has argued that due to the transformation of
social and economic structures, men’s masculinity
is in crisis, which is a major reason for street
harassment of women in Egypt.35
Values and norms relating to sexuality play
a dominant role too. Pre-marital sex is tradi-
tionally taboo in Bangladesh. 36–40 From our
study it is evident that the cultural taboo of
sexuality in general and the puritanical, sexually
repressive attitude of society towards premarital
sexuality results in gender segregation and
inadequate information for adolescents, leading
to misconceptions and fears regarding sexuality.
As a result, sexuality is mystified and adolescents
learn to attach sexual meanings to any inter-
action with the opposite sex, hampering their
capability of more natural or spontaneous inter-
actions, and of developing non-sexual intimacy
with the opposite sex. This is more so since there
are very few public spaces where adolescent
boys and girls who are not related can meet
and interact. At the same time, increased access
for adolescents to global media, including
various pornographic materials, and other
social changes, have also contributed to the
reinforcement of certain stereotypical gender
and sexual norms and expectations, such as
male dominance and pleasure. Some authors
blame media and Hindi films for promoting
sexual violence in South Asia.2,3,11–14
“Eve teasing” is probably also a consequence
of restrictions on social mixing, romantic relation-
ships and dating, exacerbated by the influence
of pornography, and the absence of sexuality
and relationships education. It is evident that
the attempts of adults to regulate adolescent
sexuality according to norms for virginity and
arranged marriage, through segregating boys
and girls and limiting their interactions, under-
mines the development of interactional skills
83
P Nahar et al. Reproductive Health Matters 2013;21(41):78–86
between the sexes. Behaviour related to sex and
sexuality of adolescents depends greatly on their
sexual socialisation. Moreover, sexual socializa-
tion is embedded in many non-sexual aspects
of social life.41 Developing competence at sexual
interaction is part of sexual socialization,42,43
involving communication and social skills, sen-
sitivity and behavioural strategies that help
people to arrange their sexual encounters in a
mutually rewarding way.44 Without this, “eve-
teasing” more easily flourishes.
Lastly, there is the lack of access to reproductive
and sexual health information and services in
Bangladesh. The unnecessary anxieties and inse-
curities relating to their bodies and sexual feel-
ings expressed by adolescents in this study show
why young people should have access to com-
prehensive sexuality education that goes beyond
a focus on health outcomes and addresses
gender inequality and builds skills for social-
sexual interaction competence.
At the time of this research, there was no
sexuality education in the school curriculum in
Bangladesh. More recently, BRAC has introduced
sex education in their rural adolescents’ schools,
and FPAB and four other NGOs are developing
and introducing a comprehensive sexuality edu-
cation programme in schools in some districts.
Bangladeshi adolescents critically need access
to correct and complete information to counter-
balance the information and messages they are
getting from friends, street canvassers, the inter-
net, pornography and elsewhere. No matter how
strict the norms and social punishments, adoles-
cents and young people, as part of normal
sexual development, will look for information,
pleasure and erotica outside the control of
adults. The best way that adults can protect
and guide them is to equip them with informa-
tion, skills and confidence.
References
1. Gangoli G. Indian Feminisms: Law, Patriarchies and
Violence in India. London: Ashgate Publishing, 2007.
2. Baxi P. Sexual harassment. 2001. www.india-seminar.
com/2001/505/505pratikshabaxi.htm.
3. Ramasubramanian S, Oliver MB. Portrayals of sexual
violence in popular Hindi films, 1997–99. Sex Roles
2003;48(7–8):327–36. DOI:10.1023/A:1022938513819.
4. Das MB, Ahmad JK, Bernard C, et al. Whispers to Voices.
Gender and Social Transformation in Bangladesh.
84
Likewise, sexual and reproductive health ser-
vices targeting young people should also move
beyond a strict health focus and include coun-
selling, care and prevention in relation to the
issues that are of main concern to adolescents,
including those who are not (yet) sexually active.
Beyond physical health these need to include
services where adolescents can discuss fears and
insecurities and deal with gender-based and
sexual violence, such as forced marriage, sexual
harassment and stigma, and forced sex. More-
over, facilitating the reporting of harassment
needs to become a priority. Boys and girls need
to become more aware and respectful of their
own and others’ sexual rights, and parents and
adults in society need to realize their role in
preventing (not tacitly supporting) sexual vio-
lence. A different form of interaction between boys
and girls is necessary and with it, strict gender
separation should stop. The media can play an
important role in this and encourage people to
continue and increase discussion of sexual violence.
Acknowledgements
The research was commissioned by the Interna-
tional Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), with
funding from the Dutch Government. The field-
work was supported by FPAB. The authors are
especially grateful to the adolescent informants
whose experiences and opinions this article is based
on and to the eight young people who carried out
a large part of this research: Akhter Moshammat
Sabina, Islam Mainul Hasan, Islam Mohammad
Jahidul, Khatun Parijat, Pervas Kamal, Rahman
Mahfuza, Ray Mithon Kumar, Sume Afroza Khanam,
and to Tanzir Azmarina. Special thanks go to our
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Résumé
La violence contre les femmes est un mécanisme
social confirmant la subordination des femmes
dans beaucoup de sociétés. La violence et le
harcèlement sexuels ont plusieurs conséquences
psychologiques négatives sur les filles, notamment
un sentiment persistant d’insécurité et la perte de
l’estime de soi. Cet article cherche à contextualiser
une forme particulière de harcèlement sexuel avec
le nom d’eve teasing, subie par les adolescentes
bangladeshies (12–18 ans), qui est apparue
dans une étude sur le comportement sexuel
à l’adolescence. L’étude a utilisé des méthodologies
qualitatives et une approche participative, avec
des discussions de groupe, des entretiens avec
des informateurs clés et l’observation. Malgré les
tabous, les adolescents célibataires cherchent
activement des informations sur la sexualité, le
plaisir érotique et les histoires d’amour. Les
informations étaient aisément disponibles dans
des films vidéo, des clips sur téléphone portable
et des magazines pornographiques, mais
renforçaient les inégalités entre filles et garçons.
L’eve teasing était un exutoire pour les sentiments
sexuels des garçons ; ils y prenaient plaisir et
pouvaient afficher leur virilité. Cette pratique
ne plaisait pas aux filles qui craignaient d’être
accusées de la provoquer. L’eve teasing résulte
donc de normes socioculturelles relatives à la
sexualité, ainsi que du manque d’accès aux
informations et services de santé sexuelle et
génésique au Bangladesh. Ces conclusions
soulignent l’importance d’une éducation sexuelle
complète allant au-delà d’une simple priorité à la
santé, qui aborde les normes sexospécifiques et
aide les jeunes à acquérir des compétences pour
l’interaction socialo-sexuelle.
86
risk: an integrated review of the evidence. Psychology
and Health 1999;14:25–50.
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Resumen
La violencia contra las muejres es un mecanismo
social para confirmar su subordinación en muchas
sociedades. La violencia y el acoso sexuales tienen
diversos impactos psicológicos negativos en las
niñas, tales como una persistente sensación de
inseguridad y pérdida de autoestima. En este
artículo se procura contextualizar una forma
específica de acoso sexual, es decir, eve teasing
(incitación de Eva), sufrido por las adolescentes
de Bangladesh (de 12 a 18 años de edad), que
surgió de un estudio realizado por jóvenes sobre
el comportamiento sexual entre adolescentes. Se
utilizaron metodologías cualitativas y un enfoque
participativo, que incluye discusiones en grupos
focales, entrevistas con informantes clave y
observación. Pese a los tabúes, las adolescentes
solteras buscan información sobre sexo, placer
erótico y amor. La información fue fácil de
obtener por medio de videos, clips de teléfonos
móviles y revistas pornográficas, pero reforzó la
desigualdad de género. Eve teasing era una forma
de canalizar los sentimientos sexuales de los
niños, quienes adquirían placer de esto y
podían demostrar su masculinidad. A las niñas
no les gustaba y ellas temían que las culparan
de provocarlo. Por lo tanto, eve teasing es un
resultado de las normas socioculturales relacionadas
con la sexualidad, así como de la falta de acceso
a información y servicios de salud sexual y
reproductiva en Bangladesh. Estos hallazgos
recalcan la importancia de ofrecer educación
sexual integral que vaya más allá de un mero
enfoque en salud, trate las normas de género
y ayude a la juventud a adquirir habilidades
de interacción social-sexual.