WUNRN
CAMEROON
- SEXUAL HARASSMENT PLAGUES SCHOOLGIRLS
By Yvonne Neba, Louise Kuma, Dorothy Agbor, Colette
Yong, Journalism Students on Internship at Dignity Television, Cameroon
Are the Cameroon girls in this school photo SAFE in Cameroon?
CAMEROON - August 5, 2014 - Sexual harassment in
Bamenda City, Cameroon, is becoming more of a lifestyle than a
vice, and it needs to be addressed seriously and stopped. This vice
which on most occasions is carried out against girls by young boys and even
fathers, has caused a lot of disaster and has instilled fear in teenage girls and
women. Here are examples of experiences.
Lum Miranda who was once a house-help but now is a
petit trader at the Bamenda food market says that sexual harassment from
her boss made her quit her former job. She lamented as she said ‘’Sexual
harassment seems to be the order of the day when it comes to females
working as house helps.’’
Kilah Jannette, a one-time house help but now selling
roasted plantains confirms this fact that, ‘House Helps are always being
harassed sexually by their male employers’. She testified that she
can never send her daughter to work as a house help because she fears she will
also be harassed sexually harassed.
Sexual harassment also occurs in schools as
both teachers and young boys are found harassing girls. Some teachers find
pleasure in touching sensitive parts on the bodies of their female students.
Mbu Cynthia said ’’This is a serious problem in school as both male
teachers and students harass us sexually’’. Another femalestudent disclosed
that ‘’ even though men harass women on grounds that they dress provocatively,
I still think there is no justification for such a practice in civilized
society.’’
Melanie Mbong, a girl who sells boiled eggs in the
Bamenda food market says, she faces a lot of sexual harassment with her male
customers especially when she goes to bars. Another teenager Vanessa Maley who
sells puff-puff says she faces sexual harassment from young boys especially
those who work in the garage. ‘’I like to go there to sell because when it is
hot they will buy but while there, they make attempts to touch my breast and
buttocks’’.
A Bamenda, Cameroon, parent, Mirabel Abong who sells
biscuits, bread and sweets says ‘My male customers who come to buy, come with
different aims. Some come asking me to calculate my profit for the day and go
along with them to a hotel. Some say I should forget about the business and
others say I should figure my capital invested in the business so he pays
in order for me to have a relationship with him’.
Another parent, Juliana Njong, who sells roasted plumb
and ripe plantains recounts that ‘’Some male customers come and buy on credit;
but when its time to pay, they begin talking about a relationship and when I
refuse, they end up not paying my money. With this attitude from boys and
men, I sell at a loss’.
From the above incidents, it’s very clear sexual
harassment against women and children is rampant and on the increase in
Bamenda. Schools in the North West in recent times have been so unsafe for
female students. Some are harassed either on campus or along the road to
school. Rape has become the order of the day in school venues, and no week
passes without a report on rape.
Trafficking in Persons with girls as soft targets has
also been occurring. Female students disappear on their way to or from school.
Some years ago, an eight year old girl disappeared on her way back from school
and no trace of her has been found. At the time, it was
suspected she must have been kidnapped by male traffickers. Only last month, the
North West Task Force for Trafficking in Persons reported that two female
children were found locked up in a house in Ndop, Ngoketunjia Division, by a
trafficker ready to take them to neighbouring Nigeria. A U.S State Department
report in 2012 stated that Cameroon was not only a source, but also a
transit country and destination for Trafficking in Persons. As a Tier Two
country, Cameroon is noted for not implementing laws and conventions on
Trafficking. In 2011, the Cameroon Parliament voted a Trafficking in Persons
Law where rape was included as a case of trafficking. Four years after, its
implementation and awareness are still a far cry.
Gender policies in school milieus are wanting, and
there are no facts on the ground that policy makers and school authorities see
any reason why schools should be safer for girls. Some school authorities we
talked to in Cameroon did not see any reason why special regulations should be
put in place for the protection of girls, arguing that all students have the
same protection. With the advent of the extremist Islamic Nigerian Sect, Boko
Haram and its insurgence in Cameroon, especially with girls as vulnerable
targets, many Cameroon parents are worried about the fate of their female
daughter students in unsafe schools.
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