Abuse in schools: ‘He used to pull me close while smacking his lips and staring at my chest’

Raza Hamdani spoke to several victims of sexual harassment in Pakistani schools and discovered that very little is being done to combat it

Students are scared to talk to their parents about the harassment (Getty/iStockphoto)

Before doing my biology practical exam, I heard a lot about how the invigilator would behave inappropriately with students. I went in and he was oddly nice to me … Then later he touched me on the hip while I was walking back to my seat and told me I did a great job and was a nice girl. I was frozen in shock but I tried to brush it off and play it down because of how uncomfortable and embarrassed I had been feeling.”

“Sir W was extremely inappropriate. He used to grab me by my arm and pull me near him while smacking his lips and staring at my chest … I stopped attending his classes because he made me feel uncomfortable. My grades suffered because concentrating in his class was impossible.”

These are statements from two students of elite educational institutions. The first is from a student of one of Islamabad’s premier private colleges, Bahria College; the second is from an A-Level student at an elite private school, Lahore Grammar School (LGS).