Lecture # 18 Eve Teasing in Bangladesh
Presented by
Abul Kalam Azad
Senior Lecturer in GED
Northern University Bangladesh
Email: kalamadd@gmail.com
Objectives
1. To Define Eve Teasing;
2. To Discuss the Root Causes of Eve
Teasing; and
3. To Discuss the Remedies of Eve
Teasing.
1. Eve Teasing Defined
• Simply, eve teasing is that act by
‘Adam’ excites and sexually harasses
‘Eve’. According to the description of
Old Testament, ‘eve’ is Adam’s wife
and the first woman & mother of the
human race. So, teasing a woman/
female is called 'eve teasing'.
• Broadly speaking, eve teasing is a
euphemism for sexual harassment or
molestation of women in public
places. It is an appalling act that
imparts humiliation, panic, repulsion
and helplessness in the victim.
• Mode of Eve Teasing: An offensive
watch, a sly whistle, a well-timed
clap, an unwarranted knock, a
seemingly casual touch, a lasting
look at a helpless time, suggestive
song
with
closed
lips,
slang
comments, cheap gestures, the
display of an indecent video, passing
by in slow moving cars blasting loud
music with many eyes….all these are
typical examples of eve teasing.
2. Causes of Eve Teasing
Q:1Who are teasers?
1. Who come of Broken
Family
2. Deviated from social
values and norms
3. Who are associated
with Evil Peer Groups
4. Who have the lack in
religious
&
moral
education
5. Most of the teasers
are illiterate
6. Socially Frustrated
7. Drug users
8. Who are failure in love
9. Who
don’t
know
formal behavior
Q: 2 Who are the victim
of teasing?
1. Who
wear/
doesn’t
Short/
Tight/
Thin
dress including Shirt,
Pant, Jeans etc.
2. Who
Take/
doesn’t
take
beautification
tips such as bright
lipstick, multi-colored
makeup, brew pluck,
stylish hair cutting
etc.
3. Who
are
quite
beautiful / not
4. Who
refuse
the
proposal of love/ not
Q: 3 Where is the Place of Eve Teasing?
• Eve teasing is a common incident, be it
in buses, shopping malls, cinema
halls,,
near
women's
colleges,
restaurants,
auto/bus-terminals,
railway booking counters and every
other conceivable place; but the one
place where it happens with alarming
frequency is on the road.
• So, it may said that in most of the
cases eve teasing is caused by
illiterate,
semi-literate
or
literate
persons having no moral & religious
education.
Q: 4 How Does Individual Behave?
• Unsocial/ uncultured man who may be
considered as animal behaves in this way:
S
R
• But social & cultured man who have
already overcome animal character behave
in this way:
S
C
R
Q: 5 How Does Individual Become deviant
(e.g., eve teaser)/ immoral/ moral?
• To answer to the question, there are some
significant sociological theories:
I. Looking Glass Self by Charles Horton
Cooley;
II. Generalized Other by George Herbert
Mead;
III. Sutherland’s Differential Association
Theory;
IV. Ogburn & Nimkoff’s Cultural Lag
Hypotheses
V. Anthony Giddens’s Agency-Structure
Theory
I) Looking Glass Self by Cooley
Self (consciousness/ imagination
of one’s own identity)
Glass (mirror): Social Agents e.g.,
family, peer group, educational
institution, mass media etc.
System of Looking Glass
1. We imagine how our actions appear
to others
2. We imagine how other people judge
these actions
3. We make some sort of self-judgment based
on the presumed judgments of others
Development of Moral Self
Moral Glass (mirror): Moral Social Agents
e.g., family, peer group, educational
institution, mass media etc.
Development of Immoral Self
Immoral Glass: Immoral Social Agents
e.g., family, peer group, educational
institution, mass media etc.
Conclusion: Since eve teasing is an act
of immoral self, it is caused by
immoral agents.
II) George Herbert Mead’s Theory
of Generalized Other
Self
‘I’
‘Me’
Generalized Other (viewpoints,
attitudes, and expectations of
society as a whole)
Self
‘I’
1. Seeks Immediate
response
2. Unpredictable
3. Incalculable
4. Inner &
Subjective
5. Wishes to have
free expression
‘Me’
1. Adoption of the
generalized
other
2. Conventional
3. Habitual
individual
4. Dominates ‘I’
1. Preparatory stage: In this stage, human infants imitate the
attitudes & behaviors of others meaninglessly mimicking
movement.
2. Play stage: In this stage, children play the roles of others and
formulate role expectations such as playing house, cops and
robbers and so on. But, lack a more general and organized sense
of themselves.
3. Game Stage: This is the mature stage where an individual tries
to act in accordance with a set of generalized expectations
internalized into him/ her (see the figure below).
III) Sutherland’s Differential Association Theory
Deviant Behavior e.g., eve teasing
Bad Companion (Shongo Dosh)
IV) Ogburn & Nimkoff’s Cultural
Lag Hypotheses
Deviant Behavior e.g., Eve Teasing
Maladjustment between Material
& Nonmaterial Culture
Sign of Adopting Nonmaterial Culture e.g.,
Attitudes, behavior,
beliefs etc.
Sign of Adopting Material
Culture e.g., Technology
like Cell Phone, internet
Gap Between Adopting Material &
Non-material Culture in BD
V) Anthony Giddens’s Structure- Agency
Causes of Eve
of Teasing
Problems of Agency
By enabling &
constraining
By producing
& reproducing
Structural problems
Causes of Eve Teasing
By enabling &
constraining
By producing
& reproducing
Structural problems:
Neither Open system nor Closed System but the Admixture of
Both, Cultural lag (Adoption of material culture i.e., technology
but less advance in adopting nonmaterial culture i.e., attitudes,
behavior, beliefs etc.) Lack of Good Governance, Lack of
implementation of rule of law, Lack of enough monitoring Cell,
Lack of proper penal system, Lack of accessibility of young
correction centers, Lack of rigid law, Capitalism uses women
as commodity
Problems of Agency & Agents
Lack of Moral Values & Religious Education by different agents
like family, Peer Groups and Mass Media, Frustration,
Psychological problem, Negative impact of Cell Phone, Failure
in love.
European Society: Open System
Indian Subcontinent: Admixture of
both Open & Closed System, No
Distinctive Existence
Arabian Society: Closed System
Change of BD from
Closed to Open System
Q: 6 Why is eve teasing absent in Europe &
Arab but present in BD, India & Pakistan?
•Open system: means freedom of individual
behavior
but Closed system: means
structural dominance on the individual
Remedies of Eve Teasing
1. Social agents like family, peer groups,
educational institutions and mass media must
be amended;
2. Religious and moral education should be
ensured;
3. Those who are frustrated/ drug addicted should
be
corrected
under
probation
centre/
adolescent correction centre;
4. Proper socialization should be ensured;
5. Structural problems as mentioned before
should be eliminated;
6. Dilemma of social system should be removed
but a unique one be continued; and
7. Men should treat the eves as their own mother
or sisters.