Sexual Harassment of the Adolescent Girls of the Holy Cross College, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Abstract

Sexual harassment of adolescent girls is a globally talked of phenomenon in today's world. Youth studies have captured sexual harassments from the perspective of adolescent girls of an urban setting of Bangladesh to a small extent. This study considers the adolescent girls studying in grade XI and XII at the Holy Cross College, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Qualitative research design with in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and free-listing has been employed as the methods in this study. The study sheds light on the sexual harassment experiences of adolescents (girls) from their own perspectives. In doing so, the ways girls try to defend sexual harassments immediately as well as their long-term suggestions to stop sexual harassments have been explored. The findings of the study indicate that the roles of parents and elders, educational institutions, social stigma and cultural rigidness influence the ways adolescent girls perceive sexual harassments.