For those pursuing their university studies, the culmination of a successful academic year pivots on a professor’s positive evaluation of his students’ abilities. Certain professors take advantage of this fact to subject their students to sexual blackmail.
“Refusal to submit to the sexual advances of an offending professor can have consequences to bear on a student’s grades. A female student who submits to these advances has a greater chance of receiving better grades, better instruction and more support during the completion of her final project (PFE) or thesis,” says Oumayma Benghrib, member of the executive office of the Tunisian General Students Union (UGET) during an interview with Nawaat. As Benghrib puts it,
It’s a mutually beneficial relationship.
Oumayma Benghrib
About two out of 10 Tunisians affirm that students at schools and universities are “often” or “always” victims of discrimination, harassment or sexual advances by their teachers. This is according to a study on “L’équité de genre et la santé sexuelle et reproductive” [Equity and Gender, Sexual and Reproductive Health] published on May 28.
The study was carried out by the pan-African research network, Afrobarometer, and driven by the Tunisian polling institute “One to One.” It is based on interviews with 1,200 Tunisian adults carried out between February 25 and March 11, 2024. However, the scope of the study does not reflect the magnitude of sexual harassment in educational establishments, and universities in particular. Oumayma Benghrib reports that “at least five out of 10 Tunisian (female) students endure one form of sexual harassment, whether by the teacher, dean or administrative employees.”
This phenomenon is normalized but remains “almost taboo,” according to lawyer and gender expert Monia El Abed and psychologist Sondes Garbouj. El Abed and Garbouj are the authors of a study on sexual harassment in universities, recently published by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung foundation in Tunisia.
Normalization of abuse
Sexual harassment occurs in different forms—insistent looks, comments on clothing, intrusive questions about private life—and can take place in real life or on social media.
“Touching your hand really got me excited” and “I like your curves,” were messages sent via Messenger by a university professor to his student, Mayssa (pseudonym). In an interview with Nawaat, Mayssa recalls her embarrassment at her teacher’s messages. She didn’t know how to respond, the young woman recounts with a bitter laugh.
Mayssa is one of many cases. The Facebook group Ena Zeda [Me Too] which denounces sexual violence in Tunisia abounds with the testimonies of harassment victims.
These testimonies highlight certain characteristics common to the perpetrators of sexual harassment: an especially touchy-feely individual, a professor who tries to be funny, enjoys a certain status; a womanizer.
Disillusioned, some students choose to laugh it off, playing down the behavior of the offending professor. Others evoke their experience tangentially. Still others observe a code of silence.
Owing to the power relationship between aggressor and victim, silence serves as a shield for sexual harassment in Tunisian universities. Often overlooked or dismissed as inconsequential, or else perceived as a part of daily life for women, these abuses are also commonly tolerated by society.
False beliefs about sexual harassment
Intimate relations between teachers and university students are sometimes seen as courtship between two consenting adults. However, the close interaction between supervisor and student as the latter completes her Master’s or PhD program is susceptible to abuse by certain professors.
Rania (pseudonym) remembers a supervisor who she would sometimes have to meet outside of university. “I admired him very much for who he was and for his academic rigor. He had an excellent reputation. A friendship blossomed over the course of our work sessions. He was an interesting person. We spoke about everything, sometimes even our personal lives,” Rania tells Nawaat.
But the friendship took a turn when Rania’s professor became excessively touchy-feely.
His fingers would brush mine, then he would take my hand and hold it for a long time. I was uncomfortable, and I think this showed on my face.
Rania
Rania explains how she was afraid to lose him as a supervisor and have to reregister. “I tried to make him understand that I wasn’t interested…in vain. I told myself that maybe I was wrong; that I shouldn’t have worn a certain shirt, or laughed at a joke, or smiled, that I should have known how to say ‘no’ explicitly,” she recalls.
“Obviously, the relationship between teacher and student is conducive to the learning environment. However, it can also carry significant risks in terms of vulnerability,” warn El Abed and Garbouj. They write: “These ties can transform into “admiration” for the knowledge, status or image of a professor and can underlie certain types of unsafe attachment. Some research even discusses “transferential” relationships between professor and student.”
The power relationship which acts in the professor’s favor instills a climate of insecurity and tension. Such a dynamic often prevents the creation of a healthy relationship between teacher and student, even when the latter appears willing. This relational imbalance leads some students to consent under the effect of manipulation or fear of retaliation.
“He asked me to send him a photo of my feet for ‘research,’ as he said. I prefer to not talk about what happened next. I don’t have the courage and can’t think about it without feeling guilty every time […]. I was under the influence of his position,” one victim shares in her testimony on the Ena Zeda Facebook page.
These kinds of relations affect other students as well, potentially “compromising the entire education process since it will be tainted with suspicion and favoritism, and will lose impartiality,” El Abed and Garbouj point out.
Impunity prevails
Such abuse causes psychological suffering and impacts the academic trajectory of harassment victims. Some report that they ultimately stopped attending courses taught by the offending professor, even if it meant failing the class.
Rania, for her part, gave up her research.
My stomach was in knots every time we had a meeting. The day he tried to kiss me was the last straw. I fled without a word.
Rania
Facing possible blame for sexually provoking a professor, victims are discouraged from speaking out. For some, the fear of being mocked, not taken seriously, stigmatized, or enduring retaliation by their harasser motivates the decision to keep silent.
This was true for Mayssa. “I didn’t know who to talk to. Friends at university? I was afraid to be seen as a girl with issues,” she says. The perpetrators of sexual harassment take advantage of this silence to act in total impunity.
Nevertheless, a certain awareness has been growing up around the dangers of this phenomenon, Benghrib notes. “Certain girls also refuse to talk about it because they come from conservative families and are afraid of scandal. But others are starting to stand up to their aggressors.”
In 2017, students at the Faculty of Juridical, Political and Social Sciences of Tunis circulated a petition against a professor accused of sexual harassment. Two years later, a similar initiative was launched by students at the Ecole normale supérieure. But still, impunity prevails.
According to the country’s law on the elimination of violence against women, perpetrators of sexual harassment face two years in prison and a fine of 5,000 dinars. That sentence is two-fold if the offender has an authority over the victim or abuses the authority conferred on him by his professional duties, or if the violation is facilitated by the victim’s situation of vulnerability, either presumed or known by the author of the sexual offense—as is the case of a professor who sexually harasses his student.
The application of this legal text remains to be seen. “As always, the promulgation of a law is not accompanied by a strategy to ensure its fulfillment,” remarks Sarah Ben Said, executive director of the association Aswat Nissa which manages the Ena Zeda Facebook group. Ben Said notes the absence of awareness-raising campaigns within educational institutions.
The number of cases of reported violence against women is staggering. On average, every month a woman is murdered by her husband. Migrant women are also exposed to all sorts of violence (sexual, economic, etc.) in Tunisia. This epidemic extends beyond our borders and impacts countries across the region, particularly Palestine. Palestinian women endure violence as an effect of patriarchy but also in relation to the Israeli occupation. But people are starting to speak out. Resistance movements are organizing. What are the consequences of this violence? What are the forms of resistance which aim to stem the spread of hate? Will this resistance succeed in establishing a more equal and free society for women?
Monia El Abed and Sondes Garbouj call for the implementation of a series of measures which include raising awareness around sexual harassment within school clubs and the establishment of counseling resources for victims.
Combatting this phenomenon will entail bringing an end to impunity—a tall order in light of the current situation across Tunisian universities. “The status of certain professors protects them from any kind of punishment. The administration keeps its eyes shut to the issue, and is therefore complicit in this abuse,” Benghrib tells Nawaat.
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