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Women lawyers in Madras divided over sexual harassment charges

The 500-odd women lawyers of the Madras high court are deeply divided over coming out into the open about the alleged sexual harassment of their younger colleagues and gender-based discrimination against them.

More than 40 leading women lawyers had recently quit the 30-year-old Women's Lawyers Association, accusing it of trying to stifle the voices of five younger members in the general body meetings held on June 23 and 25 and July 7.

These include a number of association office-bearers, including its president Baader Sayeed, vice-president Arulmozhi and activist Vaigai.

The issue burst into the open in June, with a leading Tamil weekly publishing a question-and-answer session with the five women lawyers, who alleged that some of their colleagues had suffered sexual harassment at the hands of their male seniors.

A majority of the association members took exception to the charges on the ground that they were too general and exaggerated, thereby sullying the reputation of the male seniors. This was stoutly opposed by the office-bearers who wanted the five members not to be denied their freedom of expression.

Arulmozhi, who had quit as vice-president, said the meetings only reflected the conservative mindset of women lawyers. According to her, the meetings turned into unruly torture sessions, with the young lawyers occasionally breaking down in the face of charges made against them. Even if the report had been exaggerated, the young lawyers should have been allowed to explain.

A cross-section of women and male lawyers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, admitted the existence of sexual harassment of younger women in the profession. Long and irregular hours of work are cited as a pretext by some male seniors for inviting the young women for lunches, dinners or entertainment, which often turn out to be a pathway for seeking sexual favours.

Non-compliance is met with entrusting them with trivial tasks and tougher routines, while compliance could lead to more fruitful positions.

Instances of juniors spurning the sexual advances of their male seniors were not uncommon, the lawyers said. However, none of the women had ever come out in the open before.

The same problem was also being faced by women graduates in law, who now have to go through one-year apprenticeship before enrollment in the bar. Failure to comply to the demands of seniors could result in postponement of the end of the term, they said.

Another problem faced by women lawyers is the paternalism of their male colleagues and judges. According to a woman lawyer, one of the judges, finding her raising her voice during the course of an argument, had remarked that ''a woman's voice should be like silk.''

"If a male lawyer had raised his voice, the judge would have asked him to just lower his voice," she pointed out.

The lawyers said some of their male counterparts resorted to trivialising and laughing away contentions put forth by women lawyers who are arguing against them.

One of those who later quit in protest, Geeta Ramaseshan, who is also a columnist on legal affairs, said the association should not have stifled the debate on the issue.

Ramaseshan said the weekly's report on sexual harassment had been too general. Certain parts of the discussion with the young women lawyers too had been changed while being translated from English to Tamil, she said.

"How can these women be denied the freedom to air their views?" she wondered.

Terming the protest from the majority of the women lawyers as hilarious, she said the meetings had targeted the young lawyers asking them for an unconditional apology. On the other hand, the meeting should have been used to criticise the media for distortion, if any, and also debate the issue.

Association secretary Shanta Kumari, however, said the five women lawyers, realising their mistake, had written a rejoinder to the weekly -- but that was not published. Three of them had quit the association, while one of them expressed an apology and another had not responded to the letter sent to her.

Denying reports that sexual harassment was widely prevalent, she said the association had not received any such complaint in the past few years.

"Many of those who have quit are prominent women's rights activists and you can ask them whether such complaints were received," she said.

Shanta Kumari denied reports that the resignations would affect the association's functioning. It was always keen on protecting the rights of its members, who had several demands including building separate chambers, she added.

Arulmozhi said the association could not be expected to take up issues relating to sexual harassment of women since a majority of its members had stifled the voices of their younger colleagues.

"The association got radicalised only in the last eight years, taking up issues relating to women's rights including the rape of Padmini at Annamalainagar police station and the rape of tribal women by forest department personnel. Whenever such cases come up, we will have to come together as another forum," she said.

UNI

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