PESHAWAR: Twenty-year-old Mehnaz is a staff nurse at a public sector medical facility in Peshawar. Despite the fact that she loved her job, she does not want to pursue this career further particularly at the hospital where she works. However, due to the financial burden of being the lone breadwinner for her family, she has no other option but to keep working amid all the problems she faces on a routine basis as a woman. Since that fateful night when one of the night shift doctors tried to rape her when she had gone to call him to attend to an emergency patient, life has not been the same for her. “I had gone to the doctor’s office that night to inform him about a patient’s condition. He locked the door and started harassing me. He could not rape me because I managed to run away.” Mehnaz said her voice still laced with fear. “I informed the head nurse about the incident, but she advised me to keep quiet. Everybody in the nursing department asked me to patch-up with the doctor otherwise, they said, I would not only lose my job but also my reputation. “Despite all the warnings and threats, I went ahead and filed an application against the doctor with the hospital administration. My application was turned down on the ground that I had no proof to establish my claim against the doctor and was told to patch-up with the doctor after accepting his verbal apology. At the end of the day I had no choice but to withdraw my application and to reconcile with the situation,” said Mehnaz. Mehnaz (not her real name) is not the only victim of women harassment at workplace in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) or in Pakistan for that matter. Millions like her are suffering at the hands of predators, taking advantage of a woman’s vulnerabilities at the workplace. Despite the enactment of the Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act 2010 at the federal level, there is no decline in harassment incidents. Khurshid Bano, Chief Executive Da Hawa Lur (An organization working for the rights of women) plans to persuade the government in (KP) to make creating awareness about sexual and other forms of harassment mandatory in schools and colleges through legislation. “About 77 percent of women are employed in different jobs in Pakistan, while the informal sector employs 65 percent women. Sixty percent of women in KP are working in different industries associated with formal and informal sectors.” These are staggering numbers and to leave such a large population in the hands of their employers is not a wise step. At least we can train women, and educate them how to deal with harassment until the informal sector is regulated,” said Khursheed. According to Bano, in 2010, KP has reported 200 cases of sexual harassment at workplace. “I am sure this figure would have multiplied manifold. Our women are still shy because of cultural constraints to report to police or even to the inquiry committees in their offices.” Bano added. She further added that interaction with the police revealed that a large number of junior officers at police stations had no idea about the law. “We had to counsel these junior police officials about the amendment made in the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) 509 making sexual harassment illegal not only in the workplace but also in public spaces and within the home. Three model police stations were established in Peshawar with women staff members but according to a police officer from Faqirabad Police Station Peshawar, Zeenat Bibi, women were hesitant to report cases of sexual or other harassments in these police stations as well. “Most of the women are reluctant to file a complaint because their families refuse to stand by them,” said Zeenat. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister adviser on Information and Higher Education Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani defended his government’s stance in this regard while saying “We have a zero tolerance policy on harassment of women at the workplace.” However, he laments that cultural constraints and lack of courage in women tie our hands to lash out against the accused following full administrative and legal process. In most of the cases, we lack proof because either the victims refuse to help legal teams collect forensic evidence or they hide the evidence to protect their honour.