Pakistan: Journalist Tanzeela Mazhar continues to push back against her harasser

PAKISTAN, Islamabad, February 9 -- For Pakistani journalist and CFWIJ member, Tanzeela Mazhar, seeking justice has become an uphill battle. For the past three years, she has been facing a lawsuit for criminal defamation at the hands of her harasser. 

On February 6, Tanzeela tweeted that she appeared at the Federal Ombudsman Secretariat for Protection against Harassment to argue her right to challenge the inquiry report by PTV. She considers the inquiry to not have been conducted fairly. She even mentioned that the report was not shared with her until July 2019.

Tanzeela shared that she argued her cases on her own, with her husband by her side. She also added that she would share each and every detail of her case when the due legal process gets completed and has deemed the system to be manipulated. 

Considering the timeline and details of her case, Tanzeela mentioned that she will continue to stand against the powerful and challenge the status quo.

Since the legal battles began, Tanzeela has had to deal serious consequences for her career and wellbeing. Her only “crime” was to take a stand against her harasser, who happened to be her superior at work. Despite the difficulties and slander against her, she continues to fight, even in the face of systemic and structural flaws within institutions dealing with cases of sexual harassment at the workplace.

In January 2017, Tanzeela took to Twitter to publicly talk about an inquiry into a sexual harassment complaint she filed against her harasser Agha Masood Shorish –– director of current affairs at the state-owned news channel Pakistan Television (PTV), who made “unwelcome advances” at her in 2009. This was also the first time she spoke about her plight on a public platform, while she was still employed at the channel.

Back when she was harassed by the man in question, Tanzeela called him out for his behaviour, and was eventually put off screen. She was not the only woman at the news channel who was subjected to harassment by Shorish. Yashfeen Jamal, her fellow anchor at the channel, also called him out for his predatory behaviour.

Following their formal complaints against Shorish, an inquiry committee was created to investigate the complaint after Tanzeela filed a case against her harasser. But instead of conducting a fair investigation, the committee questioned her about why she had not already resigned if she was being harassed. Shorish termed all the allegations against him to be baseless and defamatory. He shared his intentions to urge the management to release findings of the report and clear the confusion.

A lack of transparent inquiry was evident right from the beginning. Following the biased approach of the probe committee, both Tanzeela and Yashfeen announced their resignations on social media. 

Tanzeela maintains that while Shorish was sacked from his position, it was not because of his actions. 

Both Tanzeela and Yashfeen were subjected to character assasination and online abuse for coming forward. They have faced an unprecedented level of threats and abuse by choosing to come forward.