Laws are inadequate Sexual harassment is illegal in the United States. But for many countries in Asia, there are still no specific laws on sexual harassment. For instance, in Singapore and Malaysia, the Penal Code provides that it is an offence to insult the modesty of woman by words or sounds or gestures. In Taiwan and Japan, women can only invoke civil laws meant to protect people against defamation, injury to one's body or health, or infringement of rights. Most companies in Asia also do not have sexual harassment policies.
Employers can even turn a deaf ear to complaints by their female workers.
The management of a Taiwanese hospital received eight complaints of sexual harassment against one of its doctors. Perhaps there is some comfort that governments in Asia are beginning to realise the gravity of the problem. Boy, we still have a long way to go. When a woman is sexually harassed by someone from another country or ethnic group, the offence is harder to identify and often leaves the woman more confused. The victim wonders if the harasser's actions may purely be friendly gestures in his culture.