JEDDAH, 9 May 2008 — When lecturers sexually harass their students, there is no way to take them to task. Young women often complain to university and college administrations, but their complaints generally fall on deaf ears.

Amani Abdul Rahman, 25, is a college student and mother of two. She told Arab News that for the first time ever in her academic life, she failed a course simply because she refused to succumb to the wishes of a flirtatious professor, an Arab national in his 60s.

“I went to the professor at the beginning of the semester to get some notes,” said Amani. “He asked me to call him late at night when everyone was asleep. He told me to give him a missed-call and that he would ring back because he loves to spend money on women.”

Amani never imagined that the professor in question — taking into consideration his senior position at the college — would be “such a pervert.”

“He also asked another student to call him, but, since she was married, her husband called him and told him that he would provide him with whatever he wants if he needed anything,” she said.

After receiving a failing grade, Amani tried to contact the professor who simply avoided her. “I’m sure I passed the course,” she said.

Amani went to the dean of academic affairs, who was initially supportive. “However, it seems that when she contacted her superiors, they told her to drop the matter,” she said. “The administration office told me that I had failed the course and that nothing could be done. They said that if I filed a harassment suit, it would take 16 months to solve.”

Amani was also told that making a complaint would ruin her reputation and that the professor would not be affected. “I am the only student that has ever failed a course with him,” she said. “If there were sexual harassment laws, then the professor would have thought twice before behaving like that. The college was more worried about losing an instructor than a student.”

Many people find it surprising that a foreign tutor, who would be accustomed to mixing with the opposite sex, could behave so unprofessionally.

According to some students, when dealing with the opposite sex Saudi tutors are better behaved than foreigners.

Sarah Khaled, a 25-year-old college graduate, was sexually harassed by a non-Saudi tutor in his mid 40s. “At the beginning of the semester, he told me and a friend that he and his wife didn’t get along and that he was experiencing marriage problems. He also said that he doesn’t like his wife’s looks and that he thought we were beautiful,” said Sarah.

“He told us that he wanted to go to the beach with us in the morning,” she added. “We ignored him initially. At the end of the semester my friend and I were surprised to find that he had given us a D grade, although we deserved an A,” Khaled told Arab News.

Salman Ahmed, a 23-year-old student at the same college (boys’ section), said that this particular instructor would often make inappropriate comments about the girls he taught in the girls’ section.

“He used to tell us that the girls started to wear more makeup after he began teaching them,” said Salman.

According to many students, tutors at women institutes are not scrutinized by the college administration. Abdullah Dahlan, chairman of the College of Business Administration, said that sometimes his college has to use male teachers due to a lack of qualified women.

Dahlan believes that if a tutor is selected according to set standards, he would never break the rules. He added that at his college, reports of sexual harassment are taken seriously. “If an instructor is proven guilty, then he would immediately get suspended,” said Dahlan.