Samira Bawumia urges orgs to protect women from sexual harassment

The Second Lady, Samira Bawumia has expressed her opinion saying that the heads of private and public institutions should develop a code of ethics, which is able to protect and secure women from becoming victims of sexual predators in the companies.

According to her, the increase in sexual harassment is affecting women empowerment in Ghana. That's the reason she has summoned for disciplinary actions in organizations that ensure the eradication of women's suffering from sexual harassment.

Samira Bawumia, who is married to Ghana's Vice President, Mahamudu Bawumia, said that young women go through the unfortunate situation, especially when they are desperate for jobs.

"There are young women who would have to go through that every day because their bosses insist they have to sleep with them before they give them jobs," she said.

While speaking over the weekend in Ghana's capital city Accra at a career forum organized by Professionals for Change (which is a group within the New Patriotic Party), Mahamudu Bawumia insisted heads of the institutions to take additional steps to ensure the working places are safe for Ghanaian girls.

"The message I'm putting out is that sexual harassment is an unspoken issue within institutions in Ghana. Every woman may know somebody or may have experienced sexual harassment at one point in her life," she added.

On the other hand, she also said that child marriage is equal to violence. She revealed that it was due to her father she got saved from being a victim of child marriage.

"In fact there were comments like that as I was growing up. Before I went to the university, my grandmother was saying 'she is growing, she should be married by now," she said.

She recalled her past saying that her father said, "no she has to go to school."