Jordan to crack down on rampant sexual harassment of schoolgirls

Ammon News reports:

The Public Security Department (PSD) launched a campaign aimed at putting an end to "negative activities" and harassment in front of girls schools throughout the kingdom.

PSD chief General Tawfiq Tawalbeh ordered police departments throughout the kingdom to conduct "comprehensive security surveys" of all-female schools throughout the kingdom, in coordination with local officials and education departments, to eliminate negative behavior in front of the schools.

PSD press office said that the security campaign comes after students, parents, and school principals filed numerous complaints of disrespectful acts by young men as female students enter and leave their schools.

What exactly are the boys doing?

A hint comes from this description of a short film made last year at a Jordanian university:

Produced by students at the university’s Faculty of Foreign Languages, the film dares to show the dark side of the kingdom's conservative society and sheds light on a daily plight that young girls face as they seek education.

In the two-and-a-half-minute film, girls are shown carrying placards that expose some of the provocative phrases they often hear from their male counterparts.

In one scene, a veiled girl holds a hand-written paper that reads: "Let’s go to my home, for $70." Another says: "Can I take a ride, strawberry lips, good for kissing."

The video goes on to expose the most common phrases whispered in the ears of female students as they pass through the university’s corridors. It also shows young men sitting on benches, watching girls swaying their hips as they move between classes.

The Ammon News article is creepier, though, as the film seems to describe boys acting sickeningly towards their peers in college, while harassment outside girls-only schools implies that older boys and men are targeting younger girls.