The National Alliance of Taiwan Women’s Associations yesterday led 26 organizations in demanding that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Hsueh-sheng (陳雪生) apologize after a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker accused him of sexual harassment.
DPP Legislator Fan Yun (范雲) said that Chen pressed his belly against her during a scuffle inside the legislative chamber on Tuesday.
Chen said that the accusation was unwarranted.
“It was not sexual harassment, as it is impossible to become pregnant from a belly,” he said.
“My belly made contact with her,” Chen told reporters. “What is her problem? She thinks too highly of herself.”
“I do not have feelings for her,” he said. “She is being vain and self-important.”
Wang Kuang-yu (王冠予), head of Chen’s legislative office, wrote on Facebook that Fan “is trying to get media attention.”
“She should look herself in the mirror,” Wang wrote, adding: “We question her personality.”
The alliance said that lawmakers should know better.
“We are disappointed that it has been 15 years since the Sexual Harassment Prevention Act (性騷擾防治法) was promulgated, but we still have legislators who do not understand that sexual advances and similar actions that violate the will of another person constitute sexual harassment,” the alliance said in a statement. “It has nothing to do with whether a woman will get pregnant.”
The comments by Chen and Wang added to the insult and vilified a victim, it said.
“The remarks showed that the men seriously lack understanding on issues of sexual equality,” it said. “They did not try to comprehend and make a self-assessment, but continued to use disparaging words and added to the sexual harassment.”
“Every person has the right not to be violated by sexual harassment, it is guaranteed by the law,” the alliance said. “The KMT, which Chen belongs to, is silent on the matter. It is as though the party had given such behavior the green light.”
Speaking to reporters after the scuffle, Fan said that Chen prodded her from behind three times.
“He did not express regret and said his belly would not result in pregnancy, so it was not sexual harassment,” she said. “Then he demanded that I provide evidence.”
“It was not just Chen Hsueh-sheng, but the whole party through their reactions — they have no understanding about sexual equality and their comments made even more uncomfortable,” she said.
KMT Legislator Hsu Chih-jung (徐志榮) wrote on Facebook that “it looked like Fan was smiling throughout, as though she was enjoying it.”
After receiving criticisn for the comment, Hsu said that “enjoying” was merely a description and people should not be offended by his use of the word.
FATAL FIRE: The health department is trying to contact the inspector who visited the site of the illegal nursing home to ask why they did not advise follow-up checks The Taipei City Government yesterday said that a health department inspector last year had visited the site of a long-term care facility in Neihu District (內湖) after receiving a report questioning its status. A fire broke out at the facility on Tuesday afternoon, killing three people. The Taipei Fire Department said that it received a report about a fire on the first floor of a four-story residential building on Kangning Road Sec. 1 at 2:38pm on Tuesday, firefighters arrived at 2:43pm and the fire was put out by 3:07pm. The firefighters found three men in beds and rushed them to hospital for
Taipei City Councilor Wang Hao (王浩) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Monday called for security improvements to the MRT, as fare evasion has increased more than 13-fold on the metropolitan railway system over the past five years. Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) has spoken out against fare evasion and other contraventions of MRT regulations, but since he took office in 2015 the number of contraventions has more than doubled, Wang said, adding that there were 537 cases in 2015 compared with 959 last year. A video was posted to YouTube in June showing people how to evade paying a fare,
THE CHINA CONNECTION: As Beijing’s aggression increases, so does Taiwanese consciousness, making a new constitution imperative, Hsu Wei-chun said If the nation is to ratify a new constitution, it must first end any illusions about the current document’s relevance to Taiwan, an academic told a forum in Taipei yesterday. For the constitutional revisionist movement to succeed, it needs public enthusiasm, the right timing and a clear plan of action, Chung Yuan Christian University associate professor Hsu Wei-chun (徐偉群) told attendees at the event titled “Imagining a New Constitution for a New Era,” which was organized by the National Taiwan University Graduate Student Association. The Constitution exists under the “one China” framework and has little relevance to Taiwan, Hsu said, adding that
Yuchi Township (魚池) fishers have appealed to the Nantou County Government for help in dealing with an invasive fish species in Sun Moon Lake (日月潭), where it has devastated the local ecosystem. Fishers at Sun Moon Lake have been using electrofishing in an attempt to eliminate the giant snakehead fish — found in Africa and Southeast Asia — but they have struggled to keep up with the growing population of the species, which breeds during September and October, the county government said on Monday. The county has contacted researchers at National Tsing Hua University, saying it hoped they could come up
RSS