Phenomenological Analysis of the Lived Experiences of Female Victims of Sexual Harassment in Tehran city

The present study is a qualitative study to phenomenologically examine lived experiences of women victims of sexual assault. The subjects of the study population were women who had been harassed and raped, and the researcher did not interfere in their treatment. Among this population, sampling was done snowball sampling (12 people). Using semi-structured interviews, information related to the sample was collected, and the findings were analyzed by the descriptive phenomenological approach and Colaizzi’s method. After analyzing the content of the interviews and coding them, the findings include 8 main categories (low mood, post-traumatic stress, violence, lack of self-confidence, dysfunctional compensatory mechanisms, receiving annoying reactions from others, negative and deterrent consequences in daily life, constructive compensation) and 37 sub-categories. Findings showed that women who have been sexually assaulted still years after the accident, have not been able to cope with post-anxiety disorders or forget about it, and this has become a schema in them. Also, the most common symptoms were depression and aggression, and social and cultural factors were found to be effective in not treating them.