Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming
Hearing women talk about their street harassment experiences and how it makes them feel and watching street harassment in action is powerful. It brings faces and voices to the problem. It shows what it looks like.
Check out a range of documentaries, news clips, and PSA-type videos on street harassment and see what this issue is all about.
I was molested on the W train between Lexington/59th St. and Queensboro Plaza. I wasn’t able to collect my senses and get off to report the crime or report it immediately after, but I reported it to the NYC sex crimes hot line 2 days later and was able to go to the precinct and actually identify the perpetrator out of a mugshot.
Turns out he was arrested once before, three years ago, for a sex crime. I encourage women to report the crimes, no matter how small you may think they are, because you could be helping someone three or ten years from now to gain closure and press charges for another crime. A crime that could be worse than yours.
– V
Location: New York City
Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem. Include your location and it will be added to the Street Harassment Map.
My male partner once asked if I could share more stories on this blog about men who don’t street harass women and who work to end it. I would like to, but I don’t have very many. So today I am happy to have this story, from a male ally, to share:
“A young woman was on a metro train and a couple of teenagers started to tell her in explicit and profane language what they wanted to do to her. I told them they needed to leave her alone and stop using profanities in my presence. They did and moved on. I was happy to see that a couple of other men surrounding us on the train told me that they had my back should things have gone violent.”
Fortunately, these harassers did stop. By-standers run the risk of having harassers turn on them, which can deter many people – men and women – from intervening. It makes it all the more inspiring to read about those who take that risk and intervene anyway. Men, have you ever intervened or done something to distract a harasser when you’ve seen a woman being harassed?
I am writing a book on street harassment. In the second half of the book, I focus on various ways that women and men can – and are – fighting this issue and working to stop all street harassment.
After attending a panel yesterday for work on organizations that are engaging men as allies in ending gender-based violence around the world, I was inspired to write a short, informal, anonymous survey for male allies where they can share their thoughts specifically on how best to reach men on this issue and engage them in ending it.
Male allies, please take a few minutes and share your thoughts on this topic:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7SS33XL
Also, feel free to share any stories on by-stander intervention in the comments of this post or via an anonymous form.
As any woman living in or visiting NYC, or as anyone reading the website HollaBackNYC will know, street harassment is a major problem there.
Public transportation is one of the hot spots for such offenses. The NYC Transit says there have been 587 reports of sexual offenses in the subway system so far this year, mainly on the Lexington Avenue 4, 5 and 6 lines. Harassment and assault are very under-reported, so the real numbers are far worse.
For more than a year, New Yorkers for Safe Transit have been working specifically to make the subway and bus systems harassment-free. For example, for over a year there have been anti-sexual harassment print ads and, for almost a year, audio ads on several subway lines, thanks to their efforts. Recently they testified at a hearing on sexual harassment on public transportation.
Their continued pressure and activism is leading to more efforts on the part of NYC’s transit system.
Lastly, here are recent tips released by the NYPD for dealing with sexual harassment on the subway:
Kudos to the New Yorkers for Safe Transit for keeping on the pressure and to the MTA and NYPD for stepping up their efforts to make subways safer and freer of sexual harassment.
Over the recent Adha holiday in Egypt, there were about 300 reported cases of sexual harassment in public spaces against women, varying from verbal taunts to assaults.
Last year over the Septemeber holiday Fitr, 150 men and boys were arrested for a harassing spree in the streets of Mohandeseen in Cairo. A few of the men who assaulted girls and cut their clothes were taken to court and one was sentenced to a year in jail.
While the sexual harassment of women in public spaces in Egypt is a major problem and one which the Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights brought to light last year, the problem is increasingly becoming associated with feast holidays. The LA Times reports that contributing factors may be that thousands of people enjoy spending their free time outdoors, younger generations face less-strict scrutiny from their parents during feasts, and police security is usually softer than it is throughout the rest of the year.
In good news, women’s rights groups have worked with Georgette Kellini, a Member of Parliament for the ruling National Democratic Party, to prepare a draft law for sexual harassment that Kellini will introduce in the next session. The new law would legally define the harassment and it would include a number of deterring penalties for perpetrators. Hopefully it will pass and help people realize sexual harassment is unacceptable, including during holidays!