Archives for March 2011

[3.21.11 update: read how Anti-Street Harassment Day went!]

Here’s a sampling of the ways people around the world will commemorate International Anti-Street Harassment Day tomorrow, March 20. What are you doing?

“I plan to print pamphlets debunking anti-feminist myths about treatment of women in public domain while educating those who may not be in the know about anti-street harassment day and its real purpose. I’ll do this on the days leading up to 20 March in my community at the University of Cape Town.” – Thabs from South Africa

“Our action for Anti-Street harassment day will be a press release…a kind of public statement in conjuntion with an NGO ally.” – AtreveteDf Hollaback, Mexico City

“The planned activity is going to take place all over Egypt, volunteers will go in teams (men and women) to talk and raise awareness in streets where they live, our idea is to create safe zones for women, by volunteers talking to key persons in the street or the neighborhood, like shops, door keepers and those who are always around in the street, also transportation. By the end of the day the volunteers in different neighborhoods are expected to have talked to as many people as possible to create safe zones, change the street’s environment when it comes to sexual harassment acceptability, volunteers use our safe zones stickers, they show people the map’s printed picture and urge everyone to act positively.” – Engy Ghozlan, HarassMap, Cairo, Egypt

“I’ve reached out to our Gender Across Border contributing writers a bunch of them will be posting pieces on Sunday for International Anti-Street Harassment Day” – Emily Heron, founder Gender Across Borders, IL

“We have been designing a zine/pamphlet to distribute to girls of school age and women in colleges/work on how to deal with mental, physical and sexual harassment in public (ie. at school, at work, on the street, on public transport, in parks/any public space) and really want to circulate it as widely as possible once it’s done!” – Figs Head, United Kingdom

“We will go around the Delhi University north campus protesting and claiming for our space together with the Women Beat Constables of Maurice Nagar Police Station. Asmita, a theatre group would perform a street play at Vishwavidyalaya Metro Station at the end of the walk.” – Safe Delhi Campaign, India

“We at Hollaback Houston will be creating a video to illustrate how street harassment is NOT a compliment – by taking phone video (Hollaback! style) of victims of street harassment saying real comments that were used on them by harassers. These will then be edited together contrasted with co-directors reading real comments from the internet talking about how it IS a compliment.” – HollaBack Houston, Texas

“I’m a classroom assistant at Next Step Public Charter School in Washington, DC. I help with a night class for Spanish-speaking students who are working toward their GEDs. I spoke with the teacher, and our class is definitely going to do something on street harassment leading up to March 20.” – Kate, Washington, DC

“We are going to write a press release for the day and send it to our press contacts list, as well as write a one-pager to send out to our centers across the state about street harassment.” – Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault

“We will do tabling and do things like hand out the catcaller form (which I loved) to women or maybe even post it around campus to get people thinking about the issue.” – student at UC Irvine, California

“Despite not yet being a major Czech presence, Ozvi se!, the Czech leg of HollaBack! will do it’s best to honor Anti-Street Harassment Day not only by Tweeting and Facebooking but by organizing an informal gathering that we are confident will really help open doors and spread the word as to this massively underreported problem.” – Gail, Prague, Czech Republic

“To celebrate the first International Anti-Street Harassment Day, Hollaback PDX is hosting a screening of the film War Zone with a discussion to follow” – HollaBack Portland, Oregon

“We’ll be walking through the areas of the city where street harassment has been most prevalent for people I know, handing out flyers and sharing stories with anyone who is interested. Street harassment has been a huge problem here for as long as I can remember, and I’m hoping to open up a greater public dialogue about it and make the voices of those it affects heard.” – Rebecca, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

“I’ve encountered many people in the DC area who don’t seem to understand the magnitude of harassment here, and by participating in the DC Community Safety Audit it’ll help to bring more light to the issue. As a woman, I don’t feel as free to walk down these streets as I please because of the constant harassment I face, and I want to work towards making the streets safer in my lifetime.” – Dienna, Washington, DC

“Your dad and I are making anti-street harassment signs and fliers and will stand in an area where there is street harassment and hand out fliers and hold up the posters” – my mom, Queens, New York