“A man threw a glass bottle toward my student’s head last week, after she ignored his cat calls near Lehigh and Broad [in Philadelphia, PA]. As a result, her father has discouraged her from attending our after-school program, because she has to walk to and from the train alone.”
Nuala Cabral, one of the co-organizers of International Anti-Street Harassment Week (March 18-24), posted this on Facebook recently. This upsetting story illustrates the negative outcome gender-based street harassment has on the people who experience it and why it must end!!
It is a mere four days until the beginning of International Anti-Street Harassment Week and there is still plenty of time for YOU to get involved. Speak out and be heard on this human rights issue. Join the more than 100 groups from 18 countries and the thousands of individuals world-wide who plan to speak out online and in person and bring attention to the fact that street harassment happens, it negatively impacts our lives, and it needs to end.
GET INVOLVED:
* Visit the map to find information about planned action for March 18-24, 2012. If you’re an organizer, PLEASE add your planned action to our map so others can find it.
* Join the Facebook page for updates.
If you don’t see anything planned in your area (and more events are being added every day, so do check back), have no fear. There are many ways for you to be involved as one person or with a few friends.
3 Ideas for Personal Level Participation:
1. Talk about street harassment with friends/family/coworkers/classmates/neighbors. Share your stories with them. Make visible what’s been invisible.
2. Raise awareness online.
* Change your Facebook profile picture to be the Anti-Street Harassment Week logo (see example on the right, or visit the tools page to access logos in 13 languages)
* Write and post a street harassment story on a blog, Tumblr, twitter, or Facebook.
* Tweet about street harassment using #EndSHWeek. Join the #SheParty chat on March 21 at 3 p.m. EDT to tweet about street harassment. It’s organized by the Women’s Media Center.
* Take a photo of the clothes you were wearing when you were harassed and send it to www.gotstared.at
* Write an article, op-ed, or blog post about street harassment. [Idea Guide + special offer from the Op-Ed Project]
3. Put up posters, hand out fliers, or use sidewalk chalk to spread anti-street harassment messages. Here are ideas for messages for signs and a fact sheet with statistics. Here are fliers you can print and pass out. 1 | 2 Find posters near the bottom of the Tools page. Last year, many groups of just 2-3 people did this successfully. No matter the size of your group, you can make a difference.
