• About Us
    • What Is Street Harassment?
    • Why Stopping Street Harassment Matters
    • Meet the Team
      • Board of Directors
      • Past Board Members
    • In The Media
  • Our Work
    • National Street Harassment Hotline
    • International Anti-Street Harassment Week
    • Blog Correspondents
      • Past SSH Correspondents
    • Safe Public Spaces Mentoring Program
    • Publications
    • National Studies
    • Campaigns against Companies
    • Washington, D.C. Activism
  • Our Books
  • Donate
  • Store

Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Home
  • Blog
    • Harassment Stories
    • Blog Correspondents
    • Street Respect Stories
  • Help & Advice
    • National Street Harassment Hotline
    • Dealing With Harassers
      • Assertive Responses
      • Reporting Harassers
      • Bystander Responses
      • Creative Responses
    • What to Do Before or After Harassment
    • Street Harassment and the Law
  • Resources
    • Definitions
    • Statistics
    • Articles & Books
    • Anti-Harassment Groups & Campaigns
    • Male Allies
      • Educating Boys & Men
      • How to Talk to Women
      • Bystander Tips
    • Video Clips
    • Images & Flyers
  • Take Community Action
  • Contact

Archives for July 2012

“Then of course they harassed us”

July 26, 2012 By HKearl

Around midnight on Saturday, a new female friend and I walked one block to a pub in Elmswell, UK, so we could use the restroom. We were back early from a wedding reception to “decorate” our friend’s (the bride) camper and we were locked out of the house until everyone else returned.

We chatted and laughed as we walked until a group of 10 drunk teenage boys loitering along the road talked to us. At first all they said were hello’s and even though I felt like they were about to harass us, we politely said hello back. And then of course they harassed us. It was the typical “yeah baby,” and “ooh sexy” crap.

I paused and shouted, “Hey, don’t harass us,” and then there was silence. But then one of them said (I think), “That’s a shit haircut.” Which is funny since our hair looked great since we’d just left a wedding (though we were no longer in wedding attire, just sweatshirts and pants). Maybe he said something else. I don’t know. We just kept walking.

After using the restroom, we met up with three other friends who’d walked to the Pub separately, including two men. When we told them what happened (and I said, see, that’s what I’m always speaking out against!) they said we needed to walk back together in a group, strength in numbers, blah blah.  So we did.

The harassers started off with their hello’s again, but this time we did not fall for it and ignored them and they basically left us alone. Oh except one of them started following us. We turned into our friend’s long driveway and watched from the shadows to make sure he kept on going.

I studied abroad in the UK seven years ago, and I eventually stopped going out with my flatmates to pubs and clubs because I got so sick of the harassment. At the clubs, many men had no problem grabbing you or grinding on you without warning or asking for your consent. I was in the UK just over 48 hours on this visit and I was disappointed I had to deal with some of the same crap.

I was also sorry that the woman I was harassed with (a very nice mutual friend of the bride I had not met before), who runs and travels alone a lot, was so resigned to the behavior. “There are places I know I can’t go alone as a woman,” she said. And I said, “But isn’t that messed up? Shouldn’t we be allowed to go anywhere and not have to worry about harassment or assault? Why is that just accepted?” And she thought about it and agreed.

– Holly

Location: Elmswell, Suffolk, UK

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem.
Find suggestions
for what YOU can do about this human rights issue.

Share

Filed Under: Stories, street harassment

I Rode the Ladies-Only Subway Car in Cairo

July 25, 2012 By HKearl

Women ahead of me board the Ladies-Only Car in Cairo

Recently I went to Egypt for a vacation with my dad. It was a great trip full of history, culture, and meetings with anti-street harassment activists. When we had two hours free on our last afternoon, I suggested we take a subway ride.

I’ve spoken, read, and written about women-only public transportation for years, but I’d never actually seen one before. I wanted to. I knew Cairo had women-only subway cars.

On a crowded subway platform in downtown Cairo on a Wednesday afternoon, groups of Egyptian women clustered together under brightly lit blue signs that read, “Ladies,” while men and a few women spread out across the rest of the platform. Once a subway train arrived, everyone rushed to board. Most women piled into the “Ladies Only” cars, designated by red signs above the doors. I joined them.

A few women assisted me when my bag got stuck in the closing doors. While it is not unusual to see women without head coverings on the streets, on the subway, as I looked around, every woman was wearing a hijab. Sweat poured from our faces because the car had no air conditioning on a 110 degree day. No one talked, but one woman, who was getting off at the next stop, gestured to offer me her seat. I thanked her, but I didn’t take the seat as I got off at the next stop too.

Talking with the nice woman who wished me a good visit when I got off the Ladies-Only car

Leaving the train, masses of bodies churned past each other. One woman sought me out and spoke to me in English, asking where I was from and wished me a nice stay.

Next, I rode in a regular car where I was one of only three women among a mass of men. The two other women were accompanied by men who protectively wrapped their arms around them. I felt much less comfortable there than I did in the ladies-only car, in part because I was so out of place. While most men left me alone, one man standing next to me stared at me the entire two minutes. I avoided making eye contact with him and was relieved to leave the train at the next stop.

Most people in the United States are shocked when I tell them that other countries have resorted to women-only public transportation because sexual harassment is so bad. From the research I did for my book about street harassment, I know that countries ranging from Japan and Mexico to India and Egypt have subway cars and/or buses reserved just for women in their major cities.

While I’ve heard women say they are glad when they can ride in the women-only cars and take a break from being on guard and wary of male passengers, I don’t believe it should be the solution. The solution should be an end to harassment!

First, logistically, segregation does not solve the problem of harassment. Often the women-only transportation is only offered during rush hour and on major lines, throughout the day and city, most women must use the regular trains and buses. Platforms and bus lines are not fully sex segregated, nor are the streets people walk to reach the buses or subways, so there are plenty of opportunities to endure harassment. Sometimes men just get on the women-only cars anyway. (An Egyptian woman on Twitter just told me that a group of feminists in Egypt take videos of men who ride in the ladies-only car and post them on this YouTube Channel.)

The platform sign in Cairo

Second, from a gender equality standpoint, it’s a frustrating that governments think the solution is gender segregation. Don’t we want integration and equality? Would segregation ever be considered a solution for race-based harassment? Why is it when it comes to men sexually harassing women? (If we do have to have sex segregation, should it be to segregate the harassers into their own subway cars and buses? Once you harass, you get stamped so everyone knows where you belong?!)

Instead, I think the governments and community groups should focus more effort on teaching respect in the schools, holding awareness campaigns, encouraging people to report harassers, and enforcing punishments for the worst perpetrators.

In Washington, DC, I am proud that I recently helped pressure the transit authority to do something about sexual harassment on our Metro train and bus system. At the suggestion of myself and others organized by Collective Action for Safe Spaces, the transit authority launched an anti-harassment public service announcement campaign, improved their employee trainings, and created an email address and online report form for incidents of harassment. These tactics do not place the onus on women alone to stay safe (e.g. some men say if women aren’t in the women-only cars, they’re “fair game” for harassment) and they provide people with constructive ways to deal with harassment.

What are your thoughts about women-only public transportation?

Share

Filed Under: street harassment Tagged With: Cairo, Egypt, ladies-only, women-only public transportation

15 Article Catch-Up: “Women are people, not objects”

July 24, 2012 By HKearl

"Fierce new graffiti in Zamalek | Cairo, Egypt | June 23, 2012" Photo taken by @mayaalleruzzo

I’m back in the USA after 10 days of international travel, and I’m playing catch-up. Part of my catch-up is reading through google alerts and combing twitter for street harassment news.

I’ve come across many compelling articles… here are excerpts from 15. And by the way, they’re all just from the past five days. Heartbreaking, huh.

First, please sign the petition: Stop Sexual Violence Against Women in Egypt!

* The Washington Post, “Street harassment: Time for women to talk back”

“What upsets me most is the look on a harasser’s face when he’s said something hurtful. When I look past his sexually aggressive stare and see a self-entitled sneer. This isn’t flirting. It is verbal abuse. They aren’t interested in me, or any of the women they taunt. They do this because they think they can. They believe that women are defenseless, and are amused by our embarrassment and disgust. Every time I shut one of them up, I take a bit of my power back.”

* Spark Summit, “I’m Not an Object, and Neither Are You”

“I’m not buying that street harassment is something that is a result of any particular country’s culture, nor that there are stereotypical womanizers who can be identified by their society of origin. Obviously I am also not buying the idea that I should be flattered by being whistled at by some creeper yelling at me across four lanes of speeding traffic. As a tribute to the man last Thursday who ran his hands through my hair when I was walking through a group of people and the guy this weekend who touched my face and made me cry, I think that this is a topic worth talking about. I want to let everyone know that I am not an object to be touched and whistled at in the street. I’m not an object at all. Women are people, not objects.”

* Open Democracy, “Street sexual harassment: breaking the silence in Yemen”

“Young women’s rights activists are using new media to give a voice to the 90% of Yemeni women who face street sexual harassment. Yet support for the campaign has been far from unanimous; it has come face to face with a new form of patriarchy in the media, says Ghaidaa al-Absi.”

* The Star, “Women always have to be alert to the threat of sexual assault”

“We are a relatively affluent, well-educated society with myriad social supports, annual Take Back the Night marches, and most everyone has access to newspapers and cable shows that reflect the general consensus that violence against women, especially sexual violence, is abhorrent. Who could possibly still be unclear about that? We don’t live in a war zone. Why were two women sexually assaulted near my home this month?

I can’t begin to imagine what rationales go through people’s minds when they choose to violate another human being. But talking to my friend on the ride home, we both learned something about sexual violence in Canada.

He, a progressive, worldly, compassionate man realized that I, a savvy, independent, self-assured woman, have to watch my back every night that I go out. Some situations call for more vigilance than others. Some days I may not even be conscious of my vigilance. I’m used to weighing my odds. But until that conversation, I don’t think it had occurred to him that I, like most women, weigh my odds all day, every day to one extent or another.

Until that night, I hadn’t realized how literally foreign that experience is to my straight, white, male friend.”

* Team AWOT, “Street Harassment FAQs: An Imaginary Conversation”

Lauren Bravo breaks down why street harassment isn’t a compliment. The ending:

“So, if in doubt…

Say nothing at all. Yep, ’fraid so. And I hate to break it to you, but nothing catastrophic is going to happen if you DON’T toot your horn at that girl in the sundress. Her day will carry on perfectly well without you shouting ‘Awright sexayyy’ out of the window. If anything it will probably be better.

Wouldn’t it be nice if one day we could just tell women we think they’re beautiful without them feeling scared or objectified or pissed off?

Yes. Yes it would.”

* Faerye.net, “The 5 Stages of Street Harassment”

1. Denial.
2. Fleeing.
3. Victim-blaming.
4. Stubbornness.
5. Blog fodder. Just another lovely reminder, folks! Patriarchy Makes Every Day Special!

* A year of living sensibly… “On silence”

“In reality, it happens no matter what I wear. It happens when I’m dressed up, when I’m out jogging, when I’m wearing jeans and trainers. It happens because it is not my choice.

For anyone who thinks it is just a bit of fun and that your freedom of speech is threatened, can you see how it controls me? Where is my freedom? To walk where I wish, to dress as I wish, to feel safe as I wish? How can those wishes threaten your freedoms?”

* Feministssa, “Street harassment – part of our daily life”

“In the past, I normally gave a fake telephone number to men who asked me for it -just to be polite. In an attempt to minimise the number of times I was harassed,I even became careful about how I dressed, I watched my conduct when I was in public and tried as much as possible to be inconspicuous. I have however realised that street harassment has got nothing to do with how women look or behave when they are in public.  Street harassment has got everything to do with a society that endorses men to validate the appearance and conduct of women. I have therefore learned to stand up for myself and tell men who harass me to stop it.”

* Week Woman, “The Threat Of Rape – Why Tosh and Sarkeesian’s Trolls Mustn’t Silence Women”

“But what those who defend the right for men to publicly treat women as sex-objects in the street forget, is that women don’t just live with lewd comments, which can perhaps be shrugged off, they live with the real threat of sexual violence. Every day. And sometimes it really is hard to tell the difference between the two.”

* Miss Worded, “TW Street Harassment: An arm out a window still scares me 24 hours later”

“If you want to give me a compliment, stay the fuck away from me.  Give me the compliment of my autonomy and respect my desire to walk down the street unharassed.  Work hard to change YOUR behavior even harder than the way I have to try and train myself to run and not freeze in fear.  Anything else is your contribution to a culture of harassment.”

* NancyM, “It feels like this is how it’s always going to be”

“Living for the past fifteen years in a country where sexual harassment is such a rampant problem that a rally for women’s rights was attacked by men, I had somehow come to assume that this daily harassment was something peculiar to the city I called home. I thought that these little day-to-day assaults – that aren’t really little at all but we learn to brush them off, just so we can actually step out into the street again – were products of culture, or poverty, or anything that simply didn’t exist in cities like Washington DC. It’s these small attacks, that chip away at the feeling that you deserve to be treated any better than this, that I didn’t expect to find here. I couldn’t have been more naive.

Gorman reminded me that walking while female in Egypt is the same as walking while female anywhere in the world – it means that, at any moment, you could find yourself on the receiving end of unwanted attention.”

* Cis white female, “On street harassment: if I wanted you to touch me, you’d know about it”

“I am following the example of many other feminists who have decided to record incidents of sexual harassment in order to raise awareness of the issue and to prove that it does happen often and in a range of circumstances. I’d encourage others to do the same; hopefully by doing this we can encourage people to talk about it when they do encounter unpleasant behaviour rather than feeling ashamed, and to prove to skeptics that this is a real and ever-present problem. Hopefully, this kind of attitude can go some way to tackling the myth that sexual harassment only happens to certain people and in certain circumstances, or that it only happens to people who invite it in some way. I’m certainly not willing to take any share of the blame when some douchebag decides he’s going to touch me without my permission; because if I wanted you to touch me, believe me, you’d know about it.”

* For Harriet, “Summertime, Sundresses and Street Harassment”

“I love and hate sundress season all at the same time. I love being comfortable in the summer, wearing pretty dresses, and showing off my curves. I don’t like being harassed because I don’t respond to a man’s advances in the manner he wished I would.

I have heard men say ‘If you don’t want that kind of attention, don’t wear what you’re wearing.’ I’m not a fan of that logic. Since when does our choice of clothing give men the permission to harass a woman?”

* Fem2.0, “Feeling Safer on The Metro – WMATA’s Anti-Sexual Harassment Campaign”

“DC’s ad-campaign is modeled after Boston’s MBTA’s award-winning anti-sexual harassment reporting and awareness efforts. It also joins other public transportation operators in U.S. cities including New York City Transit and the Chicago Transit Authority who have sought to acknowledge and tackle this issue by issuing PSAs. Some cities, such as New Delhi, India where I grew up wary and discouraged to use public transportation because I was female, have tackled the issue of rampant sexual-harassment on their metro system by providing women-only train cars. It’s an idea that is practical given the harsh realities of Delhi’s female-unfriendly culture, yet flawed in theory because it doesn’t serve as a deterrent to gender-based sexual harassment.”

* ABC 7, “Walking While Female: D.C. woman’s sexual assault blog post goes viral”

“A D.C. woman who was sexually assaulted in Dupont Circle last week spoke out in a blog post that went viral…Liz Gorman, 25, says hundreds of women have contacted her, many sharing their own stories. ‘You should feel comfortable talking about this, going to the authorities, shining more of a light on this.'”

Share

Filed Under: News stories

“How do you think you look”

July 24, 2012 By Contributor

I was walking home from the tube today, a street away from my house. Summer’s finally arrived in Britain, and I was wearing, for the first time in months, a T-shirt outdoors. Either this fact or that I have half sleeve tattoos was reason enough for the two huge guys walking on the opposite side of the street to start shouting aggressively at me across the street.

This was one of those rare occasions when I wasn’t mad at myself for not saying something in retaliation: I kept walking, headphones in, pretending I hadn’t even noticed them. Because really, how do you think you look as two large men shouting at the tops of your voices at a tiny girl across the street?

– Jen

Location: Turnpike Lane, London

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem.
Find suggestions
for what YOU can do about this human rights issue.

Share

Filed Under: Stories, street harassment

Toronto Man Says: To prevent sexual assault, Toronto should legislate women’s clothes

July 23, 2012 By HKearl

In response to several recent sexual assaults at York University in Toronto, Canada, Al-Haashim Kamena Atangana, a 33-year-old Islamic convert and street cleric, says the answer is to legislate women’s clothes.

Via the Toronto Sun:

“You should take your example from the way Muslim women dress,” he wrote. “Why does (sic) Muslim women who wear long dress and covers her head aren’t targeted for sex attacks?…If (women) want to prevent being sexually assaulted, they should cover themselves,” said Atangana, adding that while he doesn’t expect Western women to dress as Muslim women do, they should have a “dress code” and take note of the burka the head scarf and face veil some Muslim females wear.”

He suggests that “Toronto (become) the first city in North America to introduce laws that would make it illegal for women to dress provocatively.”

Thankfully, the Toronto Sun quotes intelligent people who poke holes right through his assertions and suggestions.

Readers of this blog know the drill: street harassment and sexual assault doesn’t happen because of what we wear, they happen because the perpetrators are abusing their power and acting disrespectfully. I just visited Egypt and I saw first-hand that it’s not about what women wear. In public places in Egypt, most women are veiled and every woman is very modestly dressed (I got to wear pants and long sleeve shirts in 110 degree weather), yet every single woman has a harassment story.

After reading this story, yet another one about a man in Toronto blaming women for men’s harassment and assault, I’ve got to ask, what is up with men in Toronto?

* In January 2011, a representative of the Toronto Police stated, “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized.” This led to Slutwalk Toronto and countless SlutWalks around the world.

* In October 2011, after school officials reported a man who was harassing girls on the way to school, police advised them to tell their female students to only change into their school uniform once they arrived at school.

* In February 2012, a woman reported harassers in her neighborhood and the police told her to grow a thicker skin.

* In March 2012, the Toronto Globe & Mail newspaper published a horrid piece by an older man who wrote on and on about how great and acceptable it is to leer and objectify young women in public places.

Share

Filed Under: News stories Tagged With: sexual assault, street harassment, toronto

« Previous Page
Next Page »

Share Your Story

Share your street harassment story for the blog. Donate Now

From the Blog

  • #MeToo 2024 Study Released Today
  • Join International Anti-Street Harassment Week 2022
  • Giving Tuesday – Fund the Hotline
  • Thank You – International Anti-Street Harassment Week 2021
  • Share Your Story – Safecity and Catcalls Collaboration

Buy the Book

  • Contact
  • Events
  • Join Us
  • Donate
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2025 Stop Street Harassment · Website Design by Sarah Marie Lacy