Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Archives for August 2012

Full Video of “War Zone” Online

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For the first time, if you are over 17 years old, you can access the full version of the ground-breaking street harassment documentary War Zone online. The 76-minute documentary was originally released in 1998 by Maggie Hadleigh-West, who turns her camera on men in the same way that they turn their aggression on her.

Please note that in addition to showing potentially triggering street harassment scenes, near the end of the film there is an extremely jarring 9-1-1 call by a rape survivor that may be triggering to survivors and their loved ones.

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Azerbaijan Video: “Hey man, be a gentleman!”

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It’s always heartening to hear about male allies who are speaking out and organizing against street harassment all over the world. One of them is Jake Winn, a Peace Corps volunteer and a youth development facilitator in northern Azerbaijan, on the Russian and Georgian borders. He is also a member of Peace Corps Azerbaijan’s WID/GAD (Women in Development/Gender and Development) executive committee.

He wrote me this morning saying,

“Inspired by your ‘Shit Men Say to Men Who Say Shit to Women on the Street,’ some of my male students made their own Anti-Street Harassment video. The title, “Ay Gardash! Kishi Ol!”, can be translated to, ‘Hey man, be a gentleman!” We now plan on distributing the video throughout the country, along with a lesson plan and discussion questions for other volunteers to use with their own students.

Street Harassment is quite a serious problem in Azerbaijan, as well. Hopefully, this video will have a positive impact on many Azerbaijani communities.”


I will post English subtitles soon.

WAY TO GO Jake and the youth you’re working with!! I hope your video and lesson plan has an impact in Azerbaijan and inspires similar efforts by male allies in other countries. Keep us updated!

I also want to give a big shout-out to Bix Gabriel, Joe Samalin, and everyone they worked with to produce the original “Shit Men Say to Men Who Say Shit to Women on the Street” video. Not only has their video brought a lot of attention to the problem of street harassment and how men can be involved in ending it, but it’s inspired at least three videos – the Azerbaijani video and videos produced in San Jose, CA, and Cairo, Egypt.

Thanks to the Internet, you never know who will see your work and be inspired to take action, too 🙂

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Street Respect: “Good Morning” in Brixton, London

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This is part of the series “Street Respect. “Street respect” is the term for respectful, polite, and consensual interactions that happen between strangers in public spaces. It’s the opposite of “street harassment.” Share your street respect story and show the kind of interactions you’d like to have in public in place of street harassment.

I was walking down the road and walked past a garage. As I went past, one of the men smiled at me and said, “Good morning.”  Obviously I smiled back and also greeted him. He then said, “You look beautiful today.”

I smiled, said thank you, and walked on. End of the interaction, and I had a great smile on my face for the rest of the walk!

– Anonymous

Location: Brixton, London, 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.

[Editor’s note: While this blog contributor felt respected by this interaction and that is great, many women would not because it entailed an unsolicited evaluation of her appearance by a stranger and that is something men generally don’t have to deal with. Since not everyone would feel respected by this interaction, if you’re unsure how to interact with someone on the street, I suggest making a gender-neutral comment. If you want to pay someone a compliment about how they look, to be safe, say it to someone you know or say it after you’ve been talking to someone for a few minutes.]

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“Glasses look to keep Israeli women out of sight”

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Even though this excerpt sounds like it’s from an article in The Onion, it’s actually from an Associated Press article!

“It’s the latest prescription for extreme ultra-Orthodox Jewish men who shun contact with the opposite sex: Glasses that blur their vision, so they don’t have to see women they consider to be immodestly dressed.

In an effort to maintain their strictly devout lifestyle, the ultra-Orthodox have separated the sexes on buses, sidewalks and other public spaces in their neighborhoods. Their interpretation of Jewish law forbids contact between men and women who are not married.

Walls in their neighborhoods feature signs exhorting women to wear closed-necked, long-sleeved blouses and long skirts. Extremists have accosted women they consider to have flouted the code.

Now they’re trying to keep them out of clear sight altogether.

The ultra-Orthodox community’s unofficial “modesty patrols” are selling glasses with special blur-inducing stickers on their lenses. The glasses provide clear vision for up to a few meters so as not to impede movement, but anything beyond that gets blurry – including women. It’s not known how many have been sold…The glasses are going for the “modest” price of $6.”

What a sad state of affairs. I guess the one positive is that the glasses don’t further restrict women’s mobility or rights…

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Snapshot of street harassment stories, news, announcements & tweets: August 12, 2012

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Campaign volunteers used graffiti on Pyramid Street in Giza to speak out against harassment. Photo courtesy of "Atta Eedak" via Al-Shorfa

Read stories, news articles, blog posts, and tweets about street harassment from the past few weeks.

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Street Harassment Stories:

Share your story! You can read street harassment stories on the Web at:

Stop Street Harassment Blog

HarassMap in Egypt

Bijoya in Bangladesh

Resist Harassment in Lebanon

Ramallah Street Watch in Palestine

Name and Shame in Pakistan

Safe Streets in Yemen

Many of the Hollaback sites

Street Harassment In the News, on the Blogs:

* Heeb Magazine, “A Woman’s Guide to Hasidic Street Harassment“

* New York Times, “For Women in Street Stops, Deeper Humiliation“

* Khabar Southeast Asia, “Nepali youth combat “Eve teasing” with awareness“

* Al-Shorfa, “Egyptian women organise against harassment“

* Ms. Blog, “Street Harassment Fuels a Viral Documentary“

* Powered by Girl, “My new perspective on street harassment“

* Good Women, “A Story On Confidence, Compliments, And Street Harassment“

* Feminspire, “A Letter To The Guy Who Catcalled Me On The Street“

* The Independent, “Whistling, pinching, “sweetheart” – it’s all harassment“

* Princess Lasertron, “how a collective of female friends helped me stand up to street harassment“

* Happy Paradox, “A Conversation About Street Harassment“

* The Onion, “Weird, Area Woman Wasn’t Harassed Today“

* Week Woman, “Twitter Reveals How Far We Have To Go Before Street Harassment Ends“

Announcements:

New:

*

* Vote for Hollaback Philly’s transit ad project

Reminders:

* Activists in South Africa launched a new website about street harassment

* The anti-sexual harassment public service announcement signs are now up in several Washington, DC metro stations!

* Help fund a new film about street harassment

* The Stop Street Harassment book is available in paperback for $15.

* Submit art about street harassment for the VoiceTool Product exhibit in San Francisco, CA

* The Adventures of Salwa campaign has a hotline for sexual harassment cases in Lebanon: 76-676862.

* In Bangalore, India, there is a helpline for street harassment 080 – 22943225 / 22864023

* Report #streetharassment in Pakistan at @NameAndShamePk, email nameandshame@ryse.pk, SMS 0314-800-35-68 or online at http://www.nameandshame.pk

15 Tweets from the Week:

1.@Sister_Storm #streetharassment is alive and well especially in hot weather. I wore these clothes so I wont melt in the heat NOT for your benefit #endSH

2. @Distorted_Moth Oh, French douchebags. It’s sure that if you whistle to me like you’re calling a dog, I’m gonna strip and suck your dick. #streetharassment

3.@puellaradical @sydneyanderson keep men on their own island so they can catcall each other

4. @maropetro I don’t know why I thought wearing a sweater on the way to the bus stop would keep me from getting hollered at. #endSH

5. @ellistuhler Surely the sidewalk-biker who craned his neck to catcall a teenager learned a lesson in karma when he subsequently crashed into a mailbox.

6. @adelin Sometimes I wonder when I make kissy sounds to dogs I meet on the street, if that’s the doggy equivalent of a catcall. #harassment

7.@BlondeonaBeach Why do men equivalent to my dads age feel its ok to yell/catcall/whistle at me and my friends..

8.@nualacabral Just had a dialogue with #Poppyn about #streetharassment. We have to engage the #youth if we want to see change. Powerful discussion. #EndSH

9. @SpookSquad Leaving store about to cross to parking lot, four dudes in black car stop in middle of road to block/yell at me. #StreetHarassment @hkearl

10. @plitter I will never understand why some men think it’s okay to catcall, or why some women are okay with being on the receiving end of it. #ugh

11. @demonista Belgium film on street harassment strikes a chord across Europe http://gu.com/p/39gxz/tw READ and WATCH THIS. “public” domain is still male.

12.@colorlessblue A guy i actually liked smiled respectfully and i frowned at him in reflex before i realized it! STREET HARASSMENT RUINS EVERYTHING!

13. @nehedari wild goose chase in haifa. amazing how “romantic” street harassment is near arab bus station. “I will kidnap u, marry u, make many babies”

14. @habibahamid Hate it. Chased in cities, cars for miles, on foot RT Street harassment and power of hard evidence v @RizMC @helenlewis http://j.mp/NQyOjF

15. @silverspeakers Last night’s #streetharassment started w cat calls. Then… Me: “we’re not walking here for you.” dudes: “Boooo! Unghhh!”

 

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