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Archives for January 2014

USA: From Egypt to Baltimore — Meet Us on the Streets

January 31, 2014 By Correspondent

Brittany Oliver, Baltimore, MD, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent

Photo from the event “The Egyptian Revolution: It’s Context, the Feminist Movement, and the 3 Years Since”

Last week, Egyptian feminist Nana Elhariry and DC-based Arab/Muslim writer Rami el-Amin shared their personal reflections at the event “The Egyptian Revolution: It’s Context, the Feminist Movement, and the 3 Years Since,” held at Red Emma’s Bookstore and Coffeehouse in Baltimore, MD.

Both women were distinctively able to recall instances of street harassment they witnessed during the movement. They mentioned that women were subjected to vulgar remarks, insults, indecent exposure, stalking and fondling despite advocating for the same issues among their male counterparts. I attended because I wanted to learn about the experiences women faced during the Egyptian Revolution and, aside from reading about it, I wanted to have a face-to-face discussion about it.  Their mentions of street harassment definitely hit home for me.

The reason why I connected with these instances so much is because I’ve experienced street harassment myself and I know others who have as well, but who are afraid to speak out about it. Because these acts are very likely to happen if you are a woman, walking along the streets of Baltimore at certain times can get very scary. And with the countless number of stories, reports and facts, you would have to wonder – what exactly is Baltimore doing about it?

According to Stop Street Harassment, studies around the world show that 80 to 100 percent of women experience street harassment. In a study of 811 women from 23 countries, almost one in four had experienced street harassment by age 12 (22%) and nearly 90% by age 19. So, there should never ever be an issue on whether or not street harassment is a current form of gender-based violence because the research and facts are there. It’s an issue that more people need to be educated on because not only is it rarely reported, but also the least legislated against.

So what IS being done? Aside from Stop Street Harassment, Hollaback! Baltimore is a local movement of activists who are making some serious moves to ending street harassment within the area. Just this week, Hollaback! Baltimore hosted a Street Harassment 101 workshop for the volunteers of Repair the World, which was intended to help them become better allies to the movement.

One of the best ways to stop street harassment is by educating as many people as we can on ways to better interact with women and LGBT individuals in our communities. As Baltimore ranks as the seventh most dangerous city in the country, I still believe there are a lot of actions we can take to make it a better place to live. We may not be able to change it all at once, but every bit of work towards making our streets safer will help make a difference for the future.

March 30th to April 5th will be the 3rd annual of International Anti-Street Harassment Week and I’m looking forward to seeing what activists in Baltimore will do in continuing the fight.

Brittany Oliver is a recent graduate of Towson University and works in the non-profit communications sector and supports local anti-street harassment advocacy through Hollaback! Baltimore. She blogs at brittuniverse.wordpress.com and publicly rants on Twitter, @btiara3.

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Filed Under: correspondents, Stories, street harassment

Survey: Harassment Common in Public Spaces in Bangladesh

January 30, 2014 By HKearl

Here’s another study showing just how common street harassment is — this time in Bangladesh.

Via The Daily Star:

“Women almost regularly face sexual harassment in public places, mostly on streets, in markets and on public transport, according to a government survey.

About 43 percent of the 12,600 women surveyed recently have said public places are the most common spot where they are sexually harassed.

The survey, jointly done by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and United Nations Population Fund, covered all the seven divisions of the country. The women were randomly chosen from city, urban and rural areas.

“I hardly know a woman who has not been verbally harassed or groped in the streets,” said Umme Nahar, an official of a private firm in the capital.
She claimed she was first groped at the age of twelve and that she is sexually harassed every day on the streets….

Asked for her comments, Ayesha Khanam, president of Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, said women’s attire was not the issue here. “Women wearing all types of clothing face sexual violence. It cannot be generalised that women wearing a certain kind of clothing face more sexual harassment,” she said.”

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Filed Under: News stories, Resources, street harassment

Nepal: Social Silence Toward Street Harassment

January 30, 2014 By Correspondent

Kriti Khatri, Nepal, SSH Blog Correspondent

The issue of street harassment is global irrespective of the society. Everywhere, girls are well acquainted with the street activities like eve teasing, whistling, kissing sounds, physical gestures and to worst,  verbal assault, sexual abuses, attempted rape and even murder. While the worst cases like rape and murder make big news, other activities remains not talked about.

Activities like eve teasing, whistling, catcalls or simple touching are never considered a big crime. These are daily things that happen, girls accept it as daily experience and at most they will try to change their route to avoid it. And our society takes it as a natural thing between girls and boys as if men have birth right to tease girls because they are men. The issue of street harassment is taken as a simple matter of “boys and girls things”. But is it just a matter of a boy and girl thing?

It would be, if it was limited to healthy flirting, which intimates people in a good way. But when any behavioral conducts in street becomes intolerable and uncomfortable to the bearer, it is harassment.  There are examples of such “boys and girls things” in street impacting a girl’s life forever. Such harassment puts the victims on lifelong consequences.

Most girls who are victimized of continuous street harassment lack self confidence and self esteem which hampers their social development. In fact, while a girl gets victimized of sexual abuses in street, she develops negative perception about adolescence and her sexuality. Many girls dislike their body just because they get to hear abusive comments in the street. For girls with obesity or other physical misshape, street harassment is prime reason to feel less confident and anxiety.

In most traditional society, street harassment is the reason why girls don’t carry themselves alone in the street.  Girls take any male partner either family member or friend when they need to go somewhere. Now with such habits, will girls ever get to be independent?

The impact of street harassment is known to everyone. But our society always holds its quietude in this matter. We only raise voice when some major incidents like rape occur. But had the rapist been stopped when he started catcalling girls, or punished for street harassment cases earlier, the incidents like rape might not have happen. No one foresee street harassment as the starting of such harasser becoming a rapist or a murder in future. Never have we discussed the issue of street harassment as crime.

Acknowledging how the issue of street harassment is discarded from social justice perspective, young girls in Nepal have initiated a social campaign against street harassment. The issue of street harassment is as much common to Nepalese street as it is elsewhere. Nepali streets are still consider safer in a perspective that not many women have reportedly faced severe street harassment incidents. But it is considered so because not many cases have been reported in legal documenting. The daily or so to say “naturally” taken cases like eve teasing, catcalls and sexual gesture is common in most streets of the capital city and to other metro towns of Nepal.

The organization called Astitwa foundation, founded by young girls has been addressing the issue and have pulled local authorities into the project. Astitwa foundation has approached Nepal police and Metro Police unit to take significant action against street harasser. The organization is in its early phase of the campaign in which sticker with public awareness messages against street harassment are being posted to public vehicles and public places. After Astitwa’s effort Nepal police also has shown keen interest in developing strategy to control such activities in street which hampers girls/women daily life and independency. The organization has also been able to provide justice to some severe cases of street harassment and Nepal police has take action against the doer.

Like Astitwa, many other organization are also raising their voices against street harassment globally. It can be an individual attempt or organizational, the need here is to conjointly work to stop street harassment activities. It is high time that our society and civil institution consider street harassment as an offend-able crime.

Societal silence towards street harassment is what exacerbates the situations. Whatever legal provisions are made to address the issue of street harassment, more meaningful will be the social concept and understanding of the issue being non forgivable act. Our society needs to discourage such activities by strictly acting against such inhumane act in public. Our society needs to accept street harassment as a hindrance to gender equality and women independence. We need to address it as a serious issue against women freedom and equality. For which, we need to break the silence and act upon it as a social crime.

Kriti Khatri is student of MSc chemistry. She is engaged in different social organization in Nepal and currently she is working on anti-street harassment issues with the Astitwa Foundation. Find more of her writing on her blog.

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Filed Under: correspondents

Laverne Cox on Harassment and Being a Trans Woman of Color

January 29, 2014 By HKearl

Via Feminism for All:

“Laverne Cox (Orange is the New Black) made a powerful speech about her experiences with street harassment, cissexism, sexism and racism as a trans woman of color.”

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Filed Under: LGBTQ, street harassment

“I am so sick of old perverts ruining everything”

January 28, 2014 By Contributor

My friends and I have been stared at and such multiple times by older men whilst walking around downtown before, but there are a few times that stick out in my mind:

Once my cousin and I were walking around and taking some pictures on my camera with the pretty buildings in the background, (we’re both 16) and she wanted me to step up and sit on a ledge for one of the pictures. I attempted to climb up and sit, and right then a wind blew and my flowy skirt flew right up for a second. I panicked and grabbed my skirt, hoping no one saw, but a group of construction workers walking by saw it and one of them winked at me. I felt so violated.

A friend and I were also hanging around the same area another time when we realized that two older men we had seen taking pictures in the distance had snuck up to a bush 20 feet behind us and were pretending to take pictures of the scenery around us but were actually zooming the camera in on our butts. They ran as soon as we glared at them. I am so sick of old perverts ruining everything.

– Anonymous

Location: Downtown Atlanta, GA

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