“Peru’s Council of Ministers on Wednesday approved a bill amending Criminal Code to punish street harassment with the aim to protect children and women. The announcement was made by the newly-appointed Prime Minister, Ana María Jara, who expressed confidence that Congress will approve this initiative soon, as it is a “citizen outcry” intended to correct legislative omission. Meanwhile, the Minister of Women and Vulnerable Populations of Peru, María del Carmen Omonte, explained the bill amends sections 176 and 176-A of the Criminal Code to make street harassment a crime.”
“Over 60 percent of women are sexually harassed or assaulted while riding the Transmilenio. ‘Ya uno no se puede venir en falda ni nada porque los hombres nunca han visto unas piernas,’ or You can’t get on wearing a skirt or anything because these men have never seen [a woman’s] legs, one victim of inappropriate touching sarcastically told Noticias RCN. Luckily, the city of Bogotá is taking action. Its law enforcement branch created a team of 11 operatives who will be armed with Tasers and specially trained in recognizing and stopping sexual assault. Seven of the agents are female. Bogotá has a population of over 7,600,000, so that’s about 690,909 people per agent, but it’s a start. The very presence of the team could serve as a deterrent to repeat offenders.”
One of the most senior members of the Turkish government sparked an outcry on Tuesday, after declaring that women should not laugh loudly in public. The deputy prime minister, Bülent Arinc, one of the co-founders of the ruling Islamic-rooted Justice and Development party (AKP), made the comment while lamenting the moral decline of modern society. His comments provoked a storm on social media [and women posted photos of themselves laughing in public spaces].”
“The city government has implemented measures to try to make travelling safer or at least less horrific for women. The first three carriages on the metro are reserved exclusively for women and children, though this is not always policed. Since 2008, there have also been women only buses during rush hour, or anti-groping buses as they’re sometimes called. These are laudable and measures warranted in a country where violence against women is egregious, but clearly segregating women is not a long-term solution. Neither is sweltering in jeans and long sleeved tops on summer days in an attempt to protect yourself from harassment. Boys must be educated from a very young age to respect women rather than to want to own and violate them when they are older.
Being harried on the streets is at one end of the violence against women spectrum. More than 36,000 women have been murdered in Mexico between 1985 and 2010, according to UNIFEM and local NGOs. This includes hundreds of young women dismembered and murdered in Ciudad Juárez near the US border in the past few years. One women is raped in Mexico every four minutes, according to JASS (Just Associates), an international feminist organisation, that’s 120,000 a year. New laws to tackle the violence have not been implemented, which Amnesty International says has enabled impunity to persist. ‘The state of women’s rights in Mexico is alarming,” said Rupert Knox, from Amnesty International. “In recent years we have witnessed not only an increase in killings of women but a continuing routine lack of effective investigations and justice.'”
“Police in Brazil say the shooting deaths of 12 young women so far this year in the city of Goiania may be the work of a serial killer. The latest victim was a 14-year-old girl who was shot three times by a motorcyclist who drove up to her as she waited for a bus Sunday. Police inspector Murilo Polati told reporters Tuesday that all the victims were aged 13 to 29, had long hair and were in public places when killed. He says that in all the cases the gunman approached on a motorcycle, drew his gun, fired and fled without taking anything.”
“A Saudi survey has revealed that around 80 percent of people blame the rising incidents of sexual harassment in the country on the “deliberate flirtatious behaviour” of women.”
“A community panchayat has banned girls from wearing jeans and keeping mobile phones claiming that they were having a “bad” effect on them and were responsible for eve-teasing [street harassment] incidents.”
