Here are a few street harassment-related articles from the past week or so!
But first, some exciting news:
New Jersey Assembly Bill No. 3938 (to strengthen legislation so it includes up-skirt photos in public spaces) is scheduled for consideration by the Assembly Judiciary Committee on Thursday, March 05, 2015 at 10:00 AM in Committee Room 12, (4th floor), State House Annex, Trenton, New Jersey. We are proud to know & have inspired the actions of the assembly woman who introduced the bill.
In Swetha Kannan’s game Stasis, players must learn how to endure street harassment….Nivetha Kannan, Swetha’s sister and a fellow game designer who helped conceptualize the game, says that “when we were developing the system, we wanted to really focus on that repetition. When the speech bubbles block your path once or twice, it’s mildly annoying. The third and fourth time, it’s aggravating. But by the end, when the woman cannot walk very fast or far at all, it’s absolutely enraging.”
Kubra Khademi, a 25-year-old Afghan artist, wore metal armor as she walked the streets of Kabul for her artistic protest of street harassment called “Armor.”
After she was harassed, Indian teenager Rajkumari “stood by her demand that the boy himself apologize to her and be punished for his behavior. So, threatening legal recourse, the council gave him only one option. They required the boy to bow down and apologize to Rajkumari in the presence of the entire village, which he finally did.
Promising not to mistreat any girl again, the boy was given a chance to mend his ways or face police intervention. The incident not only brought the issue of “eve-teasing” and street harassment to the attention of the village council, it also strengthened Rajkumari’s confidence in her own power to demand respect and to create change for herself and others.”
“As a transgender woman and activist, I fight for people to understand that I’m just like any other woman. In reality, I’m not. I’m different. Not in how much of a woman I am, but because I actually know what it’s like to just run and to do so without fear.”
“A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy,” said one of Delhi college student Jyoti Singh’s rapists and killers.
“The interview [with him], which BBC Four will air on its Storyville programme to coincide with International Womens’ Day this Sunday, will be seen by women’s rights groups as compelling evidence of the appalling attitudes shown by many Indian men towards women.” Yes, so appalling!!!!!!!!!
Mantouching is “an assertion of one’s masculinity, at the expense of the personal comfort of those around you. When a man touches a woman without asking, he’s doing so because he feels entitled to access to her body. For him, it might feel like a meaningless or friendly gesture. After all, what’s the matter with touching the small of a woman’s back? It’s not like you’re sexually assaulting her.
But for women, it sends a different message. Nancy Qualls-Shehata of Patheos writes, “Your body is not your own, and any good ole boy can grab your butt and no one will stop him. Oh, and you have to pretend it’s OK even if you are seething inside. You have to smile and give him a friendly wag of the finger and hug him.”
“Men will only stop killing, raping, injuring and oppressing women if they change. That means tackling attitudes within their ranks that make possible the objectification of women, for instance, or which normalise violence against women.”
“Men in Azerbaijan have been posting photos of themselves wearing mini-skirts to protest against the murder of a Turkish woman who resisted rape.”