Archives for December 2015

Romania: High School Girls and Boys for a City without Street Harassment!

December 30, 2015 By Contributor

This post is from our Safe Public Spaces Team in Bucharest, Romania. The SPSM projects are supported by SSH donors. If you would like to donate to support the 2016 mentees, we would greatly appreciate it!

Ta-naaa! We’ve completed the Mentoring Program and we are happy because it was a great experience for us, as activist and working in the NGO sector and for the high school students as well! Thanks to Stop Street Harassment Mentoring Program we had this amazing chance to meet teenagers girls and boys and to speak with them delicate subjects like violence and street harassment.

During the time between August and December 2015 FILIA Centre, a feminist NGO from Bucharest, Romania, implemented the project “High school girls and boys for a city without street harassment!” financed by Stop Street Harassment NGO.

We are Simona-Maria Chirciu, Stefania Vintila and Loredana Valcianu, members of the FILIA Centre and we gladly complete the Program Mentoring with great success and smiles. We’ve organized three workshops for 60 high school teenagers from the Technic College of Aeronautics “Henri Coanda” in Bucharest. We talked with the participants about discrimination, equal opportunities, violence against women, and street harassment and the activism against it all around the world. The principal from the high school and the female teacher who runs the department of Program and Projects of this institution and also some of the teachers were very open regarding the subject we wanted to address and regarding our project. We had their full support in implementing it and we are very grateful for this.

We encouraged the participants to get involved in the discussion by giving examples of discrimination, violence and harassment from their own experience or from the experience of their friends. They were interested by the subject mostly because we were talking about experiences that happened to them or to their loved ones too, experiences about nobody talks about. In Romania street harassment represents a taboo: nobody talks about it, many men deny it and some women barely if they have courage to complain about it to anyone who is not their friends.

At the end of the workshops we organized a contest: the high school boys and girls could use any material to depict street harassment as a form of violence. We encouraged them to show a solution that in their opinion is suitable for the Romanian context in order to prevent or to end street harassment against women. The teenagers were very interested and did their best for this contest. They created videos, drawings, essays, and powerpoint presentations and a poster as well. Their perspectives were so interesting and the way they see equal access to the public space for men and women helps us to incorporate their experiences in everything that we organize on this subject in the future.

In the implementation of this project we had the support of our former volunteer Aila Veli and our colleague Mihaela Sasarman from Transcena Association, an NGO in Romania, who has many years of experience working on the issue of violence against women and specifically working with perpetrators.

The girls and boys who participated offered us a very, very positive feedback about our interaction with them, about the way we presented the subject and about the way we involved them in the process of defining the role each of us has to create a society free of harassment in public spaces. They asked us to return to their high school soon with workshops to talk about rape, teenager relations and other subjects from the same domain.

We are grateful for all the support from Holly and Stop Street Harassment! We, as a team evolved and learned so much. Indeed, working with teens on street harassment issue is challenging but so rewarding! We recommend this kind of experience to other activists on street harassment worldwide!

Simona-Maria Chirciu, Stefania Vintila and Loredana Valcianu are members of the FILIA Centre.

Nov. & Dec. 2015 News Round-Up

December 29, 2015 By HKearl

I haven’t made time to do news round-ups over the past two months (!!) but finally, here are some global highlights of stories about street harassment, broken out by country.

Afghanistan:

“On one recent weekend in Kabul, I sat on a ratty couch in one of the city’s beauty parlors, one of the few safe spaces for women in Afghanistan. Squeezed between a pile of handbags and a five-year-old boy waiting for his mother’s curls to set, a dozen women turned to look at me.

“Repeat your question,” one of them commanded. “Have any of you been sexually harassed in public?” I asked. The parlor exploded in bitter laughter. “Get ready,” Mariam said to me. “If you ask each of us, you’re going to fill that notebook of yours.”

The types of public harassment they described ranged from sexually charged comments about appearance, indecent whistling, and physical attacks like groping, pinching, and slapping. In Afghanistan, this objectification and mistreatment of women is all too common. Research shows that nearly nine out of ten Afghan women are forced to endure such treatment. And there’s seemingly nowhere for them to go. Women are harassed and assaulted in quiet areas when no one else is around, but also in busy public places like bus stations, markets, shops, and parks, where there are plenty of aiders and abettors.”

Australia:

Congrats to our ally MP Fiona Patten whose proposed legislation passed. The legislation “makes it an offence to film people without consent or block access to footpaths, roads and vehicles within the zone around GP clinics, hospitals and other health services offering abortions.”

Brazil:

“How old are young girls when they are “first harassed” by men? Women in Brazil are reflecting on their own childhood experiences – and sharing these stories on the internet in big numbers….

The tag ‪#‎primeiroassedio has been used more than 90,000 times, with women and girls sharing the stories of their first encounter with public sexual harassment. “At 11, I was heading to my dance class and a man touched my bottom,” tweeted one. “13 years old. I was going to the supermarket. Heard from a gentleman that I already had ‘beautiful boobs.’ ‪#‎firstharassment,” said another.”

Costa Rica:

“Cruz was best known as the man who confronted another man for filming an upskirt video in San Jose. He was then stabbed multiple times two days later while walking through San Sebastian…The upskirt videographer has been caught before and even received death threats. Mr. Cruz spent weeks in intensive care and was only able to communicate with blinks and eye gestures. He passed away in the hospital. He is survived by his partner Karol Zúñiga who is expecting a baby girl in 12 weeks.”

So tragic! A life that never should have ended this way or for simply challenging street harassment. Our thoughts go out to his loved ones and friends.

Egypt:

“Uber has announced it will start collaborating with HarassMap خريطة التحرش الجنسي, an Egyptian anti-sexual harassment initiative founded in 2010, to train its drivers in how to “recognize, prevent and take positive action” against inappropriate behavior. The training, which will be compulsory for all the app’s drivers, will be particularly important for female drivers, according to Uber’s Cairo general manager, Anthony Khoury. “This partnership has been done as a response to the general education and training needed against sexual harassment here in Cairo,” he said. “Education is key, which is why this partnership – and the training that comes with it – is a crucial step in stopping sexual harassment.”

France:

“Stop – That’s Enough!” This is the tagline used by the French government in an active push to stop sexual harassment on public transport.

The government launched the awareness campaign on Monday together with rail operator SNCF and Paris transport chiefs RATP. It will see flyers handed out and a set of posters put up in key places around the capital, encouraging victims and witnesses to speak out with confidence about sexual harassment. The campaign also aims to remind the culprits that sexual harassment is punishable by law and groping can lead to five years in prison.”

India:

“What do women do when faced with sexual harassment on the streets [of Mumbai]? According to a recent survey of 1,000 women conducted by the We the People Foundation, 34 per cent glared or reacted verbally, 15 per cent asked bystanders for help and 35 per cent did nothing.”

Iran:

“TNS: What should be done then to counter the problem of street harassment? How can we ensure safety of women in public spaces in a broader sense?

HH: The fact is that veil isn’t the solution. The political will to end harassment is the solution because in the context of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the veil hasn’t actually helped. Today if a veiled woman walks in a street in Egypt, relative to the 1980s when I was there, she would face as much harassment as a woman wearing western style clothing… because most women are also wearing the veil anyway. So it no longer signifies class like it used to. It was adopted in a way to negotiate, but when everybody does it, the value of negotiation comes down.”

Italy:

“Over 10 million tourists are expected to visit Rome during the Holy Year of Mercy. Hundreds of security men in uniform are patrolling our streets in order to protect the citizens. But when it comes to a girl strolling all by herself, it appears that the stereotypical Italian male traits take precedent over any official role. It’s an attitude that may Italians are used to, but it could prove uncomfortable for foreign visitors. We filmed a young woman walking on the streets of Rome all by herself, and we asked women – both Italian and foreigner – what do they feel when comments come from law enforcement men (video by Fabio Butera)”

The Philippines:

“The ‪#‎FreeFromFear social media campaign is part of the program that aims to resolve the problem of women experiencing street harassment. Through the campaign, women share their experiences to raise awareness and join calls for the end of street harassment. The incidents are very common in crowded spaces like public vehicles where people are sitting or standing very close to each other.”

Morocco:

“A man was reportedly left unconscious for more than two hours after being knocked out by a woman whose bottom he had pinched. CCTV footage taken in the town of Inezgane in Morocco shows the woman wearing yellow robes and standing next to a motorcycle when the man approaches. The balding attacker then moves close to the victim and appears to grope her bottom. Without missing a beat, the woman spins around and delivers a single punch to the back of the unidentified man’s head, sending him careering into a stack of rugs in a nearby shop.”

UK:

“What traveling with a man taught me about street harassment à ‘Not having to deal with this bullshit and all the other seemingly harmless infractions in between has made me realise just how pernicious it is, just how unfair. These past four months of freedom have taught me that what I accept as life in London is unacceptable. I’m not yet sure if this realisation, this newfound intolerance, is a good or a bad thing. All I know for sure is that I’m not looking forward to finding out.’”

UK:

“A group of teenage girls are taking action to stamp out groping at venues – in a drive to make live performances safe spaces for music fans of both genders. The five girls aged 15 to 17 – Hannah, Ava, Anna, Anni and Bea – launched Girls Against last month to raise awareness of sexual assaults at concerts. Their ultimate aim is to eliminate mosh-pit groping “for good”. In the short term, they want to see the perpetrators identified and stopped from entering future gigs. With several indie bands including Peace, Slaves and Wolf Alice backing the campaign, and more than 7,000 Twitter followers, the girls are already claiming practical results in their drive to create a zero-tolerance approach. ”

USA:

“In the window of a gallery in San Francisco’s Mission district, Mirabelle Jones paced the enclosed space in nothing but nude underwear. Razor blades suspended from balloons hung just over her head. In this pink-tinted, claustrophobic exhibition, the San Francisco performance artist stripped down and endured a barrage of real (recorded) catcalls. For eight hours. The idea behind the exhibition To Skin A Catcaller is to change what we see when we hear the term “catcall.”…

In its rawness and brutality, Jones’s performance showed the reality of street harassment that women encounter everywhere, especially in supposedly pedestrian-friendly cities like San Francisco or New York. This is why women have a newfound sense of urgency in the ongoing effort to effect change by, say, criminalizing street harassment and finding effective ways to prevent these all-too-common attacks on our personal safety. Misogyny in America is not a neat and tidy issue. It’s the kind of trauma that sticks with you and festers until you’re a little afraid to go anywhere alone.

Jones’s exercise in exposure speaks to the sad fact that most victims of a sexual assault do not file a police report. When people try to excuse catcalling as harmless or downplay it as a compliment, it only increases trepidation about seeking help for fear of being blamed or slut-shamed. The reality is that being sexually harassed makes women feel exposed, vulnerable, defensive. Catcalling is ultimately somewhere between micro-aggression and actual threat, the kind of imperative grey area that sometimes only art alone can translate.”

USA:

“Gay, bisexual, transgender and queer men need to elevate their own narratives and use the examples provided by feminism to stage sustainable interventions and engage in consciousness raising about eradicating toxic masculinity from the community once and for all.

The community has long prided itself on celebrating and enjoying an array of sexual proclivities, but not every unsolicited advance, or act of sexual aggression, is fun for every man. The only reason that’s hard to recognize is that we’re still being held back by the heterosexual masculinity that so much of queer culture has worked to reject. We must foster community that celebrates a healthy, pleasurable sexuality – one that respects bodies and boundaries.”

USA:

“”We do an annual Halloween rally every year to protest against street harassment and rape culture [in Santa Barbara, CA],” fourth year global studies and feminist studies double major and TBTN Co-Chair Ashley Morgan said. “It gets pretty hectic during the holidays; there’s a lot of grabbing and sexual comments that are very much unwelcome. We just want to make sure that people understand that’s not a joke, it’s not a compliment — it’s violence.”

The demonstration began at 11 AM at Harold Frank Hall, and students marched to the front of the UCen. Several groups of people touring campus looked on as participants chanted “Hey-Ho, Hey-Ho, Catcalling has got to go,” “Whistles are for dogs, not for women,” “However we dress, wherever we go, yes means yes, no means no,” among other statements.

“We’re having a safe space this Friday and Saturday from 10 PM to 2 AM in the Pardall Center,” Morgan said. “We’re going to have…advocates there as well as CAPS counselors for anyone; it’s specifically for sexual assault, but it’s also for anyone that’s feeling unsafe or triggered.”

Canada: Video – “Dear Stranger”

December 29, 2015 By HKearl

Watch “Dear Stranger,” created by Hanna Cortés, a student at the Vancouver Film School.

Hanna wrote the following about the project:

“Dear Stranger” is a project that reflects the situation of a woman being harassed on the streets. It was inspired from watching lots of women (including myself) feeling uncomfortable when walking to work, school or just home.

One evening, I was getting ready to go to a bar close to my place and I realized how much I change my clothes to try to “not grab attention from men.” I thought it was absurd, because that night I wasn’t even showing that much skin. I was wearing a simple skirt and a plaid shirt. I was confused but decided to be myself and that’s what I’ve been doing. It shouldn’t matter how much or how few clothes you are wearing, people should have respect for others.

I hope this video helps men understand how bad it is for a woman to be followed, looked at and talked to without any respect. I encourage women to be themselves everyday, that’s a beautiful thing, and it should not be taken away because of someone in the street.

Again, thanks so much to Stop Street Harassment for their everyday labour. Thanks to Holly Kearl for all the support.”

Thank you for using your talents to bring attention to this issue, Hanna!

USA: Bodies on the Threshold: Violence against Sex Workers

December 29, 2015 By Correspondent

Hannah Rose Johnson, Arizona, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent

“The body of the sex worker is one that does not have personal boundaries. Someone who people penetrate all the time. Just like air penetrating the skeleton’s body,” says Maggie Palmer of Hey Baby! Art Against Sexual Violence! in Tucson, AZ, of her latest art piece.

“The skeleton has no skin layer, which centers the mis-perception that sex workers can’t experience street harassment because they are not fully human.” The skeleton sculpture exists in liminal space, she says. “It’s not what we identify as a body, and is clearly a body.” This is symbolic of the ways in which communities deal with gender violence and the deconstruction of heteronormativity and compulsory heterosexuality.

Maggie started the piece for December 17th, the International Sex Workers Day of Remembrance. The purpose of the piece is to use the red umbrella, the chosen symbol of resistance for sex workers, and incorporate themes of invisible bodies through the use of the skeleton. The skeleton has dual meanings–violence against sex workers and intersectional identities such as immigrant, drug users, trans bodies, and people of color. She says, “It centers that violence against sex workers is violence against other marginalized identities. By invisibilizing violence against sex workers, violence is invisibilized against these other identities.”

The cultural narrative built around sex workers is that their bodies are disposable and live in the margins. It is purposeful that Maggie hangs the skeleton in public spaces rather than enclosed buildings. Sex worker bodies are pushed to the margins and bringing the sculpture into the street recenters those margins. She says, “The skeleton’s boundaries are permeable. There is an idea that the dominant power structure is surveilling marginalized bodies…and that the marginalized body is fundamentally flawed. Flaw creates circumstance, as opposed to looking at institutionalized racism, transphobia etc. If you are not fully formed, you have created this. And if you conform to society’s expectations, you don’t have to live a marginalized experience.”

What I find so interesting is that thinking about circumstance invokes the value of choice. But choice is not a factor when we look and name systems and institutions that are built on racism, neoliberal economics and heteronormativity. Maggie and I agree that neither lived experience of survival sex and sex work as a choice is more or less valid. “The sex worker body loses the right to consent,” she says. When a body loses the right to consent, that body has no boundaries. If a body doesn’t have boundaries, acts of violence are justified. Social systems, the way we treat “normal” bodies versus “perserve” bodies reflect gender violence that is bound up in racism, neoliberal economics, citizenship status, HIV status, gender identity and sexual orientation. This is uncomfortable, which Maggie demonstrates in her sculpture.

“The way the sculpture moves in space is disorientating. It swings back and forth, it is a hanging piece. It blows around and does unexpected things you can’t control. This symbolizes how disorienting it is for communities to deconstruct heteronormativity,patriarchy, and gender violence. It forces us to get into a space of ‘unknown.’”

Maggie says that street harassment, a form of sexual violence, is a way in which to subjugate and turn bodies into commodities for aesthetic pleasure. And street harassment sometimes punishes for not being aesthetically pleasing enough. This sculpture breaks that gaze, and shocks it. The viewer is reminded of what gender violence and sexual violence really is. She tells me that the skeleton is very exposed, and so is street harassment and sexual violence. Maggie says, “The skeleton is calling upon who has the right to privacy. Marginalized do not have access or the right to privacy.” The viewer can see right through the skeleton, can see the landscape and city scape right through the ribs and behind the torso.

She says, “This piece is representative of the continuum of violence and social constructs that make violence against sex workers possible.”

The sculpture is currently back in a bag in a closet somewhere in southern Arizona.

Hannah Rose is writing from Tucson, Arizona and Lewiston, Maine (US) as she transitions from the Southwest to the Northeast for a career in sexual violence prevention and advocacy at the college level. You can check her out on the collaborative artistic poetic sound project HotBox Utopia.

France: Comic Exhibit is Spreading Far!

December 29, 2015 By Contributor

This post is from our Safe Public Spaces Team in Lyon, France. The SPSM projects are supported by SSH donors. If you would like to donate to support the 2016 mentees, we would greatly appreciate it!

The Stop Street Harassment mentoring program comes to an end with the holiday and we must confess, it’s so good to rest! Especially so when having accomplished everything you had in mind and more, and looking forward to even bigger developments!

From a material point of view, we’ve manage to print three copies of our exhibition, all on thick laminated paper. Two in size A4 and one in size A3. This allowed us to use it in different places at the same time and, since the posters are very light, to send it via regular post without any difficulty. Also, the city council of Grenoble, who displayed it on huge panels, was so thrilled about the outcomes of the project that our contact asked us permission to re-print the version we came up to together on roll-ups and already booked six one-week-long exhibitions in different places of the city for 2016.

We’ve received several other requests for renting our exhibition, coming from city councils, universities, high schools or non-profit organizations. The variety of organizations wishing to use it is proof to us that street harassment is an issue that a lot of people feel concerned about, as everyone should, that people are ready to speak up whenever offered an opportunity to do so and that public representatives are willing to broach the subject with us. The latter has been proved recently by the French government launching a campaign on his own against sexist harassment in public transportation. We feel very proud to have achieved such a recognition of the problem.

Since our mid-way blog post in October, we have had time to compile the many feedback we’ve got from places we showed our exhibition and from its visitors as well. And it has been very positive ! People reported that this was a really fun way to approach such a subject and, whatever the age or profile of the visitor, having learned or discovered at least one thing they’d never thought about. Here lies the real achievement for us, and it was great to collect all kinds of comments.

Last but not least, our project is far from done, and it fills us with joy and great expectations ! Stop Harcèlement de Rue is composed by several groups in different cities, and some of them feel comfortable to use the exhibition for their school workshops and presentations. So it will be sent to Paris and another city yet to be chosen. But the big news is we made a new partner, the team organizing the Lyon BD Festival, a comics festival taking place in June. Together, we’ll launch a fundraising campaign at the beginning of February to be able to pay new artists for added posters and design to the exhibition. We’re already in touch with half a dozen of illustrators and comics authors who are willing to participate. The augmented exhibition will be printed on big roll-ups and presented during the week of the festival in a well frequented place in the city center. We will then use this new version for our own events and workshops.

So this has been four exciting months for us, we feel that we’ve been able to start making a difference on the street harassment matter and that strong enriching partnerships have emerged and will allow us to continue.

We wish to thank Holly and Stop Street Harassment again for their support and kindness, and hope we’ll be able to meet in the flesh someday!

Anne Favier co-directs Stop Harcèlement de Rue – Lyon.

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