New Street Harassment Report in Kosovo

The report release event, photo via the Kosovo Women's Network site — The report release event, photo via the Kosovo Women’s Network site

The body of research about the prevalence of street harassment is growing! This week a new report was released in Kosovo.

Via NWPTV:

“The Kosovo Women’s Network recently published the country’s first national report on sexual harassment, and the research shows what Kosovar women have always known: street harassment affects women across Kosovo, regardless of geographical location, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and able-bodiedness.

Although most Kosovars know that sexual harassment is harmful, a disturbing 40 percent of both men and women think that young women actually enjoy being harassed. The majority of Kosovars still think that women’s dress and behavior causes sexual harassment, and not our country’s culture of male entitlement.

Kosovo’s feminists have tools that we didn’t have before, the first being this research, which quantifiably demonstrates that sexual harassment is real, widespread, and threatens the safety of women and girls. The second tool is an upcoming app which will allow users to report sexual harassment in real time and directly contact the police through an emergency button.”

The victim-blaming attitudes are indeed disturbing.

I went on to read the report summary, and here is information about how it was conducted and a few more statistics:

“The research involved a review of the legal framework, a survey of 1,315 Kosovo citizens in 2015 and more than 200 interviews with representatives of public institutions, civil society, and other key actors. The report concludes with recommendations for amending the legal framework and improving institutional response to sexual harassment.

48.5% of Kosovars have experienced some form of sexual harassment in their lifetimes.
64.1% of women report having experienced sexual harassment, 32.5% of men state that they have.
The most common form of sexual harassment reported by respondents is having someone make unwelcome sexual comments, jokes, or gestures to or about them, including while walking down the street.
- One in three women (34.2%) compared to only 1.6% of men had someone honk a vehicle horn at them while walking down the street.
- 46.4% of women and only 3.9% of men had someone whistle at them
- 26.4% of women and 3.3% of men had someone follow them
Women tend to be harassed more by unknown people in the street and friends than do men. Men are more likely to be harassed by friends than women.”

Good for the Kosovo Women’s Network for thoroughly researching this topic and bringing national and global attention to the issue. It’s harder to tackle a problem without data, so this is an important step.