April marked the 9th year of International Anti-Street Harassment Week! Read the new wrap-up report and view the photos of actions that were taken in over 30 countries!
In 2011, when I decided we needed a dedicated time each year for groups and people across the world to speak out together against street harassment, I didn’t envision how many groups/people that would entail across the next nine years, or that entities like the UN, Oxfam and PLAN International and government agencies would join in. It’s breathtaking.
I also didn’t know how many hundreds of hours I’d spend to run the Week. This is the 9th year that I managed the Week unpaid, while simultaneously working a day job. This year, I also needed to parent a one-year-old with health issues who was about to have his 4th and 5th surgeries, so I couldn’t put as much time into it as I had in prior years (I am typing this at 6 a.m. on a Sunday while he sleeps). Last year, I was two weeks away from giving birth and very sick while overseeing it and so I also did less than in previous years. The year before that, I unexpectedly was in the midst of an IVF process and had an egg extraction on the last day of the Week — I was RT-ing and sharing people’s actions from the hospital room before I went under anesthesia.
I care about this issue so much that I’ve continued to organize and speak out even when I’ve had to juggle these huge, personal-life issues (and a day job).
Even before the personal challenges of recent years, each year I always feel so exhausted from preparing for and overseeing the Week that I think, “This is the last year I’m doing it.”
But, then, each year, I feel exhilarated by the amazing actions that have taken place and the solidarity and awareness-raising it inspires. I am in awe by the creativity of groups who are involved and the dedication to the issue exhibited by people worldwide. The positives of the Week have always outweighed the toll it takes on me and my life, so each year, I decide, “Okay, I can oversee it one more time.”
And I do.
This year, I’ve made a new decision. It truly is untenable for me to keep overseeing the Week indefinitely, especially unpaid, so the action in 2020 — which will be the 10th consecutive year of global action — will be the last. Ending International Anti-Street Harassment Week at a decade feels right, and I am so proud of all that we as a community have achieved across that time.
I hope you will mark your calendars for the final year of action – let’s close out the decade of global activism with a splash! Join us from April 19-25, 2020.
