The second annual International Anti-Street Harassment Week starts three weeks from today! Find out what it’s about, why it matters and what you can do to participate :
Transcript:
Hi my name is Holly Kearl. I’m the founder of Stop Street Harassment and the main organizer of International Anti-Street Harassment Week.
I recently spoke at a high school class in New York City, and one by one, the girls shared recent experiences of unwanted sexual harassment in public spaces by men they did not know. One girl said just the day before, a man had followed her on the street and then came up to her and grabbed her stomach! She ran away frightened. Another girl said that recently a man groped her when she was on the subway on her way to school. She now feels so unsafe on that subway line that she never takes it and goes out of her way just to get to school safely.
They, like at least 80% of women and girls around the world experience street harassment. This is unwanted sexual harassment in public spaces that ranges from unwanted leering, whistling, honking, persistent asks for a date after you’ve said no. It can escalate into sexually explicit comments, following, groping, and even sexual assault.
Gender-policing or harassing someone because of their perceived or actual sexual orientation or gender expression is also street harassment. This happens to women and men worldwide and it’s also not okay.
Street harassment is such a pervasive problem. It limits women’s and girls’ and some men’s access to public spaces. It limits where they can go and when and how safe they feel.
At the end of December, we saw a horrific example of this. In India, a young woman was taking the bus home with her male friend from the cinema when a group of men on the bus started harassing her, and then her friend when he defended her. It escalated into a brutal gang rape that led to her death.
The world was outraged, as they should be, but this happens every single day.
Girls and women and many men are unsafe in public spaces. This is a human rights violation. This is a gender equality issue. No country has achieved gender equality and no country every will as long as we do not have the same access to public spaces, the same level of comfort in public spaces, as do most men.
So what can we do about it?
I invite you to participate in International Anti-Street Harassment Week from April 7-13, 2013. Tens of thousands of people around the world are speaking out about this issue. We recently saw One Billion Rising in February where groups spoke out against gender violence. And now this is a specific initiative to speak out against street harassment, which is probably the most common form of harassment and gender violence women face in the world.
But too often it’s dismissed as a compliment, as no big deal, or as women’s fault because of what we’re wearing. And that has to stop.
And it can stop with each of us by sharing our stories online and offline. By passing out information about what street harassment is, how to be a good bystander when we see it happening, and how to have consent and respect on the streets.
A really easy way to participate is to get a group of friends together and write pro-respect sidewalk chalk messages in your community.
To learn more, to find ideas, and to sign up to participate, please visit www.MeetUsontheStreet.org. Everyone deserves safety in public spaces, so join us, speak out, and meet us on the street!
