“Video Showing Sexual Harassment of Two Girls in Saudi Arabia“
“A video that shows a group of young boys harassing two women in Jeddah’s Corniche sparked an outrage in social media last week. The video, which was uploaded to YouTube, went viral on social media, with statements denouncing the “barbaric” behaviour of these teenagers toward two veiled women on the Corniche.”
“Egyptian police arrest 29 men for sexual harassment during Eid: MOI“
“Police in Cairo have arrested 29 men for sexual harassment since the beginning of the Eid Al-Fitr holiday on Friday, Al-Ahram Arabic reported.
Police said one man was arrested for physically harassing a woman in downtown Cairo’s Qasr El-Nil area, while others were caught verbally harassing girls outside cinemas in the Roxy area in the district of Heliopolis.
During the three-day Eid Al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of Ramadan, families and young people often celebrate with outings to parks, cinemas, fairs and other public spaces.
Reports of sexual harassment and assault in crowded areas increase during the holiday.”
“141 sexual harassment incidents reported in 3 days during Eid al-Fitr“
“A total of 141 police reports were issued on sexual harassment incidents during Eid al-Fitr 2015, according to the National Council for Woman (NCW.)
“A total of 136 verbal and five physical harassment incidents were reported,” said NCW, noting that most of the girls dropped the reports.
NCW said it received 50 verbal harassment reports in Cairo and one physical harassment report on Sunday.
Moreover, Egyptian grassroots initiative “I Saw Harassment” published its final report on the sexual harassment during Eid al-Fitr; it stated that the rates of the harassment were higher than the feats of the last few years.”
“Ottawa [Canada] pick-up artist controversy fuels conversation about street harassment”
“What started out as a few tweets on Friday about an Ottawa pick-up artist who secretly films women has now evolved into a broader discussion about street harassment and personal privacy.
The Carleton University Sexual Assault Support Services Twitter account appears to be the first to sound the alarm about Luke Howard, a local hypnotist and YouTuber who engages in conversations with women on the street and uploads the encounter on the video sharing website.
In an interview with Metro last Friday, Howard said his videos are meant to show guys with social anxiety how to talk to women they’re attracted to in the daytime.
While Ottawa police have previously said secretly filming people over 18 in a public space is legal, women say what he is doing is unethical and constitutes harassment.
Soon after the public outcry, local women condemned his behaviour, which prompted him to hide his series of YouTube videos from public view.
At the time, Howard said he temporarily blocked his videos after receiving threats of violence online.
As his YouTube channel remained quiet on Sunday, there was a loud rumbling on social media that spawned the #corneredinottawa hashtag and a Twitter account of the same name.
Maya Shoucair, a woman who says she has been confronted by Howard on the street, said she hosted an informal meeting with about a dozen concerned women at her house on Sunday to discuss how to proceed.
“This is what it looks like when Ottawa women have had enough,” said Shoucair, referring to the social media uproar.
“We just want to feel safe in our streets.”
“After Anand Parbat stabbing case, alleged eve-teasers seriously injure Rohtak schoolgirl”
“A day after a minor girl died after being allegedly stabbed by two men in Delhi`s Anand Parbat locality for resisting a molestation attempt, a schoolgirl from Lonal village in Haryana`s Rohtak district on Saturday has sustained grievous injuries following an attack by three alleged [harassers] while she was on her way to school.
The victim has been admitted to a hospital in Rohtak where she is undergoing treatment for multiple wounds on her face and head. The girl`s relative said that a complaint has been lodged with the police, but lamented that no arrests have been made so far.”
“Montreal Police Tell Women To Not Take Taxis In The City Alone Anymore”
After a several women in Montreal came forward saying cab drivers sexually assaulted them, the police “said women should try to not take taxis alone, and to ‘limit their alcohol consumption and stay in control,’ as quoted by the Gazette. If you see a problem with this, then congratulations, you are a sensible person.”
One of SSH’s facebook followers said in a comment it to this story that “In response the STM (transit system) made an announcement reminding women that they don’t have to take the taxi because bus drivers will drop women (or men too) off as close to their house as they can at night if you just ask more than one stop ahead.”
“Men who harass women online are quite literally losers, new study finds”
“Michael Kasumovic and Jeffrey Kuznekoff, researchers at the University of New South Wales and Miami University, respectively…watched how men treated women during 163 plays of the video game Halo 3.
As they watched the games play out and tracked the comments that players made to each other, the researchers observed that — no matter their skill level, or how the game went — men tended to be pretty cordial to each other. Male players who were good at the game also tended to pay compliments to other male and female players.
Some male players, however — the ones who were less-skilled at the game, and performing worse relative their peers — made frequent, nasty comments to the female gamers. In other words, sexist dudes are literally losers.”
“One Perk of Older Age? Fewer Catcalls”
“I wouldn’t trade my quiet morning walks for the hellishness of my teen years for anything. But when you’re brought up to feel that the most important thing you can be is attractive to men, the absence of their attention – even negative attention – can feel distressing.”
“Activists Call On CTA To Post Anti-Sexual Harassment Campaign”
“Despite a high profile PSA campaign about Chicago [USA] Transit Authority courtesy, there are still no ads regarding sexual harassment. One woman is trying to change that and is being rebuffed along the way… Last year Kara Crutcher launched the “Courage Campaign,” which she hoped would bring attention to the issue of sexual harassment on public transportation. As DNAinfo reported at the time, her campaign was attempting to work with the CTA to produce advertisements to fight sexual harassment on city buses and trains and to bring more awareness to the issue….
Fast forward an entire year, and unfortunately those advertisements haven’t materialized. The transit agency’s ad company, Titan Worldwide, has a rule that states PSAs must be posted by a government agency or a registered nonprofit, leaving the Courage Campaign out in the cold. Crutcher and 15 girls from the female youth empowerment group “Girl World” recently met with CTA board members to talk about bringing such advertisements to the public transportation system.
At the meeting, Crutcher was frustrated by the fact that the conversation seemed to center around how to report incidents of sexual harassment, instead of how to create the ads, she said. Jaime Schmitz, a youth development specialist who works with Girl World, agreed, telling DNAinfo, “I don’t think people realize how hard it is for people to share a story like that. They’re under the impression that when you’re harassed it should be so easy to report. But a lot of the time it’s re-traumatizing.”
The point of the ads is to prevent the incident before it even starts, so simply reporting incidents doesn’t necessarily modify behavior, the women argued. While frustrated by the setback, Crutcher is not giving up. “I have no doubt that they care about the safety of their riders. I just think more can be done, and this is great vehicle to do so, and right now I can’t move forward,” she said.”
“Photographer charged with stalking Grand Rapids woman”
“A man whose picture went viral on social media is now being charged with stalking a woman in Grand Rapids. Thomas Chubinski, 69, is accused of recently harassing a woman who was walking with her daughter near Michigan and Diamond.
“I was just so terrified, I’m shaking. It was 2 o’clock in the afternoon,” said Emily Gray. She says Chubinski was driving slowly beside her. “He’s asking me all kinds of horrible things about my body, every body part you could imagine. I told him, ‘I’m just trying to walk my daughter.'”
Emily did not go to police, but a few days later she saw a post on Facebook about the same man. The woman who posted those pictures said he had taken pictures of her as she walked her dog in East Grand Rapids…
WZZM 13 News talked to Chubinski on the phone earlier this week. He said he didn’t remember an encounter with Gray, but he does remember the woman in East Grand Rapids. He admitted to taking pictures of her in public, but said he did nothing wrong. According to East Grand Rapids police, the woman in that incident never filed a police report. Chubinski says he’s a professional photographer who admittedly likes to take pictures of “beautiful women.” He has no criminal history.”
“The Brian Lehrer Show: The Unwelcome Harassment Women Face on the Street”
Holly Kearl, founder and executive director of Stop Street Harassment and the author of Stop Street Harassment: Making Public Places Safe and Welcoming for Women (Praeger, 2010), talks about what women are subjected to on the street to make them feel unsafe, from catcalls to groping, and how to end it.
Plus: Anthonine Pierre, Lead Community Organizer at the Brooklyn Movement Center, talks about the Center’s “Anti-Street Harassment Bike Patrol,” which is part of their “No Disrespect” campaign.
