Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Making Street Harassment Connections in South Africa

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Hello from South Africa! I am here for my new job with the Aspen Institute’s New Voices fellowship. One of our current year fellows is Elsa D’Silva, an amazing anti-street harassment activist in India who co-founded Safe City two years ago.

One of last year’s fellows is writer Sisonke Msimang who wrote a very powerful New York Times oped last month on street harassment and backlash against African women advancing. She was briefly in town today and I got to meet with her, too.

Meeting role models, allies, compatriots in efforts to stop street harassment always makes me so happy 🙂

 

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Collaboration with Lyft

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Lyft connects people who need a ride with trained community drivers. Along with Collective Action for Safe Spaces and Hollaback!, next month SSH will be collaborating with Lyft on creating sexual harassment training videos for their drivers. They are also joining the White House It’s On Us campaign to address sexual violence. We are thrilled that Lyft is prioritizing this issue and committing to creating safer vehicles for passengers and drivers alike.

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SSH in Tucson and Toronto

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This week, SSH board member Manuel Abril distributed SSH materials in Tucson at an important conference. From Manuel:

“The Annual Youth and Peace Conference (YPC) is a unique Tucson event empowering youth to become courageous leaders and creative peace builders in our community. Youth violence is still considered by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to be an epidemic problem in America. Arizona’s youth violence and homicide rates are higher than the national average. I am an organizer of the Peace Conference but used my presence at the event to promote Stop Street Harassment’s mission as street harassment is often a young person’s introduction to the violence of public space. Public space is also the stage in which youth are called upon to internalize and enact their own marginalization when they curb or constrain their own movement to be safe.”

In mid-February, I spoke to a packed room at Centennial College in Toronto. Afterward, students could write pro-respect, anti-harassment messages on a poster for their campus.

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Iowa college student in hospital after intervening

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Our thoughts are with this brave student…

Via Iowa Public Radio:

“A group of men were harassing a woman in Ames when bystander Cale Truhlsen of West Des Moines stepped in to try and stop it. Truhlsen was attacked by the group…and he’s still in the hospital after suffering a broken nose, a black eye, and a hole in his intestine that required surgery….

Alan Heisterkamp, Director of Mentors in Violence Prevention Leadership Institute and the Center for Violence Prevention at the University of Northern Iowa, says Truhlsen did the right thing by intervening….He says it’s important to know your boundaries and not step in when you don’t think you can make a difference on your own.

‘At the end of the day, why do men harass women, and why do men assault other men who challenge those sexist or disrespectful behaviors? We have to have a conversation with our young men about this. I had three of my daughters go to Iowa State. I would have hoped if something like this had happened to one of them that someone like him would have stepped in.'”

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Turkey Marches and Tweets, Los Angeles Prepares for a Transit Campaign

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TURKEY: Last week, a mini bus driver tried to rape Ozgecan Aslan, a student at Cag University in the southern province of Mersin, when she was the last passenger. He beat and killed her, cut off her hands, burned her body and tossed it into a river. News of her grisly death sparked outrage. Over the weekend, thousands of people marched in black and online, the hashtag  #sendeanlat (#tellyourstory) trended as women shared their stories of harassment and abuse.

Via Al Jazeera:

“Women across Turkey used the hashtags to share experiences of public harassment, as well as incidents within the family, from adolescence through to adulthood.

Many said their lives were restricted by harassment and that they had to take precautions to avoid it, such as dressing more conservatively and carrying pepper spray.

Some said they have had to alter their routes on the street and get off public transportation to avoid harassment. Others said they have had to seek refuge in cafes and shops to avoid stalkers..”

USA: Peace Over Violence will be partnering with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority on an anti-harassment transit campaign in April!  A survey last year showed that 1 in 5 riders has faced unwanted sexual behavior. In the meantime: “Anyone who sees inappropriate behavior can call 911 or the sheriff’s hotline: (888) 950-SAFE (7233).”

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