Our new board member Lindsey is also behind Cards Against Harassment. Check out orangeurhood #16Days cards she made that you can download, print and distribute.
16 Days of Activism: Day 5
16 Days of Activism: Day 4
From our friends at Take Back the Tech:
“How do you challenge existing inequalities by speaking up? When you voice your thoughts, do you face threats and abuse? How is violence used to disrupt solidarity and collective action where you are? How do you fight back?
From women critiquing culture to girls posting selfies, the more visible a woman is online, the more abuse she faces. And the more digitally connected we are, the wider our risk. Whether it’s a stranger tweeting threats or a partner monitoring mobile phone activity, the aim is to silence and control us. Additionally, such violence is often sexualised and aims to make us feel isolated and alone.
Violence against women attempts to restrict freedom of expression. It’s difficult to participate in the public sphere, contribute to culture and decision-making or critique policies and systems when we are fearful. We may not even be able to dress or dance or celebrate the way we want to. The internet is becoming an increasingly important public space, and violence is a real threat—a strategy to narrow our capacity to participate in and define the space.
Yet exercising our right to freedom of expression is critical to ending violence and promoting other rights. We can only create change by speaking up, making it visible, exchanging information and building solidarity through communication.
As part of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, Take Back the Tech! invites you to help us reframe the conversation about violence against women as a violation of our fundamental human right to freedom of expression.
TAKE ACTION!
-
Documentation
Build knowledge on how violence is used as a strategy to silence. Use your mobile phone and interview women and girls where you live on what, when and how they are silenced through violence. Share them with us and tag them #takebackthetech. (As always, get consent before publishing.) -
Solidarity
On 29 November, join us in commemorating the women human rights defenders who are silenced through various tactics of violence, including removal of their channels of communication. We will create a digital quilt with messages of solidarity, adding our voices to their resistance to silencing. -
Resistance
How have you responded to online violence? What actions did you take? Strengthen our capacity to fight back and challenge violence by sharing your strategies of resistance. Blog your story, chat with us on Twitter @takebackthetech or write your own 10 tips for challenging violence and safe communications and tag us!
Don’t let violence silence us. Speak out! Take back the Tech!
10 Things For Which I’m Grateful
During this week of reflection and gratitude, I want to take a moment to give thanks (by the numbers). Thank you to:
1. The 231,000 unique visitors to the website (since January 2014) and the nearly 20,000 Facebook fans and 10,000 Twitter followers who are educating themselves about this issue and engaging in important discussions.
2. The thousands of people in 25 countries that took action during International Anti-Street Harassment Week in April.
3. The approximately 300 people who are helping us document and better understand the issue by sharing their street harassment stories on the blog this year.
4. Our 200+ total donors to SSH who made the largest national street harassment study (released in June) and our 2014 Safe Public Spaces Mentoring Program possible.
5. The journalists who wrote 200 articles citing SSH this year, bringing more public awareness to the issue.
6. Our 35 Blog Correspondents who collectively wrote more than 100 articles this year to highlight what street harassment — and activism against it — looks like in their communities.
7. The 30+ people who have volunteered time and talents to SSH over the year, including the SSH research report advisory committee and volunteers. We run on your generosity!
8. Our 16 board members (across the two board terms) who help with media interviews, take on street harassment projects, and give fundraising help.
9. Six Safe Public Spaces Mentoring Site groups who have taken on major anti-harassment programs in India, Kenya, Nepal, Nicaragua, Serbia, and the USA.
10. The many, many organizations, groups, and individuals worldwide who are speaking out against street harassment. SSH is honored to be in your company, to collaborate, to cross-promote, and to do what we can collectively to make the world safer.
Wishing you a peaceful and Happy Thanksgiving (if you celebrate).
16 Days of Activism: Day 3
No matter who you are and where you go, being safe in public spaces should be your RIGHT!
