Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Hey Bloggers: Join the May – July Cohort!

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DEADLINE EXTENDED TO MAY 28

Do you have something important and/or unique to write about street harassment?

Stop Street Harassment is now accepting applications for the second 2014 cohort of our Blog Correspondents Program. This is an unpaid, volunteer opportunity. It is a great resume-builder and chance to make a difference on an important global topic!  And your words will be read: the SSH blog has around 20,000 unique readers each month.

Assignment:

From May through July, correspondents in the second cohort must commit to writing one blog post per month about street harassment issues in their community, region or country. This means three posts total. The topics could include incidents of street harassment in the news, activism to stop it, interviews with activists, and street harassment in popular culture, traditions or the news.

We aim to have geographic diversity among our cohort members and people of all genders, ages, backgrounds and locations can apply.

Applying:

By May 26, 2014, please e-mail: 1) your name, 2) the region of the world or the USA where you’re from, 3) a writing sample of a blog post or article (in the range of 500-1000 words), and 4) a few sentences about why you want to be part of the Stop Street Harassment team.

If you prefer to write in a language other than English, please also indicate what language is most comfortable for you and you can send your writing sample in that language.

E-mail to: hkearl @ stopstreetharassment.org. Address it to me, Holly.

Applicants will be notified of the decision by May 28. Accepted applicants will then receive blogging guidelines, information about the submission process and a calendar to sign up for their dates each month.

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New Studies in Chile and Los Angeles

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As a researcher and public policy nerd, I love data, research and studies so I am excited that this week, there were two new studies about street harassment. These studies are important because they prove street harassment is a problem and they can lead to more awareness about these issues and better policies to address them.

Chile:

In an opt-in survey, the newly-formed Organization Against Street Harassment (OCAC) “found in its first study that almost 40 percent of Chilean women are harassed on a daily basis, while 90 percent of women reported having been harassed at least once in their lives.”

Los Angeles, California, USA:

“A Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority survey of nearly 20,000 passengers on the sprawling bus and rail system asked whether they felt unsafe during the last month while riding Metro due to “unwanted touching, exposure, comments, or any other form of unwanted sexual behavior.”

 

About 21% of rail passengers and 18% of bus passengers said yes. About 17% of bus riders and 13% of train riders said they felt unsafe while waiting at bus stops or train stations.”

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Egypt’s New Anti-Sexual Harassment Law

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At long last! This has been in the works for years.

Via Albawaba:

“Egypt’s cabinet approved on Wednesday a new anti-sexual harassment law…The cabinet had amended the law and sent it to the justice ministry for revision last month. The justice minister then revised it and sent it back to the government for final approval.

Previously, there had not been a specific law proscribing sexual harassment in Egypt. However, three articles in the penal code were sometimes applied in cases of sexual harassment.

The new draft states that a sexual harasser is one who “accosts others in a public or private place through following or stalking them, using gestures or words or through modern means of communication or in any other means through actions that carry sexual or pornographic hints.”

The new law punishes sexual harassment with a prison sentence, a fine or both.”

Thoughts?

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Street harasser arrested in Egypt

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Verbal sexual harassment in public spaces is now illegal in Egypt. This is how one woman used it to stop her street harasser.

Via Egyptian Streets

“An Egyptian court has sentenced a man to one year in prison and fined him EGP 10,000 (1,427 US dollars) for verbal sexual harassment, reported Aswat Masriya.

The man, in his 20′s, had been accused of verbally harassing a woman at the Dokki Metro station. The woman reported the incident to a local police station where a report was filed and charges were laid.

A Cairo court found the defendant guilty of attacking the modesty of the victim, added Aswat Masriya.

While five sexual harassers were found guilty on various charges last year, this is the first case under new anti-sexual harassment laws in Egypt.”

Check out our Know Your Rights toolkit to find out the laws in the USA.

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Street Harassment: An Expression of Oppression

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Street Harassment: An Expression of Oppression from Samantha LaFrance on Vimeo.

George Washington University students Samantha LaFrance and Sarah Blugis created a documentary about street harassment for a class project this semester. They interviewed students and professors on campus as well as myself. Great work to them both for bringing forward this important issue and letting people share their stories.

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