Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Full Video: Street Harassment in Brussels

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Belgian Sofie Peeters created a documentary about street harassment in Brussels for her school project and it is generating a lot of online conversations and articles. One point of contention is how she says immigrant men are the main people who harass her  (perhaps because it’s a high immigrant area?).

What’s fantastic is how the film seems to be prompting substantial offline action. Hollaback Brussels told me that soon, “in Mechelen [near Brussels] there will be undercover cops handing out fines to harassers.”

I also read that, “A new law is due to come to force this fall in Belgium which will fight street harassment. Victims of leering, honking or whistling and sexual harassment, will have to report a violation so the police can investigate.” I’m researching this law, so stay tuned for more information.

MRC TV posted a video segment that includes an interview with Peeters and her whole video (up to this point, only a two minute preview has been available online). There are English subtitles.

What do you think?

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“No one should make you feel uncomfortable”

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Farragut West Metro Station Anti-Harassment PSA

My fellow commuters looked at me like I was crazy when I stopped to snap a photo of this sign at the Farragut West Metro station in Washington, DC. But that’s because, as readers of the blog know, with Collective Action for Safe Spaces, I helped get this anti-harassment campaign going and I had not yet seen the PSA in real life. I can’t stop grinning! #SocialChange

If you’re in DC and experience or witness sexual harassment on the transit system, you can report it! One of the easiest ways is via this form: http://wmata.com/harassment.cfm

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Egyptians Mobilize Against Sexual Harassment

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Photos from the event:

“On a hot Sunday night in Cairo, a woman wearing jeans, a loose black sweater, and a white hijab stood on an outdoor stage, quietly speaking into a microphone to share her experiences of sexual violence. Only by standing with her back to the audience of more than 100 people could she muster the courage to talk. As soon as she left the stage, her friends surrounded her, hugging her, and comforting her. Then, another woman took the stage to tell her story.

During a recent trip to Egypt, I saw dozens of brave women and their male allies share their stories and thoughts about sexual violence, especially street harassment, at an event organized by Darb 1718, BuSSy, HarassMap, and Mashrou3 Mareekh. Using spoken word, song, and an open mic session, they clearly moved the audience, more than a third of them men. May Shehab, the director of Darb 1718, said she heard a number of men say they felt angry and wanted to do take action.

Their consciousness was also raised through visual art as in an exhibit entitled “Enough.” Before the spoken word began, people clustered together to view commentary about sexual harassment in mediums of chalk, colored pencils, photographs and videos.

“I’m a firm believer in using art as a vehicle for activists. It’s a way to start dialogues,” said Heba Habib, a HarassMap volunteer and co-organizer of “Enough.” Shehab agreed, calling art “one of the most effective ways to tackle harassment [because]…it evokes thought and debate.”

For Shehab, a photographic piece by Nahla Sebaei entitled “Burning Soul” was the most compelling. In four frames, a partially nude woman dressed in paper clothing is covered with flaming hand marks where harassers touched her. The caption reads, “When someone harasses me…he is burning my soul and that leaves scars in my mind and my feeling and my soul.” Shehab said she heard several people say the image perfectly captured how street harassment makes them feel.”

This is an excerpt from an article I wrote for the Women’s Media Center. Read the full article on their website.

Video from the event:

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“Then of course they harassed us”

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Around midnight on Saturday, a new female friend and I walked one block to a pub in Elmswell, UK, so we could use the restroom. We were back early from a wedding reception to “decorate” our friend’s (the bride) camper and we were locked out of the house until everyone else returned.

We chatted and laughed as we walked until a group of 10 drunk teenage boys loitering along the road talked to us. At first all they said were hello’s and even though I felt like they were about to harass us, we politely said hello back. And then of course they harassed us. It was the typical “yeah baby,” and “ooh sexy” crap.

I paused and shouted, “Hey, don’t harass us,” and then there was silence. But then one of them said (I think), “That’s a shit haircut.” Which is funny since our hair looked great since we’d just left a wedding (though we were no longer in wedding attire, just sweatshirts and pants). Maybe he said something else. I don’t know. We just kept walking.

After using the restroom, we met up with three other friends who’d walked to the Pub separately, including two men. When we told them what happened (and I said, see, that’s what I’m always speaking out against!) they said we needed to walk back together in a group, strength in numbers, blah blah.  So we did.

The harassers started off with their hello’s again, but this time we did not fall for it and ignored them and they basically left us alone. Oh except one of them started following us. We turned into our friend’s long driveway and watched from the shadows to make sure he kept on going.

I studied abroad in the UK seven years ago, and I eventually stopped going out with my flatmates to pubs and clubs because I got so sick of the harassment. At the clubs, many men had no problem grabbing you or grinding on you without warning or asking for your consent. I was in the UK just over 48 hours on this visit and I was disappointed I had to deal with some of the same crap.

I was also sorry that the woman I was harassed with (a very nice mutual friend of the bride I had not met before), who runs and travels alone a lot, was so resigned to the behavior. “There are places I know I can’t go alone as a woman,” she said. And I said, “But isn’t that messed up? Shouldn’t we be allowed to go anywhere and not have to worry about harassment or assault? Why is that just accepted?” And she thought about it and agreed.

– Holly

Location: Elmswell, Suffolk, UK

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