HKearl, Author at Stop Street Harassment

Walk for Respect in Nepal

April 28, 2012 By HKearl

Today 500 youth participated in a Walk for Respect against street harassment/sexual harassment in Kathmandu, Nepal.

“We silently walked through footpaths carrying various banners and placards up to Kathmandu Durbar Square.

Objective
1. To sensitize the greater problem among youths as well as other people i.e. eve teasing and sexual harassment.
2. Boost the morale of the people to face the challenges in this issue
3. Aware the people of existing laws and policies of Nepal
4. Gather public support to force the government to take necessary steps in these issues.
5. Warn the culprits that their misbehaviors are illegal and they can be punished for their misdeeds.”

Via CNN:

“The main theme of our campaign is to sensitize the greater problem among youths as well as other people i.e. eve teasing and sexual harassment. We want to boost the morale of the people to face the challenges in this issue and aware the people of existing laws and policies of Nepal. Eve teasing and sexual harassment are serious violation of Human Rights. As an aware conscious citizen we cannot tolerate the violation of Human rights. That’s why this issue needs to be addressed immediately and needs to be acted ASAP.”

One of the participants Pragya shakya said, “It’s high time we raise our voices. We have been suppressed in so many ways and why should we always suffer. The Government has made the rules against eve teasing and sexual harassment so why are we keeping our silence. We will not keep our silence it’s our right to speak, walk and talk with freedom and no one can take this away from us. Like said above people have no right to tell us what to wear first they should stop thinking bad. It’s my right to be who I’m but it’s against law to make me feel harassed.”

Good for them for speaking out!

A street harasser almost made me wipe out

April 27, 2012 By HKearl

It’s a gorgeous, sunny, blue sky, green leaf, not too hot kind of day and I happily went for a run with my two dogs after work. At one point on the route we were on, the sidewalk ends and there’s a dirt path you have to go alon until you reach an intersection. That patch is rocky and as we ran along, I was looking at the ground so as not to trip when I heard, “YEAAAHHHHHH!!!! Run….!!!” right next to me, coming from a young man in an SUV driving by.

One of my dogs got so startled by the loud, obnoxious yelling that she jumped and then stopped very quickly. I almost tripped over her and took us all down. Since I was trying to not fall on my dogs, I didn’t get a look at the guy or at the car or license plate number, nor did I react fast enough to yell something back to stand up for myself. So I just fumed the rest of the run and only felt a little bit better knowing I could share my story here.

The pic to the right is of my dogs after one of our runs + swim at a lake nearby. The one in the front is the one I nearly fell over.

Argh, what if I had fallen down and hurt myself or my dog(s)?!! Not only would it be terrible, but it’d be so ironic. Anti-street harassment activist injures self and dog because of a stupid street harasser!!

– Holly

Location: Twin Branches Road, Reston, VA

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem.
Find suggestions for what YOU can do about this human rights issue.

Afghanistan Videos: This is My City Too

April 26, 2012 By HKearl

The Afghanistan-based organization Young Women for Change celebrates its one year anniversary this week! The young women who lead the organization continue to make street harassment one of their central issues of concern (read an article by co-founder Noorjahan Akbar about her harassment experiences). Below are two new videos they produced about street harassment, with English subtitles.

They’ve conducted a 4,000 person study about street harassment in Kabul and it will be released this summer at a press conference event. This is the largest study on the topic that’s ever been conducted. If you can, please donate a few dollars to them as the funds will enable them to print women’s stories and the survey results and then hand those out to attendees and people in the streets. Most Afghans do not have computers/Internet access so print materials is the best way for Young Women for Change to spread their message.

Exposing a stalker

April 25, 2012 By HKearl

After a man allegedly sent her sexually explicit photographs online, Ariane Friedrich, a German high jumper who expects to compete in this summer’s Olympics, decided to publicly shame him.

Via Yahoo News:

“I’ve been offended in the past, sexually harassed and I’ve had a stalker before,” she wrote in a recent Facebook post that included the name and email address of a man who she says sent her explicit messages and pictures of his genitals. “It’s time to act, it’s time to defend myself. And that’s what I’m doing.”

German authorities are now investigating the matter, according to Friedrich’s manager. The matter has touched off an intense national debate on privacy with Friedrich, who is trained as a police officer, at the forefront…

“The removal of anonymity is a means to clarify,” she wrote in a statement translated from German. “Just think of all the children, young people and adults who are secretly harassed by perverts and don’t know what to do or how to defend themselves. Should we not go forward as a good example and demonstrate strength?”

German newspapers have asked whether Friedrich had a legal right to publicly disclose the man’s name. In that country, names of offenders aren’t disclosed in the media.”

Via the New York Times:

“As Niko Härting, a lawyer specializing in media and Internet law, points out, the legality of the issue hinges on the question of whether the man named by Ms. Friedrich, who has become a public personality in Germany since placing seventh in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, actually wrote and sent her the message.

“It all hangs on one question: Is it true or false?” Mr. Härting said. “If it is true, then she is allowed to post it.”

Why would she make this up? And surely she has copies of the photos. It always makes me feel like the people who protest this have something to hide. Like the people who are upset when we call out harassers. Why would anyone be upset about that, unless they’re harassers?!

It took a lot of guts to disclose the name of this man who is harassing her and guess what, I bet he doesn’t harass her or anyone else in this way again. And it may put other would-be stalkers on notice.

She-Hulk mode — “I’ve had enough of being harassed on the street”

April 24, 2012 By HKearl

In Boston, a young woman would not let a public masturbator intimidate her during her trolley ride home from work. Instead she called him out and got him arrested.

Via the Boston Herald:

“This guy was just being a real creeper,” she said. As she shuffled along the train, he followed her. She zoned out, listening to music, only to look up and see him standing over her.

“I looked up and felt awkward, so I looked down,” she said. She said the man was exposing and touching himself, but tried to cover himself with his shirt.

The woman — not someone to meekly let an alleged creep get away with it — shouted out what he was doing, but no one stepped in to help. She said one male passenger even shrugged. So, she said, she went into “She-Hulk” mode, lunging as the man tried to bolt at Packard’s Corner in Brighton.

She said she held the man with one hand and “berated” him while she waited for the cops to arrive. She said he looked frightened.

“He kept saying sorry, but he was just sorry for himself,” she said.

The man told transit cops that the “packed and jostling” trolley caused his shorts to fall, according to a police report. He told police that he was unaware he was exposed until the woman started screaming.

T cops charged Michael Galvin, 37, of Somerville with open and gross lewdness. He was released on his own recognizance and ordered to stay off the T.

The woman said she acted because, “I’ve had enough of being harassed on the street. I’m tired of it and I want it to end. It was the last straw.”

She also had some choice words for the people who stood by and did nothing on the train: “That’s appalling. That makes me so angry. I want everyone to know that they have to say something.”

Her courage and determination are commendable. Hopefully that man will think twice before masturbating on a trolley. Her story reminds me of the amazing Nicola Briggs in New York City who did something similar when a man exposed himself to her on the subway.
When we feel safe and have the time, engaging in public shaming can be a very effective way to stop a harasser.

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