Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

From Australia to Canada: taxi drivers assault passengeres

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Periodically I check the news for sexual assault stories and inevitably I find one related to taxi drivers sexually assaulting female passengers. Here are two I found this week about the topic, one about a woman assaulted in Whitehorse, Canada and another about how women in Sydney, Australia are being urged to report taxi drivers who engage in “sexual misconduct.” A quote from the latter article:

“Women have reported sexual harassment and unwanted sexual advances by taxi drivers, with one saying a driver tried to kiss her, and another complaining she was constantly touched on the arm, neck and shoulder during her journey.

Three drivers were accused of exposing themselves, while a number were alleged to have groped their female passengers, News Ltd said.

Mr Campbell described such behaviour as ‘absolutely unacceptable’, saying he would try to involve police in future investigations.

He also urged women to keep reporting sexually inappropriate behaviour, so the government could stamp out dodgy drivers.”

I’ve come across at least two other incidents of taxi driver assaulters in Australia alone (one and two). I’m glad that the current approach in Sydney is to get rid of the assaulting drivers, rather than move to women-only taxis…

Has a driver of your taxi ever engaged in sexual misconduct? What happened?

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Weekly Round Up Jan. 17, 2010

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Stories:

I accept street harassment submissions from anywhere in the world.
Share your story!

In the News:

Announcements:

  • Want an easy way to report harassers from your phone or want to receive a report showing all the places harassment has recently occurred? Then vote for HollaBack 2.0! This is a proposed project by HollaBack NYC and RightRides and they’re in the second round of a competition for funding to make this a reality.

Events:

Resource of the Week:

  • Liz Stanley’s & Sue Wise’s book Georgie Porgie: Sexual Harassment in Everyday Life. (London: Pandora Press, 1987). A lot of the book is applicable to street harassment and even though it’s over 20 years old, it’s still completely relevant (sadly).
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Making New Delhi Safer

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Women in New Delhi were surveyed about their experiences traveling in a specific area of the city. Over 1/3rd faced sexual harassment and over 1/3 faced theft and nearly 1/2 felt threatened when in the area.

“Women reported it to be one of the unsafe areas (in the city) especially after dark. They faced various forms of sexual harassment like catcalling, groping or lewd gestures. Open drug usage was another issue,” the survey pointed out.

The recommendations to make the area safer include traffic monitoring, better pavements, and monitoring of drug usage on the roads. The government has plans to implement many of them.

This survey is part of a larger study of four cities (Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, Delhi in India, Rosario in Argentina, and Petrozavodsk in Russia) focused on making cities safer for women called the Gender Inclusive Cities Project. It is sponsored by Women in Cities International and the UN Trust Fund.

I’m glad these organizations are addressing this important issue – there will not be gender equality unless women and men can safely access public spaces – and I plan to learn more about their initiatives. I hope the Gender Inclusive Cities project can eventually address other major cities around the world too.

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“Ha ha ha JK Bitch”

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As a relatively low trafficked blog, I’ve had the luxury of dealing with few rude people. It looks like that may be changing. Earlier this week I received a fake story that simply said “I got raped hahaha jk.” Not funny. Today I received three prank stories in a row. Two of them sounded like legitimate stories until the last sentences. Both posts ended with a “ha ha ha ha jk bitch.”

I love how the internet lets people who may not otherwise have a voice have one and lets us find obscure stories, up-to-the-minute news, and people with similar interests. I don’t like how the internet facilitates bullying and harassment and allows people to anonymously write rude, demeaning, sexist, homophobic, racist, classist, abelist comments to news stories and articles and in messages to people who have their contact info online.

I expect when my book on street harassment comes out in a few months I’ll receive a lot of hate mail and a slew of hateful comments that will make these “story submissions” look tame and sweet. Honestly, I’m dreading it.

I don’t know what these people want to accomplish by sending fake stories and calling me a bitch, but if it is to spur me on to continue speaking out against street harassment and sexual violence and providing people with a place to do so, then good, they are accomplishing their goal.

Street harassment and sexual violence impede women’s equality to men and limit their access to public spaces. Women too often are told to ignore such behavior or that it is complimentary or that it is their fault because of how they look or what they wear. Men who harass and assault are at fault. Men must stop. Our society must stop supporting aggression and violence and rape jokes and must take sexual harassment and violence seriously.

Share your (real) street harassment stories. How does street harassment make you feel? How does it impact your life? Help raise the societal consciousness that this is a widespread and unacceptable problem. Talk about it. And men, don’t harass.

Note: I’m home from work now and can see that the forum “men are better than women” (a site blocked at my office) encouraged people to send me fake stories. thanks guys. i’ve enjoyed reading your 9 stories (and counting).

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Women-Only Taxis for Alexandria, Egypt?

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Alexandria, Egypt, may be the next location for women-only taxi services. In the last few months, Mexico and Lebanon launched such services because of the harassment women passengers and women drivers otherwise face (and several other countries already had women-only taxis).

Members of the Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights and other groups working to make Egypt a more equitable place for women are outspokenly against such a move. ECWR’s 2008 report on sexual harassment and on-going efforts to introduce anti-sexual harassment legislation has created a national dialogue about men who harass women in public spaces, and I am not surprised they are against this measure. Here is what opponents of the women-only taxi service are saying:

“Such moves represent a rights setback at legal, religious and society levels. They contradict the (Egyptian) constitution and international conventions, which establish equality between men and women.” – EGWR

“It’s very risky for our society. If it’s an excuse to solve problems like sexual harassment or other types of violence, it’s a very naïve solution for a very complicated problem…We need to see the reason and create a good solution, such as having proper transport or more security in the street, not isolate women in taxis.”
– ECWR

“Isolation is not the right idea to protect women. There is no problem with the mixing of women and men. The problem is bad morals and upbringing,” said Amna Nousseir, a professor at the Islamic seminary Al Azhar University. “It is alien to the nature of Egyptian women who have long been accustomed to walking and working alongside men without a problem,” she said.

And supporters of the service are saying:

“There is no need for such a fuss so long as women-only as well as mixed services are available,” said Mahassen Ahmad, a government employee. “Leave people to make their choices. To me, female-only taxis, driven by women, will be welcome to save women from the usual sexual harassment on public transport.”

A commentator identified as Nabil described it as “the best way to protect women against immoral sexual harassment. I pray that this practice will spread to all the Islamic states because it provides safety and security for women during their excursions.”

It’s hard to educate men not to harass women (or rather not educate them to harass women), but isn’t it worth it? Otherwise, women will still be harassed when they aren’t in a women-only taxi…

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