HKearl, Author at Stop Street Harassment

Flogged for Wearing Pants

July 14, 2009 By HKearl

Friday, during a random raid on a cafe, Sudanese police arrested 13 women for wearing pants. There was a quick summary trial and ten of the women were flogged and fined 250 Sudanese pounds ($120). Two of the women chose to go on trial. Via AP News:

“Hussein [one of the two women] said she decided to speak out because flogging is a practice many women endure in silence. She even sent printed invitations to the press and public figures to attend her expected trial.

‘Let the people see for themselves. It is not only my issue,’ she said. ‘This is retribution to thousands of girls who are facing flogging for the last 20 years because of wearing trousers,’ she said. ‘They prefer to remain silent.'”

Good for her! (Aside: I can’t believe flogging still occurs . It seems so 19th century) While this isn’t directly “street harassment” per say, a lot of discussion about street harassment ends up touching upon “what was she wearing” so I think this story is relevant from that aspect. Also, street harassment can be viewed as a kind of social control that keeps a lot of women off the streets at night and/or when they are alone and this incident in Sudan shows blatant and extreme forms of attempted social control over women.

Women Drivers Mean More Harassment?

July 13, 2009 By HKearl

I love the freedom driving provides. As soon as I got my driver license at age 16, I was on the road a lot. Gas was cheap and it was a good way to have some alone time for thinking and it also improved my social life as I no longer had to rely on my parents to drive me places, especially once my family moved to a suburb without public transportation. Also, anecdotally, I’ve found that many women in the U.S. feel that being able to drive rather than being reliant on public transportation or walking cuts down on harassment from men in public.

So today when I read an article in the Miami Herald about how some of Saudi Arabia’s restrictive policies are slowly changing, the following part of the article touched a nerve for me, not only because it reflects an antiquated attitude that it is better to cloister women than to teach men not to harass them, but also because I feel outraged that so many women will never know the freedom and power of getting in a car and driving wherever they want, whenever they want, just because they are female.

An excerpt from the Miami Herald:

“Like many fathers with teenage daughters, the time finally came for Abdel Mohsen Gifari to have an awkward talk.

The 44-year-old researcher for Saudi Arabia’s feared religious police sat one of his girls down to discuss an uncomfortable topic: She wanted to drive.

In a country where women are barred from getting behind the wheel, his daughter’s desire is not only forbidden, it’s also a touchy subject for Gifari, who’s spent nearly half his life working for the government body charged with enforcing the law.

“‘I told her that driving is allowed in Islam,’ Gifari said in a rare interview with a Western reporter. ‘But it is more of a cultural thing. We already have a lot of problems on the road when it comes to sexual harassment, with guys flirting with girls in the car. If a woman drives, it’s only going to bring more problems.’

Change is seeping slowly into Saudi Arabia, a Persian Gulf nation of 28 million residents – half of whom are under age 25 – and nowhere is the social friction more apparent than inside the religious police force that imposes the Kingdom’s conservative interpretation of Islam…

As for his own daughter’s desire to drive a car, Gifari said, after a half-hour chat, she agreed with her dad that the timing wasn’t right.

‘Maybe in a few years traditions will change,” Gifari said. “But right now it’s only going to bring problems – and it’s not one of the government priorities.'”

I hope that one day she and other women who want to will be able to drive, and I feel humbled that it took reading her story for me to remember not to take for granted the privilege I enjoy every day of being able to drive.

Street Harassment Round Up – July 12

July 12, 2009 By HKearl

Stories:

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem. Include your location and it will be added to the Street Harassment Map.

On this blog, a woman in London shared how a man in her neighborhood always harasses her when he sees her alone. Read through the comments to learn how she took the advice of a blog commenter and contacted the police and what happened from there.
On HollaBack Australia, a guy brags to his friends about touching the contributor’s butt in public.
On HollaBack Toronto, a contributor tells how she called the cops when she saw the same man who had masturbated by her in his car while she waited for the bus last week.
Holla Back DC! had three blog posts discussing street harassment while biking.
Blank Noise Project is asking people to send in photos of the clothes they have been harassed in to help disprove the perception that it only happens when women wear certain clothes. They say, “write to us at blurtblanknoise @gmail dot com subject titled “i never ask for it””

In the News:

Time.com published a good article about how the Egyptian government is tackling sexual harassment (including street harassment) through religion by distributing new books on sexual harassment to 50,000 imams at mosques across Egypt.
A taxi driver in Perth, Western Australia, who allegedly sexually assaulted a female passenger in February is now being charged with that crime.
Carmella Etienne, a transgender female, alleges she was hit by rocks and a beer bottle and threatened in Queens.
Since June 19, there have been nearly a dozen reports of a man slapping women on their backsides on the subway around Crown Heights in Brooklyn, NY.
Jessica Reed asks in a blog post on UK’s Guardian website: “What is it about a woman on a bike that attracts such unwelcome attention?

Announcements:

RightRides in NYC has just expanded their services of a free ride home from Saturday nights to include Friday nights too! They offer this service from 11:59 p.m. – 3 a.m. in 45 neighborhoods across four boroughs. To call for a ride, the dispatch number is (718) 964-7781 OR (888)215-SAFE (7233).

Street Harassment Resource of the Week:

Street Harassment: A Feminist Guide to Analysis and Direct Action, by Cathy Ramos

Suspects Arraigned for Hate Crime in Queens

July 11, 2009 By HKearl

Carmella Etienne, a transgender female, alleges she was hit by rocks and a beer bottle in Queens earlier this week. She had to be treated at the hospital for a large cut on her leg. The men also allegedly shouted anti-gay slurs and threatened to kill her by cutting her throat. Both harassing men were arrested at the scene and are being held on $5,000 bail and will go to court on July 23. They could face up to 15 years in jail if they are convicted. Via NY Daily News:

“Etienne is now afraid to leave her home.

‘The law will hopefully put them to justice. I love being myself,’ she said.

The attack comes on the heels of another one on a transgender woman. Leslie Mora was assaulted with a belt buckle in Jackson Heights last month by two men. Prosecutors haven’t determined if they will pursue hate crime charges.

‘There’s mounting concern in the community and anger at the violence and prejudice,’ said Brendan Fay, a leader in the LGBT community in Queens. ‘Clearly these aren’t isolated incidents.'”

How horrible 🙁

Approaching Sexual Harassment from Religious Point of View

July 10, 2009 By HKearl

As a follow up to my July 4 post, Time.com just published a good article about how the Egyptian government is tackling sexual harassment (including street harassment) through religion by distributing new books on sexual harassment to 50,000 imams at mosques across Egypt.

“The solutions proposed in the booklet — which include a greater adherence to religious and family values to better law enforcement — don’t necessarily match the advice preached by women’s groups, who focus primarily on drafting formal legislation on the matter and promoting female empowerment. Nevertheless, the ministry’s decision to address the issue at all, and on such a scale, may indicate a marked shift from the government’s stance just last year: that sexual harassment is the problem of just a few individuals. ‘It’s a big change,’ says Rasha Hassan, the main researcher at the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights (ECWR). ‘Of course the government still needs to do a lot. But nowadays we can see some change in the ministries.'” …

“There are calls for the government to draft a law specifically aimed at curbing sexual harassment, but even that may not be enough. ‘I think that any law against sexual harassment in the streets or in the workplace is a good step forward,’ says Nadya Khalife, a Middle East expert in the women’s rights division of Human Rights Watch. ‘However [it] still requires the government to effectively enforce the law by creating mechanisms to ensure that women do report sexual harassment incidents, and that these incidents are dealt with appropriately.’

Indeed, change may be slow to come, but in Egypt some activists are encouraged by the small signs of progress. ‘We can’t change the culture or the people in one day,’ says ECWR’s Hassan. ‘But we are trying to do a lot of things … We try to make changes with the government first, and then the people.’

It was just a year ago this month that the Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights published it’s groundbreaking report about the extent that men harass women in Egypt and so to have the government trying to take the issue seriously now seems like great progress in that amount of time!

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