HKearl, Author at Stop Street Harassment

Help Nepal

April 26, 2015 By HKearl

4.18.15 Activista Nepal's Safety Pin march for International Anti-Street Harassment Week — 4.18.15 Activista Nepal’s Safety Pin march for International Anti-Street Harassment Week

It’s been 24 hours since the devastating earthquake hit Nepal and the death toll has jumped to more than 2000. We have many activist allies there and are relieved to have heard from everyone now. They are all safe.

If you want to make a donation to help those who are injured, without a home, etc, here is one place to do so.

Another way to make a difference is to donate to our 2014 Safe Public Spaces Mentoring team Women LEAD Nepal. This is what they just shared on their Facebook page:

“As we pass the 24 hour mark on this first morning after the earthquake, a lot remains unknown about the extent of the damage and causalities, and the effects this tragedy will have over the coming months and years. What we do know if that Nepal is going to need a lot of help, and that the international community needs to empower and support local individuals and organizations to rebuild their neighborhoods, cities and nation.

Women LEAD stands by all the individuals, communities and organizations who are mobilizing to provide disaster relief on the ground in Kathmandu. We believe it will be important for adolescent girls and young women to play a strong role in rebuilding Nepal through coordinating and participating in immediate relief work, and in long-term efforts. Therefore, we are committed to supporting the WLEAD community in Nepal as they identify and respond in real time to their own communities’ most pressing needs.

We ask for your financial (and technical) support as we provide our staff, LEADers and partners with the resources they need to effectively respond to this disaster. All funds donated will go directly to our leaders and the projects they choose to run to help their communities in this difficult time. Select the “Nepal Earthquake Reconstruction Efforts” option under the list of programs to earmark your donation.”

Acid throwing in Iran

April 26, 2015 By HKearl

Rezvan Moghaddam, an influential leader for women’s rights in Iran, asked me to share this information on the blog (and here is a full article she wrote about acid throwing in Iran):

Sohila is a 26-year-old Iranian law student who loves to read. She is a victim of an acid attack. She was attacked and sprayed with acid on 9 October 20014, at 6 pm, in the streets of Bozorgmehr, by a man on a motorcycle wearing a helmet who was accompanied by cars in the front and rear (a white Pikan and a black Pejot).

In November 2014 , she had an unsuccessful eye surgery. Sohila’s mother asks, “What was the crime of my daughter? Why she is a victim of this outrageous act?”

Sohila and her mother asked women’s rights defenders to support her for surgery.

Sohila is just one of the victim targeted by Islamic fundamentalism because she was not wearing Hejab. Her father said: the world should not forget these victims, women’rights defenders should be their voice.

Join this Facbook page against acid throwing and follow this blog to keep up to date with this issue and how you can help stop it.

Wrap-Up from #EndSHWeek 2015

April 21, 2015 By HKearl

Gracias, شكرا, धन्यवाद, Danke, хвала, Merci, THANK YOU!

Thank you for rising to the occasion and taking a stand against sexual harassment in public spaces last week! Groups in 40 countries took actions online and offline, from rallies and marches to workshops with youth, from Tweet chats and Google hangouts to sharing images on social media. We made a big splash both online and offline, reaching millions of people. Congratulations on all you have helped achieve!

– Holly, founder of the week

I just wanted to thank you so much for participating in #EndSHWeek this year. It was such a thrill to see what everyone was planning – your actions were so creative and inspiring! As you may have noticed, this event is growing every year – if you have any feedback on how we can improve for next year, I would love to hear it! Thanks for your activism.

– Britnae, online manager for the week

VIEW PHOTOS:

View nearly 600 photos of actions | View a smaller album with one image per country.

REPORT BACK:

Please let us know what YOU did so we can include it in our wrap-up report.

HIGHLIGHTS:

* Anti-harassment transit campaigns launched in London, Los Angeles, and Vancouver and a new study about harassment on the transit system in France found that 100% of women have been harassed

* Fiona Patten, a member of Parliament in Victoria, Australia, raised the issue of street harassment in Parliament

* Women in Afghanistan and Iran shared their street harassment stories on the SSH Blog

* Six main hashtags were used across the week on Twitter: #Endsh #Endshweek #plutotsympa #everydaysexism #AcosoEsViolencia #NoAcosoCallejero

* The UK-based international group Everyday Sexism. Founder Laura Bates said that on April 16 alone, 45,000 people tweeted about sexism, including street harassment, using the hashtag #everydaysexism.

* In France, after a business woman tweeted that getting whistled at is nice, thousands of people shared their street harassment stories using the hashtag #plutotsympa. The hashtag trended for part of the day on April 16

* Numerous tweet chats and google hangouts took place. Read the recaps or watch the videos:

Reporting street harassment | Practical solutions to street harassment | Global Tweetathon | Street harassment across the world

The NOW Young Feminists & Allies virtual chapter hosted a google hangout about street harassment and multiculturalism.

Me=You: Sexual Harassment Awareness held a Google hangout Q&A with SSH board member Erin McKelle

* In Latin America, NGOs in Chile, Argentina, Brasil, Colombia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Peru, Ecuador and Uruguay took photos with anti-harassment, pro-respect messages and posted them on social media.

* For a taste of the range of actions, here are four examples of activism that took place in Nepal, the Netherlands, India and Italy

* New street signs about street harassment went up in New York City, Philadelphia and Toronto. The USA-based sign sparked dozens of news articles, including this news story featuring SSH board member Maliyka Muhamad and my article for Feministing.com.

* Many teenagers spoke out against street harassment. Not only did they participate in offline actions like workshops and rallies in countries like Cameroon, Egypt, India, and Nepal, but they also wrote about their experiences. For example, “Don’t ignore the street harassment stories of young girls” by a 17-year-old in California, Chloe Parker and teenagers in Fort Walton Beach made a video about street harassment.

* SSH is based in the Washington, DC-area and we organized or were part of five offline events and actions across the week

* There were at least 80 media hits in at least 10 countries.

The week may be over, but our work is far from done. Wherever we are, we must continue to challenge the status quo, the discrimination against all women, members of the LGBT community, persons of color, persons with disabilities, and others who are marginalized. We must strive to make public places safer for all.

With gratitude for the risks you take to speak out, for the determination you have to make change,

Holly

Street Signs in Canada and the USA

April 21, 2015 By HKearl

Innovative street signs went up in Toronto, New York City and Philadelphia during International Anti-Street Harassment Week last week.

Toronto (via blogTO):

“A new public art project in Kensington Market kindly asks catcallers to STFU. Dubbed the The Street Talk Project, the artistic intervention involves street signs that admonish sexual harassment on Toronto streets and that support equal rights for women and trans* people.

“Using humour and subversive advertising, The Street Talk Project [brings] attention to the ways in which public space is navigated differently by different people,” reads the organizers’ description of the project. It also addresses “how sexism is felt viscerally on a day-to-day basis” and promotes “solidarity for the safety of women and trans* people.”

The project debuted yesterday and also involves an exhibition at Whippersnapper Gallery. There are seven signs in total, which have been installed around the Market. The idea was to place them in a highly trafficked area to generate as much discussion as possible.”

New York City and Philadelphia (via my article at Feministing.com):

“Members of Feminist Apparel and Pussy Division put up 25 street signs against catcalling in Philadelphia and New York City. They worked with a street sign manufacturer to produce them and released them specifically for International Anti-Street Harassment Week. Their goal was to create ‘further dialogue surrounding the issue of street harassment,’ Alan Martofel, production coordinator for Feminist Apparel, told me.

Since it is a form of guerrilla activism, they did not gain permission from the city to post the signs and they are unsure how long they will be up. But they say that already they are having an impact.

One of the members of Pussy Division, a group based in Philadelphia who has done other street art activism, such as posting “stop rape” stickers and spray painting anti-harassment messages on sidewalks around the city, told me, ‘We’ve had so much positive feedback. A lot of people will share harassment that just happened to them and say they are happy to see the sign and feel less alone.’

For her, the goals of the project are to spread the message that street harassment is an important issue everywhere and to help survivors. ‘We would like people who deal with street harassment every day to look at it and feel validated about their feelings of really hating going through it and feeling objectified.’ She continued, ‘We are taught — especially women — that this is part of life and that we should deal with it and be happy about it. But we’re not happy about it. It’s important for harassed people to hear from other people who are on the same page as them.’

New Anti-Harassment Transit Campaigns

April 21, 2015 By HKearl

Sexual harassment is a problem on transit systems worldwide. Women in particular face a lot of harassment (one piece of evidence is this 2014 poll of riders from 16 major transit systems in the world). More than a dozen countries even offer women-only transit options as one (band aid, short-term) solution, including in Egypt, Japan, India, Mexico, and Nepal.

But anti-harassment PSAs and reporting efforts are gaining traction, too. Earlier this year, both New York City and Washington, DC, released new PSAs about harassment (SSH helped with the ones in the DC). In DC, there is an online reporting form and front line transit staff are trained to handle harassment complaints.

Last week, over International Anti-Street Harassment, transit systems launched new anti-harassment campaigns in:

London (“Report It To Stop It“)

Los Angeles (“It’s Off Limits” – passengers who see or experience sexual harassment can call the sheriff’s hotline at 888-950-7233 or report through the free LA Metro Transit Watch safety app)

Vancouver (#ItsNotaCompliment)

In France, a new study released last week found that 100% of women had been harassed while riding public transportation and I talked to staff at the office of women’s rights who said they will be launching a nation-wide campaign next month to address it (to my knowledge, they will be the first country to do this on that scale).

This is all great news. We need more transit systems to step up and take this issue seriously.

« Previous Page