Correspondent, Author at Stop Street Harassment

USA: My Literary Introduction to Street Harassment

May 31, 2016 By Correspondent

Deborah D’Orazi, NY, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent

The first time I remember reading about street harassment and recognizing it for what it was was in Virginia Woolf’s iconic essay, A Room of One’s Own, when I turned 17. In the essay, Woolf sets out on a momentous task to speak on women and literature and ends up writing about her journey searching for women in literature, women who write literature, and why women are not more prudently featured within the realm of literature since they are so often portrayed as the inspiration for what are deemed some of the greatest and most romantic written words in the English language. To her dismay, Woolf finds little evidence of women in literature (outside of the occasional female ruler or writer and the consistent muse or romantic interest—typically always written by men). She is then determined to journey and figure out why. Ultimately, she comes to a remarkably economic conclusion stating that “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction”. What is even more profound is that Woolf demonstrates that this economic necessity for a woman’s career and independence within the private sphere is not at all possible without uncompromised, safe access to the public sphere, or public spaces without harassment or the threat of it.

This subject is explored early on in Woolf’s essay when she is beginning to contemplate and research her ideas. While Woolf encounters the beginning of an idea on a walk and starts to chase it she is promptly interrupted when “instantly a man’s figure rose to intercept me”. Woolf is instantly aware of the power dynamics. She is a woman visiting a man’s college, thus despite the space being open for her and others to walk in, she must remain on the gravel while male college members walk on the turf. She notes that this territorial power play did not actually physically harm her, but she did lose her thoughts and ideas that were so precious to her.

I am sure many would argue that this incident was not street harassment because it took place in a seemingly private space or that this incident was just a mere a sign of the times Virginia Woolf lived in. However, this indicates the importance of understanding the very definition of street harassment.

At Stop Street Harassment we use the following definition: “unwanted comments, gestures, and actions forced on a stranger in a public place without their consent and is directed at them because of their actual or perceived sex, gender, gender expression, or sexual orientation.”

Virginia Woolf, who undoubtedly came from a very privileged background and lived a very privileged life, was still looked down up, criticized, and harassed because she was a woman taking up space within the public realm, where typically men dominated and still dominate today. As Woolf notes in her essay, “The only charge I could bring against the Fellows and Scholars of whatever the college might happen to be was that in the protection of their turf” which sent her ideas into oblivion.

Yet, how many ideas, leisure and social activities, or mere existences of women, racial and ethnic groups, religious minorities, LGBTQIA individuals, differently abled people, etc. have been disrupted because the public sphere is, in fact, not so public. It is important to note this intersectionality because women inhabit all of them and as women and other disenfranchised groups gain rights and visibility within the public sphere, harassment remains a constant. This constant serves as a reminder that people must remain within a social constructed role, no matter how much it inhibits or oppresses them. And it is often quite effective in limiting and changing where people travel geographically, whom they socialize with, and where a person may go for services. For example, if a girl is harassed on her way to school, depending on her individual situation, she may have to change her route, endure the harassment, or stop going to school all together. All of these situations create a legacy of trauma and undue economic burdens that disenfranchise an individual, community, and population. It is not at all uncommon for women to consider changing their routine or way they lived to avoid street harassment. As documented by a Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates survey from 2000 it was discovered that 84 percent of women would “consider changing their behavior to avoid street harassment.” How much economic opportunity have women and other communities lost because of harassment? How much safety? Too much for my liking.

So, what should we do? Educate, advocate, organize, speak out, protest, create policy, listen, and support each other. Many people have experiences, some similar and some different, but recognizing the reasons for street harassment and the many forms it takes for different people and communities is important for an inclusive movement. It is a hard journey, but combating street harassment in its many forms as misogyny, racism, classism, homophobia, transphobia xenophobia, abelism, etc. is just as important as speaking out. So many have been harassed into silence, trauma, injury, hurt, and death in public spaces throughout countless years that it is important to note the many reasons why. Without this understanding and cooperation more people will be oppressed and more people will continue to be left out of public spaces and, consequently, public life.

Street harassment is a push back towards oppression and objectifying. Let us strive to make a world where people’s private and public lives can thrive and where people can have safe access to safe places and safe public and private lives. As Virginia Woolf wrote in another essay, “Thoughts on Peace in an Air Raid”, “mental fight means thinking against the current, not with it” and we must continue fighting against the current in order to achieve justice and equality for everyone to use public spaces freely.

Deborah is a recent MSW graduate who also received certification from American University’s Women and Politics Institute and Rutgers’ Center on Violence Against Women and Children. In addition to social work, Deborah is looking to pursue an MPP/MPA and she is also extremely passionate about the arts (theater, writing, film, television, fine art, poetry, performance art), history, and Hamilton.

USA: Clinic-Specific Street Harassment

May 25, 2016 By Correspondent

Mariel DiDato, NJ, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent

*Protestors harass a patient outside of a women’s healthcare clinic. Photo by and courtesy of Wendi Kent.*

Whenever a woman is in a public space, there is always a chance she will be shouted at, followed, or recorded without her permission. However, there is one place where that harassment is almost guaranteed.

Women’s health clinics have seen a rise in harassment and violence since the first murder of an abortion provider in 1993. This rate especially has risen within the past few years. The climate is so bad for these clinics that there are volunteer clinic escort teams simply to help patients walk from the sidewalk or parking lot to the front door. As a clinic escort myself, I have seen the extent of this problem first-hand.

Each clinic’s atmosphere is different, as each state has different political leanings, religious influences, and laws surrounding women’s healthcare. In general though, the themes are the same. Patients must walk through numerous, large posters depicting gory, aborted fetuses. They have their personal space violated by anti-choice protestors who follow them and try to convince them not to go inside the clinic. When they finally get to the door, there are protestors preaching loudly, sometimes through megaphones, chastising these women for going inside. It gets so bad that even some of the more peaceful pro-life demonstrators criticize the protestors who scream at and follow patients. To make matters worse, the sound of the megaphones permeates the clinic walls, so that patients inside have to listen to these protests for the entirety of their appointment. Oftentimes, the loudest of the protestors are men, who think they know what women should do with their bodies and health better than the women trying to receive care.

In addition to clinic escort teams, many clinics have been awarded legal buffer zones. Protestors cannot step foot in these areas, so that patients can feel safer in walking to the clinic. Although political buffer zones have been easily enacted in other scenarios, such as political polls, it is difficult to obtain a buffer zone for women’s healthcare clinics. Even when they are obtained, they may not be enforced, depending on the religious or political beliefs of the on-duty police officers. Anti-choice groups often try to repeal these buffer zones by citing of freedom of speech. Although freedom of speech does not protect harassment and intimidation, these cases often swing in the favor of the anti-choice movement. Just recently, anti-choice protestors were even given permission to violate the city noise ordinance in Portland, Maine.

A clinic in Madison, Wisconsin obtained a “floating buffer zone,” in which people within 160 feet of the facility have an eight-foot boundary that protestors cannot cross. Other buffer zones have spanned as wide as 35 feet. These boundaries allow protestors to practice their freedom of speech without causing any physical or emotional harm to patients trying to access the clinic. However, in most other places, the buffer zone can be as little as just eight square feet in front of the clinic entrance. This gives protestors more freedom to the sidewalk than the patients, who may not even be going to the clinic for an abortion. In many places like Richmond, Virginia, or Louisville, Kentucky, there is still no buffer zone at all.

These protests go beyond freedom of speech. The last time I escorted for a clinic, three different women were crying by the time they got inside. This is not an uncommon occurrence. These women and their companions are slut-shamed, insulted, and even threatened. Protestors sometimes violate the buffer zone, but these infractions are hard to prove. Oftentimes, since our focus is on the safety of the patients and not necessarily on the bad behavior of the protestors, we can only pull our cameras out to record after a threat has been made or the buffer zone has been invaded. For the safety and security of the patients, we also never take any photos or videos that could be used to identify them. On the other hand, this is something that anti-choice protestors are not afraid to do.

This issue is not pro-life verses pro-choice. Regardless of one’s stance on abortion, most people should agree that women deserve the right to feel safe on their way to the doctor. The clinic that I volunteer at received their buffer zone through clinic escorting, documenting harassment from protestors, lobbying, emailing weekly reports to the city council (as well as the city and clinic attorneys and the chief of police), and partnering with the local National Organization of Women chapter to draft buffer zone legislation. Buffer zones create harassment-free environments for patients. I urge you to fight for a buffer zone in your area. It can mean the difference between women being scared away from their doctor’s appointments, and women feeling safe enough to receive the care that they need.

Mariel is a recent college graduate, feminist, and women’s rights activist. Currently, she volunteers for a number of different organizations, including the Planned Parenthood Action Fund of New Jersey and the New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault. You can follow her on Twitter at @marieldidato or check out her personal blog, Fully Concentrated Feminism.

Part 2: Sexual Harassment of Women in India: A Violation of Personal and Public Space

May 25, 2016 By Correspondent

Manish Madan, Ph.D, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent

[This is continued from Part 1]

The next part of my write-up is on a recent research study that I conducted with my co-author Mahesh K. Nalla, understanding the nature of sexual harassment of women in public places with a focus on the capital city, New Delhi, India. I enumerate a few of the key findings below:

Nearly 2 out of 5 women (40 percent) reported to being sexually harassed (from being catcalled, whistled at to being physically groped, poked etc.) in the year prior, and
About 3 out of 5 women (about 58 percent) had experienced the harassment at least once in their lifetime.
Nearly 56 percent of the women said, they knew someone (friend/family) who has been harassed at least once in their lifetime.
About 80 percent of the women reported to have experienced victimization while waiting for a bus at a bus-stop, and about 60-70 percent reported victimization at a roadside; pubic park/public areas such as market place, shopping complex etc.
Majority of the women had experienced it in the daytime compared to after dark hours. This in our view was not too surprising given that the most women tend to access public spaces or use the public transportation for their daily business during the daytime.
Women find public mode of transportation (busses, metro etc.) and public spaces as less accommodating for them compared to the men.
Women were less likely to report feeling of safety in public spaces compared to men.
Finally, there is a significant gap in how men and women view sexual harassment.

Most of these finding should find much attention with policy makers in Delhi government or with the Delhi Women Commission given the context of the study post Delhi Gang Rape that questioned the women’s safety in the capital city.

Interestingly, there was not much gap in women’s experience of actual victimization versus their perception of victimization at specific public locations – call it a woman’s instinct, and on a much serious note, admit our inability in ensuring a safer and/or accommodating environment for women.

The significant gap in gender views on sexual harassment opens an important array of discussion points given the dynamics of sexual harassment. For example, nearly one-third to one-fourth of the men did not view whistling, catcalling, brushing up against a women or leaning closely as a constituting sexual harassment while nearly all women found them to be very serious instances of sexual harassment. It is therefore an important take-home for us – the education, awareness needs to be initiated in identifying actions that constitute sexual harassment. We have to be on the same page.

The UN Millennium Project suggested eight goals that quantify as well as qualify toward “basic human rights – the rights of each person on the planet to health, education, shelter, and security.” Promoting gender equality and empower women is one of those eight basic human rights goal that the large gathering of world leaders adopted as part of the UN Millennium Declaration in September 2000. Just like any project deadline, the participating nations committed to the deadline of 2015. Are we there yet, or do we really need a deadline extension in ensuring women safety?

The 2013 Charter of Public Space recently adopted in Rome stated public spaces to be as accessible and enjoyable by all for free … “Public spaces are a key elements of individual and social well-being, the places of a community’s collective life, expression of the diversity of their common natural and cultural richness and a foundation of their identity.” Can we ask the Government to ensure that public spaces are equitable and inclusive to all genders? I see a prominent role of urban city planners, who also understand the concepts of gendered spaces and can advise the government in relevant light.

Finally, as suggested by the study, the inadequate or distressed access of public space to women is not only contrary to the UN Millennium Development Goal on the Status of Women but at a fundamental level challenges the constitutional and basic human rights of women in our society. Eight out of 10 women waiting at a bus stop recognize that they will likely be experiencing or witnessing some form of sexual harassment. Is it supposed to be the new normal? I believe we as a community of responsible citizens can do better, isn’t it?

The Road Ahead

Like any other social menace, sexual harassment of women in public spaces is an issue that needs a collective effort where all stakeholders such as government, legislators, urban planners, criminal justice system, advocacy groups, NGOs, schools, media, researchers and finally, men and women work together. The remedial may not be prompt but with sustained efforts backed by research, we can hope to have lesser instances of sexual harassment.

Citizen-driven initiatives backed by organizations, government will be at the heart of this, in my view. As clichéd as it may sound, I am neither the first one nor will be last to say, the public discourse on sexual harassment must initiate at an early educational level within schools and within homes. Furthermore, attitudinal change is a must toward gender sensitization. Every time there is an instance of sexual harassment, someone’s right to personal and public space is getting violated. Someone’s constitutional right to be a free citizen is getting violated and it is not cool.

I encourage initiating cross-gender dialogue #WhatIsSexualHarassment to understand and raise awareness about what indeed sexual harassment is. Trust me, there will be far too many definitions emerging from this proposed dialogue, however, my hope will be the sensitization and education of many men and women alike about what all constitutes sexual harassment.

Sexual harassment of women is not a women’s issue anymore. As a society we have to work collectively toward addressing the prevalence of sexual harassment and envision a community that refuses any form of violence against women. I do want to put a special emphasis that this article is put in no way to single out one gender over another or to draw a generalization of men versus women. I hope you all join my vision.

Manish is a Professor of Criminal Justice at Stockton University where his research focuses on examining sexual harassment, gender empowerment, spousal abuse and policing issues. You can follow him @Prof_Madan or reach out to him at www.manishmadan.com.

USA: Vigilant against Street Harassment

May 21, 2016 By Correspondent

Turquoise A. Thomas (Morales), Kansas, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent

Growing up I, like most girls and women, had wholeheartedly internalized the fear of “stranger danger.” So naturally, as I matured and my family allowed me to explore the cities we lived in unattended, I was extremely vigilant. However, like most girls and boys coming into young adulthood, I also felt it was exciting and flattering to occasionally catch the eye of someone who was ‘mutually attractive’. Strolling the mall on a Saturday afternoon with friends, hunting for friendship bracelets at Claire’s, might include a game of seeing how many cute boys we could spot, and in turn, how many would ask for our numbers. We invited these experiences verbally and physically. Some might even argue that we “reverse catcalled” boys of our age.

While my parents, and others always advised my friends I to be wary of strangers, usually older men, there was little to no mention of strangers our own age, whom we often perceived as peers, and thus less threatening. At the time, most of us girls were still physically larger or around the same stature as the boys our age.

Casual conversations with “cute boys” at the mall, bus stops, or other places in the neighborhood led to my peers building their first “real” relationships. I met my first “real” boyfriend, walking to a 7-11 in Inglewood, CA, when I was 17. He was 18. While my experience with him is what I’d call atypical, I had other experiences stemming from what I now understand to have been street harassment. I’d also heard haunting tales of street harassment from peers and continue to hear horrific stories now, ten years later. Today with social media platforms like Snapchat, Instagram, YikYak etc it’s quite easy to share these experiences and the negative experiences easily can spread like wildfire and result in literal organized protests, which I personally welcome.

Street harassment is unavoidable, there is nothing a woman or any other harassment victim can do to ‘avoid’ a perpetrator. In adulthood, my response to inquisitive strangers regardless of their gender or apparent interest in me is much less inviting and quite frankly hostile. Yet still, I occasionally get harassed. When I’m harassed in adulthood it is almost solely by people I regularly see but still am not acquainted with. Strangers rarely say anything to me.

In a recent survey I conducted of women and gender non-conforming, or non-heterosexual individuals, living in Chicago, IL; Wichita, KS; Miami-Dade, FL; and Sacramento, CA, more than 65% said they had been harassed in areas or on routes that they frequented and their harasser was someone they recognized from their daily routines but did not know. This seemingly small finding in my survey led me to look into the research of others on the same topic regarding metropolitan populations. I found that in large cities such as Boston, MA, 87% of those harassed were women, 90% were disabled, 90% were LGBTQ+, and 94% were people of color. Indicative of what I felt I already knew: people harass those that are already systemically disenfranchised. Arguably to remind them of their powerless status in society.

Being in public can result in wonderful and exciting interactions or scary ones. It’s a shame that street harassment has to put so many of us on high alert.

Turquoise is a 26-year-old freelance journalist, a program manager at the Wichita Women’s Initiative Network, and a junior at Wichita State University. She is the founder of SHERO Coalition (SHERO Co) and you can follow her on twitter @anthroisms.

Jordan: Taking up Space in the City

May 18, 2016 By Correspondent

Minying Huang, Amman, Jordan, SSH Blog Correspondent

Photo of Amman For women in Amman, street harassment is a daily reality and, due to its prevalence, one to which many have grown de-sensitized. Though I still feel anger that it occurs, it’s frightening how easily I can brush off verbal and physical harassment and how little emotional impact it has on me now. Equally, I realize that life would be exhausting if I were to let every catcall, every grope, and every micro-aggression get to me.

My internal reactions to incidents of harassment were very different when I first moved here from the UK at the start of October of last year: after being felt up twice in one night in the streets of downtown Amman, I remember feeling acutely uncomfortable, ashamed, and angry at myself for having remained silent as wandering hands touched me, shielded from public view by shopping bags. Despite knowing that victims of harassment shouldn’t have to feel shame or guilt for what is done to them, I couldn’t shake my unwarranted feelings of dirtiness and humiliation – showing that, on some level, I, along with many others, have internalized the damaging, socially-entrenched myths surrounding sexual harassment.

As a foreigner living here, and especially as a young woman of East Asian descent, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that you are targeted for your racial difference and on account of common misconceptions regarding non-Arab women. Whilst this is certainly a factor that comes into play (and one that I hope to explore in future posts), it’s also clear that sexual harassment in Jordan is by no means solely limited to foreign women and it happens regardless of what you wear.

In 2012, a group of students at the University of Jordan created a short film titled ‘This is my privacy’ in an attempt to combat on-campus sexual harassment and draw attention to the issue. The original video was taken down but you can watch a re-uploaded version. It speaks volumes that Professor Rola Qawas, who supervised the making of the film, was dismissed from her post as Dean of the Faculty of Modern Languages after senior management deemed it a distorted representation of university life and an attack on the overall reputation of the university.

I’d like to emphasize that sexual harassment is a global phenomenon not exclusive to Jordan and the Middle East. I have encountered sexual harassment in the UK where I grew up; however, without wishing to generalize, I don’t think that it would be too far-fetched to suggest that cultural ideas of space and notions of “honor” perpetuate and intensify the problem here, reinforcing the adaptive behaviors women engage in to avoid putting themselves in vulnerable situations. As a result, men are able to continue exerting control over public spaces, and progress toward redefining these established boundaries is slow.

More often than not, sexual harassment is about power. In Jordan, where high youth unemployment is a major socio-economic concern, young people are becoming increasingly disillusioned with politics and worried about their future prospects. Restless, sometimes without the means to achieve independence and further their aspirations, the shabab – literal translation: ‘the youth’; commonly used to refer to young men in the streets – may be inclined to resort to expressions of dominance in communal areas in order to offset the sense of powerlessness found in other aspects of their life.

The question is: how do we bring this conversation into the public sphere without compromising the safety of those wishing to effect change? How do we promote the idea that public spaces are not male spaces but shared spaces accessible to people of all genders? The social and legal framework here in Jordan fails to protect women from harassment. Instead, society attaches stigma and shame to the victims. The law does not explicitly condemn the act, with lawmakers neglecting to clearly define the crime. The law states that offenders can be punished for committing violations against “modesty” and “humanity”, but the use of such nebulous and subjective terminology makes it difficult for victims of harassment to actually achieve justice.

The repercussions of speaking out impose a culture of silence on Jordanian society. Few people openly discuss the realities of sexual harassment, and those that do are subject to public criticism. Yet, in private spaces, the consensus is that something needs to be done to tackle the underlying causes of this recent phenomenon in response to a rapidly increasing number of Jordanian women setting foot outside the confines of the home and entering the public space. When a woman dares to occupy the public space and asserts her right to an equal share in it, the ownership of her body should not then be up in the air and up for grabs.

Minying is a 19-year-old British-born Chinese student from Cambridge, England. She is studying for a BA in Spanish and Arabic at Oxford University and is currently on her Year Abroad in Amman, Jordan. You can follow her on Twitter @minyingh.

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