Correspondent, Author at Stop Street Harassment

USA: Dance Party to Benefit HollabackPHILLY coming April 5

March 26, 2014 By Correspondent

Katie Monroe, Philadelphia, PA, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent

There’s a great quote from activist Emma Goldman – it comes in various forms, but basically it says, “A revolution without dancing is not a revolution worth having.” I couldn’t agree more.

Philadelphia’s Hollaback chapter has been doing a lot of innovative work lately – from launching a subway ad campaign that got tons of press last year, to helping create a comic book about street harassment, to managing to get a City Council hearing about street harassment this past fall, they’ve been working hard.

But they’ve never had a dance party before. Until April 5, during International Anti-Street Harassment Week.

The party’s at Underground Arts in Philadelphia, an awesome space that hosted the bar for Philly’s LiveArts/Fringe Festival for the past few years. Doors are at 8pm, $5 presale (http://tktwb.tw/1kLRxfL) /$8 at the door. There will be various DJs, spoken word, and more, all to benefit HollabackPHILLY.

Rochelle Keyhan, Founder and Director of HollabackPHILLY, says, “We’ve been talking about wanting to have a dance party frequently over the past few years. It would be a great way to rally behind a cause in a more lighthearted setting than our usual events. Despite wanting a dance party, we were never quite sure of how to pull it off. Last Fall we heard about Get Lucid and loved what they were doing, so reached out to them about partnering up. We met with the awesome Get Lucid team, Pete, Miguel, and Cedric, planned this event to coincide with Anti Street Harassment Day, and couldn’t be more excited!

We went to the last Get Lucid party which fundraised for Philly Urban Creators, and the crowd and vibe was so supportive and energetic, while highlighting a great cause in our community. We’re excited to see who else Get Lucid highlights throughout the year!”

For those not in the know, Get Lucid! The Activist Dance Party describes itself as “featur[ing] a blend of innovative local musicians and djs with unique visual and performance art. The result is a visceral experience for attendees, where we hope to unite passion with activism. Get Lucid! provides a safe, fun, and collaborative environment for all communities to network and rally around local social justice initiatives, for which the Get Lucid! events themselves become a tool for promotion and fundraising.”

Sounds good to me! As someone who’s experienced plenty of harassment – verbal and physical – on dance floors in Philadelphia, it’s exciting to imagine a dance floor full of folks who are all there because they respect the other humans dancing around them… perhaps I’ll be able to actually dance without being groped, leered at, aggressively approached from behind, etc.

RSVP on Facebook here / Get your presale tickets here.

See you there!

Katie Monroe founded the Women Bike PHL campaign at the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia and she works at the Philly nonprofit Gearing Up, which gives some of Philadelphia’s most marginalized women – those in transition from incarceration, addiction, and/or abuse – the opportunity to ride bicycles for exercise, transportation, and personal growth. Follow her on Twitter, @cmon_roe.

Spain: Egypt, the Mother of the World

March 25, 2014 By Correspondent

Rocío Andrés, Spain, SSH Blog Correspondent

I am supposed to be in Cairo by now, visiting all of the places and monuments. What is a triangle and what is not.

Camera in hand. Ready to go. But, as expected, the calls advising me not to take the flight insisted on ringing. “Look after yourself”, they said, “whatever you want to see, you can see it at another moment.”

I folded my arms as I am told I do when I don’t like what I hear but, even if stubborn, the warnings were everywhere:

“Terrorism: There is a high threat from terrorism. We believe that terrorists continue to plan attacks. Attacks could be indiscriminate and occur without prior warning. Terrorists could target protestors and the Egyptian authorities. Attacks have mainly been aimed at the security forces, their facilities and other government buildings. You should take great care near these buildings. Attacks targeting foreigners can’t be ruled out.

On 16 February 2014, a tourist bus was attacked in Taba in South Sinai, close to the Israeli border at Eilat. It has been reported that 4 people were killed. On 7 February 2014, there were reports of 2 explosions near a police checkpoint at scheduled protests in Giza. At least 6 people were wounded.”

Following this, four blasts had also taken place on 24^th January during the third anniversary of the 2011 uprising against ex-President Hosni Mubarak, when six people were killed and some 100 others wounded. On that occasion, the Islamic Art Museum from the 19^th century was seriously damaged and, as a consequence, the building is now in need of being rebuilt, as the Egypt´s Minister of Antiquies claimed.

For months, I had been preparing myself for the sexual violence in Cairo but certainly not for bombs. I don’t need to say that I don’t like them, however, explosions aside, I never expected an easy trip.

I was meant to be arriving in the morning which, in truth, is something that worried me a bit. Although I’ve never been scared of too many things, surely not of travelling alone, brave or not, that time in Delhi, when my flight landed at midnight and saw myself in the middle of an empty city, all the newspaper´s articles came to my mind and that memory of emptiness still remains.

There was no one in the streets, but behind drawn curtains, with almost 18 million population, Delhi is an insomnia city. Like vultures, a few guys came up from different corners. One of them started to smell my hair. He was talking very close to my ear. I couldn´t understand what he was saying as he was speaking in Hindi, but I knew what was coming next. He knocked me down and held my arms. I was kicking the air.

A taxi driver arrived on time to stop them before they could rip off my clothes, before they could do anything bad to me. He drove me to a safe place and worried about me as if I were his daughter. I told him I was fine because I was fine but since then I like morning arrivals.

First thing I was going to do in Cairo was visiting a few organisations: Operation Anti-Sexual Harassment/Assault (OpAntiSH), HarassMap, Tahrir Bodyguard or I Saw Harassment.

I had already contacted some of them as I wanted to get a close picture of the sexual violence-sexual harassment-street harassment problem in Egypt. I would have asked them how it feels to be living in the worst place for women´s rights within the Arab world.

I could then have visited the City of the Dead, where more than half a million Egyptians are living and try to see how safe it is for women to have a home among tombs.

I wanted to record the street harassment so I was carrying a video camera with me to evidence what was exactly happening. I had a very flexible draft script. I would have talked to women about harassment, as long as they wanted. And to men, if possible, and carefully listen to how they could explain what leads them (– them in general terms) to harass women or the use of acid on them (in case they considered there is an explanation for that, which there is) or simply ask them what they understand by women´s rights. I thought, depending on the answers, I would have to control my temper at this point.

Although I didn´t want to expose myself to a very dangerous situation, I was going to visit Tahrir Square, epicentre of sexual violence. Not during a demonstration, which admittedly embarrasses me, but sadly, my fear is bigger than my shame. According to this, the www.gov.uk says:

“There is a serious risk of violence and sexual assault at demonstrations. NGOs report more than 100 rapes and sexual assaults against women in demonstrations since 30 June. Foreign and Egyptian women have been attacked. […] Stay away from demonstrations and large gatherings of people. If you become aware of any nearby protests, leave the area immediately”.

Next stop was university campuses. As you might know, a female student has recently been mob assaulted in public by dozens of male students at Cairo University. The excuse: she was wearing black trousers and a pink sweater. This happened in the law faculty, nucleus of future justice makers, which is not a joke, in the same way that it is not a joke that the head Gaber Nassar referred to the victim´s clothes as a “mistake.” In fact, it is far from being funny and it also makes me wonder how Cairo, also known as the “mother of the world”, whose universities pictured unveiled women in nice dresses in the 60s has become a place where 99.3% women severely suffer from sexual harassment in any of its forms. And I am sorry to say this, but if this is the mother of the world, we’re better as orphans.

Despite everything,“unfortunately” for me, instead I am in Spain, the country I was born, wondering if the Great Sphinx, the guardian of the horizon, lost his nose at the same time as men forgot that, after all the Tutmosis, all the Ramses, there was once, among others, a queen, whose name was Cleopatra, who, whether you like her or not, was a woman on top of a kingdom.

Rocío Andrés holds a Bachelor´s degree in Audiovisual Communication, History of Art (both Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain) and a Master´s in Education (Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Spain, 2010). She has six years experience as a TV and advertising producer.

India: Men on the Street — Take a Walk!

March 22, 2014 By Correspondent

By Pallavi Kamat, Mumbai, India, SSH Correspondent

While people talk about and highlight street harassment, primarily amongst women, does anybody wonder about the reasons it happens?

One of the main reasons, according to me, is that women are considered the weaker sex. Men feel that they need to control women in order to show that they are powerful. And one of the ways they can do this is by harassing innocent and gullible women who are simply walking down the street. In fact, experts believe that warped social beliefs and psychological problems are responsible for men indulging in such harassment.

Unfortunately, instead of helping stop it, society tends to worsen the situation. When a woman is harassed, society tells her that she must definitely be at fault. Maybe she was wearing the wrong clothes or had stepped out at a wrong time. Or maybe she had ventured into an area where she should not have. This only encourages the men further.

In cities like Mumbai, it is often alleged (and rightly so) that the police do not take the street harassment complaints of women seriously enough to file an FIR. And passers-by try not to interfere fearing they will get unnecessarily caught in the legal rigmarole. In fact, in October-2011, two youngsters were stabbed to death for trying to stop some goons from harassing their girlfriends.

So, what can be done about this? Nothing? Are women destined to face street harassment and continue pretending as if nothing happened? Sadly, such questions lead to more questions. But, I am an eternal optimist. According to me, women need to come out and speak more against such instances. These need to be highlighted and not shoved under the carpet. Perpetrators of such acts should be named and shamed by citizens groups. This is the thinking behind the ‘Chappal Maarungi’ campaign [literally meaning to hit with a sandal/shoe].

Some experts are also seeking a change in the way cities are modelled in their bid to fight street harassment. Changes such as bright lights and wider pavements are some of the suggestions being considered in Mumbai.

Such solutions need to come from within local people and societies – an external person/organisation cannot provide better answers. Also, buy-in for such solutions needs to be obtained; one needs to emphasize that it is not a woman’s personal problem when she is harassed on the street but a social problem – one that needs to be taken seriously and dealt with like any other crime.

Pallavi is a qualified Chartered Accountant and a Commerce Graduate from the University of Mumbai, India, with around 12 years of experience working in the corporate sector. Follow her on Twitter, @pallavisms.

Nepal: Today’s Harasser, Tomorrow’s Rapist

March 18, 2014 By Correspondent

Kriti Khatri, Nepal, SSH Blog Correspondent

Some people who participate in disrespectful behaviors towards women in public spaces also commit severe crimes like rape, attempted rape and sexual violence. How a person develops physiological enhancement to commit sexually oriented crime can be answered based on his moral boosting from past behaviors towards women. What he learns from his upbringing and from the society where women are objectified for their dressing, body images and social presence influence him to develop his way of understanding woman’s role as a person. Once a guy can pester a woman in public and no one takes any action to stop it, he may get encouraged to develop his culprit activities into more severe crimes.

Globally we have seen various forms of sexual violence against woman. We try enforcing hard legislation against the perpetrators to ensure justice to survivors of sexual violence. However in the long run, what we need to consider is that if a person is discouraged from his harassing behavior in the first place, many violence incidents against women can be prevented. Anyone involving in activities like eve teasing, whistling etc, if discouraged to do so, he might not excel his activities. The growing environment and person’s upbringing has to do a lot to determine his social attitude. One who has seen women disrespected and treated as object will develop similar attitude towards the female gender. If a person is encouraged to respect women through social behaviors, then it will set moral code for every social component to treat women with respect and equality.

Today’s harasser might not turn to be a rapist always, but there is a chance. Our society have never taken street harassment as a serious crime. Even more, street harassment is not even listed as one among the various “forms” of violence against women.

The impact of street harassment might be considered nominal in comparison to brutal rape and other physical violence; however, harassing activities impart long term consequences to women. Moreover, street harassment activities are a big question mark to gender equality. How can it be a gender friendly society where women get easily victimized by any one in the street? She is abused verbally, physically and sexually as if she is an object. In such social trend, can true respect be ever experienced by women? Again, while we are trying to end violence cases against women in global scenario, can we avoid street harassment considering it as a common social pattern?

What I believe is that, without taking significant step with participatory social input to abolish harassing street behaviors towards women, respectful presence of women will never be possible in our society. A woman should be respected both inside and outside her house to ensure a gender friendly environment. True equality only comes when woman are treated with equal respect which is only possible when we ensure an environment of social justice.

Holding the same message, Atitwa foundation organized a wall painting themed on the slogan “Today’s Harasser, Tomorrow’s Rapist” in cooperation with National Alliance of Women Human Rights Defenders (NAWHRD) and 35 other NGOs working on gender issues. The program was organized as part of National Anti Rape campaign on the precious occasion of women’s day at March 8^th.The aim of the program was to raise awareness about how street harassment can be preliminary steps to all kinds of sexual violence against woman that occurs in public places.

With successful completion of the program, the campaign against street harassment has got more attention and support from the people. Such awareness campaigns is bound to make positive impact on our society which will help abolish street harassment.

Kriti Khatri is student of MSc chemistry. She is engaged in different social organization in Nepal and currently she is working on anti-street harassment issues with the Astitwa Foundation. Find more of her writing on her blog.

USA: A Public Showing of Solidarity

March 12, 2014 By Correspondent

Brittany Oliver, Baltimore, MD, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent

Last Friday, Hollaback! Baltimore celebrated their third year of fighting street harassment by collaborating with Luminous Intervention to reach more people in Baltimore. They gathered to share stories and raise awareness at the corner of The Windup Space in Station North; it was a time to let harassers know about our strong presence.

Yesterday, I interviewed a 27-year-old female supporter of Hollaback! Baltimore who was at the event to get her thoughts on street harassment and what it means to her. Note: For this interview, she preferred to remain anonymous until.

Me: What does “street harassment” mean to you?

Supporter: I assume it means any non-wanted sexual advances or attention from strangers on the street.

Me: Have you ever been street harassed or do you know someone who has?

Supporter: I’ve experienced street harassment quite a few times and I also have friends that have as well. It’s happened to me on campus and most of the time it happens in the city.

Me: What happened and how did it make you feel?

Supporter: One time I was walking to my car at night in Fells Point from a yoga class and two guys in a truck pulled over to ask if I needed a ride home. I rejected their offer, but the more I rejected it the more they continued to follow me down the street. After being silent and not saying anything, the driver called me a “bitch” and sped off down the street.

I’ve experienced street harassment so much in Baltimore that I’ve become numb to it. At first it used to get to me, but I’ve completely trained myself to not react because some men are just stupid and there’s not much I can do anyway.

Me: Did you report it or tell someone about it?

Supporter: No, I didn’t want to report it at all.

Me: Why not?

Supporter: I’m really shy and I didn’t see how reporting it would have made a difference at the time. I was alone and outnumbered; I thought the most important thing to do was to get away from them. Even if I had reported it, I don’t think anything would have been done about it.

Me: Were you familiar with Hollaback! Baltimore before or after that incident? Do you find it helpful?

Supporter: Before this incident, I was not familiar. Ending street harassment is not going to happen over night. I think the organization is doing a great job, but I think the key is education. The more people who know about street harassment the better. And by being involved with the movement, I’ve learned to not be silent about my experiences. I’ve also been able to let other people know that is serious and not to be taken lightly.

Me: Before learning about street harassment, did you have any assumptions about it?

Supporter: Before I used to think street harassment was a compliment, but I know differently now. I used to think the way a person dressed was to blame for being harassed on the streets. I have a lot of friends who think it’s flirting and should be expected when walking down the street. I never blamed myself for being street harassed, but I used to think that was just the way of the world.

Me: What change do you wish to see?

Supporter: I want the streets of Baltimore to be safer for women. I want to be able to walk down any street and not feel like it’s a dangerous space. I want more men to become aware of their behavior and develop ways to be more approachable. No one should ever have to be harassed when they are on the street, because it’s supposed to be a public space for everyone.

Me: Any words of advice for someone who experience street harassment?

Supporter: Don’t be afraid to share your story. Kissing noises, sexual comments or sexual touching is not a compliment. Try documenting your experiences by taking photos and recordings. I would also recommend taking experiences. I’ve also been able to let other people know that is serious and not to be taken lightly.

Me: What change do you wish to see?

Me: Any words of advice for someone who experience street harassment?

Supporter: Don’t be afraid to share your story. Kissing noises, sexual comments or sexual touching is not a compliment. Try documenting your experiences by taking photos and recordings. I would also recommend taking self-defense classes to learn how to physically protect yourself.

Brittany Oliver is a recent graduate of Towson University and works in the non-profit communications sector and supports local anti-street harassment advocacy through Hollaback! Baltimore. She blogs at brittuniverse.wordpress.com and publicly rants on Twitter, @btiara3.

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