Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Part 1: Sexual Harassment of Women in India: A Violation of Personal and Public Space

By

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

Benjamin Franklin once said, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” If he were a woman in current times, I wonder if this adage would have been stated as, “… nothing is certain except for death, taxes and sexual harassment.” Such is the prevalence of sexual harassment for women not only in the US, but globally.

Various research studies have reported the pervasiveness of sexual harassment within schools, colleges, workplace including in the US military. There are also documented reports of sexual harassment in public spaces worldwide, for example in France, China, Pakistan, Egypt, London, India, and Iran to name a few.

Sexual harassment of women influences job satisfaction, anxiety, depression, physical and mental health, constant stress leading to burnout. Research has also shown evidence of sexual harassment’s association with negative emotions such as fear, shame, anger, and guilt. There is a growing body of literature highlighting sexual harassment’s role in alleviating one’s helplessness to developing post-traumatic stress (PTS) symptoms and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Needless to say, women are the primary victims and males are mostly the offenders.

In India, the horrific Delhi Gang-Rape of 2012 resulted in the 23-year old woman losing her life. If there is anything positive that resulted from this incident – it is perhaps that this brought the crime against women to the forefront, a much needed impetus.

In my view, it also gave the feminist movement a big push where the young, old, men and women alike were on the streets demanding a basic human right, that is, “safety and security in public spaces.” In the same breath, I am very apologetic for finding a positive in this gruesome event, a human life is far too valuable to be sacrificed for people to start ruffling their feathers toward an important social change.

Notwithstanding my personal position, one thing is apparent that since this incident, the sexual offenses (from rape to assault to insulting the modesty of a women) have alarmingly increased, both at a national level and within the capital city. Do we take pride in a higher reporting and that law enforcement is perhaps taking more complaints, or we feel just about ashamed at these growing numbers and do nothing? Or chart a future course with policy-driven initiatives grounded in empirical evidence?

Indiasexoffense

Source: National Crime Record Bureau (India): 2006–2014.

Let me assert that the problem in India is not the laws or its lack thereof. According to the Indian Penal Code (IPC), sexual offences comprise rape (Sec. 375, Sec. 376 IPC); attempt to commit rape, assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty (Sec. 354 IPC) and insult to the modesty of women (Sec. 509 IPC). An offence of rape under sec 376 warrants a fine with rigorous imprisonment of a term not less than seven years, but may also extend to imprisonment for life. The Indian legal system does provide protection and remedial against sexual harassment including many serious sexual offenses. However, the pervasive occurrence of sexual violence in India exists for reasons that are beyond the mere existence of the laws. A Washington Post story attributed it to a few female police officers, a sluggish court system, few convictions, and low status of women in the Indian society among several other factors. For the purpose of this write up, it is my hope that both men and women become aware of the pertinent laws.

Read Part 2.

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.

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“I breached socially constructed expectations because I was angry”

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My body, my temple!

It is very sad how street harassment is something I’m used to at this point, but this is definitely not something I would like to tolerate!

Whenever I go out for a walk, I either witness a random guy screaming out disgusting sexual comments or their phone number, whistling or gazing with hungry look, guys stopping their cars and offering a ride, or, even worse, grabbing a passing by girl’s buttock.

I saw it all, but I never felt able to do anything and that was angering me. One day, I was walking home from the gym, on the main road I always walked on. As I’m walking, four guys (who looked to be in their early 20s) were walking towards me. I was not worried for my safety as first of all, I was wearing modest sports clothes and I was walking down on of the main roads. However, I was mistaken.

The closer they were getting to me, the more they started to spread out to block the road. Not to provoke them, I moved very close to the roadside. However, it did not help. One of the guys grabbed my hand and pushed me towards him. My self-defense reaction emerged pretty much immediately. I hit the guy’s hand and he ran away from me while three of his friends headed towards me. The only thing I had handy was my to-go bottle filled with protein cocktail. I started to hit them with it. The lid of the bottle fell wide opened and we all were covered from head to toe in a protein cocktail.

Although it was one of the main streets no one stopped to help. Ironically, there were not even patrol cars. I was lucky when the guard of a nearby organization started to whistle. The guys got scared off and ran away.

I am confident the guys did not expect such a wild reaction from me because in our culture men do not expect women to stand up for themselves, to fight, or to shout. They expect us to be fragile, afraid and silent. They do not expect that girls can bring unwanted attention to their misdeeds. I breached socially constructed expectations because I was angry and would not stand to be grabbed as if I were someone’s property.

My body is my temple. No one has the right to touch me without my consent!

Optional: What’s one way you think we can make public places safer for everyone?

More police patrol cars. There should be alarm buttons to press so that police arrives to that spot.

– Dilber

Location: Ashgabat, Turkmenistan

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more idea.

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USA: Vigilant against Street Harassment

By

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.

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“I’m amazed at how many men feel my work place is a speed dating site”

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It’s not “street harassment,” but I’m amazed at how many men feel my work place is a speed dating site. I’m a bank teller and men will tell me I’m really pretty, or ask me if I’m dating or if I want to grab a drink. My supervisor even asked me if I was dating someone because an important customer was interested in company after his wife died. My supervisor is a woman!

– EE

Location: My workplace

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more idea.

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