Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming
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“A video of two sisters beating up three men, who were allegedly sexually harassing them on a moving bus in India, has gone viral on social media.
The men have been arrested and charged with assault, police said.
Friday’s incident, recorded by a passenger on a mobile phone, took place in the northern state of Haryana.
Violence against Indian women has been in the spotlight since the gang rape and murder of a student on a bus in the capital, Delhi, in December 2012.
The attack caused outrage and prompted India to introduce stringent anti-rape laws.
The latest incident happened in Rohtak district when the two students, 22-year-old Aarti and 19-year-old Pooja, were on their way home.
Younger sister Pooja told BBC Hindi that the three young men “threatened us and abused us”.
“The men started to abuse me and touch me. I told them ‘if you touch me again, you’ll get beaten up’. They called a friend on the phone and told him to ‘come over because we have to beat up some girls’,” Pooja said.
She said they decided to take on the attackers when other passengers did not come to their help.
“No one came forward in the bus to help us. So we took out our belts in self-defence [and hit the men]. If only the other passengers had helped us, we would not have needed to retaliate in this way,” she said.
However, the video of the incident shows at least one male passenger repeatedly trying to separate one of the men from the women.
The sisters said the men pushed them out of the bus when it came to a halt after some distance and attacked them again.
They said they retaliated by throwing a brick at the men who then fled.”
Trigger Warning. Via BuzzFeed:
“Germans are mourning the death of a young student, Tugce Albayrak, who died after confronting a group of men harassing two teenage girls in the city of Offenbach…
Soon after, she was attacked in a car park by one of the men. Some reports suggest she was struck in the head with a stone or bat, while others say she was punched and hit her head on the pavement.
She sustained a serious head injury and was in a coma until Nov. 28, when her parents decided to turn off her life support after doctors told them she was brain dead. She died on her 23rd birthday.
An 18-year-old Serbian man is in police custody and has reportedly confessed to the attack, according to German public radio station Deutsche Welle.”
So outraged to hear about her senseless death!! She is a hero. May Tugce rest in peace.
It is heartening to hear about the outpouring of support for her. Via Haaretz:
“A large crowd bearing candles and flowers gathered Sunday outside the Offenbach hospital where Albayrak died, and where a vigil had been held since her hospitalization on November 15.
Meanwhile, hundreds paid their respects at Oranienplatz in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district, according to the report.
A petition asking Gauck to posthumously award Albayrak the national order of merit was signed by some 100,000 people.”
There have been several other stories this year where bystanders have been hurt or murdered for speaking out. Here are four of them:
* The San Francisco man who sustained life-threatening injuries last month simply because he dared to ask a catcaller to leave his girlfriend alone.
* The Egyptian teenager who was stabbed to death in October while intervening in a harassment situation.
* The Philadelphia man who was hospitalized after a harasser he told to watch what he was saying to women nearby got out of his vehicle and attacked him.
* The Chicago man killed by a harasser after he confronted him for making “inappropriate gestures” at his daughter.
These people are heroes too, each of them standing up for another person — in most cases, a stranger — no matter the cost. May we all be as brave. And may there one day never be cause for us to have to be brave.
A message from our board member Liz!
People laugh and make strange noises, bark like a dog, talk about how ugly or funny looking I am, insult my clothing or phone because I am poor. Yes even flat chested and/or “societies definition of ugly” or older women are just as tired of being made fun of as attractive and/or young women are tired of being hit on.
It is just as humiliating to be constantly made fun of as it is for an attractive woman to be hit on. It is very demeaning and contributes to lack of self esteem and self worth.
– Anonymous
Location: Western PA
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