Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

“Young boys, hardly 10 years old, already harassing women?!”

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Seven years ago, when I was 18, I went to Delhi to study. My hostel room-mate and I used to walk nearly half a kilometer from our hostel to the classes and back, daily. Once, on our way back from the classes, at around 4 p.m. (the road was bustling and it was still broad daylight), an empty mini bus slowed down next to us and started crawling at our pace. The conductor of the bus grinned at us and started asking where we were going. My room mate and I ignored him and kept walking. The bus continued crawling for about another two minutes, and the conductor kept on insisting that we board the bus. There were people around but no one seemed to be bothered by it. I bet no one would have cared even if one of us were forcefully pulled into the bus. We made sure we maintained our distance till the driver and the conductor lost interest and went off.

Another time, when my roommate and I were on our way back, at around 3 in the afternoon, we bought some fruits on the way. While walking we saw 2-3 young boys (8-11 years old) on their bicycles. The started laughing and racing towards us. One of them stretched his arm at me as he passed, and I swung the fruit bag away thinking that he’s trying to snatch it. I thought it was some silly game of theirs. We kept walking without bothering about those kids, till suddenly he came from behind and smacked me on my butt!! That’s when we realized that they had no interest in our belongings. They were sexually harassing us!!

Young boys, hardly 10 years old, already harassing women?!! They probably don’t even know why they are doing it. They just learn from their surroundings and absorb this kind of behavior from the men around them. I was so shocked that I didn’t know how to react. I shudder to think what horrors these little kids will be capable of, once they grow into men…

S. K.

Location: Janakpuri, New Delhi, India

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60 percent of women face harassment on Delhi’s Metros

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Via The Economic Times:

“NEW DELHI: The national capital has earned the dubious distinction of meting out maximum discrimination and harassment to women from northeast, a survey has said.

Around 60 per cent women from northeast have faced harassment and discrimination in the four metros — New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore.

While 23 per cent of the respondents admitted to having been harassed by landlords, an alarming 42 per cent said they were often subjected to verbal abuse. A total of 29 per cent reported harassment and molestation.”

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Social media helps raise awareness of harassment in Saudi Arabia

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Over the years, SSH has covered various aspects about harassment in Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s most conservative countries with the fewest rights for women. From the cleric who thought women were too seductive in veils that showed two eyes and said they should only be able to show one eye, to the group of men caught on tape harassing fully covered women outside a mall, to the on-going effort to pass an anti-harassment law.

Al-Monitor has a new article about how women are using social media to fight back. Excerpt:

“A study conducted by a female Saudi researcher about “sexual harassment of women” on a sample of women aged between 18 and 48 has shown that 78% of respondents claimed to have experienced sexual harassment directly, while 92% said that sexual harassment is on the rise. The study found that 27% of them have been subjected to verbal harassment; 26% were subject to “tarqim” attempts, which is the attempt to pass on a phone number; 24% were subject to harassment by looks; and 15% were physically touched…

Harassment in Saudi Arabia has become a serious phenomenon. The tip of the iceberg has now been revealed because of a general desire by the victims to reveal the criminals. Posting photos and videos documenting certain events has shed light on sensitive topics that the kingdom wishes to avoid dealing with….

A video shot at a building’s entrance in Dammam shows a young man harassing a young girl waiting for the elevator. He lifts her school dress and touches her private parts, then enters the elevator with her. The disturbing video ends at this point, but without putting an end to the incident.

The girl didn’t scream or resist. It was a brutal, smooth and scary scene. The video went viral, Saudi Twitter users applied their usual pressure and the criminal was caught. He could be punished by several lashings and a short prison stay. The absence of a law that deters the crime has worsened the harassment phenomenon targeting women and girls….

The collective harassment incident that took place in a shopping mall in the eastern region was the cornerstone for a law intended to fight the growing phenomenon. In the incident, a group of Saudi women were collectively harassed by a group of young men. One of the women shot the scene and put it up on social media to expose the perpetrators.

Before the video’s publication, there had been efforts to put in place penalties to reduce harassment. The Shura Council is studying an integrated penalties schedule for verbal and physical harassment. The bill, which aims to combat harassment and stop its growth, sets penalties that depend on the offense, starting with a warning and censure, followed by fines that reach up to half a million riyals (more than $120,000), flogging and imprisonment for up to five years.”

I hope the videos and other activism on social media can bring more attention to this widespread problem and show that the harassment is not women’s fault! They are harassed no matter what they’re wearing because the problem is the patriarchal, disrespectful attitudes of the men harassing them.

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Increase harassment on Indian trains

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Quick news hit, via Bernama:

“Despite introducing measures to ensure women’s safety on trains, the Indian railways has reported an increase in molestation cases and eve teasing on trains in the past one year.

Data from the Rail Ministry shows a total of 189 sexual harassment cases were reported in 2013 by female passengers, an increase from 119 cases in 2012 and 72 in 2011, Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.

Incidents of eve teasing (a local term for sexual harassment) have risen from 34 in 2011, 46 in 2012 and 53 in 2013. Rape cases on the other hand fell from seven in 2012 to five last year. A total of 290 suspects were arrested for crimes against women last year, the rail ministry said.”

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India: Blank Noise is making a difference

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By Pallavi Kamat, Mumbai, India, SSH Correspondent

All of us at some point in time have faced street harassment in one form or the other. But most of us choose to remain silent and bear it. At times, we may discuss it amongst our group of friends and curse the eve-teasing that we are subject to.

But not Jasmeen Patheja. She initiated a community/public art project called Blank Noise in August 2003 in Bangalore which seeks to confront street harassment.

Blank Noise asks women to be active ‘Action Heroes’ and reclaim the streets which they seek to make safe. At the same time, it also asks men to get involved in their events and activities. Jasmeen believes that making cities safer for women is not a woman’s responsibility alone.

The project is run almost entirely by volunteers who are keen to make a difference. It works on the premise that while individually we may face harassment, collectively, as a group, we can stand up to it; we can share our experiences and resolve it.

Some of Blank Noise’s campaigns include ‘I Never Ask For It’ [the typical response when a woman is assaulted on the street is that she probably asked for it – by staying out late, by dressing in a particular way, by taking an unsafe street, etc.], ‘Safe City Pledge’ and ‘Talk To Me’.

One of their experiments involved women standing on the zebra crossing at a traffic signal in a bid to assert themselves and reclaim the streets from lecherous glances and other unpleasant experiences. Each of the volunteers had a letter pasted on the front of their clothes – collecting the letters read ‘Y R U LOOKING AT ME?’ Some passers-by even questioned the volunteers about the same.

Another experiment (‘Talk To Me’) involved putting up a couple of tables in Bangalore’s infamous Rapist Lane where volunteers invited complete strangers to stop and talk with them. At the end of the conversation, the volunteer offered a rose to the stranger.

The ‘Safe City Pledge’ initiative, which was launched following the gruesome rape in Delhi in December-2012 focuses on building safe cities and identifying an individual’s role in making his or her city safe.

Blank Noise can be contacted at http://blog.blanknoise.org/ or on Twitter at @BLANK_NOISE.

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.

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