Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Philadelphia City Council Hearing Recap

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Philadelphia City Council Hearing, Nov. 7, 2013

Today, the second-ever city council hearing on street harassment was held in Philadelphia! The first was held in 2010 in New York City.

This hearing came about because Council Member James Kenney read tweets by Hollaback! Philly about street harassment, researched the issue and he decided he wanted to address it. When he reached out to Hollaback! Philly over Twitter to ask what he could do, Hollaback! Philly’s director Rochelle Keyhan requested a city council hearing. While it took seven months to get it scheduled, today it happened.

During the morning hearing in Philadelphia’s City Hall, nine people testified (some represented organizations like FAAN Mail and Women Bike PHL, others were simply there as citizens), and Rochelle played a video of teenage girls sharing their stories, since they couldn’t attend due to school. Most people courageously and passionately shared their street harassment stories during their testimonies, Rochelle presented Hollaback! Philly’s new survey data, and I put the issue into a global context and explained why it’s a human rights violation. (Stay tuned, I will post everyone’s testimonies soon.)

SSH Board Member & Philly Resident Nuala Cabral Testified

The main ask of the City Council is to help Hollaback! Philly organize community safety audits, a type of action created by METRAC, which the United Nations uses around the world and which activists in Washington, D.C. (co-led by SSH and Collective Action for Safe Spaces) and NYC (co-led by city council members and several activist groups) have already used. Hollaback! Philly needs help from the City Council in connecting with diverse community groups and churches in neighborhoods throughout the city to ensure that volunteers conducting the audit come from a range of backgrounds and perspectives.

The four male city council members who heard us were very sympathetic and strongly against the issue. This is HUGE progress. They were also interested in seeing the issue brought up to kids in schools and working with police officers to train them to know how to help with street harassment incidents.

After the hearing, Council Member Kenney met with us and assured us this was not a “one and done day,” but that he was committed to working with Hollaback! Philly and other groups to address the issue. Great!

Congrats to Hollaback! Philly, and in particular to Rochelle, for doing all the leg work and follow-up and organizing to make this happen and to make it successful!

Some of the people who testified or attended the City Council Hearing

 

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“I just hope that some day, this whole harassment issue will come to an end”

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I have been pushed once by a road side young man popularly called ‘agbaro’ and when i asked him why he pushed me, he ask me what am gonna do to him if he pushed me. Though i exchanged words with him and told him i was going to get him arrested but he was not moved by it. He asked me if i had enough money to feed myself before arresting him. I know i didn’t look hungry and neither was i. One thing that bothers me is if we (women) are the cause for our own harassment or these guys are just manless. I was dressed in a long sleeve shirt and a knee skirt.

There is hardly any day that i go out that some guy don’t say some thing or want to say some thing. I was not bothered but this incident was different because there was a strong physical contact. Now i have to keep a very serious look to scare them away though it doesn’t work for some as no matter how scary i try to make my face look, there is this thing about my looks that shows that am a calm person. I think an authority should be made to check sexual/ physical harassment for ladies and even men. I have had the opportunity to talk with a young man concerning sexual harassment.

Did you know that some men feel sexually harassed by some ladies? How do you mean? I asked. He said by their seductive dressing. He further said that men are moved sexually by what they see and women are moved sexually by touch and words. A person is addressed the way he/she is dressed but not in all cases though some people just have this bad behavior of harassment.

I just hope that some day, this whole harassment issue will come to an end.

I must say that i felt very bad that that i couldn’t do anything to him. I guess i will have to watch carefully the places that i pass through and the people that walk along side with me and most especially…my dressing.

– Camilla

Location: Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
Check out the new book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers!

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Free Smarphone Safety App!

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The Pixel Project, a Stop Street Harassment partner, is proud to present the “Holiday Season Smartphone Safety” campaign (through the end of 2013). All Stop Street Harassment supporters who own iPhones or Android phones are invited to download the free iAMDEFENDER smartphone safety app with it’s unique Pull-Plug alarm as part of your personal safety plan in case the street harassment you experience escalates. For more information about the campaign and iAMDEFENDER app, visit  http://is.gd/HolidaySmartphoneSafety

What’s more: A private donor, who wishes to remain anonymous, has pledged to match each activated download with a US$1 donation to The Pixel Project up to a maximum of 2,500 downloads (US$2,500) as a grant for the development of the back-end technology needed for their online anti-Violence Against Women campaigns! So please download, activate and share with your friends and family!

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Five Countries Tackle Street Harassment

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There have been several articles lately about harassment and anti-harassment efforts in many countries around the Mediterranean and Red Seas —

1. Palestine: “There are many untold stories about sexual harassment in Gaza, home to 1.7 million Palestinians. In a conservative society such as Gaza’s, female victims of sexual harassment seldom speak out, and when she does, society usually places the blame on her. [After her harassment experience was caught on video tape], although Hamas-affiliated media hid Abu Salama’s face due to such concerns, she bravely disclosed her identity on her Facebook page, acknowledging that she was the person videotaped. “I’m not the one who should feel ashamed, only him and everyone like him,” read Abu Salama’s post.”

2. Saudi Arabia: “A video purporting to show a group of men sexually harassing women in an eastern province of Saudi Arabia sparked outrage on Wednesday on social media. It led many social media users to call for harsher laws punishing sexual harassment in the kingdom. The video shows a group of men chasing women in what seems to be a car park, with an apparent scuffle going on between the two groups.”

3. Libya: “Sexual harassment of women is increasing in Libya and women complain that combined with the general lawlessness in the country their daily lives are becoming more of an ordeal and perilous. It was bad under former Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi with men jostling, groping and pestering women in shops, universities and offices and demanding sex but since his ouster two years ago harassment has worsened, say activists and ordinary women.”

4. Lebanon: “Mirna Karouny said verbal abuse was the most common type of harassment in Lebanon, adding that it was almost impossible for a woman to walk through the street in Beirut without being subjected to sexualized language. The trend is also visible in malls and other public venues. She said that overcrowding in Beirut, the increase in the refugee population and the general lack of security in the country was contributing to the rise of cases. As a result, she said, local non-governmental organizations and civil society can only do so much – authorities and security agencies must also do their job.”

5. Egypt: “I Saw Harassment said in a report on Friday that a total of 65 incidents of sexual violation were stopped during Eid Al-Adha, including two cases of mob harassment… A four day long campaign called Warriors against Harassment was activated by the I Saw Harassment initiative on Tuesday, the first day of Eid Al-Adha and ran until Friday. I Saw Harassment had said that during the religious holiday it would “be providing awareness and spreading the concepts of equality and renunciation of violence.”

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SSH Board Member Shares What Men Can Do

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Relando Thompkins

Check out this awesome interview our board member Relando Thompkins did for The Root last week!

“”One of the best things men can do to work against street harassment is talk to other men,” says Relando Thompkins, who sits on the board of directors of Stop Street Harassment. As a resident of Detroit, he talks to a lot of men who gripe about the responses they get from women, and he tries to make them understand that what she finds offensive is not up to him. “Just like a white person can’t tell me what I find offensive in terms of race relations, I can’t tell a woman what’s offensive.”

In my conversation with Thompkins, he compared men who holler at woman to police who engage in stop and frisk. Whatever benefit the New York Police Department claims from its stop-and-frisk programs, numerous studies and statistics have shown it targets men of color more than any other group, thus making an already complicated relationship between the police and black and brown communities more fraught.

“My experiences with racism have helped me become increasingly aware of others who have to deal with oppression of any sort because of targeted identities,” said Thompkins, referring to woman who are cat-called and consider it a form of harassment.

There are also other benefits to talking to other men about street harassment. Every guy I know has a story of being out with a woman and hearing another man say something to that woman. That kind of experience can probably help a man check himself. Then there’s also the benefit of being able to better understand that rejection from women happens to the best of men. Just like we mean no offense when we approach a woman, most women don’t mean any offense when they reject us. Is it offensive for women to label as street harassment every unwelcome but respectful attempt at engagement? Well, no one can tell you what offends, right? Our reaction is up to us.”

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