Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Afghanistan Videos: This is My City Too

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The Afghanistan-based organization Young Women for Change celebrates its one year anniversary this week! The young women who lead the organization continue to make street harassment one of their central issues of concern (read an article by co-founder Noorjahan Akbar about her harassment experiences). Below are two new videos they produced about street harassment, with English subtitles.

They’ve conducted a 4,000 person study about street harassment in Kabul and it will be released this summer at a press conference event. This is the largest study on the topic that’s ever been conducted. If you can, please donate a few dollars to them as the funds will enable them to print women’s stories and the survey results and then hand those out to attendees and people in the streets. Most Afghans do not have computers/Internet access so print materials is the best way for Young Women for Change to spread their message.

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Exposing a stalker

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Ariane Friedrich - Image via Zimbio

After a man allegedly sent her sexually explicit photographs online, Ariane Friedrich, a German high jumper who expects to compete in this summer’s Olympics, decided to publicly shame him.

Via Yahoo News:

“I’ve been offended in the past, sexually harassed and I’ve had a stalker before,” she wrote in a recent Facebook post that included the name and email address of a man who she says sent her explicit messages and pictures of his genitals. “It’s time to act, it’s time to defend myself. And that’s what I’m doing.”

German authorities are now investigating the matter, according to Friedrich’s manager. The matter has touched off an intense national debate on privacy with Friedrich, who is trained as a police officer, at the forefront…

“The removal of anonymity is a means to clarify,” she wrote in a statement translated from German. “Just think of all the children, young people and adults who are secretly harassed by perverts and don’t know what to do or how to defend themselves. Should we not go forward as a good example and demonstrate strength?”

German newspapers have asked whether Friedrich had a legal right to publicly disclose the man’s name. In that country, names of offenders aren’t disclosed in the media.”

Via the New York Times:

“As Niko Härting, a lawyer specializing in media and Internet law, points out, the legality of the issue hinges on the question of whether the man named by Ms. Friedrich, who has become a public personality in Germany since placing seventh in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, actually wrote and sent her the message.

“It all hangs on one question: Is it true or false?” Mr. Härting said. “If it is true, then she is allowed to post it.”

Why would she make this up? And surely she has copies of the photos. It always makes me feel like the people who protest this have something to hide. Like the people who are upset when we call out harassers. Why would anyone be upset about that, unless they’re harassers?!

It took a lot of guts to disclose the name of this man who is harassing her and guess what, I bet he doesn’t harass her or anyone else in this way again. And it may put other would-be stalkers on notice.

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She-Hulk mode — “I’ve had enough of being harassed on the street”

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Photo by Mark Garfinkel, via the Boston Herald

In Boston, a young woman would not let a public masturbator intimidate her during her trolley ride home from work. Instead she called him out and got him arrested.

Via the Boston Herald:

“This guy was just being a real creeper,” she said. As she shuffled along the train, he followed her. She zoned out, listening to music, only to look up and see him standing over her.

“I looked up and felt awkward, so I looked down,” she said. She said the man was exposing and touching himself, but tried to cover himself with his shirt.

The woman — not someone to meekly let an alleged creep get away with it — shouted out what he was doing, but no one stepped in to help. She said one male passenger even shrugged. So, she said, she went into “She-Hulk” mode, lunging as the man tried to bolt at Packard’s Corner in Brighton.

She said she held the man with one hand and “berated” him while she waited for the cops to arrive. She said he looked frightened.

“He kept saying sorry, but he was just sorry for himself,” she said.

The man told transit cops that the “packed and jostling” trolley caused his shorts to fall, according to a police report. He told police that he was unaware he was exposed until the woman started screaming.

T cops charged Michael Galvin, 37, of Somerville with open and gross lewdness. He was released on his own recognizance and ordered to stay off the T.

The woman said she acted because, “I’ve had enough of being harassed on the street. I’m tired of it and I want it to end. It was the last straw.”

She also had some choice words for the people who stood by and did nothing on the train: “That’s appalling. That makes me so angry. I want everyone to know that they have to say something.”

Her courage and determination are commendable. Hopefully that man will think twice before masturbating on a trolley. Her story reminds me of the amazing Nicola Briggs in New York City who did something similar when a man exposed himself to her on the subway.
When we feel safe and have the time, engaging in public shaming can be a very effective way to stop a harasser.

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“I was shaking inside, but so glad that I’d made a stand”

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I was sitting in a central line Tube train, on the way to work in the morning. It was fairly busy (usual rush hour crowds), and two men got into the carriage a stop after me.

I was sitting in one of the window seats and they came and stood by me. They weren’t speaking in English but every now and then would say the word ‘sex’ loudly and then look at me, laugh, and then carry on talking. It was plainly obvious that they were talking about me, and this coupled with their staring made me more uncomfortable than I have been in a long while (I’m afraid I’ve gotten used to the odd lingering stare on the trains).

I waited for a bit to see if they would stop. They didn’t. I then made eye contact with the man nearest, and it was fairly stern eye contact as I wasn’t very happy! This seemed to make him laugh and they carried on.

I thought about getting off the train and then decided that there was no way they were going to make me leave. I turned to the one nearest to me and asked in a strong tone what his problem was. He replied ‘nothing’ to which I said ‘good, then you can stop staring at me’. I asked the other one the same question and he too made an excuse and said he’d been staring into the carriage behind me. I asked them to stop.

They stood there for about another minute or so and then slowly shuffled away into another part of the train.

I was shaking inside, but so glad that I’d made a stand. There were a couple of men on either side who would probably have heard me but they didn’t intervene or even ask if I was okay. Oh well, I stood up for myself and of that I’m proud! Maybe they’ll think again before they start harassing someone else. I hope.

– SM

Location: Central Line tube between Gants Hill and Leytonstone, London, UK

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