Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Street harassment role reversal in Lebanon

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Last week, as part of the Adventures of Salwa anti-sexual harassment campaign, two trucks drove the streets of Beirut, Lebanon, and on the loudspeakers, they played recordings of women’s voices, harassing passersby. They also played messages about how street harassment is not okay.

This video clip captures what happened and you can see/hear people’s reactions to the truck and the campaign. Most of the video clip is in French, but there is about a minute where one of the campaign organizers speaks about the initiative in English.

How do you think a similar initiative would be received in your community?

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Look out Lebanon, an anti-harassment truck is heading your way

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From today until December 9th, two trucks will roam the streets of Lebanon, playing a message about sexual harassment, “Catcalls are not acceptable words to say,” and “The word is sexual harassment, fight back.”

This creative idea comes from the feminist collective Nasawiya as part of their The  Adventures of Salwa Campaign. Salwa is a cartoon character who whacks street harassers and sexual harassers with her red purse.

You can read the Adventures of Salwa guide for fighting sexual harassment and watch all of the videos online.

I think it’s time for Salwa to get an American cousin who fights sexual harassment in the USA too…!!

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You’re NOT Alone – Street Harassment PSA

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“I could be wearing a potato sack and I’d still be harassed,” says Ileana Jiménez, a faculty member at the Little Red School House & Elisabeth Irwin High School (LREI) in New York City, in a video PSA recently created by her high school students.

The PSA was made as part of a minimester at LREI that was focused on fighting back against street harassment using activism and media. LREI’s tradition of offering mimimesters allows faculty to offer short three-day courses on topics of their choosing. Throughout their three-day mimimester, students were visited by various street harassment activists, including leaders from Girls for Gender Equity and Hollaback! to learn more about the issue.

Jiménez, who is also a blogger at feministteacher.com, partnered with her colleague and media teacher, Stephen MacGillivray, to help the minimester students create this PSA, which she told me, was entirely directed and produced by students.

It’s wonderful to see a teacher addressing this issue in the classroom and providing students with the space and tools to explore the issue themselves. We need more teachers like Jiménez!

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“Street harassment of women is violence. Break the silence.”

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Young Women for Change poster: Street harassment of women is violence. Break the silence.

20-year-old Noorjahan Akbar is one of the most inspirational people I’ve ever met. In May 2011, she co-founded Young Women for Change in order to improve the economic, social, and political opportunities of women in Afghanistan.

Street harassment is one of their main issues because it limits how involved women are in public activities. As the poster to the right says, “Street harassment is violence. Break the silence,” and breaking the silence is exactly what Akbar and YWC are doing.

To name just a few of the many anti-street harassment actions they’ve taken since May, they held the first-ever march against street harassment through the streets of Kabul in July and they’re working on a documentary about street harassment. Most impressive, they are spearheading a 4,000 person survey on the topic and the results will be released in February.

Right now they are soliciting posters about gender violence issues, including street harassment, and on December 14, volunteers will physically post them all over Kabul.

It’s amazing how much they’ve accomplished since May.

After months of online correspondence, I made a special road trip to Philadelphia last weekend to briefly meet with Akbar. During the conversation, she mentioned that she was “so happy, the last time I went home I went a month without being groped” on the streets of Kabul. I can’t imagine how unsafe the streets are for women if that is her reality — and it also speaks to her bravery in organizing against it. (Akbar noted that street harassment is still quite bad for her when she is at college in Pennsylvania, but it’s usually verbal.)

Akbar kindly allowed me to videotape her talking about YWC’s anti-street harassment efforts and how you can become involved (sorry the setting was a bit noisy).

I’ve donated to help YWC continue their work and I hope you will, too.

Website: Young Women for Change
Donate: wepay.com/donate/youngwomen4change
Email: info@youngwomenforchange.org
Facebook: Young Women for Change & Stories of Harassment of Women in Afghanistan

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“Stares”: Spoken Word by Philly Youth Poetry Movement Members

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This is POWERFUL. Hear Safiya Washington and Kai Davis perform “Stares,” a spoken word piece about receiving unwanted male attention in public and not receiving wanted male attention in public and the similar way it makes them feel about themselves.

Both of these articulate, passionate young women are part of the Philly Youth Poetry Movement, which is a non-profit organization committed to helping the youth of Philadelphia discover the power of their voices through spoken word and literary expression. Through free weekly workshops, monthly slams, national/local performance opportunities, mentoring and community service, PYPM provides a safe environment for at-risk youth ages 13-19 to use poetry as a vehicle to express and advocate for themselves, explore their identity(ies), enhance literacy and critical thinking skills, and become agents of social change.

Their piece reminds me how for many women (especially young women), interactions with men in public are either as the target of unwanted attention or nonexistent because we are invisible because we don’t meet the traditional beauty standards. The notion that women’s worth is based on how men view them is damaging; we are more than our bodies, we are more than what others think of us and how they treat us. We should be respected and we should be visible.

[Thank you @NualaCabral for sending the video]

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