Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

New Mauritius Street Harassment Blog

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Mauritius, image from worldtravels.com
Mauritius, image from worldtravels.com

Oh, street harassment, truly you are a global problem. Additional proof: the Stop Violence Against Women group of Amnesty International Mauritius Section recently has launched an anti-street harassment blog as part of its anti-street harassment campaign in Mauritius.

Where is Mauritius, you may ask? It’s an island located in the Indian Ocean near the island of Madagasca and South Africa. It is 11 times the size of Washington, DC. And wouldn’t you know it? Apparently street harassment is a big problem there.

From their blog: “From inappropriate touching to invasive comments to stalking, street harassment is something that far too many Mauritians have to face on a daily basis. Causing fear, guilt, and frustration, these behaviors define women and girls as non-citizens, disrupting their access to freedom, independence and human rights.”

“Posting a story here will help other targets realize they aren’t alone and have nothing to be ashamed of. It will show harassers that we don’t accept their inappropriate and degrading behavior.”

“The members of the SVAW group thank you for participating in this blog. Whether it’s by reading, contributing or commenting, you are helping to make the streets of Mauritius a safer place.”

So spread the word about this new blog and learn more about street harassment in Mauritius by reading contributor’s stories there.

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Hear from Egyptian Activists

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BBC posted a new audio report today about the rise of activism in Egypt around the widespread problem of sexual harassment in public. A few weeks ago BBC reported on the increase in women taking self defense classes in Egypt to deal with their harassers. This audio clip includes interviews with some of those women.

There is an interview with one of the women at the Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights about the survey they conducted last year. This woman said that too often Egyptian women are blamed for the harassment they receive because they were supposedly dressing provocatively, and that there’s a perception that if women didn’t dress in a certain way there wouldn’t be harassment. Well, in their survey (where 83 percent of women reported experiencing harassment and 2/3rds men said they engage in harassment), more than 70 percent of the women said they were wearing a veil when they were harassed. She said that was an important finding to show how pointless it is to blame victims for harassment crimes – women are harassed no matter what they wear!

Also interviewed in the clip were individuals involved in the “Respect yourself: Egypt still has real men” campaign in a Cairo neighborhood of Mohandiseen,  sponsored by Kelmetna, a magazine for young people. It targets Egyptian men and encourages Egyptian women to speak out, too. When members of the group asked men what they would do if they saw a woman being harassed by men, most reported that they would join in harassing her, especially if she was not dressed conservatively (!!).  A young man interviewed said he thinks that since people can’t marry until they’re older due to the economy, men are taking out their sexual frustration on women in the street, causing the rise is street harassment. The group holds rallies at universities and canvasses the streets, reminding taxi drivers and food vendors to uphold Egypt’s tradition of hospitality. On Facebook, the campaign has over 53,000 members.

I also found the following about the group:

“As part of the campaign, Kelmetna magazine hosts weekly seminars and discussions to raise awareness about the problem. It also offers self-defence classes for women so they can fight off harassers. In addition to seminars, the group members and volunteers, who are all aged between 14 and 24, take their work to the streets, talking to people about sexual harassment. One of their main goals when they approach people is to convince them to refrain from all types of sexual harassment as well as to speak out when they see it happening. The campaign also involves street concerts to raise awareness.”

Fantastic work!

(thanks to frequent reader Beckie for this story tip)

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“It was a great day”

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Anti-Harassment Day, from Asser Yasser's Blog
Anti-Harassment Day, from Asser Yasser's Blog

Last week I wrote about the upcoming Anti-Harassment Day in Egypt on April 18. After the 18, I could only find one article in English about the event (which called it a “fiasco”), so I wrote to Asser Yasser, the woman who was the lead organizer, to find out how it went. She graciously sent me a quick e-mail about it and thanked me for my interest in their efforts. From Asser:

“It was a great day, I print[ed] many posters (about 50) … about 80 persons shared [participated in] the event with me. There was a huge number of media tv channels, news newspapers, magazines and satalight channels too.

Every one in Egypt [is] talking about that day now. One of the young men asked a girl in his neighborhood to forgive him about harassing her once before and he promised that he will protect any girl later.

The place was full of the policemen but they were really helpful that makes us feel safe and secure.

We asked [that] we shouldn’t [have to] prove the [sexual] harassment because it’s too hard to prove, the guy should prove that he didn’t do it, not us. We wanted to tell every man that it is a crime and we are all against that behavior. We wanted to tell the women everything about their rights.”

I’m glad she feels they’re being successful in raising awareness around this problem. With the Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights survey last year showing 83 percent of Egyptian women experienced public sexual harassment (and almost half said that was daily harassment), it’s certainly an issue the country needs to address. (& of course, many other countries do too, like the US!)

Anti-Harassment Day, from Asser Yasser's Blog
Anti-Harassment Day, from Asser Yasser’s Blog
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"It was a great day"

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Anti-Harassment Day, from Asser Yasser's Blog
Anti-Harassment Day, from Asser Yasser's Blog

Last week I wrote about the upcoming Anti-Harassment Day in Egypt on April 18. After the 18, I could only find one article in English about the event (which called it a “fiasco”), so I wrote to Asser Yasser, the woman who was the lead organizer, to find out how it went. She graciously sent me a quick e-mail about it and thanked me for my interest in their efforts. From Asser:

“It was a great day, I print[ed] many posters (about 50) … about 80 persons shared [participated in] the event with me. There was a huge number of media tv channels, news newspapers, magazines and satalight channels too.

Every one in Egypt [is] talking about that day now. One of the young men asked a girl in his neighborhood to forgive him about harassing her once before and he promised that he will protect any girl later.

The place was full of the policemen but they were really helpful that makes us feel safe and secure.

We asked [that] we shouldn’t [have to] prove the [sexual] harassment because it’s too hard to prove, the guy should prove that he didn’t do it, not us. We wanted to tell every man that it is a crime and we are all against that behavior. We wanted to tell the women everything about their rights.”

I’m glad she feels they’re being successful in raising awareness around this problem. With the Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights survey last year showing 83 percent of Egyptian women experienced public sexual harassment (and almost half said that was daily harassment), it’s certainly an issue the country needs to address. (& of course, many other countries do too, like the US!)

Anti-Harassment Day, from Asser Yasser's Blog
Anti-Harassment Day, from Asser Yasser’s Blog
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Don’t Women Lose Too?

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anti-harcellement-banniere1As discussed before, a survey conducted by the Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights last year found that 83 percent of Egyptian women had been street harassed and about 98 percent of foreign women reported this experience while in Egypt.

In a French newspaper The Observers, Julie Marquet, a French graduate student in history who has backpacked across dozens of European, Asian, and South American countries wrote about her experiences in Cairo. Here is an excerpt:

“I travelled to Egypt with a girlfriend of mine for two weeks in the summer of 2003. We were both 19. It’s my worst travel memory ever: Egypt is not a place you can travel to individually, especially not for two young girls!

Everywhere we went there was some hand groping us, in the street, in buses or trains… They weren’t even shy about it: they grabbed our butts, sometimes even went under our shirts! This happened even if we were careful to wear long-sleeved shirts and pants, even when it was 40°C out! We were told by Franco-Egyptian friends that women weren’t supposed to be too exuberant in public, not to laugh, not to talk loudly, not be noticeable in any way. We tried to be as discreet and invisible as possible, but that didn’t change anything.  If we lashed out angrily at them it didn’t help at all: they would just laugh and never took us seriously.”

Traveling has so many benefits, including the chance to expand one’s horizon and understanding of the human race and world, and it’s a shame women can’t have the same freedom of mobility to go to new places (or old/familiar places for that matter) as men.

Egypt is addressing the high rate of street harassment of female foreigners with a new ad, which The Observers included in their article. The video clip, “shows a typical scène of a vendor harassing a European visitor in a market. At the end, a man’s voice says: ‘If you harass visitors, you’re not the only one who loses. The whole country has to lose.'”

Hmmm. Don’t the women who are harassed lose too, if not significantly more than the men who do the harassing? Like Julie, they have lost the right to be in public without being harassed or fearing harassment even if they try to be invisible…

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