Kriti Khatri, Nepal, SSH Blog Correspondent

Street safety and its relation to women’s independence is connected, from the perspective of women’s mobility. However, rarely has there been an effort to create Safe Streets precisely from the perspective of concerns about women’s mobility. Our street is symbolic of free spirit and freedom itself, but for women the street remains a place to get victimized from various kinds of harassment activities and women have to go through traumatizing experiences of sexual and emotional harassment. A woman being more vulnerable towards various kinds of harassing activities their safety during travel is important.

While we raise voices against street harassment, one important aspect to concentrate on is harassment activities on public transportation. Reports showcase that harassment on public transportation on buses, trains, etc is more frequent for women than on the streets.

Horrendous acts of physically and mentally harassing women via gesture, touch, grabbing, verbal abuses or even constant gazes make taking public transportation a big hesitation for women. In thickly stuffed buses or other means of transportation like trains and metros, women get easily victimized from physical touching, grabbing etc. And since the crowd is a good excuse, it rarely get noticed or exposed. Sexual harassment activities make women feel emotionally left out and drained. As a consequence, women can develop negative attitudes towards their relationships with their male partners and family ties as well. Psychologists says harassment activities not only make women feel raged with the male genre, but also go through mental irritation concerning their body image and social behavior which in the long run can cause depression and other emotional issues.

A report conducted by Astitwa foundation shows that about 90 % of women has been suffered from street  harassment activities among which harassment in public vehicles is the most encountered in Kathmandu. Such harassment activities have been found occurring on school buses, by bus staff, public buses and other travel means. As per the report, most women have been found to experience uncomfortable touching and sexually explicit behavior. While women share their stories of harassment activities, in terms of response, most of them seemed silent. Respondents to the topic of harassment in public vehicles were hesitant about reacting to such activities. Many women seem to remain quiet about this issue by either adjusting in the crowd or dropping in nearby bus stop as their immediate self protection act.

“As for talking we can say I will take immediate action but when such incident happens, we go through emotional hold back, I felt raged but helpless and disgusted when the fellow passenger make uncomfortable gestured towards me, here I can say I wanted to slap him but at that time all I wanted was to get out of the bus.” — a 25 year old school teacher from Kathmandu.

Sexual harassment in public vehicles has been an issue raised by many social organizations in international level. With ever raising incident of harassment activities which has even lead to cases like gang rape and murder of women in public vehicles, this issue has been a concerned area in relation to women safe mobility and independence.

Concerned with the growing number of harassment activities, Nepal Police has initiated strict monitoring of the public transportation system. As per the Nepal police, travel safety of citizen and especially women is on their top priority after getting multiple reports filed against sexual harassment in public bus. According to the information of the Nepal Police, cases regarding public bus harassment are registered more than any other kinds of street harassment cases. As of now, women police are allocated in various bus stations to check inside bus which at least give a chance for victim to complain or make people aware of their act. In future Nepal police aims to monitor bus activities via closed caption cameras. There has also been initiation from nongovernmental sectors to make legal reformation against harassment activities collectively under violence against women in which there should essentially be strict provisions regarding street harassment.

Apart from the legal provisions, effort should also be from bus-driver, conductors and fellow passengers to discourage such activities in the vehicles.  Their effort can demoralize the doer, at the same time make women feel safe and comfortable.

“I was standing on the bus and a guy happen to stand right beside me with his hand around my shoulder from backside, the bus driver saw that and ask the conductor to make him step out of the bus saying that such cheap activities won’t be tolerated in his vehicle, It really felt so nice to find  bus drivers with such attitude towards activities going on his vehicles.” — 23 old employee who make 14 km of bus travel every day for her job in Kathmandu

The act of harassment and violence against women is more of a moral matter than legal. Unless individual understands that harassment activities against women are immoral, eliminating such acts won’t be easy with just legal threats. Women free conduct in the street or elsewhere is only possible when there is assurance of Safe travel and such safety can only be assured in morally governed society and justice run state system.

Kriti Khatri is student of MSc chemistry. She is engaged in different social organization in Nepal and currently she is working on anti-street harassment issues with the Astitwa Foundation. Find more of her writing on her blog.

By: Delia Harrington, Massachusetts, USA, Former SSH Correspondent

“What were you wearing?”

It’s one of the most common questions people ask me after I tell a story of experiencing street harassment.  Some people seem to genuinely believe that there is a combination of precautions that will protect us from street harassment.  Go out at the correct time of day, in the right part of town, wearing certain clothes, taking specific modes of transportation, and accompanied by the precise number and gender of companions, and all will be well.  They see my stories as parable, and want to know how they can avoid a similar fate.  If we focus on the clothing of the person who was harassed, it makes the solution seem simple: don’t wear that skirt/tight clothes/short hemlines/pants/leggings as pants/fill in the blank, and you will be safe.

Unfortunately, this common line of thought (even amongst otherwise-progressive, well-meaning people) excuses the bad behavior of the harasser,  unfairly labels men as incapable of resisting the allure of certain articles of clothing, puts the responsibility to stop street harassment on the victim, and ignores the reality of the situation.  It shouldn’t matter what any of us wear, we still have the right to move through public spaces safely and in peace.  We shouldn’t spend time on the regressive excuse that “boys will be boys.”  Men and boys are capable of being kind and respectful individuals, but this logic assumes that’s not true when it expects so little of them.  Changing what we wear is an individual solution for a collective problem.  It may keep you from being hollered at, but will it help anyone else?  And how safe do you really feel when you see someone else harassed, even if you are left alone?  Finally, as many of you who have been harassed in a  variety of outfits know, street harassment happens no matter what we wear, so why should we attempt to conform to an ever-moving standard of what clothing is the kind that will keep us safe.

In Boston it has been extremely cold this winter, and the Polar Vortex has brought snow not just to us, but to Washington DC, Texas, Alabama, and many other areas that do not generally experience such a harsh winter.  With this bitter cold, many of us have taken to wearing big puffy hats, long coats that resemble sleeping bags with arms, fluffy scarves, and other cold weather gear.  It’s not uncommon to see people walking around with not much skin showing other than a little red nose.  How then do we explain street harassment in cold weather?  Surely there is nothing suggestive about my utilitarian boots and shapeless coat.

If street harassment were really a product of what we wear and how sexually appealing our clothing is, winter in New England would be a harassment-free zone.  No one would ever bother me when I’m sick and wearing ratty sweats, and I wouldn’t hear so many stories of people wearing work-appropriate outfits or jeans and t-shirts when they were harassed.  But the posts over at Hollaback! Boston (as well as NYC and Chicago) show that even cold winters, when people are bundled from head to toe, are not immune to street harassment.  Women wearing abayas, niqabs, hijabs and burqas are victims of street harassment and even assault.  How much looser could their clothing have been?  How much more covered could they be?  The only plausible answer is that they could have simply never left the house.  If you listen to people who attempt to police women’s clothing in the guise of concern for their safety and well-being, you will soon realize that no article of clothing will ever be modest enough, because the real goal of street harassment is to exercise power.  Power to make women and LGBTQ folks conform to the desires of the harasser, feel unsafe, and feel like disappearing from public spaces is the only safe option.

Unfortunately, it is simply not that easy to escape street harassment.  We cannot simply check off the right boxes and proceed to walk around without bother.  It is important that we continue to speak up when we hear this faulty logic, and remind our communities that people are harassed in all kinds of outfits, at all times of day or night, by all kinds of people, all over the world.

The next time someone asks you what you were wearing when you were harassed, ask them why that matters.  Remind them that people are subject to street harassment no matter what they wear, and that harassers are the only people responsible for their behavior.

Delia Harrington is a recent graduate of Northeastern University and calls Boston home. In recent years, she has found herself studying, working, and volunteering in Egypt, Cuba, France, Benin, the Dominican Republic, Turkey, Germany, and Greece.  You can read more of her writing on her blog, or follow her on Facebook and Twitter, @deliamary.