Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Join an Online Discussion Today at 1 p.m. EST

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In a recent post at xojane.com, the writer admonished women to “Stop Saying ‘I Have a Boyfriend‘” as a way of deflecting unwanted attention from men.

Some readers took issue with the writer’s assertion that the “boyfriend” response removes a woman’s agency and that by using it, we are agreeing that “single girls are ‘fair game’ for harassment.”

So in today’s online Branch conversation, our roundtable participants will discuss this article, the larger issues it raises about harassment, and the ways they choose to respond to street harassment and unwanted attention in other spaces.

We’ll begin on 9/11 @ 1 PM EST.

I will be part of the roundtable. Join us and share your thoughts!

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NY: Join the Goddess Walk on Saturday!

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Via Facebook Event Page

THE GODDESS WALK is an Anti-Street Harassment rally taking place in BED-STUY BROOKLYN.  I invite Black women, LGBTQ folk and our Allies to walk in Solidarity & Sisterhood for RESPECT in the streets & to help END STREET HARASSMENT in our community!!!

               SATURDAY JULY 14th at 12pm

                       ~FULTON PARK~

                        BROOKLYN, NY

Participants are encouraged to *Dress in whatever* makes them feel like a GODDESS!

Bring ROSES (we’ll drop the rose petals along our walk:) Signs, Posters, Banners that EXPRESS your desire to be respected regardless of your gender, race, color, or sexual orientation!!!

We’ll start our Walk in Fulton Park at 12pm, then walk through the neighborhood of Bed-Stuy Brooklyn. Following the march there will be Spoken WORD, Live DRUMMING, SINGING, DANCING, & Small Group Self -Defense Demonstrations in the park!

Nearest Transit: A, C to Utica Ave.

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We were at SlutWalk DC 2013!

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For the third year, Stop Street Harassment tabled at SlutWalk DC to support the end to victim-blaming and slut-shaming. No one “asks” to be harassed, sexually assaulted, or raped!

This year, we had the pleasure of sharing a table with our friend Collective Action for Safe Spaces (CASS) and we had lots of great conversations with attendees about the street harassment.

Zosia from CASS and I also had a chance to briefly talk in front of the audience. I asked people to raise their hands if they had been street harassed this week – and most of the audience raised their hands! When I asked if they’d been harassed today, about a fourth of the audience said yes. Street harassment is a HUGE problem and we need to work together to end it!

Here are resources and check out what we do and what CASS does.

Here are a few of the photos. You can see more via our Twitter and Instagram accounts, both have the username @StopStHarassmnt.

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Workshop Idea: Fight Harassmet 101

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Here’s an example of a workshop you can hold in your community. Find more event & workshop ideas.

Fight Harassment 101 (FH101) was created to educate female Egyptians and non-Egyptians about harassment and the use of self-defense. Once a week at the American University of Cairo, 15 students would take part in FH101 for two hours for about 10 weeks.

Weekly, 2-3 young women as well as a black belt Judo instructor hosted the initiative. At the beginning of class, an information page was provided to the attendees, mostly copied from Holly Kearl’s website, Stop Street Harassment, that provided information about: what to do if harassed, what harassment is, and the contact information for the organization HarassMap in Egypt.

During the first 30 minutes, the young women would discuss harassment and any incidents they experienced in the past to encourage them to no longer feel ashamed or blamed for the harassment they experience.

The next hour and half focused on learning self-defense. Not all young women were active in exercise, but they were taught not only the basic defense mechanisms, but also more physicals ones such as how to punch, or throw a person over if they grab them from behind, et cetra. We did not expect these young women to be able to do this if they experienced a physical assault, but we hoped by providing these tools, they would feel more able to defend themselves and perhaps ward away any potential attackers.

Out of the 15 students, about 13 wore hijab, countering the notion that harassment is correlated with the way someone is dressed. Although these women were trained with the basics, it gave them a sense of empowerment to defend themselves in the worst-case scenarios. At first they were shy about sharing their experiences, but once they found it was a common occurrence and learned that it was not their fault, they felt the need to fight against it. Many did not know that in some parts of the world, sexual harassment is considered to be a human rights violation.

Here are two articles I wrote about the class.

1. Fight Harassment 101: Egypt’s Obstacle to Ending Sexual Harassment

2. Enough Talk on Harassment, Egypt — Do Something About It

Holly Dagres, an Iranian American, is an analyst and commentator on Middle East affairs. Currently living in Egypt, she is a researcher at the Cairo Review of Global Affairs and pursuing a master’s degree in political science at the American University in Cairo.

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