Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

CGES Street Harassment Youth Summit was a Success!

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This is belatedly cross-posted from the Girls for Gender Equity newsletter, with permission.

The Coalition for Gender Equity in Schools (CGES) held a Youth Summit on Street Harassment on March 25, 2013 at the Urban Assembly Institute that exceeded our highest expectations!

We planned for 50 middle and high school students to attend this youth led event, but to our surprise 100 students showed up and convened in downtown Brooklyn for the CGES summit. These remarkable students and youth leaders chose to spend the first day of their spring break with us in a variety of workshops that examined street harassment.

In spite of the rain, students began arriving in droves at 10:00 am to register, eat breakfast and mingle. By the beginning of the program, the meeting room was filled beyond capacity and an overflow room had to be set up to accommodate participants.

Throughout the summit, youth leaders from Girls for Gender Equity, Center for Anti-Violence Education (CAE), Right Rides, Sadie Nash Leadership Project and Girls Inc. emceed, facilitated, and supported their peers in an action packed, thought-provoking day of activities, dialogues and workshops.

The day opened with an enthusiastic welcome by GGE’s Youth Organizer, Nathania Fields and CAE’s Peer Educator, Mercy Carpenter, the emcees for the event. Nathania and Mercy set the tone of the day, encouraging participants to share their thoughts and listen to one other. They then introduced the Host Committee and organizational staff, who discussed the goals and purpose of the event.

The first activity, ‘The Roots of Street Harassment Tree,’ set the stage for in-depth conversations about why street harassment occurs at every level. Participants were divided up into groups of ten and given a large drawn tree. They were asked to fill out the roots of the tree with the roots of Street Harassment and the trunks of the tree with what supports street harassment aka customs, beliefs, attitudes and institutions.

The Roots of Street Harassment Tree

Towards the day’s end, the young people at the youth summit chose to write love letters to the 16-year-old high school rape survivor in Steubenville, Ohio. Unfortunately after the trial against two teen boys that were found guilty in this case, she had been bullied and blamed for their actions. The youth had a deep empathy for what she has been through and wanted her to know how brave an courageous she is.

    
The last activity of the day invited the young people to sign up for different events presented at a row of ‘Action Booths’ that lined the hallway outside the meeting room. All of these events prepared us for April Sexual Assault Awareness Month and and the Anti-Street Harassment Rally on Saturday, April 13.

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India: New Reporting Site and #SafeCityPledge Events

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Via Blank Noise

Two updates from India:

1) A new map to track sexual violence in Delhi, India, just launched.

The founder writes, “This project aims to map sexual violence and intimidation against women in New Delhi. Please be bold and add your experiences to the map and help fellow citizens become more aware. If you have stories of unsafe neighborhoods, mohallas, streets and more, feel free to plot them on this map and help fellow citizens become more vigilant. Also, if you have feedback or suggestions, write to me at blahplum [at] gmail [dot] com”

Please use and share!

2) Today, Blank Noise organized #SafeCityPledge events across the country, where people came together and made pledges that they held up or pinned on their clothes. Here is one of the reports about a local event, via Facebook:

“SAFECITYPLEDGE, Goa report: Initially a meager turn-out, but amazing response from the street, with visitors to the area, tourists and even taxi drivers joining in. Several motorcyclists stopped and allowed pledges to be pinned to the back and front of their T-shirts. Artist Swatee Nair spoke to all the street vendors in an area of Miramar (the Miramar circle and adjacent areas, including the beach) that is known for being a place of harassment of women , most of whom made pledges and let safecitypledge signs be posted on their stalls.”

I really love the idea of focusing on how we can make cities safer by having more women in public places, not by having fewer women there! Great work to everyone who participated and worked to help change that mental shift in their communities.

 

Via Blank Noise

 

 

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Updates and Actions from India Since the #DelhiGangRape

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Sunday, a young woman was brutally gang raped on a bus in Delhi, India, and is fighting for her life in a hospital. There’s rightfully been an explosion of outcry in the days since then. Here’s a sampling of updates, photos, and actions from groups in India.

I Stand for Safe Delhi said,

“We would like to thank you all for coming to India Gate today, our protest reached out to over 50,000 people across the globe. Thank you for your support!” (View more images)

Breakthrough said,

“We were at a protest outside the police commissioner’s office yesterday, and there are tons of them happening all over the place (about 4 or 5 major ones have happened and there are two more that are going to be taking place over the weekend).”

They also created this image to encourage people to speak out and interrupt violence!

Members of GotStared.At participated in protests.

There are several activities/protests planned this weekend, including:

 Blank Noise launched an “I Pledge” campaign:

In the wake of the #DelhiGangRape what do YOU as citizen pledge to make your city safe?

#SafeCityPledge

Eg: ” I pledge to NOT to tell my daughter/ mum/ sister/ girls “Be Safe” . Instead- go out. Be Visible. Be an Action Hero #SafeCityPledge

1. Add your pledge to the comments below
2. Change your status update ” I pledge to _ _ #SafeCityPledge
3. Tweet your pledge with #DelhiGangRape #SafeCityPledge

From the authors of the book Why Loiter?

“We need more people out on the streets, not less. We are safer when there are more women (and more men) on the streets. When shops are open, when restaurants are open, when there are hawkers and yes, even sex workers on the street, the street is a safer space for us all. All of these protests taking place are often after dark, and there are many women and men but numbers make it safe. We need to populate our streets. In order to do that we need to make them more inviting and in order to do which, we need the mindset of the city to change from desiring empty streets to wanting people on the streets. We must ensure that this gruesome gang-rape does not go out as a message that “women are in danger and should stay home”.”

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“We won’t let the city move unless justice is done.”

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Protest – I Stand for Safe Delhi

Trigger Warning!

Sunday night, a gang of men raped and hurt a 23-year-old woman on a bus in Delhi, India, and then threw her off. She had been traveling with a male friend and he was hurt too.

International Business Time reports:

“The pair, who were returning home from an evening at the cinema, were beaten, stripped and tossed out of the vehicle and are now at the Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi, where the woman is listed in critical condition, suffering from head injuries, cuts, abrasions and sexual assault wounds. Indian media reported that she was placed on a ventilator with injuries in her stomach and intestines.

 D.K. Mishra, a relative of the young man who was attacked, told Indian media: ‘Five to seven people started harassing her. The boy protested and made every effort to come to her aid, but some people caught hold of him. Then three to four people took her and gang-raped her in the cabin of the bus.””
“JNU students lead the way in asking for justice.” Photo from the I Stand for Safe Delhi campaign

The brutality of the life-threatening attack has drawn widespread outcry. One of the many actions taken since Sunday night was a massive protest organized by I Stand for Safe Delhi Campaign yesterday during which students and community members blocked roads saying, “We won’t let the city move unless justice is done.”

Today, the Home Minister has promised to look into this matter himself and said that four of the men have been arrested.

Many other government officials spoke out, including MP Jaya Bachchan who reportedly, “was on her feet to raise the gang-rape issue as soon as the House met for the day.

She kept standing for a long time demanding suspension of Question Hour to take up the issue of safety of women. “I am deeply disturbed,” she said…An act of sexual assault should be treated on par with murder and section 307 of IPC be amended to include rape under it, she demanded.

Maya Singh (BJP) termed the incident as the “ultimate brutality” …. “This is not the solitary case…women are not safe in Delhi, an infant of even six years is not safe here, elderly women are not safe here,” Maya Singh said, demanding stringent punishment for those guilty of committing the barbaric act.

Renuka Chowdhury (Cong) said the terrible atrocity committed on the young girl cannot be “compensated by cash”. Underlining that it is the “business” of police to instill confidence among citizens, she wanted to know how the perpetrators of such crime “get away with the cowardice act”.

She called upon all women members to collectively meet the Home Minister, Commissioner of Police, Chief Minister of Delhi and top officials to find out their “action plan” to check such incidents.”

If you’re in Delhi, I hope you can join the mass protest planned at India Gate at 5 p.m. In less than a day, over 1,000 people have RSVPed to attend. Details.

Stop Street Harassment stands with the young woman survivor and with her friend who tried to protect her. We hope for the speedy recovery of both.
May Delhi, India— and the rest of the world—one day be free from sexual violence so incidents like this will never happen again.
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