News stories Archives | Page 116 of 161

BEST launches ladies special buses

May 22, 2011 By HKearl

After surveying passengers who take the BEST (Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport) buses in Mumbai and surrounding areas in India, BEST is launching women-only “ladies special” buses during rush hour on four routes to try to cut down on the harassment women passengers experience while riding the bus.

Via Mid-Day.com:

“Sunil Shinde, chairman, BEST, said, “We will commence four ladies special buses on the four most crowded routes in the city from June 1. This is a good initiative, welcomed by most. And putting an old tried-but-failed idea to practice again, the undertaking, which caters to 42 lakh passengers every day also plans to bring back women conductors aboard these buses….

We receive a lot of complaints on a regular basis about male passengers misbehaving with women,” said a senior BEST official on the condition of anonymity.

After having initially flirted with the idea of female conductors in 1998 it was even implemented for a short window of time but the transport body did away with it following harassment complaints by conductors the body is planning to resurrect it.

“But this time, the female conductors will be assigned to ladies special buses only. Women conductors earlier pressed into service had complained of eve-teasing and lewd comments from male passengers. After their request, we divested them of the onboard job of the conductor,” added the official.”

The routes and timings of the four buses are:
Route No 169: Worli Village to Plaza Cinema (Dadar) 0845 am
Route No 55: Lower Parel station to Kurle Chowk (Worli) 0850 am
Route No 154: Mahalaxmi station to Nehru Planetarium (Worli) 0905 am
Route No 343: Goregaon east to Nagari Nivara Parishad (Goregaon) 0925 am”

As always when a country starts women-only buses or trains, I wonder why they don’t do more to address the root problems rather than segregating women in a band-aid solution fashion, and, if they did want segregation to be the solution, why they don’t offer the service comprehensively so that all women can use it.

Why isn’t street harassment seen as antisocial behavior?

May 21, 2011 By HKearl

The Irish Times has a good article about sexual harassment and sexual violence, leading with the story about Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund, who was arrested and charged with the attempted rape of a hotel employee.

“All sexual violence is an abuse of power. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the head of an internationally renowned body or the most popular guy at your local bar,” says Cliona Saidlear of Rape Crisis Network Ireland. Saidlear is responding to a story that made international headlines this week when Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who had been staying at the Sofitel hotel in Manhattan last week as the head of the International Monetary Fund, was arrested and charged with the attempted rape of a hotel employee who had gone to clean his room. That Strauss-Kahn, who resigned from the IMF on Wednesday, was such a powerful and influential man has meant the fallout from the alleged attack is being analysed all over the world.”

The article includes several stories that women submitted to the blog Harassment Monologues and there was even one about street harassment:

“She describes being yelled at by construction workers who went on to launch a sexually explicit verbal attack. “I was very shocked, and I reacted by striking an aggressive stance, locking eye contact and shouting, ‘You f***ing sick monster!’ I then told my mother about the incident, and she couldn’t understand why I was so angry. I was angry because I was shocked and felt violated. In any other context, roaring at someone in the street and giving them a shock is called harassment or antisocial behaviour. But for some reason, when it’s in the context of male sexual behaviour towards a female, it’s totally okay. It makes me sick.”

How true. And really, how true of all gender-based sexual harassment/sexual assault. Treating women like shit is okay all over the world and that’s got to end. We’ve got to keep speaking out to counter that attitudes and belief.

The explosion of news stories and dialogue that’s occurred this week around the Strauss-Kahn alleged attempted rape and the way it is shedding light on sexual abuse by powerful people only happened because his alleged victim spoke out and reported it. While we may not each get that kind of worldwide response when we speak out, unless our harassers/abuser is similarly very powerful, we can still make a difference and help create incremental change by telling our stories, reporting illegal abuse, and believing others who speak out.

96 percent of women in their 20s face harassment on public transport in Belgrade

May 18, 2011 By HKearl

Via Hollaback Croatia, I was alerted to a 2007 study about sexual harassment on public transportation in Belgrade, Serbia. The report is not in English but Barbara at Hollaback Croatia translated the data for me.

Milena Raceta and Branislava Tanaskovic, who are in the psychology department at a university in Belegrade, interviewed 76 women, ages 20-29, in Belgrade, Serbia, about their experiences with sexual harassment on public transportation.

Of the 76 women, 96 percent said they’d experienced some form of sexual harassment, and 46 percent said it had happened more than twice.

The types of harassment they identified mostly involved physical contact: 66 percent said they’d experienced inappropriate rubbing, 58 percent said inappropriate touching, and 46 percent said a man had stood too near them. The rest had experienced other forms of harassment: 30 percent said men had inappropriately gazed at them, 22 percent said they’d been the target of public masturbation, eight percent said they’d experienced verbal harassment, and one percent didn’t specify the type.

The amount of physical harassment is stunning, especially compared with studies in Chicago and New York City‘s transit systems where the figures were closer to 10 percent, and I wonder if the verbal harassment is actually higher but the women weren’t identifying it as sexual harassment. Or maybe there is truly less verbal harassment than physical, just as there is in Japan, where there are high rates of groping on the subways but not high rates of verbal harassment.

Here’s the full report.

Street Harassment Snapshot: May 15, 2011

May 15, 2011 By HKearl

Read stories, news articles, blog posts, and tweets about street harassment from the past week and find relevant announcements and upcoming street harassment events.

Street Harassment Stories:

I accept street harassment submissions from anywhere in the world. Share your story! You can read new street harassment stories on the Web from the past week at:

Stop Street Harassment Blog

Hollaback

Hollaback Berlin

Hollaback Buenos Aires

Street Harassment in the News, on the Blogs:

PBS Need to Know, “Safe and sexy: The persona project“

AAUW Dialog, “Are the D.C. Streets Safe for Women at Night?“

HR Daily Advisor, “Evil HR Lady: Are Some Women Just Too Delicate For the Workplace?“

Guardian, “Argentinian writer sacked in sexism row“

Tiger Beatdown, “Hey Shorty! A Guide to Combating Sexual Harassment and Violence in Schools and on the Streets“

Announcements:

New:

Check out the NEW Stop Street Harassment website + blog + logo!

There’s a new study about sexual harassment and assault on public transportation in Serbia, Belgrade.

If you live in Atlanta, Georgia, take a MARTA survey so Hollaback Atlanta can better tackle harassment on public transportation

On-going:

Help fund the Hey, Shorty! on the road book tour to end gender-based violence in schools and on the streets.

College students, enter the Hollaback essay contest, entries due August 1.

Are you in Egypt? Use HarassMap to report your street harassers

Have an iPhone? Download the Hollaback iPhone app that lets you report street harassers

10 Tweets from the Week:

northsidechad Warm weather brings out street harassment in #yeg http://bit.ly/lHApak Remember guys, it’s OK to look, not leer. Otherwise, wear sunglasses

confessionality #ff @orrganic — Writer, cat lover, mom, cool chick. I’m glad she wrote the Vue article on street harassment so I could discover her.

talkingparcel Am I ‘up my own arse’ if I don’t like being beeped & leered at by white van men? I stuck my finger up at him #streetharassment #FUCKYOU #fb

wocgo @1360WCHL There was an ambulance going through campus hitting the siren at girls walking down the street. #streetharassment #sick

BangsandaBun East London street harassment squad to me earlier: ‘You’ve got legs for DAYS. You’re 1 of them supermodel types innit’

MadamJMo Why was it ok for a man to shout “you’ve got a sexy ass” at me, but not for me to reply “you’ve got an unsexy bald head”? #streetharassment

JulieSLalonde My interview about #streetharassment on Live885 aired this morning and it wasn’t too shabby. Grateful for the ability to spread the gospel!

natalieraymond Was just screamed at, called a racist, threatened, & followed by a piece of shit street harasser. #streetharassment

jes3ica Nothing like a little early morning street harassment to take a big dump on my mood

thatrachelgirl I realized that biking will bring on #streetharassment and makes me not want to. How sad is that?

Street harassment snapshot: May 7, 2011

May 8, 2011 By HKearl