Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Beautiful New Respect Posters in Washington, D.C.

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Today marks the start of Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Our friends at Collective Action for Safe Spaces are doing a great project to raise awareness that everyone deserves respect everywhere they go, be that their homes or public spaces.

respectposters-dcoct2016

Via the DCist:

“New posters are going up around the city reminding people they deserve to be treated with the respect and providing resources for survivors of abuse, courtesy of SafeBars and the D.C. Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

The posters, designed by Baltimore-based muralist Maura Dwyer, depict a diverse set of people. “We wanted to highlight the faces of some of our city’s marginalized identities,” says Jessica Raven, co-founder of SafeBars and executive director of Collective Action for Safe Spaces.

The images speak to incidents that have taken place in D.C. in the past year. A reported incident of a library officer kicking a woman out of Shaw Library for wearing a hjiab, a breastfeeding patron at Tenleytown Library said she was “warned” by a library assistant that teen boys would be entering the facility, and misgendering at Banneker Pool led to bystander intervention training for D.C. Parks and Recreation staffers.

Volunteers are plastering the 2,500 posters—500 of each of the five designs—throughout bars, coffee shops, storefronts and other locales to mark October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The theme for this year’s campaign is “Spread Love D.C.,” with the idea of generating conversations about what makes for a healthy relationship.”

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India: Sanitation and Sexual Assaults

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Suchita Kotnala, Texas, USA / India, SSH Blog Correspondent

Trigger Warning – Rape, Murder

With the ‘World Toilet Day’ approaching on November 19th, it’s time to turn our focus on the sanitation facilities, or lack thereof, in India, especially the rural India, where it is estimated, that nearly 65% of the population defecates out in the open. The lack of good sanitation practices not only poses a grave health risk to the vast population in general, but, also adds the risk of bodily harm that women have to face and live with everyday.

Although India is modernizing and evolving rapidly today, a significant chunk of its population has been lagging behind in terms of social and economic advancements, and women have been paying the biggest price for it, with their freedom. The fact that numerous women fall prey to sexual predators while on their way to attend to the nature’s call during the silent and dark hours between sunset and sunrise in the rural areas, paints a grim picture for the developing ‘superpower’ India. Every now and then, a high profile gang-rape story shakes the nation out of its reverie, but the sad truth is, that only a fraction of the sexual assaults even get reported, due to the existing caste and gender biases within the police force. In 2014, two teenage girls were found murdered, in Uttar Pradesh, India, after they went missing on the prior night, when they had gone out to relieve themselves. It is alleged that they were raped and strangled, but the police investigation failed to offer any clear answers. More recently, on the night of 31st July this year, a 20-year-old woman was brutally gang-raped and murdered by two men, when she stepped out to answer the nature’s call, in Tamil Nadu, India.

Although strengthening the law and order and increased sensitization of the masses towards gender based violence is vital to bringing about a change for the better, the importance of providing privacy and security to the women while they perform one of the most basic rituals of life can’t be disputed. No one should have to plan their entire day around activities of daily living, fearing for their life or well being every time they stepped out of their house.

The Indian Govt. has stepped up on its efforts to build more toilets lately, spending millions. The initiative might be of greater consequence, if coupled with efforts to educate the society and change the culture and attitudes of the people towards good sanitation practices.

The Indian society cannot hope to progress and prosper if a significant portion of its population continues to struggle on a daily basis, merely to stay safe and alive every morning.

Suchita was raised in western India by loving and supportive parents who helped her and her sister to grow into strong, independent and career-oriented women. She’s a registered general practitioner in India and is currently preparing to obtain medical residency in the United States. She is passionate about women’s rights especially because she has had firsthand experiences of harassment and sexist behavior at public spaces, school and work.

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Italy: It’s Not a Criminal Offense to Publicly Masturbate

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Hearing about so many incidents of groping and verbal street harassment (before I even knew the term) in Italy made me change my mind about studying abroad there as a college student. If you dislike street harassment, now there’s even more reason to want to avoid going there.

Italy’s supreme court justices ruled that unless it’s done in front of a minor, public masturbation is perfectly legal — even if it is done with the clear aim of being seen by other members of the public without their permission or consent! The silver lining is it sounds like there still may be a fine for the act.

Still, since I have yet to hear about a woman publicly masturbating non-consensually at a person in a public place, I think it’s safe to say this is a good example of how laws usually benefit those in power: men.

This also reminds me of the Italian court ruling on a rape case 17 years ago. They came up with the ”denim defense” or the ”jeans alibi,” suggesting that a woman cannot be raped if she was wearing jeans because “they are impossible to remove unless she helps.”

Come on Italy, do better.

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Three Examples of Scary Street Harassment Escalation

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Street harassment can escalate without warning. That’s what makes it so scary. These three stories from this past week alone clearly illustrate this:

tiarah-poyau-2016Via For Harriet:

“22-year-old Tiarah Poyau was fatally shot at the J’ouvert festival in Brooklyn over the weekend. NYPD said the fatal altercation occurred after Poyau asked a man to stop grinding on her, according to the New York Post.

She was walking down the street with three friends during the pre-West Indian Day celebration when she told the man who invaded her space “get off me.”

Poyau was shot in the eye at close range.

20-year-old Reginald Moise was apprehended. He has five prior arrests. Police say they found the gun used in the shooting at Moise’s girlfriend’s apartment.

Moise was charged with second-degree murder, criminal possession of a weapon and reckless endangerment.”

 

Via Thailand’s National Newspaper:

“A 23-year-old American tourist suffers spinal injuries falling down a ravine in Krabi while she was fleeing from an alleged sexual assault late Thursday night….

According to the Phuket Gazette, the man who attempted to molest her, identified as Apai Ruangwong, has been charged with committing obscene behaviour toward another person and causing serious injury.

‘He said that he had known the victim for a day. He volunteered to walk her to her place, but couldn’t stop himself from touching her inappropriately.

‘The victim was frightened and ran away to escape him,’ Piyapong Boonkaew, superintendent of Ao Nang Police Station, told the Phuket Gazette.

Apai called rescue workers for his victim, who fell off the high cliff, the officer said.

It was only on Friday that rescue workers could reach her.”

 

Via City Living Seattle:

“Police arrested a 31-year-old man Sunday after he approached a woman as she was working in her yard, told her he wanted to have sex with her, and then returned hours later and broke into her home as she was showering.

The victim told police the suspect approached around 3 PM her as she was working in her garden near the 5100 block of 12th Avenue Northeast and informed her he wanted to have sex.

The woman immediately left her yard and went inside her home.

Hours later, around 7 PM, the woman was taking a shower when she heard someone trying to get into the bathroom.

The woman thought it might be one of her roommates and opened the door, only to find the suspect standing inside her home.

The woman began screaming for help, and one of her roommates grabbed the suspect and shoved him out the door of the home.

Officers arrived on scene minutes later and arrested the suspect in a nearby alley.”

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USA: Calling Out Oppression in Order to Change It

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Deborah D’Orazi, LMSW, NY, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent

Earlier this summer as I walked in New York City after a date, I noticed a man on his bike swerving and inching closer and closer to me. I was slow to pick up on it at first. It was a warm summer evening and I was enjoying the long walk to Penn Station while listening to some music, happy that my date went well, when I realized the man on his bike looked like he either lost control or was not paying attention to who was in his path. Nervous that he would hit me, I kept moving out of the way, swerving in different directions and walking as fast as I could away from an oncoming collision. Just as I thought the bike would hit me, he swerved a tiny bit away from me and called out, “Hey Beautiful!” and made kissing noises while leaning in towards my face. I leaned away and ran as fast as I could away from him and towards the cross walk.

Forget feeling good about the date I just enjoyed or the beautiful weather. Forget the enjoyment I was reveling in from the new music to which I was listening. I was now constantly looking over my shoulder and around me to see if the man on the bike was following me. After a few blocks I felt reassured that he was not following me, but my headphones stayed out and I was now on constant alert just in case someone else decided they needed to make themselves known to me through harassment.

Further reflection on this summer, unfortunately, revealed many instances of misogynistic, racist, xenophobic, and homophobic harassment. Leslie Jones, of Saturday Night Live and “Ghostbusters” fame, was recently harassed, trolled, and attacked online and through twitter with misogynoir threats and the hacking of her personal information on her own webpage. While she stood strong after the first instance we have yet to hear from her after her personal information was leaked. A man was sentenced to a 40-year prison sentence in Georgia after dumping scolding hot water on a gay couple while they slept. Muslim women in France were harassed and ordered to remove their burkinis in public due to xenophobic and Islamaphobic fears.

Overall, these incidents reflect that street harassment is not just a one-time incident or something that someone can ignore. It is a building block of power and oppression that literally shapes how people view themselves and society. It also shapes how society will treat communities and individuals. These incidents of harassment are tools of oppression and are ultimately traumatic events. As Dr. Judith Herman explains in Trauma and Recovery:

“Psychological trauma is an affliction of the powerless. At the moment of trauma, the victim is rendered helpless by overwhelming force. When the force is that of nature, we speak of disasters. When the force is that of other human beings, we speak of atrocities. Traumatic events overwhelm the ordinary systems of care that give people a sense of control, connection, and meaning.”

We must recognize harassment for what it really is—trauma, an oppressive tactic, a power play, a tool used consciously or unconsciously to dominate and erase those deemed unworthy or powerless by society. Harassment creates trauma by causing an individual to lose and question a sense of self and community. That is why it is extremely important that we speak up and refuse to be silent in the face of such oppressive tactics. It is extremely hard and sometimes we will not be able to do so out of fear or some type of inability to do so.

We are only human, but the only change I see in fighting street harassment and other building blocks of oppression is by calling it out for what it is and continuing to speak and act. That is the only way change will occur.

Deborah is a recent MSW graduate who also received certification from American University’s Women and Politics Institute and Rutgers’ Center on Violence Against Women and Children. In addition to social work, Deborah is looking to pursue an MPP/MPA and she is also extremely passionate about the arts (theater, writing, film, television, fine art, poetry, performance art), history, and Hamilton.

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