Stop Street Harassment

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Two eve-teasers arrested, and an eve-teaser murdered in India

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I read two blog-worthy stories out of India today regarding eve-teasers (street harassers), the first entails police arresting two harassers, the second is about men murdering a chronic harasser (!).

1. From the Times of India:

“Two college students were arrested by the Gurgaon police on Monday for teasing two women passengers in an auto rickshaw…The victims were targeted by the accused while they were travelling in a pink auto, which is being run in the city exclusively for female passengers. Police said the incident took place in Sector 23 around 2 p.m. on January 13.”

Gurgaon is just outside of New Delhi and this arrest seems to be part of the increase in police vigilance to stop eve teasing in the Delhi area, an initiative that was announced at the beginning of this year. I suspect there will be many more stories like this one if the police continue to harshly punish harassers.

2. From Express Buzz:

“Eight persons were arrested for murdering a man who teased a woman at Kumaran Nagar on Sunday. Police said Prakash (35) alias MGR of Sridevi Nagar, Alapakkam, was at Vazhaithope Pagudhi, Kumaran Nagar near West Mambalam, playing cards with his friends Sakthi Saravanan and Babu when a 10-member gang led by Prabhakaran (30) stabbed Prakash and his friends. They were taken to hospital where Prakash died.

Prakash who lived at Vazhaithope Pagudhi 10 years ago used to play cards with his friends after getting drunk. They reportedly had a habit of teasing girls who passed by. Even though he shifted his house to another area, he kept on coming back to Vazhaithope to meet his friends and continued teasing girls.

This angered Prabhakaran, who lived in that area, and he  often picked up quarrels with Prakash. On Sunday, Prakash,  as usual, played cards with his friends and later teased a girl, a relative of Prabhakaran. She complained to Prabhakaran, who along with his brother Bhaskaran and eight friends murdered Prakash. Police arrested eight of them, including the brother and are on the look out for the other two.”

Woah. I’m all for bystander intervention, but not with force or violence unless it’s absolutely necessary. Certainly there are better ways to stop harassers than by murdering them (…right?).

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Street harassment snapshot: January 16, 2011

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Story Submissions Recap:

I accept street harassment submissions from anywhere in the world. Share your story!

New stories on:

Street Harassment in the News, on the Blogs:

Image from The City Fix

Events:`

Announcements:

New:

On-going:

10 Tweets from the Week:

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“No one else stepped up to the plate. I had to do something.”

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ABC News did a very interesting experiment regarding street harassment and bystanders. They had three actors portray construction workers and had them harass an actress portraying a regular woman. Even as the men escalated, most people nearby did nothing. One woman bystander was too hesitant to confront the men, but suggested to the woman targeted to just ignore them and walk away.

But, across the time they were play-acting harassment, there were THREE good male bystanders who stepped up to the plate.

ABC News

Bystander #1 (you can see this exchange in the video clip):

“You don’t treat people that way. It’s wrong,” one man said to the construction workers.

As he stood next to our actress, he offered to apologize on behalf of our construction workers.

“Are you apologizing for men in general?” our actress asked.

“If I have to,” the man said.

Bystander #2:

“You are disrespecting this woman here. If you have a problem with her, you’re going to have a problem with me. Anyone who wants to be tough just stand up,” the man said.

“She’s flirting,” one of our actors said.

“She ain’t flirting,” the man shot back. “She’s over here and you guys are bothering her. Leave.”

When we [ABC] caught up with this man he told us, “I don’t know her. I don’t know them. I was pretty annoyed the way they were treating her. You know, three guys, a female … she’s very distressed. No one else stepped up to the plate. I had to do something.”

Bystander #3:

“Why don’t you get your lunch and take a hike” said one man.

He happened to be a construction manager who told us [ABC] that he sees a lot of what he called “shenanigans.”

“One, two, three of you picking on her?” he asked. “What are you guys doing? What is this?”

He told our construction workers that one day they might have a daughter and asked them if they would want somebody else to treat her the way they were treating our actress.

“I’m sure she has a father that wouldn’t appreciate that,” he said

“I don’t have a daughter and until then I’m going to have some fun,” one of our fake construction worker replied.

We noticed the man standing by the side of our actress, not allowing the construction workers to get any closer.

As the abuse continued from our workers, he decided the best thing to do would be to walk our actress away from the scene. When we caught up with him, he told us, “I saw one guy grabbing for her. If it went any further, I would probably have to lay him out,” he said.

At the end of the article, ABC said, “In the course of the day, many people witnessed our construction workers verbal assault on our actress. But we wondered; what would happen if our construction workers traded in their hardhats and boots for suits and ties? – Find out tonight at 9 p.m. EST”

Go ABC for addressing street harassment! I’m also interested to see what will happen when the harassers are wearing suits and ties since that ALSO happens despite the stereotype that it’s only construction workers or “blue collar” workers.

I know it can be challenging to be a bystander and the three men who “stepped up to the plate” are a great example for all of us. Here’s more info on being a good bystander as well as suggestions for what you can say or do if you’re the one being harassed.

[Update 1/15: You can watch the full episode online]

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“26 persons were held while passing lewd remarks at women”

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Last week, police in Delhi, India, promised to undertake various initiatives to address the rise in reports of eve teasing and rape of women in the city.

Well, it sounds like they may truly follow through on some of them. Via The Times of India:

“In a drive started against eve-teasers by the police on the instructions of IG Vijay Kumar on Monday, 26 persons were held while passing lewd remarks at women or making obscene gestures in public places.

Cops nabbed the miscreants from market places, malls and temples.

IG Vijay Kumar said the drive will continue for some more days in order to check the growing incidents of eve-teasing in the city.”

Wow!! Can we please have that in the U.S.? (aAsuming the arrests wouldn’t be made in a racist or classist fashion…) If police did that regularly in major cities across the U.S., I imagine the number of harassers would decrease in a hurry. At the very least, it would get everyone talking about street harassment, there were be op-eds galore both for and against the arrests, all the news pundits would want to discuss it, and more women would feel able to share their stories.  Getting an issue into national dialogue is how social change happens.

Readers in Delhi, how are these arrests being taken by citizens of the city? Already eve-teasing receives a lot of media and governmental attention so I’m not sure the arrests would increase it significantly, but is it?

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Street Harassment Snapshot: January 9, 2011

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Story Submissions Recap:

I accept street harassment submissions from anywhere in the world. Share your story!

Street Harassment in the News, on the Blogs:

Image via Washington Post

Events:

  • Jan. 10: Radio show about street harassment by The F Word: Feminist Media Collective, 3 p.m. EST
  • Jan. 10: Discussion on HarassMap at 14 Sleem EL-Ghatas St, Off Sleem the First St. – Hadaek EL-Zatoon, Cairo, Egypt, 5 p.m.
  • Jan. 13: Stop Street Harassment Book Talk, University of California, Irvine, 8 p.m.
  • Jan. 15: First day of 5 week self defense class with the Center For Anti-Violence Education in Brooklyn, NY. sliding scale! call 718-788-1775
  • Jan. 23, Anti-Street Harassment Planning Meeting, In Other Words, 14 NE Killingsworth, Portland, OR, 4 p.m.
  • Feb. 1: Stop Street Harassment Book Talk, Northern Illinois University, 7 p.m.
  • Feb. 12, HollaBack Baltimore Launch Party, Metro Gallery, 1700 N. Charles Street, 8 p.m.

Announcements:

New:

On-going:

10 Tweets from the Week:

  • monaeltahawy “Move away or I’ll smash your face!” a young woman told the man who groped her on a bus in #Yemen (she wrote to tell me). Kickass!
  • DianeMassage Another day of #streetharassment in #nyc, whilst wearing my red puffy jacket.
  • MaxineFrances Street harassment so angers me. Usually I let it lie due to incredulity and fear for my safety. Proud I gave it a bit of lip just now.
  • FatSocialWorker Octopus Pie on #streetharassment http://bit.ly/dJNhZ6 cat-callers don’t make me laugh like Octopus Pie does.
  • bettyslutsky Street harassment is worst when other cyclists do it. A Harvardy 1 made lascivious tongue gestures & ruined the sunshine
  • FatBlackDiva Cab home. Driver says: “Why not invite me in? I like a big woman like you.” Yeah? Do you like fines from the TLC, too? #streetharassment
  • sasaragor Chuffed to see WAG’s ‘Let’s stop blaming victims’ rape prevention campaign on Queen’s Street in Cardiff #streetharassment
  • StreetHarassmnt recntly approached a dude known for yelling at women on the street and told him to quit it. ended w/ ‘don’t fuck with me’! he was speechlss.
  • _sugaHoney Doesn’t matter what you wear. If you have a vagina, you’re going to be harrassed because men don’t know how to act. Period.
  • burnyourbones man in car shouts “I can see your knickers!” at me cycling down hill. At best I’m humiliated, at worst a multi-car pile-up #streetharassment
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