Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Weekly Round Up: November 14, 2010

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Story Submissions Recap:

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

In the News, On the Blogs:

Announcements:

Upcoming Events:

Ten Tweets from the Week:

  • HollabackPGH don’t whistle @ me while i’m riding my bike dwn yr street. i’m just tryng 2 enjoy the sun & buy olive oil #streetharassment
  • sospokesaroj: #amanshouldnot catcall a girl. Who in their right mind thinks girls actually respond favorably to that?
  • annikaleigh Most confusing catcall ever: “hey! Youre kinda…not ugly cute.” At least be clever when youre objectifying me, idiot.
  • mz_laf: I almost had to karate chop this dude in the Train station. He tried to grab me. I am not the one | Damn shame #StreetHarassment
  • RevoltRealWomen Just b/c a woman has chosen 2 exercise her freedom 2 walk down the same st as you, does NOT give u the right 2 assault & harass her
  • SamKusek Guys who harass women on the street make ladies feel like they’re unsafe anywhere but their own homes. It takes us back two steps.
  • TheSceneSerene #angryblackwomantweet death to dudes that want to publically harass and embarrass u on the street.
  • kaalakawaa Even if a person walked down the street in a micro-mini, the harassment is the fault of the harasser not the harassed
  • JessiDG: “Paranoia is a female rite of passage.” #streetharassment and @FourSquare http://shar.es/0BMdQ
  • buttersburke There is an app that counters street harassment from guys??? Does it shoot & kill them instantly??
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Masturbators on NYC subway, lewd commenters on buses in Chennai

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In two weeks I’ll be presenting on the harassment of women on public transportation at the 3rd International Conference on Women’s Safety in India (and today I’m in Denver at the National Women’s Studies Association Conference to present on making campuses safer).

Harassment on public transportation is a HUGE problem, as shown by countless stories and news stories on here over the years, and today, by two of the stories that came through in my google alert for “sexual harassment.”

In the first, New York Times reporter Karen Zraick wrote about her experiences with men masturbating at her on the subways of New York and she said she didn’t report any of those instances. She has opened up the thread asking readers, “Have you encountered unwanted harassment, groping or flashing? How have you dealt with it?”

It’s a big deal that she shared her stories when so many women feel silenced and that she used her powerful New York Times platform to put this issue out there into public discourse in a way that, say, my blog cannot. Certainly go over there and share your stories and show the general public how many women deal with this!

And I also wanted to note a story from The Times of India. Harassment of women on buses is a big deal throughout India and this article focuses on the problem in Chennai. Police and transit authorities have identified seven bus routes that many women take as the ones where the harassment is the worse. In response, they are sending out undercover police officers to the bus stops and on the bus lines to help crack down on it.Via The Times of India:

“Men of all ages indulge in harassment of women. Some are teenagers, others elderly men. It is a daily ordeal,” said Radhika Kumar, a college student who travels by 29 C. She said MTC should have its own force to deal with such people.

Since such incidents happen in crowded buses, many women said that plying more buses on the identified routes would help. “Route 27H needs many more buses as hundreds of working women and college students take this route,” said Prathibha Francis, a college lecturer.

The police will deploy more personnel at bus stops on these routes, including personnel in plainclothes. “Once the MTC gives us details of the routes, we will deploy more personnel,” said Shakeel Akhter, additional commissioner of police (law and order).

In other places in India, authorities have resorted to creating women-only buses, trains, or even lines for buses, so this is an interesting, new tactic. I hope that penalties for harassment will help prevent it.

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Weekly Round Up: November 7, 2010

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Story Submissions Recap:

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

In the News, On the Blogs:

Announcements:

Upcoming Events:

10 Tweets from the Week:

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In Bangladesh, students protest eve teasing, police talk strategy

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I just came across two articles about eve teasing in Bangladesh:

Protesters, Image via BBC

1. School and college students held a rally in Dhaka to protest against ‘eve teasing’ and the sexual harassment of women in the latest in a series of protests following a number of suicides and killings involving women subjected to bullying and harassment. The protesters are urging the Bangladesh government to take proper steps to curb sexual harassment and provide better protection for women.

Via BBC News:

“Unable to bear the insults, some women have committed suicide. Activists say stalking and sexual harassment has led to the deaths of more than 24 people, most of them women, since the beginning of this year. In recent days, some who have spoken out against sexual harassment have been murdered. A 50-year-old woman died after a motorcycle was driven over her when she protested against the bullying of her daughter last week. A college teacher who spoke out against such bullying was also murdered.”

Outrageous!

“Following the suicides and killings, the High Court has asked the government to take measures to prevent stalking. Officials in the district of Tangail are now offering karate training to all female school and college students. Learning martial arts makes girls better able to protect themselves, they say.”

And will there also be trainings for boys and men to not harass girls and women?!

2. In the Daily Star, police talk about their strategies for dealing with eve teasing. Inspector General of Police (IGP) Hassan Mahmood Khandker requested the media to term ”eve teasing” as an offence so that harassers are held accountable. He said he is also considering assigning personnel to whom victims of harassment can send SMS for help.

Because there tends to be more harassment around festivals like Eid-ul-Azha, over 50 thousand additional law enforcers will span the country as of November 11.”A three-stage security arrangement will be designed to make sure the safety of people before, after, and on the Eid day,” Khandker said.

It is sad that it took suicides for people will take this issue seriously in Bangladesh (UNICEF even has programs there now, earlier this year the first jail sentences were given to harassers, and the government declared an Eve Teasing Protection Day). And now, in many ways, Bangladesh is doing more than many countries – including the US – to deal with this issue. Will it take suicides in the US before stakeholders pay attention? Apparently murders aren’t enough.

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A widow because of a street harasser

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Trigger Warning – Definitely a Sad Post 🙁

Street harassment sometimes ends in murder, a pointless end to a life.  The cases I’ve read about have been similar – the harasser kills the woman he was harassing. It is the worst way a harassment incident can end.

Yesterday on the HollaBack DC! site, I read about another harassment incident that ended in murder. This time the person killed was the husband of the woman experiencing the harassment. From HollaBack DC!

Yesterday we received this email:

Hey Holla Back DC, I’m an Arlington resident originally from New Orleans.  A friend of a friend was murdered in the french quarter over the weekend because some a-hole was yelling at his wife.  She ignored and the harasser didn’t like that.

The comments by Tigers119 tell the story of what happened beyond the shoddy TP reporting. I don’t expect y’all or any other hollaback outlet to publish anything, but I needed to share this story with people who actually care and WON’T try to blame the widow.

Even though this happened in NOLA, we recently spent time in New Orleans and wanted to share this with the DC community. Our hearts go out to the widow. Catcalling should NEVER lead to murder.

Here is the report from nola.com:

A 23-year-old Metairie man died from stab wounds Sunday after getting into an argument with a motorist in the French Quarter.

Coroner’s Office investigator John Gagliano identified the victim as Ryan Lekosky.

The incident occurred at the intersection of Dauphine and Iberville Streets, shortly after 3:30 a.m. when Lekosky and his wife were walking on the sidewalk when a man drove alongside them and allegedly began yelling inappropriate comments about Lekosky’s wife, New Orleans police said.

Lekosky’s wife confronted the man and the two began fighting. Lekosky was stabbed several times when he tried to break up the struggle, police said.

Continue reading.

This is truly devastating. And of course there will be people who will say she shouldn’t have responded, she aggravated the situation; it’s her fault her husband is dead. But it IS NOT. The harasser/murderer is at fault for starting the whole thing and then escalating it. If we always walk silently by when men harass us, if we learn to avoid public places where it occurs, then the harassers win. We have the right to be in public and it is our right to confront our harassers, if we wish, to tell them so.

My heart goes out to her, a widow because of a street harasser.

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