Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

16 Days – Day 4: A Dad Stops a Harasser

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Each day across the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, we will highlight a 2018 activism effort undertaken to stop street harassment or a personal story about stopping harassers!

Day 4: A Dad Stops a Harasser

When a dad in California noticed a 29-year-old man start videotaping his 15-year-old daughter in a Target and crouch by another woman to take footage up her skirt, he kicked away the phone and then, when the man ran, tackled him in the parking lot. Then the dad called the police and got a photo of the man’s license plate number as he drove away. The man was later arrested for “invasion of privacy.”

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16 Days – Day 3: UK Government Inquiry

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Each day across the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, we will highlight a 2018 activism effort undertaken to stop street harassment or a personal story about stopping harassers!

Day 3: UK Government Inquiry

A nine-month inquiry into street harassment led by the Women and Equalities Committee caused some MPs to call for the government to address street harassment.

Via BBC:

“Committee chairwoman Maria Miller said: ‘Women feel the onus is put on them to avoid ‘risky’ situations – all of this keeps women and girls unequal.’

The report concluded that social attitudes underpinned sexual harassment, and the normalisation of it contributed to a ‘wider negative cultural effect on society.’

And while the government has pledged to eliminate sexual harassment of women and girls by 2030, the committee said there was ‘no evidence of any programme to achieve this.’

The report outlined seven key recommendations to tackle street harassment:

1. Force train and bus operators to take tougher action against sexual harassment and block the viewing of pornography on public transport.

2. Ban all non-consensual sharing of intimate images

3. Publish a new “Violence Against Women and Girls” strategy

4. Create a public campaign to change attitudes

5. Take an evidence-based approach to addressing the harms of pornography, along the lines of road safety or anti-smoking campaigns

6. Tougher laws to ensure pub landlords take action on sexual harassment – and make local authorities consult women’s groups before licensing strip clubs

7. Make it a legal obligation for universities to have policies outlawing sexual harassment.”

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Sept & Oct 2018 News Round-Up

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Global: Plan International’s report, based on interviews with 21,000 girls around the world found street harassment is a pervasive problem.

Afghanistan: This filmmaker got her start fighting street harassment with her camera.

Australia: Girls should be involved in planning cities to reduced gender-based exclusion and street harassment.

Canada: 250 delegates from 25 countries came together in Edmonton in mid-October for the UN Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces Global Leaders’ Forum.

Chile: Santiago’s first-ever vegan burger restaurant Vg Burger stands up against street harassment and all forms of bigotry.

Colombia: In a global survey of girls in cities, Bogota ranked as the worst and least safe for them.

Egypt: An activist was jailed for posting a video criticizing the government on their handling of sexual harassment

France: A man in France was sentenced to six months in jail for harassing and slapping a woman in July.

Indonesia: A ride-hailing business for women-only in Indonesia now has 800 drivers across 34 cities who make 300 to 500 journeys each day.

Ireland: Street harassment and running.

Japan: A man who took upskirt photos of 37 women is jailed for 16 weeks.

Morocco: A new bill passes on sexual harassment to mixed reception.

Pakistan: “She’Kab” is a new carpool service for women in Karachi.

Philippines: The senate approved a law against street harassment.

UK: One in three girls in the UK have been street harassed while wearing their school uniform.

UK: A nine-month inquiry into street harassment has caused some MPs to call for the government to address street harassment.

UK: Research suggest that most young men are ‘more likely’ to challenge sexual harassment since #MeToo.

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End of Summer 2018 News Updates

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Afghanistan: What it’s like for women to get around Kabul.

Australia: Why do men perform lewd acts on the train?

Australia: What can men do to prevent the street harassment, assault and murder of women?

Canada: Good Night Out Vancouver launched a new pilot project aimed at finding out when and where street harassment in happening in the city.

Chile: Street harassment is a criminal offence in these suburbs.

Egypt: Egyptian women take back the streets with parkour.

Europe: One in three EU member states have applied legal restrictions on Muslim women’s dress, with almost half having applied bans – including on headscarves – within workplaces and public institutions.

India: Delhi’s all-female motorbike police force has helped reduce street harassment.

Indonesia: A man who groped a woman’s breasts while he was on a motorcycle was sentenced to a one-year prison sentence.

Kenya: FloNe Initiative shared the findings from their baseline study on sexual harassment on public transit.

New Zealand: A serial sexual assailant has been attacking women on Wellington streets.

Philippines: Street harassment became illegal in Manila and Dagupan City.

Romania: Street harassment became illegal in the country!

Russia: Men harass female sports reporters at the World Cup.

Uganda: The threat of harassment (and worse) is a daily occurrence for a lesbian in Kampala, Uganda.

USA: How five women saved a woman from a harasser.

USA: One out of every four young men does not disagree that “when a woman is raped, she usually did something careless to put herself in that situation.”

USA: Girls who reach puberty earlier are sexually harassed more than their peers, regardless of whether they’re engaging in sexual behaviours earlier

USA: A Human Rights Commission report says almost 40% of Muslim, Jewish and Sikh residents of NYC have experienced harassment, including, 1 in 5 Black Muslim women who had been physically assaulted in the months in question.

USA: Sexual assaults on airplanes are rising at “an alarming rate” the FBI said.

UK: Two-thirds of women worry about sexual harassment at music festivals.

UK: More than half of men in the UK think catcalling is unacceptable.

UK: Expanding the “Catcalls of NYC” idea, women in other areas, like London, are writing in chalk the things men say on the street.

 

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Latest News on Street Harassment Laws

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Last week, thanks to the efforts of our partners Collective Action for Safe Spaces, Washington, D.C. became the first city in the country to pass a dedicated anti-street harassment law. This effort began in 2015 and SSH board member Layla Moughari and I were among the dozens of people to testify about street harassment at a round-table organized by the DC City Council.

Via ThinkProgress:

“The Council of the District of Columbia passed the Street Harassment Prevention Act as part of the budget on Wednesday, which would create a definition of street harassment, collect data on harassment, train government employees to recognize and intervene in harassment, and create education campaigns, among other measures.”

This law creates the first legal definition of street harassment in the nation and it is one that builds on the definition the SSH board wrote a few years ago.

It includes “unwanted, disrespectful, or threatening comments, gestures, or other actions forced on a stranger in a public place without their consent, directed at someone because actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, identity or expression, race, ethnicity, religion, national origin, or any other characteristic identified in the Human Rights Act of 1977.”

This isn’t the only timely thing happening:

  1. A national law against street harassment is under debate in the French Senate (after passing in the National Assembly in May).
  2. In April, a city in Chile became the first in the country to pass an anti-street harassment ordinance.
  3. Some parliament members in the UK are advocating for street harassment to be made a hate crime nationally, as it already is classified in Nottinghamshire.
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