Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

#DelhiGangRape One Year Later

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2012 vigil, via www.IN.com

One year ago today, a 23-year-old college student was brutally gang raped on a bus in India, on her way home from the movies. Her male friend was beaten by the rapists as he tried to protect her. Her injuries from the rapes eventually led to her death. During the following weeks, massive protests took place all over India and the world.

So where are we one year later?

PBS reports:

* India’s parliament passed anti-rape legislation earlier this year that would criminalize offenses like stalking.

* Organizations launched campaigns, in an effort to bring awareness to the prevalence of violence against women and offer suggestions for ways to stop it. This in-depth PBS NewsHour report from April details the some of those efforts.

* Earlier this year, in New Delhi, a help line was set up to encourage women to speak up and report crimes when they happen.

* And police in Delhi say that they conduct “surprise raids” on public transportation routes in which large numbers of women travel to monitor the incidents of harassment

According to the Wall Street Journal, more women in India are coming forward – reporting rapes and harassment. ” In Delhi, for example, 1,493 rapes were reported to police in the first 11 months of this year, more than double the number reported in the same period of 2012.”

It’s an encouraging indicator, but experts caution that there is much work to be done.

Ranjana Kumari who heads the Delhi-based Centre for Social Research, told the AFP: “The society is indeed becoming more sensitive to rape victims now, but there is still a long way to go. You cannot deny there is a rape epidemic in the country.”

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Study: Workplace Sexual Harassment is Pervasive

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A new study about workplace sexual harassment reveals some alarming findings:

“Six in ten working women have had a male colleague behave ‘inappropriately’ towards them, new research has revealed.

The study showed that women were still subjected to sexist attitudes at work with the old clichés of men slipping a hand up their skirt or patting them on the bum still a regular occurrence for some women.

While nearly a quarter of women have experienced a senior colleague making a pass at them at some point in their career.

When it came to inappropriate comments and touching more than half of the offenders were more senior members of staff and two thirds of women said the inappropriate behaviour came from a married man.

But despite saying that the behaviour of their colleagues was often degrading and embarrassing only 27 per cent reported the behaviour to someone senior.

The research polled 1,036 women and was commissioned by employment law specialists Slater & Gordon.”

Combine this with high rates of street harassment, and it’s no wonder many women feel they cannot escape sexual harassment: they may face it on their way to/from work, at work, and after hours when they’re out with friends or family.

Our country has a major sexual harassment problem!!! And people like Rush Limbaugh are one reason why — he claims sexual harassment is just human nature.

It’s time for our country to take this issue seriously. It’s no laughing matter or joke, it has real consequences on peoples’ lives.

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NYC Mayor-Elect Promises to Address Street Harassment

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Mayor-Elect Bill de Blasio with his family. Image via International Business Times

The Mayor-elect of New York City, Bill de Blasio, released a document with his vision for New York City and on page 63, he addresses street harassment!!

“End Street Harassment and ‘Subway Grinding.’

As mayor, Bill de Blasio will continue to aggressively push to make ‘subway grinding’ a felony punishable by jail time. Bill de Blasio will also further his efforts to prevent sexual assault by launching a wide-scale Public Services Announcement campaign that expands awareness and empowers bystanders to confront harassment when they see it, be it on the streets or in the subways.”

This is a refreshing and very positive change from how Mayor Michael Bloomberg viewed street harassment (“I know for a fact that any self-respecting woman who walks past a construction site and doesn’t get a whistle will turn around and walk past again and again until she does get one.”).

With the New York City Council and Manhattan Borough President’s Office already strong allies on this issue — for example, representatives from each spoke at New York City’s street harassment rally in April for SSH’s International Anti-Street Harassment Week effort — the possibility for comprehensive change in New York City is huge!

Thanks for being an ally and advocate, Bill de Blasio!

H/T to Hollaback!

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Digest of Street Harassment News: Dec. 2, 2013

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This is a bimonthly digest.

** Sign up to receive a monthly e-newsletter from Stop Street Harassment ***

Street Harassment Stories:

Share your story! You can read street harassment stories on the Web at:

Stop Street Harassment Blog

Bijoya in Bangladesh

Collective Action for Safe Spaces

Everyday Sexism

HarassMap in Egypt

The Hollaback sites

Name and Shame in Pakistan

Ramallah Street Watch in Palestine

Resist Harassment in Lebanon

Safe City India

Safe Streets in Yemen

Street Harassment in South Africa

Street Harassment In the News, on the Blogs:

* Washington Post, “How should bicyclists handle harassment? D.C. area groups teach empowerment tactics“

* Mother Jones, “Meet the Woman Who Waged an Artistic War Against Her Street Harassers“

* Clutch Magazine, “#FastTailedGirls Hashtag Examines Stereotypes Facing Young Girls“

* Newsworks, “Photographer turns lens on Philadelphia street harassment“

* Women’s News Network, “EGYPT: Bike riders campaign works to stop sexual harassment of women“

 * The Jewish Daily Forward, “Who Harasses Women on the Street“

* PolicyMic, “Burt’s Bees Shouldn’t Joke About Street Harassment“

* The Massachusetts Daily Collegian, “Stand against street harassment“

* I Am Nirbhaya, “Bihar: Woman athlete assaulted for resisting harassment attempts“

* Prospect, “Sexism goes underground“

* Planetizen, “Tools to Protect Cyclists from Street Harassment“

* NYU Local, “Asking For It: NYU Local Explores Street Harassment“

Announcements:

New:

* We’re holding our holiday online auction Dec. 3-8. Check it out tomorrow!

* Our Safe Public Spaces Mentee in Cameroon, held a successful final event on Saturday with more than 20 youth.

* Our Safe Public Spaces Mentee in Chicago taped three dating commercial spoofs on street harassment.

* Holiday Shopping Guide Part 1

* We’re releasing our Know Your Rights Toolkit: Street Harassment and the Laws on Dec. 10 for International Human Rights Day.

* 5 Ways to Take Action during the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence that runs Nov. 25 – Dec. 10.

* There’s a new UN report: Study on Ways and Methods to Eliminate Sexual Harassment in Egypt

Reminders:

* Donate to help fund the FIRST EVER national study on street harassment in the USA!

* Save the date — International Anti-Street Harassment Week is March 30 – April 5 in 2014!

* Read about the successful Philadelphia City Council Hearing on Street Harassment on Nov. 7!

* Buy a copy of the new book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers! Here’s how to hold a book club fundraiser for SSH

10 Tweets from the Week

* @Sabali89 I figured out why men making the first move is an automatic turnoff- PTSD from too much street harassment. Sorry fellas. I’ll initiate.

* @CSRA_prsn It’s the first day of the meteorological winter. That means it is prime street harassment season in the South. #endSH

* @mujer_cita_MIA i told a male friend that a man had shouted “lemme lick it” to me in the street & he didn’t believe me #streetharassment

* @msbrandiebrown First experience with #streetharassment as a 9 year old in The Dot, 40 year old dude drives up next to me. Licking his lips #fasttailedgirls

* ‏@DanTresOmi As men we can’t get mad at police when they harass us but give #streetharassment a pass – that’s hypocrisy

* @AwakeBlackWoman You’ve read the stories: 20, 30, 40+ years of dealing with street harassment, abuse, fending off creepers & rapists. But we #FastTailedGirls

* @AwkwardGirlLA Why is it that bc I’m wearing exercise clothes while riding my bike, men think its okay to yell at me from their car? Perv #streetharassment

* @ericadanielle89 Did I ask you if I had a cute ass? Then DON’T COMMENT ON IT. #streetharassment

* ‏@wtsnia nearly every morning these shitheads feel the need to catcall at most of the women who walk by. why. why are you doing this.

* @emmavoight walked back from other side of campus, had four black guys in a car smelling of weed catcall at me on telegraph, feels like home berkeley

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Harassment is a Barrier to Women’s Public Participation

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The new report “‘It’s Dangerous to be the First’: Security Barriers to Women’s Public Participation in Egypt, Libya, and Yemen” includes a portion about street harassment. Here is an excerpt:

“In all three countries, women perceived harassment to be on the rise, becoming both more frequent and more serious….

In the face of growing insecurity – as power continues to be renegotiated throughout the Middle East and North Africa – women activists in Egypt, Libya, and Yemen have established a wide variety of grassroots initiatives to protect themselves and others against threats. Such initiatives have been coupled with powerful outreach and media campaigns at the local, national, and regional level to raise awareness of women’s security concerns.

In Egypt and Yemen a number of initiatives were formed to document accounts of sexual assaults and violence targeting women. Egyptian initiatives such as ‘Harassmap’ and ‘Shoft Taharosh’ (‘I Witnessed Harassment’) are based on the idea that documenting harassment through online and mobile technologies can help raise awareness. Using detailed maps of local incidents of harassment, volunteers talk to people on the streets about sexual harassment, challenge stereotypes and myths, and try to convince communities and the public generally to speak up and act against sexual harassment.

In Yemen several similar initiatives have developed, some of them explicitly modelled on Egyptian approaches, others reacting independently to similar problems. Such initiatives have combined with ‘citizen journalist’ footage of individual instances of harassment and assault. Through film-making and journalistic initiatives they make harassment, sexual violence, and other forms of violence against both men and women visible in novel ways. Mosireen, a video collective, for instance, are documenting violence against male and female protestors on video, acting as an archive and repository for such footage and producing short documentaries.

The combination of visual representations and awareness-raising around the prevalence of harassment with video footage of particularly shocking instances has begun to break down the prevailing attitudes of denial and excuses of harassment as harmless or natural and has been central to raising the profile of this issue and encouraging public debates about it.”

I have so much admiration for the women and men in these countries who are working hard to make sure all women and girls are safe in public places, including safe as they participate in political rallies and events. It takes a lot of bravery.

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