Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Police officer to groped woman: “These things happen”

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Via New York Times:

“Jill Korber walked into a drab police station in Queens in July to report that a passing bicyclist had groped her two days in a row. She left in tears, frustrated, she said, by the response of the first officer she encountered.

“He told me it would be a waste of time, because I didn’t know who the guy was or where he worked or anything,” said Ms. Korber, 34, a schoolteacher. “His words to me were, ‘These things happen.’ He said those words.”

Crime victims in New York sometimes struggle to persuade the police to write down what happened on an official report. The reasons are varied. Police officers are often busy, and few relish paperwork. But in interviews, more than half a dozen police officers, detectives and commanders also cited departmental pressure to keep crime statistics low.

While it is difficult to say how often crime complaints are not officially recorded, the Police Department is conscious of the potential problem, trying to ferret out unreported crimes through audits of emergency calls and of any resulting paperwork.

….

In the case of Ms. Korber, the police did eventually take a report of her being groped, but only after her city councilman, Peter F. Vallone Jr., intervened, she and Mr. Vallone said. In fact, Mr. Vallone said that he had grown so alarmed over how many women were being groped in his district that he contacted the 114th Precinct; his staff then asked Ms. Korber to go there again.”

Of all of the forms of street harassment that women face, groping is one form that is illegal everywhere – it’s assault! So this news that NYPD is regularly not doing anything about it when women report it is very, very frustrating. Especially because during 2011 there were multiple serial gropers in New York City, and many other New Yorkers shared stories about men who groped them in the streets.

Because so many police officers respond this way, plus the fact that some police officers are harassers, makes many people take matters into their own hands, they choose to fight back or create a community response to street harassment.

But street harassment, including groping, is a serious problem. Groping is a crime. The police need to respond appropriately, otherwise, what’s the point of having a police force? Come on, NYPD, you can do better.

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2011 Anti-Street Harassment Successes – Part 2

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Poster from the Women Speak campaign

Reflecting on the number of people and organizations that worked hard to address and end street harassment is inspiring.  This end-of-year list is longer than last year’s list, and that’s a very good thing. Given the length, it’s divided into four posts.

Post 1: significant successes overall and 8 SSH successes.

Post 2 (this one): 20 new or expanded anti-street harassment campaigns.

Post 3: New creative anti-street harassment initiatives.

Post 4: People who stood up to harassers.

New or Expanded Campaigns:

Illustrating the global scope of this problem, here are just 20 of the many anti-street harassment campaigns that launched or expanded this year.

1. The United Nations launched a “Safe and Friendly Cities for All” campaign worldwide

2. Hollaback expanded their online campaign to 45 cities worldwide. Read their State of the Streets report to learn about their activism this year.

3. After a Toronto (Canada) police officer told young women they would be safe from victimization if they didn’t dress like “sluts,” activists in Toronto marched against victim-blaming in what they dubbed a SlutWalk. Soon groups all over the world held their own SlutWalks to counter victim-blaming, and some cities focused their walks specifically on street harassment.

4. Young Women for Change in Afghanistan launched an anti-street harassment campaign that included a march through the streets of Kabul, a PSA about how Islam forbids the harassment of women, a 700 poster-hanging campaign in Kabul, and a 4,000 person study that is currently underway.

5. Ghaidaa Al Absi launched The Safe Streets campaign in Yemen to address street harassment. She created a website to track street harassment and recently she hosted an exhibition of local artists’ work on the topic.

6. On the website Women Speak, founder Simone Leid, created an online place for women in Trinidad and Tobago to share their stories of discrimination. Unsurprisingly, street harassment has come up several times.

7. Organizations in Sri Lanka called Reach Out and Beyond Borders created an anti-street harassment campaign called Join the Fight Against Harassment. They held a “Man Up” event to engage boys and men in ending street harassment.

8. The feminist collective Nasawiya in Lebanon took their campaign “Adventures of Salwa” to new heights. They released several videos of the cartoon character heroine Salwa fighting against harassers in various situations. The video of her fighting a harasser at a cinema was aired at a cinema in Beirut for a month. They have a website where people share stories. They released an anti-sexual harassment booklet, launched a hotline (76-676862), and sent two trucks through the streets of Beirut to blast anti-street harassment messages.

9. Gawaahi in Pakistan launched an anti-street harassment campaign and released two short films created by their Executive Director, Naveen Naqvi, called “Stop Staring!” and “Stop Street Harassment”

10. Activists in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Sudan led a day against sexual harassment through blogging and tweeting (with the hashtag #EndSH) on June 20 and then they did a follow-up campaign led by HarassMap in late August to advocate for a harassment-free Eid. Activists in Egypt continue to rally people together in the face of the harassment and assault many women protesters face at Tahrir Square, especially from the military police.

11. Activists in Morocco launched the “Women, find a solution” campaign to raise awareness about the widespread problem.

12. The Latin American Women and Habitat Network in Colombia created a no-groping campaign for the bus system in Bogota. 

13. Maps4Aid in India is an innovative way to report incidents of violence against women (including street harassment), NGO activities, crisis situations through Web/SMS/PhoneApps using the Ushahidi platform and integrated with FrontlineSMS.

14. After the murder of two men who stopped a street harasser, activists in Mumbai, India, launched the Zero Tolerance Campaign. One of their initiatives is a petition advocating for stronger laws.

15. Five media students from Wilson College in Mumbai, India, launched a Chappal Maarungi campaign to encourage people to raise their voices and symbolicaly throw a sandal at street harassers. And six students at St. Andrews College in Mumbai, India, started the Freeze the Tease campaign to raise awareness about street harassment and they provided SMS texts of tips on how to tackle it to interested participants.

16. Men Can Stop Rape (USA) launched a new campus bystander campaign called Where Do You Stand? that includes posters about street harassment.

17. Safe Streets AZ launched as a pilot program of Southern Arizona Center Against Sexual Assault (USA) to address public harassment, particularly the harassment aimed at lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer-identified youth and young adults.

18. Safe Slope launched in Brooklyn, New York (USA), to provide services and resources to help empower and protect the communities of South Slope/Greenwood Heights/Windsor Terrace/Park Slope.

19. Brooklyn Bike Patrol, also in Brooklyn, New York (USA) launched to offer a free escort system for women who feel unsafe walking from subway stations to their homes during the late evenings hours. Their hot-line is 718-744-7592.

20. Several groups called for an end to sexual harassment and gender violence within the worldwide Occupy movement.

Bonus one: Stop Street Harassment launched the International Anti-Street Harassment Day campaign, which will be International Anti-Street Harassment Week in 2012 (March 18-24).

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ultra-Orthodox Jewish men call 8-year-old girl “whore” as she walks to school

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Image via Jezebel

Via CBS:

“A shy 8-year-old schoolgirl has unwittingly found herself on the front line of Israel’s latest religious war.

Naama Margolese is a ponytailed, bespectacled second-grader who is afraid of walking to her religious Jewish girls school for fear of ultra-Orthodox extremists who have spat on her and called her a whore for dressing “immodestly.“

Her plight has drawn new attention to the simmering issue of religious coercion in Israel, and the increasing brazenness of extremists in the insular ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.

“When I walk to school in the morning I used to get a tummy ache because I was so scared … that they were going to stand and start yelling and spitting,” the pale, blue-eyed girl said softly in an interview with The Associated Press Monday. “They were scary. They don’t want us to go to the school.”

The girls school that Naama attends in the city of Beit Shemesh, to the west of Jerusalem, is on the border between an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood and a community of modern Orthodox Jewish residents, many of them American immigrants.

The ultra-Orthodox consider the school, which moved to its present site at the beginning of the school year, an encroachment on their territory. Dozens of black-hatted men jeer and physically accost the girls almost daily, claiming their very presence is a provocation.

Beit Shemesh has long experienced friction between the ultra-Orthodox, who make up about half the city’s population, and other residents. And residents say the attacks at the girls’ school, attended by about 400 students, have been going on for months. Last week, after a local TV channel reported about the school and interviewed Naama’s family, a national uproar ensued.

….

Hadassa Margolese, Naama’s 30-year-old Chicago-born mother, an Orthodox Jew who covers her hair and wears long sleeves and a long skirt, says, “It shouldn’t matter what I look like. Someone should be allowed to walk around in sleeveless shirts and pants and not be harassed.”

Read the full CBS news article and read more in the Jerusalem Post and New York Times.


I applaud Naama and her mother for speaking out against the harassers and against street harassment in general. I hate that harassment happens period but I am OUTRAGED when it happens to kids and teenagers, especially when the harassers are grown men. They are bullies.

I also applaud the police for taking action:

“Police Commissioner Insp.-Gen. Yohanan Danino ordered his commanders and officers to enforce a zero-tolerance policy toward discrimination against women. According to guidelines sent by Danino to police commanders, any form of this discrimination must be treated as a criminal offense or a public disorder incident. Danino accompanied the orders with a condemnation of the phenomenon, describing “any attempt to harm the rights of women” as unacceptable.”

This story illustrates how street harassment can intersect with other forms of discrimination or conflict, such as religion. It also shows how the targets and purpose of the harassment are the same worldwide: the harassers target girls or women in public places just because they are girls or women in public places and then they shame them/threaten them/scaring them/humiliate them.

Thanks to the large number of harassers worldwide, public places are less safe and less welcoming for girls and women everywhere, including for 8-year-old girls.  That is not okay.

Is street harassment starting before puberty really the future we want for the next generation of girls?

If we don’t do something, that is their future.

Hollaback Israel is fighting street harassment in Israel. Find ideas for how you can help end street harassment in your community. Join us in speaking out against street harassment during March 18-24, 2012, International Anti-Street Harassment Week.

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Snapshot of Street Harassment Stories, News, & Tweets: December 24, 2011

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Read stories, news articles, blog posts, and tweets about street harassment from the past week.

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

Street Harassment Stories:

Share your story! You can read new street harassment stories on the Web from the past week at:

Stop Street Harassment Blog

HarassMap Egypt

Resist Harassment Lebanon

Many of the Hollaback sites

In the News, on the Blogs:

* Gulf News, “Kuwait: Woman’s car smashed for ignoring admirer“

* New York Times, “Mass March by Cairo Women in Protest Over Abuse by Soldiers“

* Human Rights First, “Cairo Protests Persist as Clinton Criticizes Appalling Treatment of Women“

* Global Comment, “Evicted from Tahrir Square, a New Stage of Egyptian Protest Begins“

* Bloomberg, “Will Other Arab Women Follow Egyptian Sisters Into the Street?: The Ticker“

* Focus Taiwan, “Passengers urged to report sexual harassment on public buses“

* The Telegraph, “Sudden raids to tame teasers“

* Arab Times, “Sleuths nab Asian expat, seize 19.5 kg marijuana“

* Meme Burn, “Indian non-profit launches app to help fight sexual harassment“

* Huffington Post, “Violence Against Women: Keeping Up Our Resolve“

* Sonnet 87, “Street Harassment Will Always Get You Nowhere“

* Metro Boston, “Women Hollaback! at street harassment“

* The John Tesh Radio Show, “You Can Combat Street Harassment“

* In These Times, “Fighting Sexual Assault, One Tweet at a Time“

Announcements:

New:

* Read the ActionAid report Women and the city: Examining the gender impact of violence and urbanisation.

Reminders:

* The Adventures of Salwa campaign launched a hotline for sexual harassment cases in Lebanon: 76-676862.

* In Bangalore, India, there is a new helpline for street harassment 080 – 22943225 / 22864023

* Find 6 ideas for holiday gifts that promote safe public spaces.

* The 5th edition of the prestigious textbook Women: Images & Realities, A Multicultural Anthology is now available. For this printing, they included a few pages about street harassment! (see #143)

* Students living in Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales, are encouraged to take a new street harassment survey. The survey is organized by Cymdeithas Y Merched Bangor Women’s Society.

* You can purchase the Stop Street Harassment book for 50% off right now!

20 Tweets from the Week:

1. allison_francis Lately I’ve realized the majority of men aren’t aware the majority of women experience street harassment. Blows my mind. It’s every day.

2. EmptyNestExpat I stayed home New Year’s Eve last year in #Istanbul because of the street harassment stories.Someone is taking action! tinyurl.com/c4ammfj

3. Caro130 Playing on phone as excuse to ignore sole fellow rider on this bus– asshole whispering “pretty” and making kissy noises. #streetharassment

4. BlackfeministUK Is anyone doing some thing for International Anti-Street Harassment week/day this spring in the UK? RT PLEASE

5. AmoAmmo #streetharassment RT @DawnHFoster: I just got sexually harrassed on Old Kent Rd by a man in a LEOPARD PRINT SLANKET. This is a new low.

6. Psypherize Soon the entire of #Egypt RT @randamali: The only place where I’m not scared of men is #Tahrir. #EndSH

7. chels7391 I hate when guys whistle or catcall at me, it’s desperate and just plain out rude!

8. sandychoi I know it’s rough, dudes in #Qatar, but driving up to a 7 mth pregnant woman on the sidewalk to catcall is a new low. HARAM, MUTHERF*CKER.

9. danielleprescod You can’t catcall me and ask me to help the homeless in the same breath

10. JessiDG RT @FarahSaafan: Men forming a cordon around women so no1 would harass us! Loud chants against Tantawi #Tahrir” streetharassment @HarassMap

11. nickol3465 One thing I hate is harassment your walking down the street then a person that u don’t even know starts to harass u (MAKES Me mad)

12. mernathomas Loud bang as the metro was taking off, women all screamed. Turned out just a sexual harasser banging on the window #weladKalb #endSH #Egypt

13. Hana_Zuhair Perverts, expect another #womenmarch soon. #EndSH

14. MahaElSherif Random strangers now feel inclined to condemn/stop harassment on the street #womensmarch #tahrir

15. EarthAngel1616 #Streetharassment is NOT OKAY. It makes people feel violated and unsafe in public spaces.

16. CorinneBA_Someone is following me! scary enough. he even have the guts to sit next to me in the bus, what should i do #endSH #nasawiya #lebanon

17. mernathomas No escape from sexual harassment, nt even @home. A harasser calls ur phone once “by mistake”,then continues calling night&day. #endSH #Egypt

18. clairesgould Note to middle-aged man at Tenley metro: don’t say hi to me like you know me, then wink. #ew #streetharassment

19. adventurecub Guy yelled after me “You’re a brainwashed moron!” because I ignored his catcall. I kindly doubled back showered him with obscenities.

20. jennpozner Strangers+street harassment=no consent. What context wld b OK? RT @RenZephyr @MsNicoleClark @ihollaback that depends on context &consent,no?

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Street harasser in Kuwait smashes a car

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Police in Kuwait are searching for a man who smashed a woman’s car after she ignored him on the street.

Gulf News:

“The woman was driving her car in Salmiya, the main shopping and restaurant area in Kuwait City, when a young man started following her and attempted to draw her attention, using signs and uttering sweet words. [emphasis is mine]

However, as she ignored him, he became furious and smashed her car several times before driving away from the scene.

The woman, although shocked by the incident, wrote down his car plate number and contacted the police who have launched a manhunt for the suspect.

Police in Kuwait have often to deal with repeated attempts by young men to draw the attention of girls and women, mainly in shopping complexes.”

I wonder what kind of “sweet words” he was uttering. Just as many harassers in the US call women “baby,” “sexy,” and “honey” one minute and then “bitch,” “ugly,” and worse, the next, this harasser changed his tune from sweet to destructive in a matter of minutes. Charming.

And non-harassing men wonder why women are wary or rude when they approach them! It’s because of experiences like this that make us distrusting of all, or at least of many, men we don’t know in public places.

Good for the woman for having the presence of mind to write down his license plate number even though she must have felt quite upset and shocked. Hopefully the police will catch him.

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