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THANK YOU!

April 15, 2019 By HKearl

Thank you so much to everyone who took part in International Anti-Street Harassment Week by sharing stories, holding events, doing sidewalk chalk messages, posting on social media and more. Groups in at least 32 countries and six continents took part! We are thrilled by the outpouring of support around the world as we all work toward a common goal: safe and welcoming public spaces.

Catch up on what happened:

Read about the new PSAs on the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit System

Please email photos and event updates to StopStreetHarassment@Gmail.com!

Stay tuned for the annual wrap-up report.

Special thanks to our volunteer Meghna Bhat for her help with social media and off-line events in California as well as sharing her story and views on the blog.

Day 6 and 7: Anti-SH Week 2019

April 14, 2019 By HKearl

Day 6 & 7 of International Anti-Street Harassment Week — the Week is over!

Here’s the updated photo album.

Hollaback! hosted a tweet chat.

Here are some of the actions that took place –>

Afghanistan:

Free Women Writers’ Balkh team took their art exhibition to a high school. They talked about each painting with the students and let them ask questions.

Chile:

OCAC Chile held an awareness event in a park, including coordinating a creative “Scrabble” board.

Croatia:

Hollaback! Croatia hosted a fashion show that shows what victims were wearing when they were harassed.

Guatemala:

OCAC Guatemala held an event to “take back the streets” by bicycle.

India:

Safecity held a sessions of Politalks to discuss street harassment and the role of urban planning in making public spaces more inclusive. They touched upon numerous topics, from the basics of harassment to power dynamics between genders. They “were extremely delighted to have Jeenal Sawla, an expert and seasoned urban planner, who gave amazing insight into the foundations of urban planning and gender inclusive public spaces.”

Indonesia:

Hollaback! Jakarta held a chalking event.

Italy:

Catcalls of Turin did chalking.

Netherlands:

Stop Straat Intimidatie participated in Stop Telling Women to Smile wheat pasting.

Papua New Guinea:

Across the week, UN Women’s Sanap Wantaim Campaign posted testimonials from people about street harassment. Here is one example.

Peru:

On April 13, Paremos el acoso callejero held a roundtable discussion about sexual harassment in public transit and the government’s obligations according to Perú anti-street harassment law.

On April 14, Paremos el acoso callejero held an awareness raising fair organized by “Línea 1 Metro de Lima” in collaboration with PLAN International Peru. They also held a healing circle for victims of sexual harassment in public transit.

UK:

Bristol: Catcalls of Bristol did chalking.

London: Catcalls of London held a chalking event.

USA:

Various groups/people did the Stop Telling Women to Smile wheat pasting, from CA to ME, from IL to GA.

California: SSH volunteer Meghna led a chalking outside the Yoga Seed Collective in Sacramento with CALCASA staff and Yoga students.

New York City: Catcalls of NYC did a chalking event.

Washington, DC: Collective Action for Safe Spaces did a wheat pasting event.

Kenya: Toolkit For Mini-Bus Drivers

April 13, 2019 By Contributor

Guest Post for International Anti-Street Harassment Week

By Mary Mwangi

Over the years, there have been rampant cases of violence against women and girls (VAWG) on public transport in Africa and other developing regions. On November 17^th2014, Kenya got the world’s attention with the #MyDressMyChoice campaign when thousands of people took to the streets to protest sexual violence against women in the public transport industry after a spate of stripping incidences were filmed and posted online. This protest sparked a movement to challenge gender norms and systems that allow this kind of violence to occur and fundamentally limit women’s freedom of movement and access to public space.

The public minibus transport service providers of Kenya – the matatu industry – provide an affordable transportation option to many people who would otherwise remain immobile. The matatu industry has developed its own unique culture and employs hundreds of thousands of people. This toolkit seeks to maintain what works well about this industry, while providing practical tools and supports that will make it more accessible and safer for women.

The Gender Sensitive Mini-Bus Services and Transport Infrastructure for African Cities Toolkit is designed to provide minimum standard guidelines and practical tools to create safer and more accessible public transportation systems for women in African cities. Specifically, the toolkit gives vital knowledge for improving existing management policies and practices.

This toolkit is a synthesis of primary and secondary information taken from two case studies from Nairobi, Kenya, and a literature review to identify best practices on gender and urban transport applied in cities around the world, with a particular focus on developing cities. Kenyan minibus services (locally referred to as matatus) are organized into informal saving and credit cooperatives organizations, or SACCOs. These public minibus transport services are frequently used by middle and lower-income earners, the majority of who are women, and are notorious for frequent harassment, recklessness and violence.

These case studies, conducted by Flone Initiative in collaboration with UN-Habitat and Prof. Inés Sánchez Madariaga, an expert in Gender and Urban Planning, affiliated with the University of Madrid and a member of UN-Habitat’s Advisory Group on Gender Issues (AGGI), sought to gather information from both commuters and transport industry operators (drivers, conductors and managers) through the execution of a Mobility of Care Study and a Gender Equity Assessment with three selected public minibus transport service providers. These studies were conducted in August – October 2018. Findings from both studies, coupled with best practices, have informed the development of this toolkit.

The toolkit provides public minibus transport providers with:

Customer feedback tools and sample customer service charter. The report recommends that these tools should provide commuters with clear reporting mechanisms.
How to achieve environmental sustainability
Recommendations on how to develop and implement zero-tolerance sexual harassment policies that address concerns for both workers and commuters.
Recommendations of minibus modifications that support the specific needs of commuters traveling with children, carrying large packages and living with both visible and invisible disabilities.
How to integrate organizational family-friendly human resource policies such as maternity and paternity leave.

Additionally, the toolkit recommends ways in which policy makers can use these recommendations to develop gender-sensitive legislation which can create safer, more accessible public transportation systems for all road users. It also provides ideas for how civil society actors can support these initiatives.

This is the first version of a toolkit which will guide a multi-year project to be executed by Flone Initiative. The project will seek to support transport organizations in adopting the recommendations made herein. This toolkit will be adapted and amended based on user feedback, impact and learnings.

You can find the toolkit here.

This toolkit was prepared to provide minibus transport organizations, policy makers and civil society actors with practical and concrete tools to create safer public transport systems for African women and other vulnerable commuters.

Mary Mwangi is the program manager at Flone Initiative in Kenya.

Day 5: Anti-SH Week 2019

April 12, 2019 By HKearl

Day 5 of International Anti-Street Harassment Week has concluded!

Here’s a photo album (I’ll update it each day). Here are some of the actions that took place –>

Argentina:

1. Accion Respeto Tucuman did street action to raise awareness.

2. Instituto de Genero invited people in Cordobo to help paint pictures about street harassment. They also handed out flyers, held up signs and did other street action.

Germany:

CatCalls of Berlin did more chalking.

India:

Safecity held a community meet-up in Premnagar, Pune, and children and youth made colorful charts related to street harassment. This was followed by discussions and sharing of experiences facilitated by Mona More, their Program and Outreach Officer in Pune. The lack of electricity did not deter this young crowd from participating and they drew by torch light [flashlight] wholeheartedly.

The Netherlands:

Hollaback! Nederlands rebranded as Fairspace and launched this video.

Also across the week, they interviewed five people about their experiences with #everydayharassment and shared them as videos. Here is a video example.

Uganda:

PLAN International, Australia Aid and Youth Empowerment Link held a march in Makindye to raise awareness.

USA:

RVAP and the University of Iowa School of Social Work did tabling at the University of Iowa to spread information about and awareness of street harassment.

Reflecting on Street Harassment

April 11, 2019 By Meghna Bhat

Experiences from India to the US: Prevention, Allyship & Community Accountability

This Sunday, April 7^th, marked the beginning of the 9^th Annual Anti-Street Harassment Week (7-13 April, 2019) hosted and organized by Stop Street Harassment (SSH). Being a SSH blog correspondent in the past and a proud volunteer and advocate of Stop Street Harassment, I feel honored to contribute my experiences and insights to this important movement to prevent and end street harassment across the globe.

I was born and raised in the city of Mumbai, India, and I have been living in the US for the past 15 years. I identify as a cisgender woman, first-generation immigrant from India, of Hindu ethnicity, and my pronouns are she/her/hers.

Recently, I was in India for several weeks and street harassment was sadly part of that experience. In fact, every time I visit my family in India, I can’t help but tense up over the “possibility” of being groped, touched, teased, or catcalled by men we encounter in public spaces because of what I have experienced there in the past. When I was in middle school, when an uncle laughingly told me, “consider it [being harassed] as a compliment.”

A screenshot of the NDTV Indian News segment

When as a young girl, I received such dismissing and trivializing responses (intentional or unintentional) from the community, my experiences of feeling violated are “normalized.” Further, when this is combined with toxic, unhealthy, glamorized and romanticized examples of street harassment, non-consensual contact and touching, and “romantic” aggressive love conveyed through popular culture, namely Bollywood Indian cinema—it was very easy to fall into the sinkhole wanting to believe in the “normalized,” “romanticized”, and “glamorized” notions about street harassment and sexual violence.

What traumatized me while growing up in India was also a lack of concept of physical and emotional space, setting boundaries, getting consent or asking permission, especially during Indian festivals such as the festival of color, Holi, is an alien concept. These spaces shared with our family and friends or with our neighbors and communities are intended to be safe and to enjoy the festivities without worrying about feeling violated, groped, touched and unpleasant.

Now, I am perceived as a party pooper when I am asked to join Holi celebrations here in the diaspora, but many don’t realize how it can be triggering and traumatizing to those who have been harassed and experienced sexual violence in these festive community spaces. I recognize that although not all Indian festivities especially Holi may be unsafe & unpleasant or/and not everyone who celebrates may have experienced these unwanted behaviors from others, we need to acknowledge and recognize that religious and community festivals such as these are often used as avenues for exerting power and control through harassment. To look out for one another and intervening when someone is feeling uncomfortable, or incoherent, unconscious or is saying no but is still being harassed or coerced, are essential steps we as allies can do to prevent this from happening in the first place.

Mumbai Couple Using Cell Phone (c) Victorgrigas

In my recent trip to India, I was disheartened overhearing a group of young college students in the train sharing their stories of how they and their respective partners were harassed, policed, questioned, and threatened by local police officers for loitering and spending time in public spaces such as a public park or bus stop or the promenade. These girls and women were frightened and traumatized with the police misuse of power and control. The questioning and moral policing targeted at the girls is based in sexism, patriarchal notions of sexuality and pre-marital relationships, and lack of belief in women’s autonomy.

Bhopal Queer Pride Parade (c) Mukesh bari

Even after the overturn of Section 377 in India which was used to criminalize homosexual relationships– LGBTQ-identified folks including the hijra community continue to be harassed and assaulted by police officers in their custody. So now, in addition to figuring out how to not get harassed and catcalled, vulnerable groups such as young girls and women, LGBTQI, and also individuals with disabilities all across the world also have to take extra steps to make sure they are not targeted by authorities and the state.

We have to acknowledge the prevalence of sexism, racism, homophobia, Islamophobia, xenophobia, ableism and other intersectional forms of oppression before we tackle street harassment in public spaces and sexual violence.

A lot of my points above may overlap with a blog on SSH I had written in 2015, but I feel we need to have these conversations of how to be an ally and bystander with our family and friends- no matter how uncomfortable it may be! We have to be mindful of not to publicly out other possible survivors who may have disclosed their experiences to us or force folks to share their stories. Learning to respect victims/survivors’ decision of sharing their stories and their way of healing is a must.

Also, what about our individual responsibility and collective accountability to address prevalence of street harassment and create safe, inclusive, accessible, and supportive public spaces shared by all?

Shouldn’t we all want to envision such a beautiful, safe, harassment-free space for our children and youth?

The younger and future generations must be able to focus on their education, employment, good quality of life and health without the hassle. In the movement to prevent and end all forms of gender violence across all identities, it is absolutely crucial that the responsibility of prevention must not come solely on the shoulders of the marginalized and vulnerable groups especially survivors at the expense of their mental, physical, and psychological health.

Last but not the least, I want to underline the importance of how this post is not just about experiencing street harassment growing up in India or that this problem exists only in South Asian or “developing countries” as perceived by western countries. For instance, the 2018 SSH study indicates street harassment is highly prevalent in the US. Unfortunately, street harassment is a worldwide problem, a human rights violation, and a public health epidemic affecting all. It needs to be given urgent attention in terms of prevention, intervention, accessible resources, and survivor-centered and trauma-informed support.

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