Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Anti-Street Harassment Week 2014 Press Release

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
03/24/14

Contact:
Holly Kearl, hkearl@stopstreetharassment.org

International Anti-Street Harassment Week Draws Attention to the Problem of Street Harassment
23 Countries to Participate in Week of Awareness

WASHINGTON — In its fourth year, International Anti-Street Harassment Week will be observed by at least 150 groups in 23 countries from March 30 – April 5. Tens of thousands of people will participate in the awareness-raising week to tackle the prevalent social problem of gender-based street harassment.

“What could be more basic than the right to walk down one’s street safely, without facing harassment? For too many people – especially women and all members of the LGBQT community – this is a right they are routinely denied because of street harassment, or the threat of it,” said Holly Kearl, author two books on street harassment and the founder of the nonprofit organization Stop Street Harassment. “More and more people are recognizing street harassment as a human rights violation and each year we join forces, amplify each other’s efforts, and draw global attention to the problem.”

Groups in Egypt, India, Germany, Peru, Nepal, Colombia, and the United Kingdom will host activities, ranging from sidewalk chalking parties to informational workshops. Safe City Nepal members will distribute leaflets about harassment in Kathmandu. HarassMap in Cairo, Egypt, will run a campaign called Mesh Sakta (“Don’t be silent”) to encourage everyone to take an active role in speaking out when street harassment happens.  Stop Harcelement de la Rue will hold a “Safe Bar” event at a famous Paris, France, venue, followed by sidewalk chalking.

Stop Telling Women to Smile is a primary co-sponsor of the week and any interested people and groups can download PDFs of their famous “Stop telling women to smile” posters and paste them on walls in their community. Founder Tatyana Fazlalizadeh encourages everyone to paste the posters in the evening of April, 4 so that on April 5, “The walls around the world will bear the faces and words of women protesting street harassment.”

Events hosted in the United States include campus workshops on street harassment from Arizona to Pennsylvania, a film screening in Massachusetts, a Unity March in Texas, a rally in New York City, and distributing flyers at a Metro station in Virginia.

There will be many virtual events as well, including a Google+ Hangout panel on March 30 and six Tweet Chats on topics like the impact of street harassment on people’s lives and street harassment and teenagers (use hashtag #EndSH).

Participants in the week who are smartphone users are encouraged to use the new, free phone app called Safetipin that allows them to quickly conduct a safety audit wherever they are and see what other reports have been made in their area. “Our hope is that more people upload and use the information to advocate for safer streets and safer cities,” says Safetipin founder Kalpana Viswanath an advisor to the Jagori Safe Delhi Initiative. All pins for a city are clustered showing a color to indicate the level of safety (Green for Safe, Amber for Less Safe, and Red for Unsafe). A special report will be issued for all individual reports made that week.

Street harassment is a pervasive human rights violation. Around the world, studies suggest that most women and LGBTQ individuals face street harassment, ranging from verbal to physical forms, and it limits their access to public spaces.

Any individual can help speak out against street harassment during the week simply by sharing stories on and offline. Visit www.MeetUsontheStreet.org for more information about the week and how to be involved

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Stop Street Harassment is a nonprofit organization dedicated to documenting and ending gender-based street harassment worldwide through public education and community mobilization. SSH organizes International Anti-Street Harassment Week annually and helps activists with local campaigns through the Safe Public Spaces Mentoring Program. SSH just completed the first-ever national study on street harassment in the USA which will be released May 20, 2014.

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“He tries to ‘punish’ me”

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Sitting in a pretty empty stopped subway car with the doors still open, a man is walking by staring and I try to avoid him. He isn’t even getting on the subway but this doesn’t stop him from standing on the platform yelling into the car at me “Ma’am you’re beautiful!” I feel uncomfortable and don’t want to encourage him so I don’t respond, yet he still goes on: “Ma’am, you’re beautiful! You could at least say thank you!”

I still avoid him, and that is still not enough for him to just drop it, he goes on one more time and now he is annoyed that I am not appreciative of his obnoxious shouts, and he says, “Ma’am, YOU’RE UGLY”.

I couldn’t care less about whether a stranger thinks I am beautiful or ugly, its just the fact that he tries to ‘punish’ me or make me feel bad about myself because I don’t appreciate being hollered at is what gets to me.

– Anonymous

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
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India: Men on the Street — Take a Walk!

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Via Flickr

By Pallavi Kamat, Mumbai, India, SSH Correspondent

While people talk about and highlight street harassment, primarily amongst women, does anybody wonder about the reasons it happens?

One of the main reasons, according to me, is that women are considered the weaker sex. Men feel that they need to control women in order to show that they are powerful. And one of the ways they can do this is by harassing innocent and gullible women who are simply walking down the street. In fact, experts believe that warped social beliefs and psychological problems are responsible for men indulging in such harassment.

Unfortunately, instead of helping stop it, society tends to worsen the situation. When a woman is harassed, society tells her that she must definitely be at fault. Maybe she was wearing the wrong clothes or had stepped out at a wrong time. Or maybe she had ventured into an area where she should not have. This only encourages the men further.

In cities like Mumbai, it is often alleged (and rightly so) that the police do not take the street harassment complaints of women seriously enough to file an FIR. And passers-by try not to interfere fearing they will get unnecessarily caught in the legal rigmarole. In fact, in October-2011, two youngsters were stabbed to death for trying to stop some goons from harassing their girlfriends.

So, what can be done about this? Nothing? Are women destined to face street harassment and continue pretending as if nothing happened? Sadly, such questions lead to more questions. But, I am an eternal optimist. According to me, women need to come out and speak more against such instances. These need to be highlighted and not shoved under the carpet. Perpetrators of such acts should be named and shamed by citizens groups. This is the thinking behind the ‘Chappal Maarungi’ campaign [literally meaning to hit with a sandal/shoe].

Some experts are also seeking a change in the way cities are modelled in their bid to fight street harassment. Changes such as bright lights and wider pavements are some of the suggestions being considered in Mumbai.

Such solutions need to come from within local people and societies – an external person/organisation cannot provide better answers. Also, buy-in for such solutions needs to be obtained; one needs to emphasize that it is not a woman’s personal problem when she is harassed on the street but a social problem – one that needs to be taken seriously and dealt with like any other crime.

Pallavi is a qualified Chartered Accountant and a Commerce Graduate from the University of Mumbai, India, with around 12 years of experience working in the corporate sector. Follow her on Twitter, @pallavisms.

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Reclaim London’s Streets, 30 March – 5 April!

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Last year’s London Landmarks against Street Harassment event

Rosamund Urwin writes for the London Evening Standard about her street harassment stories

“The road I live off — Acre Lane in Brixton — seems to host regular auditions for the Bad Boyfriend Club. Most days, a couple of men stand near the McDonald’s uttering “Hey, sexy” and other Oscar Wilde-worthy witticisms at passing women. I’m pretty sure that the success rate of this strategy is lower than Lottery jackpot odds (ie, zero), that no woman has ever ripped off her knickers in response. Yet still they persist, day after day….

Almost every woman I know has similar — or worse — stories. They’ve been sworn at. Hollered at. Leered at. Groped. These incidents occur on the street, in buses, trains, clubs and bars — regular reminders that, as a woman, public spaces never quite belong to you…Let’s reclaim the streets from London’s leches.”

If you live in London and want to help reclaim the streets, you can join Rape Crisis South London for their “London Landmarks Against Street Harassment Event” from 30 March to 5 April for International Anti-Street Harassment Week!

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