Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Azerbaijan Video: “Hey man, be a gentleman!”

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It’s always heartening to hear about male allies who are speaking out and organizing against street harassment all over the world. One of them is Jake Winn, a Peace Corps volunteer and a youth development facilitator in northern Azerbaijan, on the Russian and Georgian borders. He is also a member of Peace Corps Azerbaijan’s WID/GAD (Women in Development/Gender and Development) executive committee.

He wrote me this morning saying,

“Inspired by your ‘Shit Men Say to Men Who Say Shit to Women on the Street,’ some of my male students made their own Anti-Street Harassment video. The title, “Ay Gardash! Kishi Ol!”, can be translated to, ‘Hey man, be a gentleman!” We now plan on distributing the video throughout the country, along with a lesson plan and discussion questions for other volunteers to use with their own students.

Street Harassment is quite a serious problem in Azerbaijan, as well. Hopefully, this video will have a positive impact on many Azerbaijani communities.”


I will post English subtitles soon.

WAY TO GO Jake and the youth you’re working with!! I hope your video and lesson plan has an impact in Azerbaijan and inspires similar efforts by male allies in other countries. Keep us updated!

I also want to give a big shout-out to Bix Gabriel, Joe Samalin, and everyone they worked with to produce the original “Shit Men Say to Men Who Say Shit to Women on the Street” video. Not only has their video brought a lot of attention to the problem of street harassment and how men can be involved in ending it, but it’s inspired at least three videos – the Azerbaijani video and videos produced in San Jose, CA, and Cairo, Egypt.

Thanks to the Internet, you never know who will see your work and be inspired to take action, too 🙂

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“Glasses look to keep Israeli women out of sight”

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Even though this excerpt sounds like it’s from an article in The Onion, it’s actually from an Associated Press article!

“It’s the latest prescription for extreme ultra-Orthodox Jewish men who shun contact with the opposite sex: Glasses that blur their vision, so they don’t have to see women they consider to be immodestly dressed.

In an effort to maintain their strictly devout lifestyle, the ultra-Orthodox have separated the sexes on buses, sidewalks and other public spaces in their neighborhoods. Their interpretation of Jewish law forbids contact between men and women who are not married.

Walls in their neighborhoods feature signs exhorting women to wear closed-necked, long-sleeved blouses and long skirts. Extremists have accosted women they consider to have flouted the code.

Now they’re trying to keep them out of clear sight altogether.

The ultra-Orthodox community’s unofficial “modesty patrols” are selling glasses with special blur-inducing stickers on their lenses. The glasses provide clear vision for up to a few meters so as not to impede movement, but anything beyond that gets blurry – including women. It’s not known how many have been sold…The glasses are going for the “modest” price of $6.”

What a sad state of affairs. I guess the one positive is that the glasses don’t further restrict women’s mobility or rights…

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Snapshot of street harassment stories, news, announcements & tweets: August 12, 2012

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Campaign volunteers used graffiti on Pyramid Street in Giza to speak out against harassment. Photo courtesy of "Atta Eedak" via Al-Shorfa

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

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Street Harassment Stories:

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

Stop Street Harassment Blog

HarassMap in Egypt

Bijoya in Bangladesh

Resist Harassment in Lebanon

Ramallah Street Watch in Palestine

Name and Shame in Pakistan

Safe Streets in Yemen

Many of the Hollaback sites

Street Harassment In the News, on the Blogs:

* Heeb Magazine, “A Woman’s Guide to Hasidic Street Harassment“

* New York Times, “For Women in Street Stops, Deeper Humiliation“

* Khabar Southeast Asia, “Nepali youth combat “Eve teasing” with awareness“

* Al-Shorfa, “Egyptian women organise against harassment“

* Ms. Blog, “Street Harassment Fuels a Viral Documentary“

* Powered by Girl, “My new perspective on street harassment“

* Good Women, “A Story On Confidence, Compliments, And Street Harassment“

* Feminspire, “A Letter To The Guy Who Catcalled Me On The Street“

* The Independent, “Whistling, pinching, “sweetheart” – it’s all harassment“

* Princess Lasertron, “how a collective of female friends helped me stand up to street harassment“

* Happy Paradox, “A Conversation About Street Harassment“

* The Onion, “Weird, Area Woman Wasn’t Harassed Today“

* Week Woman, “Twitter Reveals How Far We Have To Go Before Street Harassment Ends“

Announcements:

New:

*

* Vote for Hollaback Philly’s transit ad project

Reminders:

* Activists in South Africa launched a new website about street harassment

* The anti-sexual harassment public service announcement signs are now up in several Washington, DC metro stations!

* Help fund a new film about street harassment

* The Stop Street Harassment book is available in paperback for $15.

* Submit art about street harassment for the VoiceTool Product exhibit in San Francisco, CA

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

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

* Report #streetharassment in Pakistan at @NameAndShamePk, email nameandshame@ryse.pk, SMS 0314-800-35-68 or online at http://www.nameandshame.pk

15 Tweets from the Week:

1.@Sister_Storm #streetharassment is alive and well especially in hot weather. I wore these clothes so I wont melt in the heat NOT for your benefit #endSH

2. @Distorted_Moth Oh, French douchebags. It’s sure that if you whistle to me like you’re calling a dog, I’m gonna strip and suck your dick. #streetharassment

3.@puellaradical @sydneyanderson keep men on their own island so they can catcall each other

4. @maropetro I don’t know why I thought wearing a sweater on the way to the bus stop would keep me from getting hollered at. #endSH

5. @ellistuhler Surely the sidewalk-biker who craned his neck to catcall a teenager learned a lesson in karma when he subsequently crashed into a mailbox.

6. @adelin Sometimes I wonder when I make kissy sounds to dogs I meet on the street, if that’s the doggy equivalent of a catcall. #harassment

7.@BlondeonaBeach Why do men equivalent to my dads age feel its ok to yell/catcall/whistle at me and my friends..

8.@nualacabral Just had a dialogue with #Poppyn about #streetharassment. We have to engage the #youth if we want to see change. Powerful discussion. #EndSH

9. @SpookSquad Leaving store about to cross to parking lot, four dudes in black car stop in middle of road to block/yell at me. #StreetHarassment @hkearl

10. @plitter I will never understand why some men think it’s okay to catcall, or why some women are okay with being on the receiving end of it. #ugh

11. @demonista Belgium film on street harassment strikes a chord across Europe http://gu.com/p/39gxz/tw READ and WATCH THIS. “public” domain is still male.

12.@colorlessblue A guy i actually liked smiled respectfully and i frowned at him in reflex before i realized it! STREET HARASSMENT RUINS EVERYTHING!

13. @nehedari wild goose chase in haifa. amazing how “romantic” street harassment is near arab bus station. “I will kidnap u, marry u, make many babies”

14. @habibahamid Hate it. Chased in cities, cars for miles, on foot RT Street harassment and power of hard evidence v @RizMC @helenlewis http://j.mp/NQyOjF

15. @silverspeakers Last night’s #streetharassment started w cat calls. Then… Me: “we’re not walking here for you.” dudes: “Boooo! Unghhh!”

 

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“I had never felt unsafe on the freeway before”

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Before I entered the freeway, I noticed that the passenger in the truck to my left was waving and smiling at me. I Ignored him and continued to look straight at the light. Once I was in the freeway the trucker honked as they sped before me while I waited on the meter. The trucker was purposely impeding me from merging lanes by merging to the lanes before me. Soon after I noticed that both the passenger and the truck driver were laughing at what they had done. It shook me up; I could’ve hit another car while trying to evade them. I’m not sure what their intent was but it bothered me because I had never felt unsafe on the freeway before.

– Anonymous

Location: on the freeway, Downey heading towards 105W, California

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem.
Find suggestions for what YOU can do about this human rights issue.

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Sri Lanka campaign reached 30,000 commuters in one week

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SHOW You Care Participant. Image via Sri Lanka Unites

A few weeks ago, I blogged about how Sri Lanka Unites in Colombo planned to to undertake an initiative called S.H.O.W You Care (S.H.O.W. = Stop Harassment of Women) to address sexual harassment on public transportation. Well, the campaign happened and this was sent by the organizers of the event:

“Hundreds of young men were given an informative training by Sri Lanka Unites and were split into teams of 3 with a mentor appointed to each team…

Starting Monday, June 25th, hundreds of young men boarded buses according to a previously formulated strategic plan. During the course of the campaign which lasted one week, over one thousand buses were covered, reaching over thirty thousand commuters in Colombo.

The young men, apologized to women in the buses for any harassment they have encountered in the past, providing them with information on legal recourse available to them if they experience such treatment in the future. Next they charged the men to take the responsibility to safeguard this right and the negative reflection on them, if they fail.

The response from the commuters on buses was astounding. Passengers on the buses, both male and female, were very responsive to the campaign. Many encouraged the efforts of the young men, asked for more information about the campaign and Sri Lanka Unites. The passengers were eager to engage in conversations regarding the issue of harassment on public transportation and were heartened by the efforts of the young men to attempt to resolve this problem in the city of Colombo.”

Total Number of Buses: 1225
Routes Covered: 49
Estimated Number of Commuters Reached: 36750

Well done!! It’s so important to engage men as allies and change-makers. This is not a “women’s” issue. It impacts all of us and we all have a responsibility to help end it.

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