Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Snapshot of street harassment stories, news, tweets: January 8, 2012

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

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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:

Photo via WSJ

* The Wall Street Journal, “India Journal: Rethinking Safety in Delhi“

* IOL News, “Miniskirt assault ‘backward, chauvinistic and ugly’” and Sowetan Live, “‘Harassed miniskirt girls’ finally lay charges“

* Mercury News, “East Bay scientist reduces violence against Darfuri women through better cooking technology“

* Mid Day, “The myth of a safe city“

* Deccan Herald, “Delhi police get a call every two seconds“

* The Times of India, “‘Should I wear gloves? Conductors touch my palms‘”

* Boston Globe, “‘Hollaback!’ and help fight street harassment through an online community“

* Trust Law, “Egyptian women vow to persist in demand for rights“

Activism Announcements:

New:

* Sign the Petition: “Demand Justice for Two Men Killed Trying to Stop Street Harassment“

* View two new anti-street harassment films from Egypt and from Pakistan

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

* 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)

10 Tweets from the Week:

1. MLcarlberg Can all dudes decide to not catcall especially at night? Regardless of intent, it’s threatening, never flattering.

2. whereisyvette I like how I got a catcall at the gas station from a guy WHO RODE A BICYCLE THERE. I mean wow, I was gonna fall for him!

3. yashar Street harassment!! RT @lilforeigngirl: @yashar I loved Elmo too. Until I met a creepy Elmo on the streets of NYC who grabbed my hand..

4. No_Bozo #ThingsGuysShouldNOTSayToAnotherGuy “hey lets hit on that Chick!” #FF END #StreetHarrassment @hkearl @HollabackCHD @iHollaback @SlutWalkHK

5. JessaVanSickle I want to meet the woman who positively responds to the ‘catcall’.

6. harassmap While waiting for a bus, watch out for your boobs and bags bit.ly/AnZUYQ #Egypt #harassmap #endSH

7. SawsaGa Have you experienced any #sexualharassment on NYE celebration in Tahrir? #EndSH cc @HarassMap

8. ShaikhRafia March 18-24 is a week for fighting #StreetHarassment internationally? Whoazaa. #IknewIwasBornInAGreatWeek 😀

9. emilyhughes Men who catcall are always the worst, but they’re especially the worst during morning rush hour.

10. MohHKamel Did any of the parliamentary candidates propose a law tht would curb the sexual harassment pandemic in #Egypt as part of his program? #EndSH

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“Can’t a woman just go about her way in peace?”

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I haven’t been harassed for quite some time but I will mention something that happened the other day which annoyed me.

I had to go to a meeting and I didn’t have my coat to wear because it was in the wash. So I just had to put up with the cold weather. I was wearing a halter neck jumper [sweater] (one which sort of bares your chest) but not your breasts! Though just a little bit of cleavage was showing. As I was waiting for the bus, a man in a car stared at my chest as he drove past.

Then after the meeting, I had just missed my bus by a few seconds. My next one was in 15 minutes. I waited miserably in the freezing wind silently cussing the bus I had just missed. I was clutching some leaflets in my hands and I decided to read them and as I was a van beeped at me and a man shouted “hey”! at me. I didn’t know him.

I was already ticked off that I had missed the bus and was cold but that idiot in the van just made it that little bit worse for me…. can’t a woman just go about her way in peace?

– Clarice

Location: South Wales, UK

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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Attempted grope by another woman at a karaoke bar

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Not so much on the street. But I was singing karaoke in a bar one night, drinking water, alone with my BFF. While attempting to go to the bathroom some random woman reaches out to feel my breasts and was slurring some kind of “compliment.”

I threw up my hands in defense, warded her off and she sulkily replied she was just so fascinated by my “tiny little boobies” (her words) and wanted to feel if they were real (I have very small breasts, and have never enjoyed strangers making remarks about my body).

Although I successfully warded off her hands the incident ruined the rest of my night. I went home in a foul mood and was crying quite a bit after I got to bed and hugged my stuffed monkey.

– KAR

Location: In a neighborhood bar accessible by tourists. Las Vegas, NV USA

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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I’m an Egyptian Girl

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Two new films about street harassment in one day! The first one was from Pakistan, here is one from Egypt:

From the filmmaker: “A short movie that we worked on against sexual harassment and verbal abuse. We just wanted to reach out to all the women and young girls who ever got harassed and hopefully this short movie makes a difference. We only hope for a better environment and safer surroundings.”

Readers in Egypt: share your street harassment stories at HarassMap.

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“We have to not just sit and take it or ignore it”

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Cross-posted from gawaahi.org

“Street Harassment is a global phenomenon that is largely overlooked, and even considered acceptable despite there being laws against it in many places including Pakistan. Street harassment includes making sexually explicit comments, ogling, whistling, following and groping.

In the making of these videos, we found that many Pakistani women, especially from the lower-middle classes began wearing burqas because they found the additional garment enabling in many ways. However, they find that the problem of street harassment has worsened, and even in burqas, they are harassed as they wait for buses, rickshas, taxis, or walk down the street. The women we spoke with in this series of videos had experienced intimidation that crossed class, age, religion and ethnicity.

We are grateful to the young women featured in this video — Nabiha Meher, Aroosa Shaukat and Mehreen Kasana — for having spoken to us about street harassment. They are all three journalists (as journalism is evolving) whether in the realm of social media, blogs or print.

Made by Naveen Naqvi“

You can view two other films on street harassment by Naveen Naqvi via a blog post from last October.

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