• About Us
    • What Is Street Harassment?
    • Why Stopping Street Harassment Matters
    • Meet the Team
      • Board of Directors
      • Past Board Members
    • In The Media
  • Our Work
    • National Street Harassment Hotline
    • International Anti-Street Harassment Week
    • Blog Correspondents
      • Past SSH Correspondents
    • Safe Public Spaces Mentoring Program
    • Publications
    • National Studies
    • Campaigns against Companies
    • Washington, D.C. Activism
  • Our Books
  • Donate
  • Store

Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Home
  • Blog
    • Harassment Stories
    • Blog Correspondents
    • Street Respect Stories
  • Help & Advice
    • National Street Harassment Hotline
    • Dealing With Harassers
      • Assertive Responses
      • Reporting Harassers
      • Bystander Responses
      • Creative Responses
    • What to Do Before or After Harassment
    • Street Harassment and the Law
  • Resources
    • Definitions
    • Statistics
    • Articles & Books
    • Anti-Harassment Groups & Campaigns
    • Male Allies
      • Educating Boys & Men
      • How to Talk to Women
      • Bystander Tips
    • Video Clips
    • Images & Flyers
  • Take Community Action
  • Contact

Spain: Including Harassment and Sexual Abuse in Laws

October 24, 2016 By Correspondent

Alice C.R., Barcelona, Spain SSH Blog Correspondent

7n-manifestacionRecently, the Nottingham police in the UK decided to treat misogyny, ranging from street harassment to physical attack, as a hate crime. This marks a step forward in the fight against violence against women and stopping street harassment. Some initiatives had already been launched to tackle violence and harassment in public transportation in London in 2013. In Paris, street harassment is sadly common and considered as a “séduction à la française,” and a 2015 study shows that 100% of the women interviewed said they suffered at least one case of harassment. This “French lover” culture is so ingrained, accepted, valorized and glamorized that the decision to institute a plan of action has been virulently criticized and even rejected. Many voices, mainly male voices, raised against this plan arguing it was anti-male and even anti-social. In their arguments, the difference between harassment and even physical assault and an attempt to pick up is shockingly blurred and ignored.

This is especially alarming given how such harassment can escalate to violent crimes like physical assault and rape and even death. In December 2014, a woman was killed with a screwdriver for rejecting sexual advances in a Parisian street close to Bastille. There was also the case of a young woman being harassed, threaten and groped by a man in the Lille metro which has been widely commented on the media. The man admitted he hit on the woman. Cases like this are not unique at all and such frightening stories have been shared by women everywhere in France. Just have a look at Project Crocodiles for example.

Actually, I have to admit that my decision to leave France has been, among others reasons, motivated by the harassment I had to face on a daily basis from the age of 10. Harassment occurred by day, in crowded spaces and while I wrote large trousers and large shirts. Of course I am not saying that harassment is acceptable if we wear skirt or short or a bralette, I just want to emphasize that what we wear does not help to prevent harassment. I always carried a whistle, had my mobile phone ready for calling the police, and held my keys strongly between my fingers. At some point, it was so bad that I asked my boyfriend to come to pick me up at work. That was just unbelievable and such a restriction of movement which I never faced in others countries where I lived. I still feel very unsafe, uncomfortable and, somehow, scared when I have to travel there.

In Barcelona, I found a friendlier environment. I remember being positively surprised to see posters at the entrance of supermarkets indicating what to do in case of domestic violence, to walk down the street and discover new poster from a new public campaign, to get leaflets in the metro explaining how to recognize gendered violence and what to do. I never suffered the same level of harassment here as in France, even when alone at night and wearing a skirt.

I was not yet in Spain in 2004 when the organic law which integrated measures to prevent and fight violence against women was adopted, but I heard a lot about it as a model to follow. This law demonstrates a recognition and an awareness of the issue. But (unfortunately, there is always a “but”) it does not mean that everything is perfect here. It is not.

For too many people, gendered violence means physical domestic violence, but in reality, gendered violence is not limited only to this kind of violence, yet it seems that others violence are a bit excluded. As a matter of fact, if almost everyone agrees that it is not okay to hit someone, it seems that psychological violence, verbal harassment and sexual abuses do not provoke the same reaction. I say “almost” because some people still think it is okay to hit, especially women. This year so far, there have been 35 women killed by their intimate partner and there are 83 if we add women killed by non-intimate partner. And that is the point. A woman who is attacked by her partner is considered to be a victim of gendered violence. A woman who is attacked by a stranger is not and she won’t be allowed to benefit from some measure of protection.

Sexual violence and abuse neither. In fact, they are not included in the organic law of 2004 and associations and organizations like 7N, Stop Violencia Sexual and l’Aadas ask for its inclusion right now. The recent event of San Firmin rape case re-opened the debate.

This law is a good tool to fight violence against women but it needs to include all kind of form of violence. As long as something is not recognized, it is a bit like if it does not really exist or is not very serious. But we all know the impact of such kind of violence. And it is very serious.

Alice likes researching, analyzing and writing about Women’s Rights, gender bias, and intersectionalism with a special focus on sexual violence, rape, rape culture, the impact of street harassment and how the media deals with these issues. She is currently working on a new project focused on how some media participate in the revictimization of victims. Follow her and her projects on her Facebook page and via Twitter @Alyselily.

Share

Filed Under: correspondents, News stories, Street Respect Tagged With: france, law, spain, UK

“Live up to the bravery you find inside you”

April 11, 2016 By BPurdy

Britnae Purdy, Past SSH Blog Correspondent and Anti-Street Harassment Week Manager

Switzerland, Image from the author
Switzerland. Image via the author

This past summer, at age 23, I experienced complete freedom of movement for the first time. I have been driving for eight years, living out of the family home for six – but because I am a woman my ability to move freely though the world on my own time schedule is often limited by either overt threats or an internalized sense of fear. You’ve heard them – get home before dark. Don’t wear that skirt downtown. Text a friend when you arrive home so they know you’re safe. Don’t walk alone. Not exactly conducive to a busy schedule.

I didn’t entirely know what to expect when I moved to Switzerland to pursue an internship opportunity at the World Health Organization. I applied on a whim – I was newly graduated and terminally unemployed. In no realm of reality did I expect to actually land it, and when I did I surprised myself even more by accepting immediately. The next couple weeks were a tizzy of navigating the visa system, booking flights, finding housing, and shoving as much French into my brain as I could.

I was nervous the entire time. Could I actually do this? Was it safe? All the travel materials I read assured me that Geneva was a safe place – but of course, my US hometown is supposed to be as well. In today’s world, safety seems more and more subjective. I’m not a daring person – why on earth would I think I could do this?

The first time I rode public transportation in Geneva, two days after arriving, was to a work function that ended up keeping me out long past dark. I was literally shaking the entire ride home, though the city’s busiest stops, where I briefly got lost switching lines, and to my apartment on the far, far side of town. I would never do this on the Washington DC Metro.

Not a single person bothered me that night. Nor the next night. In fact, throughout the three months I spent in Geneva I was not verbally or physically harassed once.

Slowly, I realized that the fears I learned in the United States were not necessarily universal. In the US, and indeed many places of the world, public spaces are  often not welcoming of certain genders, races, and other identities. It’s difficult to reconcile this against the image of America that I love and am proud of – but undoubtedly, some of these fears and experiences had become ingrained in my mind.

My new sense of freedom was a delicious thing. I took the usual precautions of course – assault and other crimes do happen everywhere, after all, but I never felt particularly in danger because of my gender. If I needed something from a store across town, I went. If I stayed late at work and missed the bus, I walked. If I wanted to visit a tourist site across town on my day off, I didn’t feel the need to drag a friend along. When temperatures climbed to 100 F I wore a mini-skirt and went out anyway.

Eventually my new bravery led me to take trips outside of the country by myself, as well as solo train trips to all four regions of Switzerland. Where I once was a timid traveler who often avoided social situations due to extreme anxiety, I now relished the process of picking, planning, and enjoying a trip all by myself. My confidence at work flourished. My French improved; my German went from nonexistent to…well, barely existent. If I ran across a problem I felt emboldened and competent to sort it out on my own. I felt more at home in the world.

Switzerland. Image via the author
Switzerland. Image via the author

I’m not saying this to tout Switzerland as the best country in the world, or start some kind of comparison between countries. What I do know is that my time in Switzerland shook up my deeply engrained sense of how I could travel and move as a woman. I now firmly believe that solo travel – whether domestically or abroad, long or short – can open up so many possibilities and lessons you might not even see coming.  If I hadn’t pushed through my fears of traveling alone, I might never have known that such a freedom was possible. I’m ten times less timid than I was before I took a chance and jumped on that plane.

In today’s world, travel can be scary – even more so if you’re a solo female traveler. Be smart, be informed, be precautious, be nervous – but go anyway.

Soak it in. Bring back what you learn. Grow in ways you didn’t think you could. Demand the world acknowledge you as a full human being despite any differences you may have from the status quo. Live up to the bravery you find inside you.

Britnae Purdy is a health professional and freelance writer currently in Durham, NC. Her travel blog, Nerding Abroad, focuses on promoting pragmatic, feminist, and yes, nerdy travel.

Share

Filed Under: anti-street harassment week, Stories, Street Respect Tagged With: switzerland, travel

#16Days of Activism: Posting Fliers (Day 4)

November 28, 2015 By HKearl

Nov. 25 – Dec. 10 are the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. To commemorate the week, we are featuring 1 activism idea per day. This information is excerpted from my new book Stop Global Street Harassment: Growing Activism Around the World (Praeger 2015).

Afghanistan

A simple way to raise awareness about street harassment that one person or a group can do is to hang flyers and posters on bulletin boards, walls, the backs of street signs, and other public places. Take Afghanistan. There, members of the group Young Women for Change, founded by college women, posted flyers about women’s rights and street harassment on the walls of Kabul several times, including a day in 2011 when 25 volunteers glued 700 fliers to walls around the city despite the potential danger involved in publicly calling for women’s rights. Their acts received a mixture of responses, from anger to support.

“I felt like my heart was going to melt down when we posted a poster and a shopkeeper who was there watching us post it couldn’t read it [because he was illiterate],” wrote then 20-year-old co-founder Anita Hadiary in a blog post. “He asked another person to read it. When he learned what the poster said, he started fixing the poster and glued it harder on the wall.”

Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe

In 2013, members of the Zimbabwe Parents of Handicapped Children Association hung signs on trees in their rural community with messages like “It’s my right to be in public space. I don’t want to be harassed. Leave me in peace not in pieces. It’s my world too!” That same year, Ryerson University college students in Toronto, Canada, posted fliers on bulletin boards around their campus. One flier had an image of flat shoes with the words “These shoes do not make me a prude.” Another flier showed high-heeled shoes with the words “These shoes do not make me a slut.” The larger message was “I do not dress for you.”

When a few women in their 20s and 30s formed the STOP Harcèlement de rue in Paris, France, in 2013, one of their first actions was to post 50 fliers against harassment on walls, lamp posts, bar windows, and mailboxes near the Place de la Bastille in Paris, a crowded area well-known for street harassment. The fliers’ messages included “Me siffler n’est pas un compliment” and “Ma mini-jupe ne veut pas dire oui” (“Whistling at me is not a compliment” and “My mini-skirt is not a yes”). Throughout the summer of 2014, the women met every Monday night to put up posters around the city.

Mexico

In the United States, oil painter/illustrator Tatyana Fazlalizadeh launched Stop Telling Women to Smile in 2012. Her own daily experiences with street harassment inspired her to draw her own and other women’s faces and add simple anti-harassment messages. She would then photocopy the illustrations and paste them on walls. The messages included “Stop telling women to smile,” “Women are not outside for your entertainment,” and “Harassing women does not prove your masculinity.” During 2013, Fazlalizadeh held a very successful online fundraising Kickstarter campaign so she could travel to more than 10 cities across the United States to meet with women, hear their stories, create portraits, and then paste their portraits in their communities. In 2014, she also went to Mexico City.

Help fund our work in 2016, donate to our end-of-year giving campaign!

Share

Filed Under: 16 days, Resources, Street Respect Tagged With: 16 days of activism, activism, flyers, gender-based violence, Resources

Street Respect: “I admire you”

September 14, 2015 By Contributor

I was going for a run, and it was windy and rainy and cold. A woman walking her dog in the other direction smiled at me and said, “I admire you.”

– KG

Location: Dunedin, New Zealand

This is part of the series “Street Respect. “Street respect” is the term for respectful, polite, and consensual interactions that happen between strangers in public spaces. It’s the opposite of “street harassment.” Share your street respect story and show the kind of interactions you’d like to have in public in place of street harassment.

Share

Filed Under: Street Respect

Street Respect: “What kind of dog is that?!”

August 12, 2014 By HKearl

I was driving with my little dog in the back seat with the top down in my car. Man pulls up in an SUV and told down his window. I’m tensing up and preparing for the comments to start and he says, “That’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen! What kind of dog is that?!”

– Abby

Location: Chicago, IL

This is part of the series “Street Respect. “Street respect” is the term for respectful, polite, and consensual interactions that happen between strangers in public spaces. It’s the opposite of “street harassment.” Share your street respect story and show the kind of interactions you’d like to have in public in place of street harassment.

Share

Filed Under: Stories, Street Respect

Next Page »

Share Your Story

Share your street harassment story for the blog. Donate Now

From the Blog

  • #MeToo 2024 Study Released Today
  • Join International Anti-Street Harassment Week 2022
  • Giving Tuesday – Fund the Hotline
  • Thank You – International Anti-Street Harassment Week 2021
  • Share Your Story – Safecity and Catcalls Collaboration

Buy the Book

  • Contact
  • Events
  • Join Us
  • Donate
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2025 Stop Street Harassment · Website Design by Sarah Marie Lacy