Search Results for: police violence

Sexual Harassment in Tahrir: “Let’s keep the square safe for the women of the revolution”

November 26, 2011 By HKearl

Street harassment and sexual assault are in full force at Tahrir Square in Egypt as tens of thousands of Egyptians rally and call for military rule to end before parliamentary elections are held. Here is a disturbing account of it, via Storyful.

“An increasing number of women have become victims of sexual harassment and assault at protests in Egypt over recent weeks. While some claim the attacks have been organised by the military and police to intimidate female protesters, others blame it on supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood. International female reporters have also been among those targeted, with French correspondent Caroline Sinz assaulted for 45 minutes in Tahrir Square by youths on November 24. One website has started mapping reports of sexual harassment around Cairo and is calling for women to step forward and tell their story.

The events of recent days, in which both activist and journalist Mona El-Tahawy and Sinz were sexually assaulted, have prompted women to speak out about endemic sexual harassment in Egypt….

On Thursday Sinz and her cameraman were reportedly mobbed by youths, as they walked down Mohammed Mahmoud street. They were dragged to Tahrir Square, where they were separated, and she was assaulted. Afterwards Sinz recalled: “Some people tried to help me but failed. I was lynched. It lasted three quarters of an hour before I was taken out. I thought I was going to die.”…

The feminist activist, journalist and blogger El-Tahawy claimed she was beaten and sexually assaulted by police officers on Thursday, after she was arrested on Tahrir Square. After her release she tweeted details of her assault on Twitter: @monaeltahawy 5 or 6 surrounded me, groped and prodded my breasts, grabbed my genital area and I lost count how many hands tried to get into my trousers.”

If you’re in Tahrir, this is for you:

@sallyzohney All females in #tahrir, pls share with me ANY harassment or assault, I am doing a report on this! very important!!

No matter where you are, here is an important article by @Rouelshimi about the current state of street harassment/sexual harassment in Tahrir Square and why this is NOT okay. An excerpt:

“In Egypt, sexual harassment has been an issue for quite sometime. Women can’t walk down the street without being harassed whether verbally, physically or just by inappropriate looks….

So yes it has been a problem. Today though, was out of the ordinary; even for a huge Friday protest. More than one girl I’ve spoken to personally today has had horrible (and multiple) sexual harassment experiences. Not to mention the amount of complaints on twitter just from today. Personally, I had a very negative experience with harassment today with much groping and verbal abuse.

So this got me thinking; why today? The square is different this time around. There is much more tension in the air. Sadness over the lost and injured. Giving food and supplies became more of a business; even if there is still a big dependence on donations and sharing. Anger from SCAF’s brutality. All of this with hope and faith in a bright future.

So why today? Today, there was also a pro-scaf rally in Abbasiya square reported at about 15,000 people participating. There was also a ceasefire with the police, after the army built a concrete wall (oh the irony!) between the protesters and the police following 5 days of fighting and breaking of ceasefires from both sides. Today was also the day that had the most sexual harassment. It got so far that Media rights group Reporters Without Borders advised media outlets to stop sending female reporters to Tahrir Square, in light of continued reports of sexual violence against female reporters covering unrest in the square.

And why are there so many cases with this intensity today? Is it because of the amount of people there? Or maybe even army or police insiders in the square trying to make women uncomfortable? Is it because it was full of people who were not there for the protests, but are just going to Tahrir because its cool? I’m not sure. But something definitely was up and we need to fight it.

If women are being chased away from the square after terrible experiences, and if fathers and husbands start making their daughters and wives stop going, it weakens us. It weakens our revolution and our cause. Stand up for sexual harassment, whether you are male or female. Don’t let it go unnoticed. Whether you are male or female. Speak up to it, make a scene. Lets deal with this whether through street justice or organised awareness and policing. Let’s keep the square safe for the women of the revolution.”

Street Harassment Stories, Articles & Tweets: November 6, 2011

November 6, 2011 By HKearl

Read stories, news articles, blog posts, and tweets about street harassment from the past week and find relevant announcements and upcoming street harassment events.

** Sign up to receive a monthly e-newsletter from Stop Street Harassment ***

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 | “Street Respect” stories

HarassMap Egypt

Resist Harassment Lebanon

Many of the Hollaback sites

New Activism:

* Brooklyn Bike Patrol (NYC, USA): “Call us @ 718-744-7592 we escort women from subway stations to their homes safely in the late evenings hours.”

* Zero Tolerance Campaign (Mumbai, India): “Every woman in Mumbai, be it our mother, sister or friend has been groped or touched inappropriately at some point of time…As a campaign we have three major goals: 1) Spread awareness especially amongst the youth, that Sexual Harassment is just not acceptable and we need to be ZERO TOLERANT, be it victims or onlooker; 2) Empower women through imparting information about their rights and the existing laws to book the culprit and combat the menace; 3) Petition Shri. RR Patil through a signature campaign both online and offline. To strengthen sections 354 and 506, make them non bail-able, a move that is under consideration by the government but has not been implemented.

* maps4aid – Fighting Violence Against Women In India (India): An Innovative way to report incidents of Violence against Women, NGO Activities, Crisis Situations through Web/SMS/PhoneApps! using the famous Ushahidi platform and integrated with FrontlineSMS

In the News, on the Blogs:

* Bikya Masr, “Harassmap launches new anti-harassment campaign, as its services are requested globally“

* Yale Daily News, “BELDING: People are subjects, not objects“

* CBS New York, “‘Occupy Wall Street’ Sets Up ‘Women Only’ Tent After Sexual Violence In Zuccotti Park“

* Safe Streets AZ, “Harassment-free Halloween?“

* The ArtBlog, “Hannah Price on photographing men on the streets in Philadelphia – a new podcast“

* Gawker, “Your New Subway Hero: The Groper Smacker‘” and The Frisky, “The Woman Who Beat Up Her Subway Groper Gets Animation Treatment“

* The Times of India, “Eve-teasing double-murder: Amboli girls to cite sexual harassment, says main complainant“

* Sian and Crooked Rib, “Comment on the New Statesman“

* BBC, “Mumbai murders fuel India ‘Eve teasing’ anger,” and IBN Live, “Eve teasing: Justice for Keenan and Reuben“

* Greater Kashmir, “World is Not Just Men“

* The Times of India, “Women’s commission chief seeks arrest of college girl’s murderer“

Announcements:

New:

* Sign the Zero Tolerance Campaign’s petition calling for stronger enforcement of laws banning street sexual harassment in India.

* Contact the California sandwich chain Togo’s and tell them that trivializing street harassment in their television ad is NOT okay.

* Street harassment is not okay: Watch a new 2 minutes cartoon about street harassment

Reminders:

* Sign the petition to tell Toronto Police to stop blaming victims for street harassment and sexual assault!!

* Donate to Students Active for Ending Rape so they can mentor and teach students to advocate for safer campuses!

* If you’re in London, help a Ph.D. student out with her dissertation research by meeting to share your street harassment stories.

* Contribute to the Monday “Street Respect” series that highlights the type of stories we want to see instead of street harassment stories!

* Are you in Egypt? Use HarassMap to report your street harassers

* Have an iPhone? Download the Hollaback iPhone app that lets you report street harassers

10 Tweets from the Week:

1. louisethewheeze It is not a compliment to stare and purse ones lips at a lady. makes me wonder how good of a billy club my umbrella is. #streetharassment

2. aliciasanchez wish black men would understand it’s not personal when black women don’t always want to engage with them in public spaces+

3. EVAWhd @RichardJGarside home ok thnx. Regular occurrence for all no doubt & been talking re tackling street harassment today so got me thinking x

4. sydmosley Just gave a guest lecture at John Jay College on #windowsexproject & #streetharassment. It was AMAZING.

5. Monabdelaziz Is sexual tension higher closer to Eid? The harrassment is getting way out of line these days. #EndSH

6. MaiiNewaishy It just feels so good insulting every son of a bitch that calls out something at me on the street. #endSH #Egypt

7. EndStHarassment While crossing the street some dudes yelled ‘yeah baby’ from their car at me. Made me nervous & wish I was not outside. #endstreetharassment

8. acu_margarita I am reminded of the vital importance for women to stand up to #streetharassment, a daily experience for many of us.

9. maps4aid “I ignored him and continued walking but he caught hold of my hand and slapped me four times” – Victim of #StreetHarassment #vaw #India

10. thetrudz I’m 32. By age 25ish all women have heard all pick up lines, attempts to flatter, and street harassment spiels. Now they just repeat. Yawn.

“I yelled that he just groped me. I literally started punching him in the head”

November 4, 2011 By HKearl

22-year old college student Shyane DeJesus attacked, berated, and snapped a cell phone picture of a man who groped her on a subway platform in New York City.

From the New York Post:

“DeJesus, who lives in Queens, was headed to work at a shoe store at 9:50 a.m. Oct. 23 when the drama unfolded as she stood on the platform and leaned over the tracks to see if a train was coming.

That’s when she noticed a man sneaking up alongside her.

Before DeJesus could step away, the deviant began rubbing against her thigh.

“It was disgusting,” she said. “I felt so violated.”

When the downtown No. 6 train arrived, the man “grabbed my right shoulder and pushed my head down and lifted my skirt up and groped me,” DeJesus said.

Via NYPost -- Report this man if you see him!

She began fighting back, and the cowardly creep ran onto the train.

“He went on the train and sat down as if nothing happened. I was hysterical. I yelled that he just groped me. I literally started punching him in the head,” she said.

No one came to her aid.

DeJesus got in a few more knocks on her attacker, and, as the train pulled in to the next station, took her phone out of her bag.

“I held the door and positioned the phone in his face. I was shaking, I’m surprised I got it,” she said.

“He smirked when I looked at him. He never said a word, not a word. All I got was that smirk.”

DeJesus then got off the train and ran to her job, where she called police.

Cops are still searching for the man.”

While I don’t condone violence, I sympathize with her actions. When man after man gets away with sexually harassing, stalking, groping, and assaulting women on the streets, subway platforms, buses, and stores of our country, and when bystanders stand by and let it happen, there comes a breaking point. Maybe after getting kicked and yelled at by a person he thought he could easily grope, this perpetrator won’t be so quick to grope someone else. Especially if the police catch him. Good for DeJesus.

DeJesus is not the only New York City woman to have this type of reaction to groping. In the past year, we’ve heard from Nicola Briggs who was videotaped yelling down the man who rubbed against her and flashed her on the subway (he was later arrested and deported), Kate Spencer who hit the man who groped her on a subway platform, and Robyn Shepherd who chased down a man who smacked her butt as she walked down the street.

Street harassers, beware: more and more women are fighting back and not just figuratively and not just online, but actually, physically fighting back. So stop harassing us. We don’t like it, no one does. If you continue to harass us, you may just find out how much we don’t like it when you get a slap to the face or a kick to the groin. I don’t like violence, I don’t like harassment. Stop the harassment, there will be no violence.

And bystanders: do something if you see another person facing harassment! Ask them if they’re okay if you’re not sure if they’re being harassed or not. Just do something! Standing idly by is not acceptable.

Street Harassment Snapshot: Stories, News, & Tweets: October 30, 2011

October 30, 2011 By HKearl

Read stories, news articles, blog posts, and tweets about street harassment from the past week and find relevant announcements and upcoming street harassment events.

** Sign up to receive a monthly e-newsletter from Stop Street Harassment ***

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 | “Street Respect” stories

HarassMap Egypt

Resist Harassment Lebanon

Hollaback Tegucigalpa

Hollaback West Yorkshire

In the News, on the Blogs:

* Racialicious, “Unsafe in Seattle”

* Feministe, “So There’s a Woman Dressed All Sexy-Like: Your Role as Observer“

* Huffington Post, “Street Harassment is Everywhere; What do We Tell Our Daughters?“

* Negin Dahya, “Big City Etiquette“

* HR Daily Advisor, “I Stopped My Harasser in His Tracks” and HR Daily Advisor, “How to Respond to a Harasser? 10 Things to Say“

* The Times of India, “On Diwali eve, many roads without street-lights“

* Reuters, “NY may close bus service that makes women sit in back“

* Gender Across Borders, “Street Culture“

* Her campus University of Leeds, “Street Harassment – The Daily Battle“

* Cool Age, “That evil called ‘street harassment‘”

* NY1, “Police Ramp Up Search For Queens Sexual Assault Suspect“

* LiveMint.com, “A girl’s guide to public speaking“

Announcements:

New:

* Sign the petition to tell Toronto Police to stop blaming victims for street harassment and sexual assault!!

Reminders:

* Participate in a “Taking Back Halloween” contest and show off your creativity for creating non-sexy costumes

* Donate to Students Active for Ending Rape so they can mentor and teach students to advocate for safer campuses!

* If you’re in London, help a Ph.D. student out with her dissertation research by meeting to share your street harassment stories.

* Contribute to the Monday “Street Respect” series that highlights the type of stories we want to see instead of street harassment stories!

* Call for men to share views/stories about street harassment

* Sign Mend the Gap’s petition to address subway harassment in Delhi, India

* Are you in Egypt? Use HarassMap to report your street harassers

* Have an iPhone? Download the Hollaback iPhone app that lets you report street harassers

10 Tweets from the Week:

1. Karnythia What I will do to protect myself is nothing compared to what I will do to protect my child. You won’t be here to engage in #streetharassment

2. nualacabral Excited to speak out on #streetharassment at the Media That Matters Film Festival this wk in NYC. mediathatmattersfest.org/news/media_tha… #p2 #fem2

3. feministteacher Students @lreinyc are writing their own responses to #streetharassment via spoken word, poetry, response yfrog.com/h7bltugj @GGENYC

4. rlalita @Bell_Bajao censors should ban every Bollywood movie with eve teasing, street harassment, & any form of abuse against women. #rewrite

5. cathredfern YES. Just successfully challenged street harassment i am shaking now so much

6. MarwanAnwar #EgyptianMisconception Hitting on random girls on the streets would make you the coolest person ever born

7. VAWMonth Read today’s live chat with @BLANK_NOISE on Street Violence Against Women by following #VAWAM.

8. HollabackCHD #KeenanSantos lost his life standing up against #streetharassment He chose to speak up. Will you? chd.ihollaback.org/2011/10/keenan…

9. PamelaScully Street harassment against women is most visible symptom that society uses fear to control more than 1/2 the population. huff.to/vclgbY

10. HollaBackBmore Women don’t always have the time or safety margin to determine between #streetharassment and a compliment. ow.ly/7d6au

Women’s rights activists receive Nobel Peace Prize

October 7, 2011 By HKearl

Congratulations to Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, women’s rights activist Leymah Gbowee from Liberia, and democracy activist Tawakkul Karman of Yemen for being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize today!

I’m thrilled to see their important work recognized through this prestigious award and I’m also glad to see the Nobel Committee recognize women right’s activism as peace-keeping work.

Via the New York Times:

“We cannot achieve democracy and lasting peace in the world unless women obtain the same opportunities as men to influence developments at all levels of society,” said the citation read by Thorbjorn Jagland, a former Norwegian prime minister who heads the Oslo-based Nobel committee that chooses the winner of the $1.5 million prize.

Absolutely! And sadly, today, the rates of gender-based violence including rape, sexual harassment and street harassment keep too many women from having those opportunities. Gender-based violence and harassment can make it unsafe for women to go in public places to pursue such opportunities, keep them out of certain professions or positions of leadership, and even make affected women too emotionally worn down and wary to be the amazing leaders they otherwise could be.

The work anti-violence groups do to promote women’s equality and to prevent gender-based violence is key, then, to peace and to an equitable society.

With all of the amazing work that women do around peace-keeping and peace-building, can you believe only 12 other women have ever won this prestigious award? Even though this is the 110th year it is being awarded? The last time it was awarded to a woman was seven years ago.

One of my heroes Irena Sendler, a Polish social worker, saved more than 2,000 Jewish children during the Holocaust, was nominated for the Peace Prize in 2007. Al Gore won that year instead because of his work to address Global Warming. I was disappointed that Sendler was not selected, especially after allegations about Gore sexually harassing a woman surfaced last year (his wife filed for divorce that same month).

I hope this year’s award will set a new trend for recognizing the many ways women promote peace in their homes, in their communities, in their countries, and across the globe, and honoring their importance.

« Previous Page