• 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

New Efforts in Lebanon and Kosovo

February 26, 2016 By HKearl

Here are two new initiatives to address street harassment!

Newsweek, “Female Entrepreneurs Launch Online Sexual Harassment Tracker in Beirut“

“Three female entrepreneurs have kickstarted a sexual harassment tracker in Beirut in the hope of combating crimes against women in the Lebanese capital.

A beta version of Harass Tracker—launched on Monday—will provide a three-month trial in the city after which, if successful, it will be expanded across the entire country.

The platform is essentially an online reporting tool where people who have witnessed or experienced sexual harassment can mark the location on a map of the city and provide information regarding the type of sexual harassment that they encountered, alongside a description of the event.

The three founders of the initiative—Sandra Hassan, who is based in France, Myra El Mir and Nay El Rahi, both in Lebanon—hope to “empower victims to report” these crimes and “raise awareness as to the frequency and severity of sexual harassment in the city,” Hassan, who developed the tracker, tells Newsweek by email.

“In the longer term, we hope to use the data collected to offer recommendations on how to tackle this issue practically as well as contribute to a shift in perception with regards to sexual harassment.”

HarassTrackerLebanon

Kera News, “Young women in Kosovo are writing code to fight harassment“

“Women and girls in Kosovo almost never report these incidents, which are exceedingly common. But a new mobile app called Ec Shlirë — Walk Freely in Albanian — hopes to change that.

Ec Shlirë, which launched on Thursday, is inspired by Hollaback, an American movement to report street harassment. The Kosovar app gives users the ability to discreetly report instances of sexual harassment of all types. The reports will be visualized on an interactive map and will be sent to the authorities.

While individual perpetrators won’t be identified, the data gathered by the app will allow Kosovars to actually see the full extent of sexual harassment and will also put pressure on the authorities to respond.

“In Kosovo a lot of women who experience harassment don’t go report it directly to the police, because the police may not take one incident of harassment on the street so seriously,” says programmer Albana Dulaj. “If we have more reports, I believe they’ll take it more seriously.”

Dulaj is among 30 young women who built the app as part of a group called Girls Coding Kosova.

The development of Ec Shlirë also is helping address another problem in Kosovo: the lack of women in the tech industry.”

EcShlire - kosovo app

Share

Filed Under: News stories, public harassment, Resources, street harassment Tagged With: beirut, kosovo, lebanon, map, phone app

Street harassment role reversal in Lebanon

December 13, 2011 By HKearl

Last week, as part of the Adventures of Salwa anti-sexual harassment campaign, two trucks drove the streets of Beirut, Lebanon, and on the loudspeakers, they played recordings of women’s voices, harassing passersby. They also played messages about how street harassment is not okay.

This video clip captures what happened and you can see/hear people’s reactions to the truck and the campaign. Most of the video clip is in French, but there is about a minute where one of the campaign organizers speaks about the initiative in English.

How do you think a similar initiative would be received in your community?

Share

Filed Under: Activist Interviews, street harassment Tagged With: adventures of salwa, beirut, lebanon, street harassment

Two jerkoffs in Lebanon

August 31, 2010 By Contributor

Two cases of exhibitionism in one weekend:

Went to Tyr in the South for the weekend with friends. Went to look at some of the greco-roman ruins. As we are walking around the pillars and down to the beach, we hear a strange hissing noise behind us: “ksss…ksss”, as if someone were calling to a cat or a dog. Having lived in NYC for over a decade I’m familiar with all manner of cat-calling and attention-getting-noises, and having noticed a teenager out of the corner of my eye earlier (who I thought belonged to a Lebanese family walking around the ruins, but who was apparently by himself), I did not turn around, but said to my (female and blonde, like me) friend: “Hey, don’t look now, but some little shit is making weird noises behind us.”

He passed us, and walked down towards the beach. I started walking back up in the opposite direction. He kept hissing and my friend turned around and started screaming, “Ewwwww, he’s jerking off! Oh my god, how disgusting!” Apparenty the little shit had not only pulled down his pants to show off his business but started masturbating right then and there. Idiot.

Then, a few hours later, in the early afternoon (read: broad daylight), back in Beirut from our weekend trip in our rental cars, I get dropped off by our friends at the corner and walk up the 100 metres to our front door. Tabaris in Achrafieh is a pretty “posh” neighborhood in a rather nice part of town, mind you. Before I get to the front door, I take my keys out of my bag. The street is deserted; it is Sunday, and this is the Christian part of town, and the shops are closed.

There is a guy sitting on a scooter right in front of the entrance, with his helmet on and everything. I don’t think he can see me as I am coming up the street behind him, but I do think it’s odd that he’s just sitting there on his bike. As I get closer and am about to unlock the front door, I hear that he is muttering to himself and see that he is… jerking off. Another one? Seriously? What is with these people???

Can’t believe this and am shocked (and scared) so I take out my phone and try to call a friend whilst walking away from the door. Not sure where to go at this point, as all the public places — shops, hair salons etc — are closed, so I head back towards the door, and just then I see him speed away. Phew. My hands are shaking and sweaty and I have a hard time opening the front door and I am wondering if he’s just going around the block to come back and harass me, or gone for good. I am utterly disgusted and disturbed.

– i.d.

Location: Beirut, Lebanon

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem. Include your location and it will be added to the Street Harassment Map.

Share

Filed Under: Stories, street harassment Tagged With: beirut, jerking off, lebanon, masturbators

Women Run Taxi Service in Beirut

July 25, 2009 By HKearl

Lebanon joins other countries like England, Russia, Australia, Iran, India, and the United Arab Emirates in having women-run taxi services. From the Wall Street Journal (there’s a video too if you click on the video tab):

“Nawal Fakhri, 45 years old, founder of Banet Taxi… launched Banet Taxi in March with just three cars and three drivers. Her fleet of late-model Peugeots has grown five-fold since then with enough drivers to provide 24-hour service. She is hoping to double her fleet this summer, to 24 cars.

The company is part of a regional trend. Entrepreneurs across the Middle East have recognized the business potential in offering secure transportation options for women. Banet Taxi follows on the heels of successful women-only transportation models in Dubai, Tehran and Cairo….

“One of my daughters is 15 years old and I send her in this taxi all the time, especially at night … and not have to worry.”

It is the promise of a safe and uneventful ride that attracts a wide range of female passengers: older women who want a quiet drive, young women out partying until late at night, and even preschoolers put in the cars by their teachers.

Passengers’ reasons for choosing Banet are based, in part, on their cultural and religious backgrounds. Beirut’s population breaks down roughly into thirds, Christian, Sunni and Shiite. Conservative Muslim women might take Banet Taxi to accommodate rules against traveling with unknown men. Others just want to put comfort and safety first.

“I studied Lebanese society well and my first customer is the Lebanese woman,” says Ms. Fakhri. “I am well aware that I could be making a lot more money with this if I also accepted male customers, but to me it is clear that in Lebanon, women need a service like this.”

Lebanon has no shortage of women who are skittish about taking regular taxis. Reporting of sexual harassment remains low in a country with much taboo surrounding abuse and victimhood.

Yasmine Hajjar, a 23-year-old student in Beirut, says most of her female friends have a story about being harassed in a taxi. In one extreme example, she says she narrowly escaped being abducted by a taxi driver when she was 15 years old — by pulling out her knife and holding it to the driver’s throat.

“I think the pink taxis are a good thing,” says Ms. Hajjar. “It’s the safest way to go.”

It’s interesting how many of these women run taxi services are cropping up around the globe. As I’ve said many times, ideally, I’d love to have cultures socialize men not to harass women and make there be stiff consequences if they do, but in the meantime, I love seeing women like Ms. Fakhri take matters into their own hands and create safer ways for women to travel. Kudos to her.

RightRides in New York City is a small nonprofit that provides rides home to women, transgender, and queer people for a few hours on Friday and Saturday nights in most neighborhoods across the NYC-metro area.  At least one of the two volunteers per car must be female. Unlike the for-profit programs in other countries, they offer their service free of charge. They always need more volunteers and money to keep running, so check them out.

Share

Filed Under: street harassment Tagged With: assault, beirut, lebanon, Nawal Fakhri, NYC, rightrides, sexual harassment, women taxi service

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