• 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

Blank Noise Invites You to “Walk Alone” on Dec. 2

December 1, 2016 By HKearl

From our friends at Blank Noise in India:

walk.jpg

  • Have you walked, not having to think twice about the width of your smile,the length of your blouse,  skirt, tee neck, sleeve.

  • Have you clenched your fist so hard ,worn a frown, sharpened elbows out ?

  • Does your daily list of every place, person, garment you ‘avoid’/ deny reveal a larger something- that you decide where to go, how to go, what time to go, what clothes to go in, with whom to go based on your safety?

  • Have you too been warned, just like me, about places, our bodies, our clothes, our cities, our streets?

    An environment that constantly reminds women and girls to be careful , is also messaging out “ you experienced violence because you were not being careful enough”. Warnings lead to blame, blame leads to silence and shame. Our environments need to be made safe and inclusive, rather than have women carry the weight of warnings and fear. #INeverAskForIt #WalkAlone Towards Freedom From Fear.

walkalone-dec-22016blanknoise100 Action Heroes #WalkAlone
Friday, 2nd December
anytime between
9 pm – midnight

Women occupy streets at night.
Alone. Wandering. Walking.
Stop To Gaze At The Stars
Smell the night blooming flowers
We are many
We are visible

Action Heroes co create safe spaces
We Walk Alone, Together;
Towards Freedom From Fear

Here’s how: identify site ( is it unfamiliar / unknown / desired?)
/ register / walk alone/ document / share

* Register

* Read event FAQs

Action Heroes and allies have registered from cities across India and beyond. A complete list will be out on the 2nd December morning.

Walk Alone was initiated in 2015 and has been built by Action Heroes and organisational allies from across cities/ towns/ countries including Ranchi, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Philadelphia, Braunschweig, Toronto, Karachi, Melbourne, Koppa, Kohima, Shillong.

Share

Filed Under: Resources, street harassment Tagged With: Blank Noise, India, walk alone

India: Uber Installs Panic Buttons and Feminists Call for Freedom from Fear

November 23, 2016 By Correspondent

Lea Goelnitz, Delhi, India, Former Blog Correspondent

“When I walk down the streets I put on my death stare and scan every man´s face, I pass by. Their eyes are not on my face, but all over my body. I hold my head high and my hands make a fist. I am ready to fight anyone who comes near me. I am afraid, but more than that I am angry, really angry,” one young woman in Delhi tells me.

We actually talked about something else entirely, but when two women in Delhi meet, the conversation almost always turns to harassment and how to deal with it. Safety and freedom are the buzzwords we throw in. In the absence of both, these big words become tiny demands for dignity.

“I want to ride the metro in the middle of the night – unaccompanied and without a knot in my stomach“ a woman tells me.

Another one wants “to explore unknown neighborhoods and enjoy sights, admire their beauty and get lost in the crowds in narrow lanes.” But they say they cannot. With all the responsibility for their own safety put on them – What did you wear? Where did you go? Did you send a screenshot of your Uber ride to a friend? How late was it? Did you drink? Were you alone? What did you say? – there is little energy left to enjoy a stroll through the city.

Women are conscious about what to wear, which route to take, who to ask for directions and what mode of transport to take. Being on guard constantly is work, which drains lots of energy. This work is neither acknowledged nor rewarded. Still women are blamed if they don’t do “their part”. The regular obnoxious and very offensive rape analogies spit up by politicians and judges every now and then reinforce the idea that women are solely in charge for their safety and perpetrators cannot help themselves. It also sends a very clear message to all women: You are in this alone. Society will not change and no one will help you.

And of course this narrative is also offensive to men, dehumanizing them as out of control and overpowered by urges. Weirdly men do not seem to be bothered by that.

The focus remains on women: There are women-only compartments in metros and buses. A liquor store has a women-only section and advertises harassment-free alcohol shopping. This way men will never have to get used to the existence of women in public. Uber has safety buttons in their cars. From January 2017 onwards, all mobile phones in India are required to have a safety button. The pepper spray sold in shops and via amazon comes in a pink design. There also are plenty of apps which crowdsource safer ways home or send alerts and emergency texts and your GPS to your contacts. Technology and the market adapt to any tragedy.

While all of these may have value as short term solution, they are also distractions, adding more to the list women feel they must do for their own safety. Women´s physical and psychological well-being become collateral damage. Why don’t you have the app? Why didn’t you buy that new phone? Why did you get into the Uber without checking if it has the button already? Why didn’t you take that self-defense class? All this easily leads to: Why don’t you stay at home?

There is another way to approach safety concerns. Various feminist initiatives show victim-blaming the finger, change the discourse about responsibility and encourage fear to be turned into anger and confidence.

leaveThe campaign #HaveShortsWillSmoke by ”the spoilt modern Indian woman” asks women to share pictures of them wearing shorts or skirts and having a drink or smoking and share the comments they got in public. The initiative Blank Noise exhibits clothing of women, they wore when they were harassed. Of course, all kinds of clothes are represented, debunking the myth that covering up is a solution. #Walkalone and #FreeFromFear are the hashtags women use to demonstrate how they took a route, which they walked despite being afraid. Blank Noise declares them to be Sheroes, as they do not let fear influence their mobility and independence. Safecity started documenting areas that feel safe in order to encourage more women to come out and make the area even safer.

These are small steps and low-scale initiatives not having a big impact one might argue. But as opposed to the above mentioned “security measures”, which not only rely but bet on women´s fear do not even scratch the surface of the problem, but sustain the status quo, these feminist ideas provide a much-needed refreshing and creative input that inspires courage, anger and action. More please!

Lea works in journalism and women´s rights and is involved in the women´s rights NGO Discover Football, which uses football as a tool for empowerment and gender equality. Follow her on Twitter, @LeaGoelnitz.

Share

Filed Under: correspondents, street harassment Tagged With: Blank Noise, delhi, uber, women-only

India: Safe City Website, #SafeCityPledge

January 4, 2013 By HKearl

Here are more anti-harassment initiatives from India:

1) Map It: There’s a new website for tracking street harassment in India: www.safecity.in, email info@safecity.in, or you can download the Android app here, the iPhone app here, for free.

Share your stories via email, Twitter, phone app and the web and they will be posted on the map in real time.

2) Pledge, Photo, Share: Blank Noise is continuing its successful #SafeCityPledge campaign online:

Through January 12:
1. Make a pledge for how you will make your city safe.
2. Take a photo of yourself holding your pledge
3. Make it your Facebook profile photo + add it to this album
Share

Filed Under: Resources Tagged With: Blank Noise, street harassment

2012 #EndSH Successes Part 1: Campaigns & Protests

December 28, 2012 By HKearl

At the end of every year, I like to look back, document and reflect on everything that has transpired in the global movement to end street harassment and assault. Yesterday I wrote about 10 of Stop Street Harassment’s achievements. Today, I’m posting a five-part series about the highlights of ALL activism that happened this year (PDF format). WHAT A YEAR!

Post 1 (this one): New anti-street harassment campaigns, new initiatives within existing campaigns, and protests.

Post 2: Creative anti-street harassment initiatives.

Post 3: Government initiatives/collaborations

Post 4: New studies, reports, and significant news articles.

Post 5 : Stories from 25 people who stood up to street harassers this year.

Girls from A Long Walk Home in Chicago organized a march around their high school.

1. Global: In March, Stop Street Harassment organized more than 100 groups in more than 20 countries (on five continents) and tens of thousands of people to collectively speak out against street harassment during Meet Us on the Street: International Anti-Street Harassment Week. This is what happened, including rallies, marches, sidewalk chalk messaging, workshops, film screenings, viral videos, safety audits, report releases, street theater, passing out fliers, art exhibits, and more.

2. Global: Hollaback! now has chapters in 60 cities worldwide, and this year they launched an “I’ve Got Your Back” Bystander Campaign in partnership with Green Dot to show bystanders who to intervene, educate them about their options, and allow them to document their successes online. Green dots on the Hollaback! maps show intervention stories. (Read their State of the Streets 2012 report for more information.)

3. Australia: People Against Street Harassment launched in December. Their mission is “confronting street harassment in Sydney via stickering, leafleting, social media and other such sweet guerilla action.”

4. Australia: Cat Calls: Called Out is another new Sydney-based anti-street harassment campaign that works to bring attention to the issue and spread ideas for stopping it.

5. Belgium: In the fall, ELLE launched a Touche Pas à Ma Pote! (Don’t Touch my Girl friend) campaign with the support of local government agencies in Brussels and it includes signs plastered on trams for the next six months.

6. Canada: Women in Cities International is part-way through a multi-year project to conduct a Blueprint project on the theme of “preventing violence against women and girls and improving their security in Canadian cities.” This year, they worked with adolescent girls in the greater Montréal area and held workshops, focus group discussions and training sessions with them. Participants also conducted women’s safety audit walks and they had the opportunity to creatively illustrate their findings and recommendations.

7. Egypt: HarassMap collects street harassment stories on its online map. During 2012, they organized more than 500 HarassMap volunteers who went outside once per month to talk to shop owners, police, doormen and others with a presence in the street about street harassment and to let them know they need to not harass and to stand up if they see harassment happening.

8. Egypt: On June 13, activists in Egypt led a day of online action to speak out against street harassment and sexual violence using the hashtag #EndSH.

9. Egypt: After several mass sexual assaults of women at Tahrir Square and after a woman was murdered by a street harasser, there were numerous protests in the summer and fall (and one protest ended because men swarmed, attacking the protesters).

Photo by Yumna Al-Arashi.

10. Egypt: There were many campaigns against street harassment in Egypt ahead of the Eid holidays. In August, volunteers organized by the Imprint Movement patrolled the streets and subway stations, watching out for harassers and helped police arrest several. In October there was a “Catch a Harasser” initiative, men spray painting harassers, and special harassment reporting hotlines.

11. Egypt: Because there are so many instances of sexual harassment and sexual assault during political protests in Tahrir Square, during political protests in November and December, people volunteered their time to serve as patrollers, working to make the area safe for women. One of the groups is called Tahrir Bodyguard.

12. India: College students in Mumbai organized a Chal Hatt Tharki campaign asking women to raise their voices against sexual harassment and street harassment.

13. India: In April, thousands of women in Kannur, a district in Kerala, gathered in the city center to ask for the right to travel safely at night and in October in Chandigarh, college students and staff of Government College Sec 42 took to streets to protest street harassment and sexual violence.

14. India: In December, the Patiala-based organization Punjab Today Foundation launched a major awareness movement against what it called the “collective guilt of society” against girls and women called SMASH (Society’s Movement Against Street Harassment).

15. India: The organization Breakthrough launched a bystander campaign for the holiday Diwali in November, because everyone deserves a safe Diwali.

16. India: In July, Blank Noise curated a series of stories about people’s first recollection of experiencing street harassment called Recall. In December, they launched the #SafeCityPledge campaign.

Image from I Stand for Safe Delhi

17. India: After a 23-year-old college woman was brutally gang rape and nearly murdered by six men on a bus (and her male friend was also beaten up by them) in mid-December, tens of thousands of people in Delhi have protested and marched daily, calling for an end to street harassment, rape, and all forms of sexual violence. For a time, they clashed with police who forbad people from gathering in groups larger than five people.

18. Jordan: In July, youth in Jordan formed a human chain from Al Hussein Sports City to the Interior Ministry Circle to protest various gender-based crimes, including street harassment, the practice of forcing rape survivors to marry their rapist, and honor killings.

19. Lebanon: Hundreds of people rallied in Beirut, Lebanon, in January to protest rape and sexual harassment and the weak laws against such crimes. The rally was organized by Nasawiya, a feminist collective that also runs The Adventures of Salwa campaign against street and sexual harassment.

20. Myanmar: In February, a new anti-harassment campaign launched called “whistle for help.” As part of the campaign 150 volunteers distributed whistles and pamphlets to women at eight busy bus stops in Yangon each Tuesday morning that month and they’ve continued to do so for nine months. The pamphlets tell women to blow the whistle when they experience sexual harassment on the bus and advises them to help other women when they blow the whistle.

21. Malawi: Women’s groups organized a protest in January, demanding the right to wear pants and mini-skirts and to demanding an end to sexual violence. Their actions were prompted by a series of attacks from gangs of men who targeted women wearing pants and short skirts.

22. Nepal: In April, 500 youth participated in a Walk for Respect against street harassment/sexual harassment in Kathmandu.

23. Nepal: After a 2011 ActionAid Report showed that street harassment is a big problem in Nepal, numerous groups came together to launch the Safe City Nepal campaign. It includes a public transportation component. Already, they have conducted a safety audit (evidence collection), held forums, and are now working on policy advocacy initiatives.

24. Peru: In February, university faculty and students launched the anti-street harassment initiative el Observatorio Virtual contra el Acoso Sexual Callejero. They have 20 volunteers who conduct interview and research on the topic, share information on their website and social media, meet with government officials, engage in awareness campaigns, and speak out against groups/people who dismiss street harassment (e.g. in September a radio show talked about street harassment as compliments and they protested it, issued a statement, etc).

25. Russia: This year the feminist group RosNahal tackled street harassment. They made a video about it (it has over two million views) and engaged in lobbying and activism that has led the Russian government to take notice.

26. Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka Unites organized the “S.H.O.W You Care” project. After receiving training, hundreds of young men boarded more than 1000 buses across a week and, according to a previously formulated strategic plan, apologized to women in the buses for any harassment they encountered in the past and provided them with information on legal recourse available to them. They also told men to take responsibility and not harass.

27. South Africa: After two teenagers wearing miniskirts were harassed and groped by a group of 50-60 men at a taxi rank, around 3,000 South Africans marched through Johannesburg in protest. The ruling African National Congress Women’s League organized the march to emphasize “that women had the right wear whatever they wanted without fear of victimization.”

28. South Africa: A new campaign against street harassment in Cape Town launched this year.

29. UK: Laura Bates launched the Everyday Sexism Project in the spring, in part because of her own street harassment experiences and other ways she faces daily sexism. In September she wrote, “The project is an ever-increasing collection of thousands of stories of sexism experienced by women around the world. In just over 5 months, the project has received nearly 6500 entries, with the last 5000 flooding in in just the last month as the momentum has gathered and word has spread.”

30. USA: Halloween in Isla Vista, the college town where University of California Santa Barbara is located, is a huge party every year. Unfortunately, some people use this as an excuse to street harass and assault people. In October, two student groups teamed up to organize a campaign against street harassment.

31. USA: Members of Penn State’s TRIOTA, the Women’s Studies Honor’s Society, held an anti-street harassment demonstration on a busy Friday afternoon in downtown State College in October. They held signs proclaiming their anti-harassment message, and even included specific remarks that had been yelled at them during their time at PSU.

32. USA: In March, Sarah Harper launched the Little Bird project to raise awareness about street harassment through the arts in San Francisco, California.

33. USA: Since January 1, 2012, at least 63 transgender individuals have been hatefully murdered, often by strangers in the streets, and many of the recent murders have been in Washington, DC. In September the DC Office of Human Rights launched a groundbreaking Transgender and Gender Identity Respect Campaign to improve the treatment of transgender and gender non-conforming people.

34. Yemen: This year, the Safe Streets campaign has encouraged women to report their stories to their website and highlighted the issue through social media and articles like this one, published on Open Democracy.

Share

Filed Under: anti-street harassment week, hollaback, News stories, street harassment, year end Tagged With: adventures of salwa, Blank Noise, catcalls, everyday sexism project, HarassMap, hollaback, i stand for safe delhi, rosnahal, safe streets yemen, Sri Lanka Unites, walk for respect, women in cities international

Updates and Actions from India Since the #DelhiGangRape

December 20, 2012 By HKearl

Sunday, a young woman was brutally gang raped on a bus in Delhi, India, and is fighting for her life in a hospital. There’s rightfully been an explosion of outcry in the days since then. Here’s a sampling of updates, photos, and actions from groups in India.

I Stand for Safe Delhi said,

“We would like to thank you all for coming to India Gate today, our protest reached out to over 50,000 people across the globe. Thank you for your support!” (View more images)

Breakthrough said,

“We were at a protest outside the police commissioner’s office yesterday, and there are tons of them happening all over the place (about 4 or 5 major ones have happened and there are two more that are going to be taking place over the weekend).”

They also created this image to encourage people to speak out and interrupt violence!

Members of GotStared.At participated in protests.

There are several activities/protests planned this weekend, including:

 Blank Noise launched an “I Pledge” campaign:

In the wake of the #DelhiGangRape what do YOU as citizen pledge to make your city safe?

#SafeCityPledge

Eg: ” I pledge to NOT to tell my daughter/ mum/ sister/ girls “Be Safe” . Instead- go out. Be Visible. Be an Action Hero #SafeCityPledge

1. Add your pledge to the comments below
2. Change your status update ” I pledge to _ _ #SafeCityPledge
3. Tweet your pledge with #DelhiGangRape #SafeCityPledge

From the authors of the book Why Loiter?

“We need more people out on the streets, not less. We are safer when there are more women (and more men) on the streets. When shops are open, when restaurants are open, when there are hawkers and yes, even sex workers on the street, the street is a safer space for us all. All of these protests taking place are often after dark, and there are many women and men but numbers make it safe. We need to populate our streets. In order to do that we need to make them more inviting and in order to do which, we need the mindset of the city to change from desiring empty streets to wanting people on the streets. We must ensure that this gruesome gang-rape does not go out as a message that “women are in danger and should stay home”.”

Share

Filed Under: Events, News stories, street harassment Tagged With: #delhigangrape, Blank Noise, breakthrough, delhi, gostaredat, Safe Delhi

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