gender-based violence Archives | Stop Street Harassment

15-Year-Old Girl Killed by Street Harasser

February 24, 2016 By HKearl

Trigger Warning — Murder

“A 15-year-old girl was shot dead allegedly by a man who had been harassing her for sometime, police said. Accused Kuldeep and his aide Pujari have been arrested…

Prinki, who worked as a domestic help, was yesterday returning home with her sister when Kuldeep along with his aides stopped them, they said. According to the victim’s sister, Kuldeep soon took out a gun and shot at Prinki, police said.”

Another senseless death because of sexism, gender-based violence, street harassment — the third I’ve read about so far in 2016. My heart goes out to her friends and family.

May justice be served in her memory.

#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).

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.”

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.

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!

#16Days of Activism: Distributing Cards (Day 3)

November 27, 2015 By HKearl

Distributing cards about street harassment to harassers or to educate passersby is a tactic that’s been used for years, especially when it became easy to post the cards online for others to download. The Street Harassment Project, for example, has offered cards on its site since the early 2000s and Stop Street Harassment has made cards available since 2008. But in recent years, individuals have been creating their own. In 2012, for example, American Mirabelle Jones created “catcalling cards” with a phone number printed on them for women to give to men who won’t leave them alone. If the men call the number, they will hear pre-recorded messages from women telling harassers exactly what they think of them. On her Tumblr I Am Not an Object, she invites women to leave recordings and download the cards.

In Dortmund, Germany, the women in the feminist group ProChange devised another clever way to use cards. Living in a country that is obsessed with football (American soccer), they created “Red Cards” against sexism, “Pink Cards” against homophobia and “Purple Cards” of courage. Individuals can hand out these cards to challenge or commend others’ actions without having to directly talk to them. “This can be easier than having any other reaction,” the women told me. A group called Avanti had the same idea and had already created cards that they let ProChange adopt. ProChange also created special coasters with information about street harassment for the pubs, bars, and clubs of Dortmund.

One of their first distribution occurred during International Anti-Street Harassment Week 2012 when they handed out 2,000 of these cards and coasters. They have distributed thousands more since, often coinciding with specific days like Equal Pay Day, One Billion Rising (against gender violence), Frauenkampflag (Women’s Day), and Fahnentag (the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women).

“We get mostly positive feedback regarding the cards,” the group members informed me. “Even men approach us to ask for more cards they can give to their partners or daughters. Often people email us to ask for our cards. Our favorite story was when we were in front of the city hall distributing cards. It was too cold and only a few people passed by. An old grumpy-looking man approached us. He took one of the cards and looked at it. Then he shook everybody’s hands and thanked us for standing in the cold for women and girls.”

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

#16Days of Activism: Sidewalk Chalking (Day 2)

November 26, 2015 By HKearl

Using sidewalk chalk to write messages like “My body is not public space” has become a popular way to quickly raise awareness about street harassment. It is inexpensive, easy, and something an individual or a small group can do, and the impact can be huge. In addition to raising the awareness of people passing by while the chalking happens, dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of people can see it as they pass by—barring rain or other conditions that might wipe out the message. Anti-street harassment chalking parties have taken place all over the world, including in Melbourne, Australia; Ottawa, Canada; Bogota, Colombia; Berlin, Germany; and Dublin, Ireland, as well as in American states like California, Florida, Georgia, Hawai’i, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota.

A unique approach to chalking is the Chalk Walk the group Rebellieus, formerly Hollaback! Brussels, held in 2012. Four young women met at Ribaucourt, Molenbeek in Brussels, Belgium, on a spring morning. Their meeting place was significant because it was where one of the women, Angelika, had been harassed. With a bright-colored piece of chalk, Angelika stooped down and wrote on the sidewalk, “I was harassed here. I Hollaback. I reclaim the street.”

She proudly stood by her message as her friends hugged her and congratulated her on reclaiming the space. Together, they made a pilgrimage to other spots where they had been harassed: a busy four-lane boulevard for Anna, the sidewalk of a busy bridge for Julie, and the staircase at the Metro stop De Brouckere for Ingrid. At each place, they shared their stories, reclaimed the space with chalk, and hugged. Several people stopped to talk to them, to hear their stories, and to support their message.

Bahamas Chalk Walk 2014 — The Bahamas, 2014

“AWESOME is not even a strong enough word to describe it! EMPOWERING comes close!” the women wrote on their Facebook wall. “What we discovered was that writing with chalk on the sidewalk, on the street, on the bridge, telling Brussels: “I was harassed here’ ‘I reclaim the street’ is a powerful, liberating ritual and an amazing [experience].” In 2013, they launched a We Chalk Walk Tumblr where anyone can submit anti-street harassment chalk messages.

Chalking can be an effective way to start conversations and change minds. In Nassau, the Bahamas, two young women wrote messages such as “Whistle at dogs, not girls” and “Respect girls” on a sidewalk along the beach. They said that among the people who stopped to talk to them was a man “who thought we were writing the message specifically to him. We explained what we were doing to him and told him what he did WAS in fact street harassment. He, of course, did not believe us, and we had to break it down for him. He ended up understanding what we were saying, so we hope we have a converted man in Nassau!”

This is exactly the kind of impact they hoped to have. Alicia Wallace, one of the women, told the local newspaper: “Chalk messages are not common here, and we knew it would attract the attention of pedestrians. … It is unacceptable, and educating the general public on the definition and everyday examples of street harassment is the first step to combating this problem.”

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

#16Days of Activism: More Global Action (Day 1)

November 25, 2015 By HKearl

Nov. 25 – Dec. 10 are the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. To commemorate the week, we will feature 1 activism idea per day, starting tomorrow.

Today, I wanted to express gratitude and acknowledgement that gender-based street harassment, or sexual violence in public spaces, is gaining much more widespread recognition as a problem. Here are two examples from this year that clearly illustrate this.

1. In April groups in 41 countries took action in support of safe public spaces through our International Anti-Street Harassment Week, from Australia to Zimbabwe and dozens of countries in between. You can view photos and read a recap (and plan to join us April 10-16, 2016!). It’s heartening to see so many people dedicate time and energy to this cause.

2. UN Women hosted a Safe Cities Global Leaders’ Forum in June, and 140 people from 24 countries gathered in Delhi, India, to share ideas about the best strategies to address sexual violence in public spaces. Attendees included government officials, grassroots women, researchers, and staff from UN agencies that are implementing programs that form part of the agency’s Safe Cities Global Initiative (SCGI).

The SCGI works with local organizations and governments to tackle sexual harassment and other forms of sexual violence in public spaces. Launched in New Delhi in November 2010 with five cities, it now includes 22 cities. Representatives from these cities, as well as from other groups working on safe cities work, were present at the forum.

Read the wrap-up report.

For too long, street harassment has been seen as normal, no big deal, or the fault of harassed persons. Those attitudes are quickly falling away and in their place are thousands of people worldwide who are dedicating time, energy, and expertise to making public places safer for everyone. For that, I am grateful.

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