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Egypt: Harassment during #Jan25 Anniversary Protests

January 26, 2013 By HKearl

Yesterday was the anniversary of the Jan. 25 revolution in Cairo, Egypt, and with many protests planned that day at Tahrir Square, anti-harassment groups prepared for an increase in incidents of sexual harassment and assault. Unfortunately, their preparation was necessary. Via Twitter & Facebook:

@OpAntiSH: Initial count of mob sexual assaults we know of are around 19 cases, at least 6 needed medical attention #EndSh #OpAntiSH #Jan25 #Tahrir

@HarassMap: “There were approx 19 cases of sexual assault/rape cases (that we know of), 6 requiring medical attention according to the first count. We managed to help 2/3 or more of these cases but the situation is critical.”

@Beltrew: #endSH team doing amazing job trying to help women who are being attacked.It’s happening everywhere. I swear this must be organised #tahrir

@HarassMap: “another eye witness report of mob sexual assault in #Tahrir yesterday where some ppl used flamethrowers, knives & clubs to try to push the attackers away. #OpAntiSH #endSH #HarassMap”

Via Global Post:

“Several cases of sexual assault have been reported from Tahrir Square, as growing protests and confusion offer a cover for the harassment. According to sources on the ground, women are being groped, verbally assaulted, and harassed in the crowds.  As the crowds continue to gather in Tahrir at nightfall, women’s safety is a growing concern. Several volunteer forces, including one using the Twitter handle @TahrirBodyguard, is offering protection to women who are in Tahrir. Others are patrolling and intervening in incidents they see.”

Via Women’s eNews:

“”The main objective is to get the girl out. It is crisis management,” says Eba’a El-Tamami, marketing and communications unit head for HarassMap.

Based in the capital, HarassMap collects data about harassment, conducts community awareness and outreach programs and is part of a campaign called Operation Anti-Sexual Harassment-Assault, which draws strength from a coalition of groups. The organization’s goal, says El-Tamami, “is to counter what we suspect are organized, mob sexual assaults.”

Verbal sexual harassment is a common nuisance on Egyptian streets. However, HarassMap and other groups claim these mob attacks constitute something far more sinister. “We think it’s organized and planned,” says El-Tamami. “We think it’s probably paid thugs, but we don’t know who is paying them. There are quite a few eye-witness reports . . . People who have had this happen say it’s very difficult to imagine this is random or sporadic . . . . I don’t want to speculate but there are definitely people who have interest in positioning the square as dangerous and make protesters look like harassers or thugs.”

Not only has the Operation Anti-Sexual Harassment-Assault coalition undertaken work on the ground to try to keep women safe, but they also offer additional services. On their Facebook page, they wrote today:

“We don´t only intervene in mob sexual attacks, we help provide support (legal/medical/emotional) through our network of lawyers and doctors. If you need support, or know of someone who does, and/or for questions/inquiries what to do, please call us on our hotlines 01202390087 01016051145 01157892357 or online (Twitter @OpAntiSH, Facebook, Email opantish(at)gmail.com). Please share this”

I applaud these brave individuals for doing what no other group or government agency would do: ensure women’s safety as they exercise their political right to protest and shape their country’s agenda and empower women to fight back!

“@OpAntiSH: Most inspiring moments of yesterday, is when attacked women right after assault asked to join #OpAntiSH! This is RESISTANCE! #Jan25 #Tahrir“

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Filed Under: News stories Tagged With: Cairo, Egypt, HarassMap, Jan25, Tahrir Square

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.

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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

One Year Later: Honor “The Girl with the Blue Bra” and Others Like Her

December 17, 2012 By HKearl

From our friends at the Egypt-based group HarassMap:

“A year has passed since Egyptian army soldiers stripped a female protester in Tahrir Square, beat her, and stomped on her half-naked body with their boots. The image circulated worldwide and the girl with the blue bra – whose identity remained unknown, but who in Egypt was dubbed ‘Sitt el Banat’ (‘A Woman Among Girls’) – became a symbol for all the other female protesters who took to the streets during this time and were met with assault, beatings, arbitrary detentions, verbal abuse, rape threats, and more.

We would like to commemorate this time, not just for the horrors it contained, but for the strength, dignity, and defiance of Sitt el Banat and the thousands of other women who still face a campaign to deter women from political participation — and who continue, despite threats to their safety and well-being, to take to the streets to fight for what they believe in.

What would you like to say to Sitt el Banat and others like her?

Please send us your own letters/messages to them on facebook, or twitter @harassmap or email at info@harassmap.org”

After someone asked what happened to the woman, a SSH Facebook member wrote:

“She is alive and she is now advocate for women rights! this is a link for her testimony http://youtu.be/QxoZoQqTRQg (Arabic) She is activist and member in 6th October political movement.”

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Filed Under: street harassment Tagged With: Egypt, HarassMap, Tahrir

16 Days: Day 16, Egypt

December 10, 2012 By HKearl

During the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence (Nov. 25 – Dec. 10), Stop Street Harassment is featuring activists who took action against street harassment this year, one new country per day.

Photo courtesy of Emad Karim.

Day #16: Egypt

From creating human chains and organizing rallies to protest street sexual violence, to organizing volunteers to speak to community members about the issue, to advocating for stronger anti-harassment laws, to creating volunteer anti-harassment patrols, activists in Egypt have been BUSY this year!

This summer, I traveled to Egypt and met with many of these activists, especially from HarassMap, and participated in some of their work. It was inspiring.

To better understand the issue and what activists there are fighting, watch this powerful (but possibly triggering) segment from Unreported World, released on Friday. To know that men are paid to sexually assault women who are participating in the political process by protesting is horrific, but I gain courage from their courage as they fight and speak out despite this grim truth.

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Filed Under: 16 days Tagged With: 16 days, Egypt, HarassMap, sexual harassment

Egypt: Year One, HarassMap Report

November 27, 2012 By Contributor

I grew up in Cairo learning how to strategize my life to avoid sexual harassment. I would make sure to run my errands during a football match when men and boys in the neighborhood are busy watching, not before or after. I knew which routes to take to school, and that I can only go to cafes to meet my friends, but never to public parks.

I always took sexual harassment as a fact of life that I need to deal with. It never struck me as a plaguing problem until, as a 25-year old professional, I realized that I spend a significant portion of my income on a “precaution budget” against sexual harassment. For example, I had to go out at expensive restaurants but not the more affordable “men-only” cafes or free public parks, and I had to resort to private taxi rides over public buses. I even turned down jobs because they had no accessible parking, which will take me back to the dreadful public bus. And even with all these precautions, I was still harassed in the few minutes that I have to walk every day between my parked car and any building.

I felt very lonely in this shameful experience. But when I talked to one friend after another, I found that it happened to every other woman I know, and that it was not my fault. So I decided that the first step in building up resistance against this shameful behavior, is to create awareness, and tell other women that it is not their fault, and they should not let sexual harassment go unpunished.

Through common friends, I met Rebecca, Engy, and Amel, and we established Harassmap: an open online mapping tool to end the social tolerance of sexual harassment. We help victims, like us, speak out and access support services, and contribute to changing the environment in our streets to no longer tolerate harassers. Our initiative has three prongs: online crowdsourcing of harassment reports, offline street campaigns in target locations, and referral to psychological/legal support services.

Our first year of work was a learning experience for us first and foremost. The reports we received on our portal (540 in the first year) showed that there is no typical harasser or victim. The demographic features of the former ranged across teenagers, university professors, medical doctors –and children in 83 cases; whereas the victims were young and old, women and men, veiled, face-veiled and not.

This insight was a strong foundation for our offline campaigns. It was important to feel confident as we debunked the justifications of harassers to violate women’s safety as such. “Look how she’s dressed”, “It’s her fault for going out so late”, “men are sexually frustrated” are all too common excuses. Conversely, knee-jerk condemnation or patronizing media discourse were evidently ineffective, we had to speak grassroots language and immerse within the grassroots. Now, more than 500 HarassMap volunteers go out once per month to ask shop owners, police, doormen and others with a presence in the street to send the message: harassment will not be tolerated!

In 2012-2013 we are working on strengthening our efforts on the ground. Public order enforcement by community figures (mainly doormen) is very evident in Egypt and it is important to win it on our side. Therefore we aim to strengthen community outreach teams to become more independent as they interact with respective communities. On the other hand, we hope to expand our intervention beyond street harassment, to include workplace, school and university. Finally, we are encouraging the Egyptian police to work together and use our reporting system to target enforcement areas.

Sawsan Gad is a GIS Analyst and the co-founder of HarassMap.

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Filed Under: Activist Interviews Tagged With: Egypt, EndSH, HarassMap, sawsan gad, sexual harassment, street harassment

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