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Street Harassment Round Up – July 12

July 12, 2009 By HKearl

Stories:

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.

On this blog, a woman in London shared how a man in her neighborhood always harasses her when he sees her alone. Read through the comments to learn how she took the advice of a blog commenter and contacted the police and what happened from there.
On HollaBack Australia, a guy brags to his friends about touching the contributor’s butt in public.
On HollaBack Toronto, a contributor tells how she called the cops when she saw the same man who had masturbated by her in his car while she waited for the bus last week.
Holla Back DC! had three blog posts discussing street harassment while biking.
Blank Noise Project is asking people to send in photos of the clothes they have been harassed in to help disprove the perception that it only happens when women wear certain clothes. They say, “write to us at blurtblanknoise @gmail dot com subject titled “i never ask for it””

In the News:

Time.com published a good article about how the Egyptian government is tackling sexual harassment (including street harassment) through religion by distributing new books on sexual harassment to 50,000 imams at mosques across Egypt.
A taxi driver in Perth, Western Australia, who allegedly sexually assaulted a female passenger in February is now being charged with that crime.
Carmella Etienne, a transgender female, alleges she was hit by rocks and a beer bottle and threatened in Queens.
Since June 19, there have been nearly a dozen reports of a man slapping women on their backsides on the subway around Crown Heights in Brooklyn, NY.
Jessica Reed asks in a blog post on UK’s Guardian website: “What is it about a woman on a bike that attracts such unwelcome attention?

Announcements:

RightRides in NYC has just expanded their services of a free ride home from Saturday nights to include Friday nights too! They offer this service from 11:59 p.m. – 3 a.m. in 45 neighborhoods across four boroughs. To call for a ride, the dispatch number is (718) 964-7781 OR (888)215-SAFE (7233).

Street Harassment Resource of the Week:

Street Harassment: A Feminist Guide to Analysis and Direct Action, by Cathy Ramos

Street Harassment Round Up – June 21

June 21, 2009 By HKearl

Stories:

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.

On this blog, women in Chicago and Hawaii talk about being fed up by the volume of street harassment they face on a daily to weekly basis.
On HollaBack Toronto, a contributor wrote a post about having a TTC subway employees flirt with/harass her when she was paying her fare. The Director of Corporate Communications for TTC saw the post and wrote to HB Toronto with information about how passengers can file complaints about employees. This post was followed by one from another contributor telling about a time a TTC employee made her feel uncomfortable and unsafe. Harassment on public transportation is global!
On Holla Back NYC, a contributor tells about getting oogled by men at a community pool, but they complained to the pool management and then men had to leave.
Holla Back DC! has a contributor post from a woman who was asked “how’d you get that cute ass” by a man who then turned very angry when she asked him not to harass her.
Two years ago Blank Noise Project asked readers to submit their list of things they wished they could do in their city (for example, smile when they wanted, not have to think about who’s watching them, be able to go out at night and be safe…) and this past Saturday afternoon, they invited people to come to Cubbon Park to live out their wish list, including wearing something they wished they could wear but never had for fear of harassment.

In the News:

In Beijing, a bill for sex-segregated subway cars has been submitted for consideration due to high rates of sexual harassment on the subway.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported on the work of the Rogers Park Women’s Action Team’s work to combat sexual harassment on public transportation in Chicago.
Emily May, co-founder of Holla Back NYC talked about harassment on New York’s public transportation system on radio station WBAI. People could call in with questions.

Upcoming Events:

June 27 (2-4 p.m.): Girls and women ages 12-25 are invited to share their stories about sexual harassment on the Chicago buses and subways with the Rogers Park Young Women’s Action Team. Berger Park Cultural Center, 6205 N. Sheridan Road, Chicago, IL.
June 27 (11 a.m. – 2 p.m.): Defend Yourself’s Intro to self defense for LGBTQI, downtown DC (near Mt. Vernon Sq. and Convention Center)

Street Harassment Resource of the Week:

Girls for Gender Equity’s Street Harassment is a Crime poster

Ban Jeans to Curb Eve Teasers?

June 11, 2009 By HKearl

Okay, this is just stupid (via Fox News):

“More and more colleges in the Uttar Pradesh state are prohibiting jeans, miniskirts and tight blouses to combat ‘Eve-teasing,’ a term for sexual harassment in India. Violators face expulsion.

‘Girls who choose to wear jeans will be expelled from the college,’ Meeta Jamal, principal of the Dayanand girls’ college in Kanpur city told AFP. ‘This is the only way to stop crime against women.’

But women said that they are being wrongfully targeted by the new rules, which should really go after the men who are sexually harassing them.

‘Banning any clothing will certainly never solve the issue of sexual harassment,’ a Lucknow University grad student, who didn’t want to be identified, told AFP.

Other colleges in India have tried to prohibit jeans on women, according to the AFP, but rescinded the ban after protests from students.”

Hopefully this ban will also be rescinded. Kudos to the students who are standing up to this idiocy.

Geez, I can’t get over the guy who said the only way to stop harassers is to make women stop wearing certain clothes. They should talk to the women in Eygpt and Yemen who said that they got harassed by men on the streets even when they were veiled!

If harassment is a problem, the focus should be on getting the men who are engaged in the harassing to stop.

Street Harassment Round Up – May 31

May 31, 2009 By HKearl

Stories:

On HollaBack Toronto, a contributor tells about being followed and accosted several times by a naked man at a nude and clothed beach.
Holla Back DC! has several new contributor posts this week, including two by a young woman who was the target of two bad instances of street harassment within a few days’ time: a naked masturbator and a crotch groper. She called 911 in both instances.

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem!

In the News:

A taxi driver in Malaysia sexually assaulted a female passenger.
The Telegraph in Calcutta, India, discusses street harassment and what women can do to combat it.
In Atlanta, GA, a man shot two women in the street after they ignored his advances. The women are in stable condition at the hospital.
In Savannah, GA, three men sexually assaulted a woman who was walking home; someone driving by intervened and the men ran away.

Upcoming Events:

June 8 (7-9 p.m.): New Yorkers for Safe Transit are holding a community forum about the rampancy of gender-based violence in the New York City public transit system. “Taking Back Public Transit: Confronting Violence on Board” will be held at Brecht Forum, 451 West St. (btwn. Bank & Bethune), New York.
June 18 (7:30 p.m): Holla Back DC! is hosting a dinner for WIN’s 20th Annual Women Opening Doors for Women Event. The goal of the dinner is to network, create an open dialogue on how to address harassers, and brainstorm policy changes to develop safe public spaces. The event takes place after the evening’s reception (5:30 p.m.) and keynote speaker (6 p.m.) at the AFL-CIO. Tickets for the night start at $40.
June 27 (2-4 p.m.): Girls and women ages 12-25 are invited to share their stories about sexual harassment on the Chicago buses and subways with the Rogers Park Young Women’s Action Team. Berger Park Cultural Center, 6205 N. Sheridan Road, Chicago, IL.

Street Harassment Resource of the Week:

Brian Martin’s article “Men: Help stop public harassment“

Street Fighter

May 27, 2009 By HKearl

An Indian newspaper The Telegraph has a great article discussing the street harassment women in Calcutta regularly face, how women tend to react, what they can do about it, and the challenges they may face if they try to respond to or report harassers. Sreyashee Bhaduri, a 30 year old woman who decided to take action against her harasser, is mentioned throughout the piece. I recommend reading the whole article if you have time.

Things they say you can do if harassed (they also noted potential roadblocks with each):

Make a scene or embarrass the harasser; scream; let people know what happened.
Try to solicit help from other people and/or police nearby.
File a police report and know your rights.
Lodge a FIR (first information report), which is the first step in taking legal action against a harasser.

Street harassment law in India:

Indian Penal Code (IPC). Section 509 of the IPC states: “Whoever intending to insult the modesty of a woman utters any word, makes any sound or gesture, or exhibits any object, intending that such word or sound, shall be heard, or that such gesture, or object, shall be seen, by such woman, or intrudes upon, the privacy of such woman, shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend, to one year, or with fine, or with both.”Section 294 speaks of obscene acts and language in public being punishable with imprisonment or fine or both. Section 354 also says assault or criminal force used on a woman to outrage her modesty is punishable.

Final thought:

“‘Most people refuse to take street sexual harassment as a serious crime. It is something that is often taken for granted — something that is bound to happen,’ says Saptarshi Chakraborty, a 22-year-old engineer and a core member of Blank Noise, a volunteer-based collective that deals with issues around street sexual harassment.

Some will laugh. Some will say: ‘If she has such a problem, why walk on a road?’ Some will say: ‘Ki hoyechhe Didi, chhere din!’ (It’s a small thing; let him go!)

Then you feel like giving up. You may even feel tempted to feel as the men in the crowd feel: that it doesn’t matter. But just remember your feeling of outrage once more.'”

This last part rings true to me. Some days it seems like it’d be so easy to give up fighting street harassment, but sadly (because I wish street harassment would end already) I always come across some new outrage that motivates me a while longer.

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