Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

New Studies in the Philippines and Israel

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The UK was not the only country to have a new study about street harassment released for International Women’s Day, statistics were released in the Philippines and Israel, too.

Philippines:

In February 2016, SWS surveyed people in barangays Payatas and Bagong Silangan in Quezon City regarding sexual harassment in public spaces.

Prevalence:

88% of women ages 18 to 24 experienced sexual harassment at least once.

1 in 7 of the surveyed women experienced sexual harassment at least once every week in the past year.

Types:

Across all ages, 12 to 55 and above, wolf whistling and catcalling were the most common forms. However, 34% of women experienced the “worst forms” of sexual harassment: flashing, public masturbation, and groping.

Perpetrators:

Seventy percent of women said they were harassed by a “complete stranger,” while others said it was by “someone they see around the neighborhood,” acquaintances, and “someone they are close to.”

3 out of 5 men surveyed confessed to committing a form of sexual harassment at least once in their lifetime, while 1 in 7 admitted to doing it at least daily over the past year.

When:

The majority of the incidents happen in broad daylight. Seventy percent of cases happen during the day, between 6 am and 6 pm, and only 4% of cases were reported occurring at night.

You can read more survey results and learn about the UN Women campaign underway in the city via this Rappler article.

 

Israel:

The organization NA’AMAT release a survey about youth and sexual harassment, the following is pulled from a Jerusalem Post article about it.

Prevalence:

68% of girls responded that they were harassed by a man they didn’t know on the street at least once, while 45% said this happened more than once.

Perpetrators:

47% of boys admitted that they had shouted out to a woman or girl that they didn’t know on the street and around 34% said they had done this more than once.

Attitudes:

“A little over a third of youth – both boys and girls – said that if a woman acts or dresses provocatively then she shares in the blame of sexual assault.  Only 53% of youth felt that only the attacker was to blame in the case of sexual assault.”

 

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16 Days: Day 4, Israel

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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.

Image via the Jerusalem Post

Day #4: Israel

At the end of 2011, it surfaced that ultra-Orthodox Jewish men were continually calling an 8-year-old a whore as she walked to school in Israel.

To protest and challenge this outrageous behavior, in January, a group of 250 women from Bet Shemesh held a Flashmob in the city square. This was revolutionary because women are not supposed to dance in public.

“[They] decided to raise their voices against the exclusion of women from the public domain by holding a mass public dance in the city square. The women, residents of the city from all ages and sectors, religious, traditional and secular, gathered together in a flashmob dance, in the city square and started dancing towards a change.” – via YouTube

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83 Percent of Tel Aviv women experience street harassment

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Tel Aviv - from Wiki Travel

A new study of women in Tel Aviv found that 83 percent had faced street harassment, adding to the growing number of studies that show that at least 80 percent of women worldwide experience street harassment sometime in their life.

Here are some of the fascinating findings, via Haaretz.com:

“Before various forms of harassment were described to them, 45% of the women surveyed reported being harassed by a man in the public sphere. However, when they were asked directly about whistling, knowing looks and suggestive remarks, the number almost doubled and reached the 83% finding regarding women attesting to having been sexually harassed. According to researchers who carried out the survey, the numbers suggests that some acts of harassment are not thought of as such by women in the city.

The group reporting the highest incidence of harassment included women aged 22-39. The most common forms of harassment are whistling in the street (64% of all respondents reported experiencing this ), cars beeping horns (61% ), knowing looks (45% ), suggestive remarks (40% ), inappropriate proposals (22% ), touching (21% ) and stalking (18% ). Also, 6% of respondents reported that they were victims of sexual abuse.

The most frequent venue for harassment is the street. 96% of women who report being harassed refer to harassment experienced on the street. 45% say they were sexually harassed on public transport; 30% on the beach; 20% in a park or public garden; and 19% in an open market area.

95% of respondents who report being harassed say the harassment occurred at least one time during daytime hours, and 64% reported incidents occurring after dark.”

The survey was sponsored by the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality’s committee for advancing the status of women, with help from shelters for survivors of sexual assault and the Shatil organization.

This is my favorite paragraph of the news story:

“Tamar Zandberg, chairperson of the Tel Aviv Municipality committee for the status of women and municipality council member, says that these survey findings are disturbing, but also not surprising. “We deliberately checked the topic of harassment on the street; up to now, this form of harassment has not been considered serious. As in any campaign, the first step is to learn all the facts, and see what picture they create,” she explains. “The big picture here is clear – the street is neither safe, pleasant nor comfortable for women. The days when this could be ignored are over,” Zandberg declared.”

This is wonderful. This is what every country, every city, every community needs to do. Start talking about street harassment, survey women on the topic, and stop ignoring the fact that this happens to most women and that we don’t like it, even if we haven’t yet thought of it as sexual harassment/street harassment.

Way to go, Tel Aviv Municipality committee for the status of women, for bringing this issue to light in your community.

 

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A Jewish woman’s stories (part 1 of 3)

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I am a religious Jew, and I have had several unfortunate experiences with street harassment. This is the first one.

After high school, I spent a year in Israel, on a program that combined Israeli National Service with Jewish seminary learning. In Israel, it is perfectly normal for young people to hitchhike, especially from a main road to an out-of-the-way town. The town where I lived was one such place, and I got fairly used to hitchhiking. One day I was coming home from a shopping trip, loaded with bags. An older man stopped for me, and since the back of his car was full of junk, I sat in the front. Big mistake. The ride to my part of town was only a few minutes, but he spent it trying to casually rest his arm around my back, while I tried to shrug it away. He kept telling me how there were great deals on clothes, including bras and underwear – especially fixating on the bras – in the market in Lod. I forget if it had come up in conversation or if it was because of my accented Hebrew, but he knew that I was American, and gave me his number, telling me to call him if I ever wanted to see the country and we could go to Tzfat or something – don’t worry, he wouldn’t hurt me! (Yeah, right.)

I went inside feeling creeped out and dirty. I never told anyone on my program what happened because I felt like it was my fault for sitting in the front seat – you’re not supposed to do that if you can avoid it, and any Israeli who hitchhikes regularly knows it; I thought my friends would laugh at me. It’s only in the past year that I’ve told anyone besides my psychologist and my boyfriend about this incident, and to this day I can’t stand being hugged from behind.

– HD

Location: Tzafaria, Israel

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.

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