• 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

HABITAT 3: A Day of Connections

October 19, 2016 By HKearl

img_8917Hello from my final day at HABITAT 3 in Quito, Ecuador.

The two big highlights were:

1) Co-presenting this morning on a panel about crowdsourcing and community engagement with Elsa D’Silva of Safecity from India and Rosy Mondardini of Open Seventeen in Switzerland. Even with an 8 a.m. start time, about 40 people joined us — and unlike most other panels, we respected the time and spent 1/3rd of our session on Q&A with the audience. People were interested to hear more about how we collect data (through crowdsource mapping, story collection at workshops, stories submitted online, and surveys) and how we have been able to create concrete changes in our communities with those data.

2) The other highlight was meeting up with two activists I have emailed with for years — Alma in Italy and Alice in Brazil. We all realized last night we were all in town and arranged to meet today. Elsa joined me and so then we had anti-street harassment activists from four countries, four continents all together. It was very exciting!! Each of their groups participate in International Anti-Street Harassment Week each year, which is cool.

Alice invited us to make a video with her organization’s “super hero” to talk about creative ways to deal with street harassers (video to come).

I also got to meet Marcelo from ActionAid when he came to my panel and I went to his; he helped galvanize many of their ActionAid Safe Cities groups to join International Anti-Street Harassment Week this year.

Doing this work can sometimes feel really isolating when so much of it is done online, from my home, from buses and airports and hotel rooms, and so to actually meet people who are doing similar work and to put a face to an email address I have seen pop up over the years was so exciting!

10-19-16-our-bodies-are-not-public-space-habitat-3-quito-ecuador

Share

Filed Under: anti-street harassment week, street harassment, UN events and efforts Tagged With: brazil, Habitat 3, India, italy, usa

Italy: It’s Not a Criminal Offense to Publicly Masturbate

September 8, 2016 By HKearl

Hearing about so many incidents of groping and verbal street harassment (before I even knew the term) in Italy made me change my mind about studying abroad there as a college student. If you dislike street harassment, now there’s even more reason to want to avoid going there.

Italy’s supreme court justices ruled that unless it’s done in front of a minor, public masturbation is perfectly legal — even if it is done with the clear aim of being seen by other members of the public without their permission or consent! The silver lining is it sounds like there still may be a fine for the act.

Still, since I have yet to hear about a woman publicly masturbating non-consensually at a person in a public place, I think it’s safe to say this is a good example of how laws usually benefit those in power: men.

This also reminds me of the Italian court ruling on a rape case 17 years ago. They came up with the ”denim defense” or the ”jeans alibi,” suggesting that a woman cannot be raped if she was wearing jeans because “they are impossible to remove unless she helps.”

Come on Italy, do better.

Share

Filed Under: News stories, street harassment Tagged With: court case, italy, laws, public masturbation

Italy: Street Harassment in the Eternal City

January 3, 2016 By Correspondent

Sara Rigon, Italy, SSH Blog Correspondent

SSH_Rigon_DecPic2Recently a friend of mine tagged me on a very thought-provoking #genderviolence tweet about street harassment in Rome. She thought I might be interested in a startling video posted by La Repubblica online, an Italian newspaper that is second in national digital circulation, and she was right.

In the video, a woman walks down the central and beautiful streets of the eternal city, facing a wide range of unsolicited comments, catcalls and whistles.

Wait, this is not news and not even the “no news good news” kind of news. Street harassment is unacceptable and offensive, but sadly it is not surprising. Similar experiments have been done before in different cities around the world, producing more or less the same disturbing and upsetting outcomes.

Among the first videos about street harassment to go viral was the documentary “Femme de la rue” by Sophie Peeters. She taped her everyday walk to her university and other areas in Brussels, Belgium. It was a very disturbing glance into a woman’s life and an introduction to street harassment.

There was was the American-born filmmaker Colette Ghunim’s footage showing “what is like to walk the busiest bridge in Cairo as a girl,” showing it was not quite an enjoyable promenade. The film “10 hours of Walking in New York City as a Woman,” a walk made by Shoshanna Roberts in New York City, was unbelievably stressful. Roberts described how she felt to the Washington Post: “I wanted to break down in tears.”

After the NY City video went viral, the New Zealand Herald decided to try the experiment in kiwi land. Having lived in New Zealand, I was very pleased to discover that only two people spoke to beautiful model Nicola Simpson during her 10 hours of walking through the sunny streets of Auckland and one guy was asking for directions.

I personally do not recall any whistle or catcalling during South Pacific time, a very relaxing and fresh experience for me. However someone did throw a plastic bottle at me from a car while I was walking home on the beautiful Marine Parade in Napier. Yes, I admit it, I was reading a book and I am aware that walking and reading is not advisable or safe, but I still do not think that being hit by a (thankfully empty) plastic bottle on the head was the best way to remind me of that. But I doubt that was the message.

So back to the Italian video… what is startling about it?

This is: The Italian newspaper experiment shows a particular population of offenders, policemen and law enforcement agents, in one of the 25 most visited cities in the world. The video is quite distressing to watch, at least for me it was. Seeing men in uniform catcalling a young lady passing by gives you a sense of disbelief and alarm. While out on the streets, law enforcement agents are expected to be constantly alert, patrolling neighborhoods, and serving as a public liaison. Police officers are given more privileges than the average citizen and usually with great power comes great responsibility.

It must be said that there are many upstanding and qualified law enforcement agents in Italy and around the world, several of whom are also specifically trained to deal with gender-based violence victims and crimes. Nevertheless, this Italian video is not the only account on police officers misbehaving while on duty, taking advantage of their power and authority. Ultimately, police officers are men and street harassment is a gender-based issue.

I do not want to discuss how policemen should behave better than ordinary men, nor do I want to explore the cultural differences between northern and southern Italy, I don’t have the proper and specific knowledge or expertise. I would rather mention the aim and methodology of such videos.

The creators of the videos call them experiments, however these videos have scarce scientific foundation, not that they claim to have it. They definitely do not intend to scientifically prove the existence of sexism or gender inequality. Instead, they are meant to raise awareness on a quite mortifying and disregarded form of men’s conduct. If they do suggest something, it is that misogyny might be a global principle that unifies mankind across borders, oceans and cultures.

Even as a woman of science, I consider such “experiments” very powerful and I wish some researcher would be inspired enough by these brave women to design a valid and solid research project on street harassment since it is a heinous mistreatment women endure every day. We need valuable evidence, verifiable data to study the phenomenon and hopefully find, if not a solid solution, small steps toward achieving a truly egalitarian society and street harassment-free world.

Sara is a registered General Practitioner in Italy and New Zealand. She is the founder and current lead of the newly established Equally Different group within the European Junior General Practitioners Organization, the Vasco da Gama Movement, branch of the World Organization of Family Doctors. Follow her on Twitter @rgn_sr.

Share

Filed Under: correspondents Tagged With: Egypt, italy, New Zealand, NYC, research, rome, videos

“There is no peace when you are a woman of color”

May 26, 2011 By Contributor

A lot of black women feel as if Italy is a place where their “beauty is celebrated.” Unfortunately, there are a lot of prostitutes in Italy who are women of color from Brazil and Nigeria. That said, living here can be uncomfortable.

The mention of street harassment conjures up many different experiences.

I remember when I first arrived, I refused to go to the store alone after always having men slow down in passing cars.

I remember walking out of my house and having a group of Italian females in a passing car, make a “fellatio” gesture in an attempt to taunt me because they assumed I was a prostitute- based on brown skin alone.

Two days after the birth of my child, I was released from the hospital but my child needed clearance from the doctors. I returned to the hospital. I was wearing my husband’s Adidas warm up suit with my hair in a bun. As I walked, I heard someone whistling as if whistling for a dog. It was an old 60 something year old wrinkled man, trying to get my attention.

I could go on, but such is life for me everyday. It’s a beautiful country but there is no peace when you are a woman of color. That is, if they don’t know that you are American. If they look at you and think you are any other type of woman of color, the assumption is that you are “working’ the streets.

– Anonymous

Location: Italy

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem. Find suggestions for what YOU can do about this human rights issue.

Share

Filed Under: Stories, street harassment Tagged With: italy, street harassment

“Can I have a pair of your panties?”

November 23, 2010 By Contributor

I get street harassed A LOT. I have had a man touch my ass on the bus twice, had a guy touch himself while sitting next to me on the bus while looking at me, have had disgusting things said and shouted and whispered to me on the street.

Once I was on a fairly full bus- a guy came up to me and asked me quietly if he could ask me a question. I presumed he wanted to ask directions or something, so I said ok and he said, “Can I have a pair of your panties?” I said “excuse me?” and he repeated it in a disgusting voice. I raised my voice and replied so the whole bus could hear me, “EXCUSE ME, DID YOU JUST ASK ME FOR A PAIR OF MY PANTIES? HOW DARE YOU!” and everyone stared at him and he leaped out the door of the bus and ran away. That felt more good than embarrassing.

All of this has happened in Italy. I’m not a hugely attractive girl, I’m just… pretty to those who know me, I suppose, but I don’t stand out too much… I often wear skirts but with black tights and I never wear low cut tops or even high heels. And I don’t even hang around bad areas of the city. It always happens in nice neighbourhoods or in the city centre where I work.

Whenever I am harassed, I’m not usually the best looking or even most provocatively dressed woman nearby. I feel like there is something about my expression or attitude that attracts these guys. I have spoken to my friends about it and no one I know has had anything near the amount of disturbing experiences, even my drop dead gorgeous friends.

Whenever it happens, even though I am almost used to it, I feel frozen with fear and can’t be 100% sure it’s actually happening and not me being paranoid. Like when a guy touches my ass on the bus, I’m not sure.. and then as soon as I get off the bus, I know it was for real and I should have done something to shame the guy. It makes me sick to the stomach and is no way flattering. I know it’s not meant to be flattering, it’s meant to make you feel sick or angry or intimidated. The thing is, if you complain about it you end up looking vain or something. I really hate it but people just shrug and say “you’re a pretty young girl, it happens.” Well I don’t see the model-type girls in bare legs and hotpants getting harassed.

– JT

Location: Turin, Italy

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.

Share

Filed Under: Stories, street harassment Tagged With: italy, pervert, sexual harassment, street harassment

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