Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

City in Colombia Bans Street Harassment, Survey in Nepal & More

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Here are four notable news stories from the past day:

DECREE:

In Timbío, Colombia, a non-binding decree was made on November 25, 2016, to ban public-sector workers and contractors from making “lewd, coarse catcalling that offends ladies.” Those in violation will face verbal reprimand, sensitivity training, or counseling.

Along with the decree was the launch of a city-wide campaign against street harassment, including ads at harassment hotspots, like public transit and stadiums.

iwalkfreelysurveynepalnov2016The decree is supported by la Casa de Mujer, a local women’s organization.

Learn more here.

SURVEY:

More than 1000 people took the #IWalkFreely survey in Nepal and 98 percent of all women said they had been harassed. Besides the streets, 71 percent of respondents also reported harassment in public transportation, 63 percent said they were subjected to physical harassment of some form, and 20 percent reported sexual harassment. Nearly half the participants who said they had faced harassment were between 20-29 years old, and 41 percent were between 13 and 19.

DOCUMENTING:

Here are two efforts to show what street harassment is like globally.

Via BBC News:

“As part of the BBC’s 100 Women season we would like you to join in and help us build up a picture of street harassment around the world.

We would like you or any of your female friends or family who experience harassment between Friday 2 December and Sunday 4 December to share your story with us.

We only need a brief description of the incident and the city where it happened. Tweet it using the hashtag #mappingharassment or if you prefer, email bbc100.women@bbc.co.uk

Do not put yourself at risk or try to take any pictures of the incident. Also do not give us further elements that could lead to your full identification, like your name, or address. Only post a brief description, the city and the hashtag.”

Via Vice News:

“As a woman walking around the city alone at night, there’s not much you can do if some creep decides to follow you around and harass you. But many women try to find a way to deal with feeling unsafe – to project an aura that will stop the harassment from happening. A brisk and confident step, eyes on the pavement and a hand in the pocket of your coat, clutching your phone.

To see how women from different countries in Europe deal with street harassment, VICE offices across the continent asked women from 13 cities if and where they feel unsafe alone at night, and how they deal with that feeling.” Read more.

 

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Bonus Day: International Anti-Street Harassment Week

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Even though April 16 was the official end of International Anti-Street Harassment Week, a few more events took place on April 17.

Women for a Change held a workshop for youth in Buea, Cameroon.

4.17.16 Women for a Change Cameroon youth workshop 3 4.17.16 Women for a Change Cameroon youth workshop 4 4.17.16 Women for a Change Cameroon youth workshop

Hollaback! Ottawa hosted a chalkwalk in Ottawa, Canada.

4.17.16 HB Ottawa sidewalk chalking, canada 4.17.16 HB Ottawa sidewalk chalking, canada 7 4.17.16 HB Ottawa sidewalk chalking, canada 3

Also, many virtual campaigns took place across the week:

OCAC Bolivia:

4.13.16 OCAC Bolivia 2 4.13.16 OCAC Bolivia 3 4.13.16 OCAC Bolivia

Hollaback! Cuenca, Ecuador:

4.12.16 Hollaback Cuenca - Ecuador 9 4.14.16 Hollaback Cuenca - Ecuador 2 4.14.16 Hollaback Cuenca - Ecuador 9

HarassMap in Egypt:

4.11.16 Imprint Movement - 'It's ok' won't help her getting her right back, an official complaint will get it 4.12.16 Imprint Movement - 'The law in on your side... Speak UP' 4.13.16 HarassMap Egypt - 82 percent of bystanders dont intervene bc they think SH is not a big deal

Stop Harcelement de Rue, Paris, France:

4.12.16 Paris, France 8 4.12.16 Paris, France 4 4.12.16 Paris, France 3

OCAC Guatemala:

4.13.16 OCAC Guatemala 2 4.13.16 OCAC Guatemala 3 4.13.16 OCAC Guatemala

OCAC Nicaragua:

4.17.16 Observatorio Contra el Acoso Callejero Nicaragua 7 4.17.16 Observatorio Contra el Acoso Callejero Nicaragua 4 4.17.16 Observatorio Contra el Acoso Callejero Nicaragua 5

Safecity India, #MySafeCity:

 4.16.16 Our Program and Outreach Officer in Mumbai, Anu Salelkar's safe city is one where more women and girls occupy public spaces. India, Safecity  4.16.16 Soumodeep's safe city treats accidents as crimes and not as political issues. India, Safecity  4.16.16 Elsa Marie D'silva. India, Safecity
Touching - India 4.14.16 Safecity India Verbal Harassment - India

Mexico. 20 women living in Mexico City from different ages, occupations and backgrounds worked together towards the development of a campaign against sexual harassment, “Space is public, my body is not”. The artwork consists of a series of photographs created by the visual artist Cerrucha :

Cronopio Azul ‏-Mexico Cronopio Azul ‏-Mexico 1

Nepal. #VoicesinCrisis:

4.12.16 Voices in Crisis Nepal 17 4.12.16 Voices in Crisis Nepal 12 4.12.16 Voices in Crisis Nepal 7

The Philippines, Stand Up, Speak Out- From Streets to Schools – a campaign of the Game Changers with the UN Safe Cities Metro Manila Programme:

4.13.16 Stand Up, Speak Out- From Streets to Schools - a campaign of the Game Changers with Safe Cities Metro Manila 4 4.14.16 Stand Up, Speak Out- From Streets to Schools - a campaign of the Game Changers with Safe Cities Metro Manila 5 4.13.16 Stand Up, Speak Out- From Streets to Schools - a campaign of the Game Changers with Safe Cities Metro Manila 8
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Day 6: International Anti-Street Harassment Week

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WPNight_2_1000Hey there, Day 6!

Here are photos from the week  | Here are the media hits

It’s the International Night of Wheatpasting, hosted by Stop Telling Women to Smile!

 

Ottawa
Ottawa, Canada

North London, UK
North London, UK

New Hampshire, USA
New Hampshire, USA

Here are some of the other events that will be taking place:

  • Canada: Hollaback Vancouver did wheatpasting. They will also held a party with Good Night Out Vancouver to celebrate consent and spaces free from harassment.
  • Canada: Hollaback Ottawa hosted a community event, including an info fair (6:30-7:30 p.m.) and a moderated panel with rad, local folks & a community discussion on street harassment and intersectionality (7:30-9 p.m.)
    4.15.16 HB Ottawa - site director @JulieSLalonde kicks off the panel with guests @Cupcakes_n_Rap and @ChelbyDaigle
  • Guatemala: OCAC Guatemala held an awareness-raising event.
  • 4.15.16 PDH Guatemala event 2Nepal: Youth Advocacy Nepal gave a presentation of their street harassment study findings at the National Women Commission including to the deputy Prime Minister, Shrijana Sharma.
4.15.16 presentation of 'Rapid Assessment Report' on street harassment at National Women Commission. Nepal 6 4.15.16 Naren Khatiwada and deputy prime minister, Shrijana Sharma - Nepal 4.15.16 presentation of 'Rapid Assessment Report' on street harassment at National Women Commission. Nepal 3
  • California: The Cat Call Choir organized a group of irreverent but hopeful women sang street harassment quotes to the tune of nursery rhymes.

4.15.16 CatCallChoir

  • Missouri: Students, including Actio (the feminist activism student group) at St. Louis University, did chalking and handed out resources at a main entrance to campus for a “Take Back the Streets: Stop Street Harassment” event.
4.15.16 St. Louis University - The Politics of the Street class diid sidewalk chalking. Missiouri 8 4.15.16 St. Louis University - The Politics of the Street class diid sidewalk chalking. Missiouri 4.15.16 St. Louis University - The Politics of the Street class diid sidewalk chalking. Missiouri 3

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Day 3: International Anti-Street Harassment Week

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Join tweetathon april 12Hello Day 3!

Here are photos from the week so far! Here are the media hits.

Our board member Erin walks us through 3 street harassment myths.

Thanks to everyone who joined the Tweetathon ALL DAY using #EndSH —

(Note: By tweeting and using #EndSH, #SexObject or tagging @DeyStreet, @StopStHarassmnt, you can enter a drawing for a copy of Jessica Valenti‘s new book Sex Object. LEARN MORE)

Here are some of the events and actions that took place —

  • Brazil: Chega de Fiu Fiu created a video looking at how movies, series, music videos and songs try to normalize street harassment and help perpetuate it.

  • Egypt: Imprint Movement hosted an online awareness campaign across the week  [Cairo]

4.12.16 Imprint Movement - 'The law in on your side... Speak UP'“The law is on your side, speak up”

  • Nepal: Activista Nepal conducted a workshop on ” SAFE CITY & STREET HARASSMENT” at KATHMANDU MODEL COLLEGE (KMC), Balkumari Lalitpur District. Around 50 students took part in the workshop.
4.12.16 Activista Nepal conducted workshop on 'SAFE CITY & STREET HARASSMENT' at KATHMANDU MODEL COLLEGE 3 4.12.16 Activista Nepal conducted workshop on 'SAFE CITY & STREET HARASSMENT' at KATHMANDU MODEL COLLEGE 10 4.12.16 Activista Nepal conducted workshop on 'SAFE CITY & STREET HARASSMENT' at KATHMANDU MODEL COLLEGE
  • Papua New Guinea: The UN Women Safe Cities programme site will host an “Anti-Harassment Awareness Day” in Port Moresby at two venues and times. First, in the Gordons Market, there will be a community conversation animated by the Municipal Gender Desk and a youth group that promotes ending violence against women in public spaces through yoga (10 a.m. – 12 p.m.). Then, from 3 – 5 p.m., they will interview women commuters at women-only bus stops about their personal impressions and solutions to harassment in public spaces. During this activity also the repheral pathway, developed by UN-Women and the local government, will be shared and accesible to the women commuters. [10 a.m. – 12 p.m. and 3-5 p.m. in Port Moresby]4.12.16 UN Women Papua New Guinea - doing yoga to stop street harassment
  • Illinois: University of Illinois hosted a keynote speech with Stop Telling Women to Smile artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh.

4.12.16 WCIA3 IL

  • Iowa: End Street Harassment – Iowa City is hosting a few events in Iowa City across the week, including sidewalk chalking. [8:30 p.m. Meet at the Iowa City Public Library]

Cat+Calling

  • Maryland: Hollaback Bmore is hosting a Self-Care Gathering at the MICA Wellness Center [6 p.m.]
  • Washington, DC-area: WMATA, SSH and Collective Action for Safe Spaces (CASS) released the findings of the city’s first-ever transit harassment survey and co-hosted a flyering event at several metro stations. [4-6 p.m.]

4.12.16 DC flyering Clarendon

  • Washington, DC: CASS hosted a public workshop on responding to street harassment. $10 suggested donation.  [6-8 p.m.]

4.12.16 CASS street harassment 101 workshop in DC

There are various online campaigns too:

Nepal

Egypt – HarassMap

New song about street harassment from La Castor (in French)

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#16Days of Activism: Painting Murals (Day 5)

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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).

Painting murals and spray-painting graffiti against street harassment is a type of political art and communication that has been used in many cultures since ancient times.

Circle of Hell mural in Egypt. Via the Art Newspaper

During the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, graffiti art and murals were used to voice political opinions. Some women used these to speak out against the sexual harassment and violence many women protesters faced. Artist El Zeft nad Mira Shihadeh, for example, painted a mural called Circle of Hell depicting dozens of leering men surrounding one woman like a pack of wolves surrounding its prey.

One graffiti stencil from that time period was a blue bra accompanied by the caption “No to the stripping of people” and below it was the outline of a foot that said, “Long live the revolution.” It references a 2011 videotaped beating of a female protester by police during which all of her clothes were stripped off, which revealed her blue bra. Some messages were defiant. One graffiti stencil created by Hend Kheera featured a woman with the caption, “Warning! Don’t touch or castration awaits you!” A stencil created by Mira Shihadeh (featured on the book’s cover) showed a woman standing tall and holding a spray can to spray away tiny men. The caption read “No to sexual harassment.”

Egyptian anti-street harassment activists with the group HarassMap have also used graffiti to bring attention to sexual harassment in public spaces. In 2013, for example, a team of mostly male volunteers in Giza wrote messages on walls like “Be a man; protect her from harassment instead of harassing her” and “No to harassment” while a team in Alexandria covered up sexist graffiti that promoted violent harassment by painting a mural that said, “LOVE.”

Anti-street harassment activists in Nepal and the United States painted murals in 2014. In Kathmandu, ten young women and men from the group Astitwa painted a huge mural with a street, a “stop” hand and their logo. The main message in green block lettering was “We Are against Street Harassment,” and each person placed her or his hands in red paint and added their hand-print below it.

Nepal

On their U.S. mural, People’s Justice League (formerly Hollaback! Appalachian Ohio) wrote the messages “Bobcats against cat-calls” and “YOU have the power to end street harassment” (with their logo) and drew a map of uptown Athens with red and green dots showing where people had reported being harassed (red) and where they reported intervening in harassment situations (green).

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

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