protest Archives | Stop Street Harassment

Argentinean Women March to Protest Violence Against Women

October 19, 2016 By HKearl

Earlier this month, Lucía Pérez, a schoolgirl, was drugged, raped and tortured in the coastal city of Mar del Plata.

Via the Guardian: “The cruelty of her attack was such that Pérez suffered a cardiac arrest, according to prosecutor María Isabel Sánchez, who described it as “an act of inhuman sexual aggression”. Following their assault, the assailants washed the 16-year-old in an attempt to erase forensic evidence and took her to a nearby hospital, where she died shortly after arrival from internal injuries sustained during her rape.”

Today, women across Argentina marched to protest violence against women, including this horrific incident. No woman should ever have to experience this cruelty or lose her life just because she is female.

More on the New Year’s Eve German Attacks

January 11, 2016 By HKearl

Via Vice News:

“The number of reported New Year’s Eve attacks in Cologne, Germany, has now risen to 516, according to police, who said that 40 percent of those involved sexual assaults.

Meanwhile, authorities also said that a group of six Pakistanis and a Syrian national were attacked in the city late on Sunday night. Two of the Pakistani men were hospitalized after being set upon by about of 20 assailants.

The local Express newspaper reported that Sunday’s attacks had been planned by “rocker and hooligan gangs,” who had used social media to launch a “manhunt” of foreigners.

Tensions remain high in Germany as citizens struggle to comprehend the consequences of the mass attacks on December 31. Blame has fallen on the police for their insufficient reaction, on migrants because of the reported origin of the attackers, and on the German government….

The scale of the New Year’s Eve assaults has given leverage to anti-immigration groups, which have long been calling for Germany to toughen its immigration policies. However, some politicians and women’s rights activists have accused them of using this incident to further their own political aims…..

Women’s rights activists — who stood separately holding signs on the steps of the cathedral — were verbally attacked by passersby, who called them dumb and stupid for suggesting that sexual assaults happen all over the world, and that perpetrators can be of all nationalities.””

And via DW.com:

“A few kilometers away, in the “Multi Kulti” center in the neighborhood of Mülheim, several women have gathered in an attempt to work out what measures should be taken to make the streets of Cologne safe again.

“No one is talking about the fact that this is happening to women every day,” Tanja, an activist and one of the initiators of the event told DW.

“People are insisting on making this a political story, trying to shift the focus on pro- or anti-refugees. But in fact, no one is listening to what we have to say – the women who have been suffering from this violence in the streets on a daily basis long before refugees even came here,” she says.

The violence on New Year’s Eve was not different from that during any other big-scale celebration in the city, according to Tanja. “Because refugees are now a burning topic, the media all of a sudden report about these events, but what nobody wants to admit is that these things happen all the time. I’m sorry to break this to you, but German-born men also harass and rape.”

Men Target More Than 100 German Women on New Year’s Eve

January 6, 2016 By HKearl

UPDATE 1/7: Here are a few more recent articles:

“German Muslims condemn Cologne attacks, fear consequences“

“Cologne sex attacks ‘require police rethink‘”

“Cologne New Year gang assaults: Victim, 18, says up to 30 men groped and robbed her and her 11 friends“

“German women use social media to mock the Cologne Mayor’s advice on preventing sexual assault“

Horrible news out of Germany, via BBC:

“The mayor of Cologne has summoned police for crisis talks after about 80 women reported sexual assaults and muggings by men on New Year’s Eve.

The scale of the attacks on women at the city’s central railway station has shocked Germany. About 1,000 drunk and aggressive young men were involved….Women were also targeted in Hamburg, but the Cologne assaults – near the city’s iconic cathedral – were the most serious, German media report. At least one woman was raped, and many were groped….

What is particularly disturbing is that the attacks appear to have been organised. Around 1,000 young men arrived in large groups, seemingly with the specific intention of carrying out attacks on women.”

The New York Times has more on the story, including this:

“Several hundred people gathered in front of Cologne’s cathedral late Tuesday to protest violence against women. Several groups promoting women’s rights have complained that the authorities have not taken allegations of sexual abuse of women in refugee shelters seriously enough.”

Our thoughts are with the women and hope they may find the support and help they need to heal.

Egypt: 1000s March Today, Feb 12 Protest Planned

February 6, 2013 By HKearl

EgyptProtest2.6.13 — Today’s Protest. Image via @Gsquare86

During the Jan. 25 protests this year in Cairo, Egypt, there were numerous instances of mob sexual violence against women (read some of their stories). Various anti-harassment groups patrolled Tahrir Square and volunteers were able to help break up most of the mobs but even still, many women required medical attention after they were safe.

Today, more than 1000 people marched in Cairo to protest the violence against women. View photos.

Anti-harassment groups are asking people worldwide to rally in front of Egyptian Embassies on Tuesday, February 12, at 6 p.m. (in whatever time zone you’re in) to protest what they see as the government’s lack of support for stopping such attacks and for perhaps hiring impoverished men to initiate attacks.

Stop Street Harassment is proud to be one of the supporting groups of this effort. If you live near an Embassy, I urge you to show your support and add your presence/voice/body to amplify these efforts.

Egypt: Personal Account from Jan. 25 Protest

January 28, 2013 By Contributor

Editor’s Note: HarassMap, an anti-harassment group in Egypt, posted the following on their Facebook account over the weekend. They, and the author, gave me permission to share it here. Please share it widely and follow their work: Website | Facebook | Twitter. Also, here is a Guardian article about the attacks on women on Jan. 25.

THIS IS A HARASSMAP STAFF MEMBER’S PERSONAL ACCOUNT OF MOB SEXUAL ATTACKS IN #TAHRIR ON #JAN25 DURING OUR EFFORTS TO COUNTER THEM AS PART OF Op Anti-Sexual Harassment/Assault قوة ضد التحرش/الإعتداء الجنسي الجماعي

By Hussein ElShafie

When I joined the second round of OpAntiSH, as a core team member and a Midan team participant, I wasn’t anticipating the nightmare we all went through! I expected our mere presence in the heart of the protests to be an important warning sign for the mobs not to approach the protesters. I walked through the square distributing flyers and I was met with cooperation and gratitude from the side of the people. However, in certain instances I would get completely encircled by groups who would grab my shirt, poke me and snatch flyers from my hands. I didn’t give their attitude much attention and I attributed it to the Adrenalin rush they must be experiencing.

While I walked I saw two girls from our Safety team running towards me asking for help dealing with a report from the Omar Makram side. We all three ran across the square bumping into everyone until we arrived to Omar Makram and we found nothing going on! Later we were informed that while we mobilized our efforts to that area a girl was being mob-attacked by the Mohamed Mahmoud side.

I went back to our headquarters in Talaat Harb and shortly afterwards our rescue team arrived to the building. The girl was among them semi-comatose. A huge crowd appeared to accompany them to the door and then they tried to break in. We half-closed the door and pulled in our volunteers. They were all being squeezed, grabbed and unable to breathe. While I was pulling in one of them I felt as if I was pulling out a tissue from a tight tissue box. We got them all inside, shut the door and locked it. Harassers tried to break the door and they started a small fire. The numbers were insane. The armed mob was infuriated by the sight of the girls indoor and by the fact that they (harassers) could not reach them. I asked one of them from behind the door what is it that they wanted and he answered “What are all those women doing inside?!”. We turned off the lights and sent the girls upstairs trying to minimize our visibility. The nightmare kept going on for 2 hours until their energy faded and we managed to gather some help from outside to disperse the mob. Police was non-existent.

When it was a little safer to get out I went with another volunteer from the Intervention team to survey the square, and by the time we could make out the Mohamed Mahmoud area a tear gas canister was thrown at us. We ran back to the building suffocating, falling off every few seconds and unable to open our eyes. That very canister could have saved us a lot of terror and harassment if it had been thrown at the mobs that had attacked us perseveringly for two hours earlier.

We were specifically targeted by the mobs while the police kept a deaf ear to our situation. However, our brave men and women managed to survive it. We were getting fake reports to waste our efforts and yet we managed to interfere in more than a dozen mob harassment cases. Seeing the relentless efforts of our volunteers was but an affirmation of the nobility of our cause, and an inspiration for every human being who wants to voice out their right to be free, safe and respected.

بلغوا عن حوادث التحرش الجنسي | Report sexual harassment: SMS 6069 | http://harassmap.org/reports/submit

تطوعوا | Volunteer: bit.ly/ZsFKcL