Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Latest News on Street Harassment Laws

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Last week, thanks to the efforts of our partners Collective Action for Safe Spaces, Washington, D.C. became the first city in the country to pass a dedicated anti-street harassment law. This effort began in 2015 and SSH board member Layla Moughari and I were among the dozens of people to testify about street harassment at a round-table organized by the DC City Council.

Via ThinkProgress:

“The Council of the District of Columbia passed the Street Harassment Prevention Act as part of the budget on Wednesday, which would create a definition of street harassment, collect data on harassment, train government employees to recognize and intervene in harassment, and create education campaigns, among other measures.”

This law creates the first legal definition of street harassment in the nation and it is one that builds on the definition the SSH board wrote a few years ago.

It includes “unwanted, disrespectful, or threatening comments, gestures, or other actions forced on a stranger in a public place without their consent, directed at someone because actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, identity or expression, race, ethnicity, religion, national origin, or any other characteristic identified in the Human Rights Act of 1977.”

This isn’t the only timely thing happening:

  1. A national law against street harassment is under debate in the French Senate (after passing in the National Assembly in May).
  2. In April, a city in Chile became the first in the country to pass an anti-street harassment ordinance.
  3. Some parliament members in the UK are advocating for street harassment to be made a hate crime nationally, as it already is classified in Nottinghamshire.
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#16Days of Activism: Posting Fliers (Day 4)

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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).

Afghanistan

A simple way to raise awareness about street harassment that one person or a group can do is to hang flyers and posters on bulletin boards, walls, the backs of street signs, and other public places. Take Afghanistan. There, members of the group Young Women for Change, founded by college women, posted flyers about women’s rights and street harassment on the walls of Kabul several times, including a day in 2011 when 25 volunteers glued 700 fliers to walls around the city despite the potential danger involved in publicly calling for women’s rights. Their acts received a mixture of responses, from anger to support.

“I felt like my heart was going to melt down when we posted a poster and a shopkeeper who was there watching us post it couldn’t read it [because he was illiterate],” wrote then 20-year-old co-founder Anita Hadiary in a blog post. “He asked another person to read it. When he learned what the poster said, he started fixing the poster and glued it harder on the wall.”

Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe

In 2013, members of the Zimbabwe Parents of Handicapped Children Association hung signs on trees in their rural community with messages like “It’s my right to be in public space. I don’t want to be harassed. Leave me in peace not in pieces. It’s my world too!” That same year, Ryerson University college students in Toronto, Canada, posted fliers on bulletin boards around their campus. One flier had an image of flat shoes with the words “These shoes do not make me a prude.” Another flier showed high-heeled shoes with the words “These shoes do not make me a slut.” The larger message was “I do not dress for you.”

When a few women in their 20s and 30s formed the STOP Harcèlement de rue in Paris, France, in 2013, one of their first actions was to post 50 fliers against harassment on walls, lamp posts, bar windows, and mailboxes near the Place de la Bastille in Paris, a crowded area well-known for street harassment. The fliers’ messages included “Me siffler n’est pas un compliment” and “Ma mini-jupe ne veut pas dire oui” (“Whistling at me is not a compliment” and “My mini-skirt is not a yes”). Throughout the summer of 2014, the women met every Monday night to put up posters around the city.

Mexico

In the United States, oil painter/illustrator Tatyana Fazlalizadeh launched Stop Telling Women to Smile in 2012. Her own daily experiences with street harassment inspired her to draw her own and other women’s faces and add simple anti-harassment messages. She would then photocopy the illustrations and paste them on walls. The messages included “Stop telling women to smile,” “Women are not outside for your entertainment,” and “Harassing women does not prove your masculinity.” During 2013, Fazlalizadeh held a very successful online fundraising Kickstarter campaign so she could travel to more than 10 cities across the United States to meet with women, hear their stories, create portraits, and then paste their portraits in their communities. In 2014, she also went to Mexico City.

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

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#16Days of Activism: Distributing Cards (Day 3)

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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).

Distributing cards about street harassment to harassers or to educate passersby is a tactic that’s been used for years, especially when it became easy to post the cards online for others to download. The Street Harassment Project, for example, has offered cards on its site since the early 2000s and Stop Street Harassment has made cards available since 2008. But in recent years, individuals have been creating their own. In 2012, for example, American Mirabelle Jones created “catcalling cards” with a phone number printed on them for women to give to men who won’t leave them alone. If the men call the number, they will hear pre-recorded messages from women telling harassers exactly what they think of them. On her Tumblr I Am Not an Object, she invites women to leave recordings and download the cards.

ProChange Germany
ProChange Germany

In Dortmund, Germany, the women in the feminist group ProChange devised another clever way to use cards. Living in a country that is obsessed with football (American soccer), they created “Red Cards” against sexism, “Pink Cards” against homophobia and “Purple Cards” of courage. Individuals can hand out these cards to challenge or commend others’ actions without having to directly talk to them. “This can be easier than having any other reaction,” the women told me. A group called Avanti had the same idea and had already created cards that they let ProChange adopt. ProChange also created special coasters with information about street harassment for the pubs, bars, and clubs of Dortmund.

ProChange Members in Germany, 2014
ProChange Members in Germany, 2014

One of their first distribution occurred during International Anti-Street Harassment Week 2012 when they handed out 2,000 of these cards and coasters. They have distributed thousands more since, often coinciding with specific days like Equal Pay Day, One Billion Rising (against gender violence), Frauenkampflag (Women’s Day), and Fahnentag (the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women).

“We get mostly positive feedback regarding the cards,” the group members informed me. “Even men approach us to ask for more cards they can give to their partners or daughters. Often people email us to ask for our cards. Our favorite story was when we were in front of the city hall distributing cards. It was too cold and only a few people passed by. An old grumpy-looking man approached us. He took one of the cards and looked at it. Then he shook everybody’s hands and thanked us for standing in the cold for women and girls.”

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

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Resources

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I’m headed out of town on vacation w/out access to the internet for a few days so there won’t be any new posts.

In the meantime, check out some of the updated strategies for dealing with and ending street harassment listed on my website: http://stopstreetharassment.com/strategies/index.htm as well as reources (including other websites that post/share street harassment stories) on the resources page: http://stopstreetharassment.com/resources/index.htm).

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