sarah everard Archives | Stop Street Harassment

Dear Friends,

The results of a groundbreaking street harassment survey conducted by our partner L’Oreal Paris of 14,000 women in 14 countries will be released for International Anti-Street Harassment Week (April 11-17).

The findings highlight how global this human rights violation is and also includes statistics from the pandemic year. They show how much this issue continues to affect people everywhere, even during this unusual global health crisis.

Indeed, street harassment is an on-going global health crisis. This is evident by the recent statistics and campaigns around the world that document it and work to end it.

In Dublin, Ireland, 6 out of 10 women and girls under 20 say they faced street harassment just during the previous week. A group of teenage girls is working to address this problem.
Across the U.S., Stop APPI Hate said there were 3,800 reports of harassment and hate by Asian-Americans, with women comprising 68% of those reports, including street harassment incidents.
The UK is grappling with how to make public spaces safer after a police officer murdered Sarah Everard on her way home.
Women across India spoke out to demand a safe Holi holiday.
Women in Calgary, Canada, are speaking out against harassment in their community.
Anti-harassment transit campaign informed by the experiences of teenager girls in the California Bay Area, U.S.

Will you join us next week in speaking out against this human rights violation? Use the hashtag #stopstreetharassment and tag @pinthecreep and @stopstharassmnt on social media.

Need an Idea? — Submit to the Safecity Campaign
Safecity is inviting people to participate in Week by submitting quotes for posters they’ll create and share on social media.

“This year the campaign is Confidence is Beautiful. Confidence to walk down a street without worry, confidence to loiter in public spaces, confidence to travel further to explore work, leisure and more. But that cannot happen if streets are not safe. We need to spotlight the issue, create urgency to act and encourage men to take action.” Submit your quotes and pictures here.

Need another Idea? — Share Your Pandemic Street Harassment Stories
Share your experiences and stories with street harassment across the pandemic – and/or submit artwork to stopstreetharassment@gmail.com.

Sexual Assault Awareness Month
In the U.S., April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Learn more about how to get involved with this month-long campaign. April 6 is the Day of Action — find ways to participate.

*“Support Survivors During Sexual Assault Awareness Month”*

Anti-SH Week Partners
Thank you to Safecity/Red Dot Foundation, Catcalls of NYC and L’Oreal Paris for partnering with us this year. Over the week, you can take part in L’Oréal Paris and Hollaback! training on how to safely intervene if you witness or experience street harassment.

Watch the Catcalls Turns 5 Event
If you missed our joint event with Catcalls of NYC for their 5th anniversary, you can watch it here! What an empowering and uplifting program.

Thank you!

-Holly

This week, 33-year-old marketing executive Sarah Everard’s remains were found in the UK after she went missing last week. She was attacked and murdered while traveling home from a friend’s house. A police officer was arrested on suspicion of her murder.

Her story is tragic — and it’s the worst-case scenario that makes so much street harassment unnerving. We wonder: which harassers might escalate their behavior and strike us, follow us, grab us, assault us and even kill us?

Her story also confirms that police officers may NOT be people we can turn to for help and protection… instead they may ignore, blame, harass, assault or even kill us.

Since Sarah went missing, thousands of women have shared their own stories of assault and street harassment by men. A new representative study in the UK released this week backs up their stories – 97% of young women have faced sexual harassment and 80% of all women have experienced street harassment.

Of course, street harassment is a global problem, a global crisis, and these figures and stories in the UK are just the latest documentation of it.

During our collective year of global health pandemic, the issue of street harassment has often become a lower priority, a lesser problem to address, but Sarah’s story shows that street harassment is also deadly. The study shows that street harassment is also a far-reaching crisis.

Share Your COVID Street Harassment Stories
Ahead of International Anti-Street Harassment Week (April 11-17), we invite you to share your experiences and stories with street harassment across the pandemic – and/or submit artwork to stopstreetharassment@gmail.com.
We’ll share them across the week to help raise awareness that this is STILL a critical issue that we must address, we must work to stop.

And we must hold men — yes, all men — accountable for the culture they directly or indirectly contribute to and benefit from that turns women into prey who cannot safely walk home.

Anti-Street Harassment Week Partners & Activities
Thank you to Safecity/Red Dot Foundation, Catcalls of NYC, Hollaback! and L’Oreal Paris as well as other partners for their help this year’s Week of Action!!

As a reminder, we imagine much of the world will still be practicing social distancing next month, and so we encourage you to engage in online action (and use the hashtag #StopStreetHarassment) or, if it’s safe to do so, take small offline actions, like go with a friend or two to chalk on sidewalks or post flyers in your community.

If you have ideas already, you can let us know what you’ll do by filling out this form, and you can let us know if you’d like to be listed on the website as a participating co-sponsor, stopstreetharassment@gmail.com.

March 27 Event
Catcalls of NYC turns 5 years old this month and we’ll be hosting their anniversary event on our Facebook Page on March 27. More details to come!