Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Lara Logan and Egypt’s Next Revolution

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Building on my blog post from last night, I wrote an article for Ms magazine about the attack on Lara Logan and how Egypt’s next revolution should be to address street harassment and public sexual assault!

An excerpt:

As disappointing as it is to see that street harassment is back—and even more devastating, to know through Logan’s story that so is public sexual assault—I see a glimmer of hope.

The people of Egypt, including women, know their power. I hope their next revolution will be to end gender-based harassment and assault. And I know that many there hope for the same.

After the Logan news broke, these were some of the Tweets I read:

This morning Mohamed Safi created a Change.org petition asking Egyptians to resist sexual harassment. Ending gender-based harassment and assault is the kind of revolution that every country needs.

You can also read similar cries for a revolution to end street harassment and assault in Egypt at CNN.com and The Daily Beast.

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Street harassment in Egypt and Lara Logan

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Image from CBS, taken moments before the Feb. 11 attack

Like many major cities around the world, there are high rates of gender-based street harassment against women in Cairo. A 2008 report by the Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights found that 83 percent of Egyptian women experienced it and 98 percent of foreign women.

During the weeks of protests against Hosni Mubarak’s regime, I observed conversations on twitter and among my Egyptian Facebook friends that public sexual harassment was pretty much gone. Everyone was banding together. A miracle? Was Egypt cured of this global problem? But then once Mubarak stepped down, I started seeing comments about sexual harassment again.

Most notably, tonight, I read about how a mob of men harassed and then sexually assaulted CBS journalist Lara Logan last Friday, as she went through the crowds with her team to do her job, report on what was happening. A group of women and soldiers rescued her and she flew back to the United States on Saturday. She was then hospitalized due to her injuries.

The amazing journalist Mona Eltaahawy is tracking what people are saying about the attack on Logan, including in the context of harassment in Egypt: http://twitter.com/monaeltahawy

At this point, many of us are waiting for more news about who the attackers may have been and I know there is great hope that they were outlier “thugs” and not members of the peaceful revolution. But, given that the number of Egyptian men who openly admit to harassing women (more than 60 percent) and the repeat occurrence of mass harassment and sexual attacks on women during Eid, it’s hard to say.

What we can say, is no matter who did it, sexual harassment and assault is terrible and should never occur. It not only negatively impacts the survivor but can also make all women who hear about it feel less safe as women in public places. Logan is brave for sharing what happened, especially given the victim-blaming directed at her (“what did she expect to happen” and comments about her looks), and I hope her attackers are brought to justice.

Update (2/16): Here are three articles about how ending gender-based violence needs to be the next revolution in Egypt! The first is by me, for Ms magazine and the other two are on CNN.com and The Daily Beast.

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Groper in a Build-A-Bear Workshop

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Birmingham City Centre
Image from yourlocalweb.co.uk

I remember about two years ago, I was 13 and in town with a friend. We went into a Build-A-Bear Workshop so she could get a present for her friend. We were looking at the sounds you could put into your bear when a man walked past us. My friend turned to me and said, “That man just squeezed my butt.”

I couldn’t believe what i was hearing, i was so shocked. In the end we just blew it over and thought nothing of it. We then went into Adidas. We went upstairs and split up to look around for a bit. I went back down and i found her and she said it happened again!

I went back up with her because i wanted to see who this guy was. We couldn’t find him so we headed back down. As we were going down the stairs, she’s like, “that’s him.”

I looked over and he was staring at us. We headed out of the shop and i looked back and he was watching us walk away. We quickly headed into primark, to the back of the shop to lose him. We watched the door and saw him walk in. It was easy to spot him as we was wearing all black and had dark skin. He headed straight up the escalators to the next floor and it was then that i realized he must have been following us the whole day. He was carrying a SuperDrug bag. We had gone into that store after it had first happened.

We ran straight out of the shop and on the next bus home. We just took it as a joke at the time and laughed it over. She took it so well and at the time we were both shocked but neither her nor i seemed bothered.

But at the same time, i was so angry at her at the time for not saying anything to the guy, or anything at all just letting him get away with it, but now i’m angry at myself because i know i should of said something or done something, so i’m partly to blame.

This angers me a lot now because we where so young at the time and it’s just disgusting. In the past I have been a victim of disgusting comment or behaviour from both boys my age and older men, and i’m only 15! It really upsets me that this kind of behavior still happens! Why should i have to feel unsafe going out, having to watch out everywhere i go?

– Hannah

Location: Birmingham City Centre, England

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.

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Harassed, groped, and affronted in front of her own apartment door

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I don’t feel safe at home anymore.

It was Monday, Dec. 20, when this happened. I had just gotten home from a night out with my friends and I walked up to my apartment. I was digging my keys out of my purse when I noticed a couple of guys walking up the stairs. I thought nothing of it as my neighbors are quiet and keep to themselves.

One of the guys started talking to me and I hadn’t gotten my key into the door, and I realized that at this point I was trapped between my living space and two guys I didn’t know. He was asking me if he could come ‘hang out’ and I said no. He touched me and tried to kiss me and at one point ran his hand over my crotch. He then grabbed my keys and opened my door. I went inside, shoved him and shoved my door closed.

I was in shock and I felt stupid that I didn’t call the police. I was too freaked out, and I was just glad that I got into my apartment by myself.

It’s been a few days and I still don’t think there’s enough water to wash all this disgusting off of me.

– DL

Location: Katy, TX (Houston Suburb)

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.

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Stop Blame

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One of the worst myths I encounter in my work to end street harassment is victim-blaming.

“Well, with the way women dress these days…” “What do you expect with the clothes you wear…”  “Don’t go out alone if you don’t want men to harass you…” and “What did you expect when you went out alone after dark?”

It’s such a big part of the conversation around street harassment that it takes up considerable space in my book about street harassment.

And what I find striking and alarming is the global nature of the victim-blaming, from India and Australia, to Brazil and Lebanon, to Egypt and the UK. And of course in the USA.

Stop Blame PosterEarlier this year, then, I was thrilled to read about Scotland’s television ad campaign that aired during the World Cup called Not Ever, which focused on countering the idea that a woman is “asking to be raped” if she’s wearing a skirt, drinking, out late, etc. I would love to see a similar campaign in the US during the Super Bowl!

Via @thefworduk, I just found out about a similar, brand new campaign in Wales called Stop Blame. While, like Not Ever, this campaign focuses on ending the victim-blaming of rape and sexual assault survivors and victims, the commentary is largely the same as the victim-blaming that survivors of street harassment (and any form of sexual harassment) face. It is an extremely important campaign and I applaud the Welsh government for producing it.

From StopBlame.org:

This campaign asks us all to challenge the endemic culture of victim blame.

Stop blaming the victim for rape and sexual assault committed against her.

Stop handing the rapist – the assailant – excuses that serve to make his behaviour more socially acceptable.

Rape is a crime in every sense of the word- emotional, physical, psychological and legal; the most intimate violation imaginable. No woman is ever ‘asking for it’.

Rape. Sexual assault. There is NO excuse. Let’s stop blaming the victim.

Yes!

Can every government around the world please have a similar campaign? They wouldn’t end victim-blaming, but they sure would help!

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