Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Sri Lanka campaign reached 30,000 commuters in one week

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SHOW You Care Participant. Image via Sri Lanka Unites

A few weeks ago, I blogged about how Sri Lanka Unites in Colombo planned to to undertake an initiative called S.H.O.W You Care (S.H.O.W. = Stop Harassment of Women) to address sexual harassment on public transportation. Well, the campaign happened and this was sent by the organizers of the event:

“Hundreds of young men were given an informative training by Sri Lanka Unites and were split into teams of 3 with a mentor appointed to each team…

Starting Monday, June 25th, hundreds of young men boarded buses according to a previously formulated strategic plan. During the course of the campaign which lasted one week, over one thousand buses were covered, reaching over thirty thousand commuters in Colombo.

The young men, apologized to women in the buses for any harassment they have encountered in the past, providing them with information on legal recourse available to them if they experience such treatment in the future. Next they charged the men to take the responsibility to safeguard this right and the negative reflection on them, if they fail.

The response from the commuters on buses was astounding. Passengers on the buses, both male and female, were very responsive to the campaign. Many encouraged the efforts of the young men, asked for more information about the campaign and Sri Lanka Unites. The passengers were eager to engage in conversations regarding the issue of harassment on public transportation and were heartened by the efforts of the young men to attempt to resolve this problem in the city of Colombo.”

Total Number of Buses: 1225
Routes Covered: 49
Estimated Number of Commuters Reached: 36750

Well done!! It’s so important to engage men as allies and change-makers. This is not a “women’s” issue. It impacts all of us and we all have a responsibility to help end it.

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Full Video: Street Harassment in Brussels

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Belgian Sofie Peeters created a documentary about street harassment in Brussels for her school project and it is generating a lot of online conversations and articles. One point of contention is how she says immigrant men are the main people who harass her  (perhaps because it’s a high immigrant area?).

What’s fantastic is how the film seems to be prompting substantial offline action. Hollaback Brussels told me that soon, “in Mechelen [near Brussels] there will be undercover cops handing out fines to harassers.”

I also read that, “A new law is due to come to force this fall in Belgium which will fight street harassment. Victims of leering, honking or whistling and sexual harassment, will have to report a violation so the police can investigate.” I’m researching this law, so stay tuned for more information.

MRC TV posted a video segment that includes an interview with Peeters and her whole video (up to this point, only a two minute preview has been available online). There are English subtitles.

What do you think?

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“No one should make you feel uncomfortable”

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Farragut West Metro Station Anti-Harassment PSA

My fellow commuters looked at me like I was crazy when I stopped to snap a photo of this sign at the Farragut West Metro station in Washington, DC. But that’s because, as readers of the blog know, with Collective Action for Safe Spaces, I helped get this anti-harassment campaign going and I had not yet seen the PSA in real life. I can’t stop grinning! #SocialChange

If you’re in DC and experience or witness sexual harassment on the transit system, you can report it! One of the easiest ways is via this form: http://wmata.com/harassment.cfm

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Egypt: Protests against Harassment This Week

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"I Hope..." campaign against sexual harassment - Egypt
"I Wish..." Anti-Sexual Harassment Movement Event

Because sexual assault and street harassment continue unabated in Cairo, Egypt, protests against it are regularly occurring.

On Wednesday, the “I Hope…” (Nefsi) anti-sexual harassment campaign organized a human chain along a road and participants held up signs with anti-harassment messaging. In the photo on the right, the posters read from left to right: “Harassment degrades the male (harasser) before it degrades the female;” “I wish I could ride a bike without anyone bothering me;” and, “I wish you would respect me as I respect you.”

Right now, about 30 activists are wrapping up another protest on Tahrir Square.

The Safe Tahrir For Women Facebook Event page reads:
“On Friday 6th July, we’re asking everyone, men and women, to meet at Midan Talaat Harb at 1.30pm, ready to go to Tahrir to set up a safe place where women can join the protests in safety, and independent journalists can document our revolution.

We want strong people to act as guards to protect women from thugs who have been abusing them in the square. We want to catch these criminals who are destroying the reputation of the revolution, expose and shame them, and bring them to justice.

We want to say, “Enough, No!” to the terrible assaults against women which have been happening in Tahrir. We believe them to have been carried out by state-sponsored paid thugs: let’s catch them, and prove that the people of Tahrir are amongst the noblest in the world…

We want to set up a Safe Point in the square where women can join the revolutionary protest, and set up escorts to take women safely in and out of the square to the Safe Point. We want to spray paint and handcuff any thug who touches a woman, so he can be exposed and shamed for behaving like a dog. We’re asking every political group and each individual, as a human being: please help.”

On Twitter, people are posting photos and videos about the action and right now, it sounds like the male protectors out number the female protesters….but is it any wonder when the last protest against sexual harassment on Tahrir Square ended with the women being groped and chased away?!

I am traveling to Egypt for the first time next week. Many concerned family members and friends have been emailing me articles about the assaults and harassment against women, urging me to “be careful.”

It makes me angry that just because I’m female, just because every other woman in Egypt is female, we have to be careful. And it makes me angry that even if we are “careful,” that won’t ensure complete protection from groping, harassment and even assault. We must continue to live our lives; we shouldn’t be cloistered away.

I’m glad that activists are persistent with their outcry and action and I look forward to joining their actions next week.

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Youth in Jordan: “fed up with the way men harass women in public”

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Human Chain in Jordon. Image via Albawaba.com

Last week, youth in Jordan formed a human chain from Al Hussein Sports City to the Interior Ministry Circle to protest various gender-based crimes, including street harassment, the practice of forcing rape survivors to marry their rapist, and honor killings.

Via Albawaba.com:

‘This is the first time activists from different women’s initiatives get together for a demonstration… it was a spontaneous event and we only thought of it a few days ago,’ said Toleen Touq, one of the organisers of the “There is no honour in crime” campaign.

She noted that the demonstration came after the ‘accumulation of years of suppression, discrimination and insult against women in Jordan.’

‘We wanted today [Monday] to get people’s attention. The fact that passers-by read the banners we held means that our ideas were delivered and they would start to think about them,’ Touq, an artist, told The Jordan Times.

Among the activists was 19-year-old Rasha Abu Dajar, who said she was ‘fed up with the way men harass women in public.’

‘Last week I was leaving school after sitting for a Tawjihi exam and a man kept following me and saying dirty words. It was not until I got home that he disappeared,’ she said, stressing that ‘whatever women wear is not an excuse for men to harass and insult them.’

Iraqi Ali Mahdi noted that his sisters do not feel comfortable walking in the capital’s streets, saying that harassment is tolerated in Jordan and is often treated as ‘justified.’

‘I wanted to stand today in solidarity with every woman who is subject to daily public harassment,’ he said.”

Good for them!! It takes a lot of courage to speak out against gender crimes when they are so normalized and common that they’re accepted and the people who speak out are seen as being in the wrong. May we all be so brave.

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