Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Salwa says, “fight sexual harassment”

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Salwa

The Lebanese League of Independent Activists (IndyACT) launched a new Anti-Harassment Campaign on March 30. Salwa is their animated heroine and star of a new social media campaign and her motto is “Fight Sexual Harassment.”

“’Our campaign ‘Adventures of Salwa’ comes at a time when young women cannot find any legal or social deterrent for sexual harassment in all its forms in any public place,’ said Leen Hashem, the campaign’s coordinator in IndyACT. ‘It is no longer acceptable for our streets to become a place where we are unable to walk, and being silent about such practices shows our weakness, so Salwa will speak.’”

I love it!

In addition to this new form of activism, anti-harassment activists started women-only taxi services in Beirut last year and now a Lebanese feminist group The Feminist Collective announced plans to launch a ride-sharing service, giving free rides to women waiting for taxis in the street, in an attempt to “combat harassment in taxis.” (RightRides in NYC offers a similar service, late at night on weekends.)

I love reading about the activism going on around the world to make public places safe for women!

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“Don’t shy away – speak out!”

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Lebanese activists work on anti-harassment campaign, image Via Google

“Don’t shy away – speak out” is an anti-sexual harassment campaign launched by activists in Lebanon to address the problem in public places and the workplace.

“Raghida Ghamlouch, a social worker with the non-governmental Lebanese Council to Resist Violence Against Women, said Lebanon’s social fabric does not encourage victims to speak out.

‘Lebanese society is still macho and systematically places the blame on the woman,’ Ghamlouch told AFP.

‘Women are told it is their fault if they hitch a cab off the street, if they are dressed a certain way, if they come home late, and so forth,’ she added.

‘And for women who are adults, it is even worse: They are accused of having deliberately provoked the man.’

Another factor that silences victims are Lebanon’s unjust laws, which do not explicitly consider harassment a crime.

And a convicted rapist in Lebanon is let off the hook if he consents to marry his victim.

‘Even police mock women who come in to their station to file complaints of harassment or domestic violence,’ Hashem said….

‘If the complaints increase, perhaps then the authorities cannot discount it,’ Hashem said. ‘Perhaps then they will see it is a real problem.'”

So clearly the activists have their work cut out for them and their work is very much needed!

It’s crazy how world-wide victim-blaming for gender-based violence is, huh? From Egypt to India to the UK to the US of A and now Lebanon…I am tired of hearing that women are to blame!

Anyway, bravo to the Lebanese activists and may they help break down the culture of victim-blaming and empower women to come forward against harassers.

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Ladies only at all times

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Malaysia is launching “ladies-only” cars on the KTM Komuter train for the Sentul-Port Klang route. Naturally there are pink stickers and banners to designate the cars as ones that are “Ladies only at all times.” And unsurprisingly, this new initiative is in response to men sexually harassing women on the train.

Segregation on public transportation is not a novel idea. In fact it’s becoming a worn out one. Let’s place the blame and the action on the perpetrators, not the women who are the targets! So here are some novel ideas, brought to you by me, off of the top of my head:

  1. Bar men who harass women from riding the trains.
  2. Give men who harass women citations and make them sit in men-wh0-harass-women cars.
  3. Give all women who ride the train mace to use on men who harass them.

In all seriousness though, check out the subway anti-sexual harassment campaigns occurring in Chicago, NYC, and Boston, which do not place the blame or the onus to avoid harassment on women. Let’s have more of that!

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Oregon shrubbery harasser

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I am on a business trip and after I checked into my hotel this evening, I went for a run. I like going running new places. I was on a dead end street off of a busy one when I heard a man’s voice, “Hey girl, run girl, yeah you better run girl!” Then in an increasingly aggressive and louder tone of voice, he started yelling, “Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Oh yeah!”

My heart started pounding. It was an otherwise deserted area and a location unfamiliar to me. I turned around to see who he was and maybe confront him, but he was hidden from view behind shrubbery. As his aggressive tone sunk in a bit more, I felt frightened and I sprinted back to the main road and made my way back to my hotel, trying not to cry.

It may not sound like that big of a deal, but it’s really shaken me up, especially since I am now in an empty hotel room in a new state across the country from where I live. This incident has made me feel vulnerable as a woman out in public on her own and that makes me really mad. I have every right to be in public and not be harassed and frightened! I’m not going to cower and hide and not go for a run or travel by myself but in this society, I know that comes with a risk of being harassed or assaulted by scary, disrespectful men 🙁 It makes me so ANGRY!

Shrubbery where the harasser's voice was coming from

Anyway, I drove back there in my rental car and took a quick picture from my window. It’s only of bushes, but it marks the spot.

When will women be safe?

-holly

Location: Clay Street SW, Wilsonville, OR

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem. Include your location and it will be added to the Street Harassment Map.

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“Afghan scuzzball”

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In an Afghan-owned grocery store that sells Middle Eastern and South Asian products. I was shopping, minding my own business, and this absolutely scuzzy sleazy-looking Afghan guy, unshaven, unkempt, shirttail partly hanging out–you get the picture–says behind me “Hey, beauty, where are you going?” I ignored him, of course. He followed me through an aisle full of Islamic religious items, saying “Where do you live?” as I continued to totally ignore him. Then he sneaked up behind me when I was about to get in the checkout line, and said “Want to go with me?” as he bumped his whole body up against mine from behind.

So I wheeled around and shouted out loud “Leave me alone! Don’t touch me! Get away from me!” I had taken harassment silently innumerable times before, but this time I just snapped. He was startled and backed off. There were several people around, including a store employee, who pretended nothing had happened. I paid for my purchases and was leaving when I noticed he had hung around behind me, waiting. If he had tried anything else, so help me I would have broken his ugly face. I took a women’s self-defense class taught by Lauren Taylor in DC and learned how to inflict severe injury on harassers if necessary. Anyway, he didn’t follow me out of the store and the incident was over, except for the work I had to do within myself to recover from it.

I’m Muslim myself, and I’m seriously pissed off how the extreme sexual segregation in Islamist fundamentalist societies raises men in total isolation from women so that they never learn how to behave properly. There was nothing in that sicko scuzzball’s behavior but open hatred and aggression toward women. He assumed because I’m Muslim that I would meekly submit to harassment. I hope I taught him a lesson.

– JbH

Location: Herndon, VA

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem. Include your location and it will be added to the Street Harassment Map.

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