Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Watching Egypt

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I’ve never been to Egypt, but I have been fascinated by it ever since the sixth grade when we spent a substantial part of social studies learning about ancient Egypt. Today it’s more than the pyramids and the Nile which capture my interest. Each day I scan the news to see if there are any new developments regarding street harassment activism and legislation there.

The Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights (ECWR) has made street harassment, or public sexual harassment, as they refer to it, one of their central activism issues. As we talk about equal rights on an international level for International Women’s Day, I can think of no group I’d rather highlight than them.

Women never will achieve equal rights until they can access public places free of harassment and assault. Because of the tireless work of the ECWR, the Egyptian Parliament is considering new legislation that would ban sexual harassment at work, in public, online, and through mobile devices. This is groundbreaking legislation that will help change the cultural acceptance of harassment, deter the behavior, and give women recourse. I am eagerly waiting to see if it will pass. If/when it does, I hope it can serve as a model for the U.S. and other countries to follow.

How did the ECWR get to this point?

Because of the sharp increase in the number of women sharing their experiences with public harassment and a lack of societal awareness of the problem, in 2005 the ECWR launched an anti-sexual harassment campaign called “Making Our Street Safer for Everyone.” Volunteers are the driving force of ECWR’s campaign. They meet monthly to discuss ideas and plan initiatives.

Initially, ECWR conducted informal, voluntary surveys of over 2,000 people. An overwhelming number of female respondents said sexual harassment was part of their daily life. Eighty-three percent of women said men had sexually harassed them and 62 percent of men admitted to perpetrating sexual harassment. Fewer than two percent of women reported going to the police for help. ECWR published their results in a 2008 report “Clouds in Egypt’s Sky, Sexual Harassment: from Verbal Harassment to Rape.” The report garnered lots of attention in Egypt and around the world. Next, ECWR organized several forms of public awareness, including:

  • Distributing flyers with information like definitions of harassment, existing laws, how to file a police report, and how to campaign on the issue.
  • Creating public service radio announcements about sexual harassment.
  • Staging an anti-sexual harassment demonstration with 250 women and men on the steps of the Press Syndicate.
  • Holding press conferences and public awareness days at cultural centers, institutions, and hotels. Events have featured presentations and discussions on Egypt’s sexual harassment laws, women’s image in the media, the sociological and psychological impacts of harassment, group discussions on how to address the problem, self defense workshops, and live music and relevant films.

ECWR has been reaching out to youth, too, by training teachers and social workers to sensitize them to the issues of public sexual harassment and helping them know how to discuss the issues with their students. They recently released an animated five minute educational film and workbook for teachers to further help facilitate school discussions, including through painting and coloring. The resources teach children to trust others but to be careful and aware of inappropriate behavior and to learn the difference between appropriate and inappropriate language.

In addition to their (hopefully) pending success of working with Parliament to pass new legislation against sexual harassment, the efforts of ECWR has led to other types of activism and initiatives:

Anyone who is working to fight street harassment can learn a lot from the ECWR and their efforts. I will continue to watch their initiatives and outcomes. I hope that because of activists like them, one day women will have equality in public places in every country, and consequently, equality with men in general.

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Blank Noise & Safe Delhi Campaign

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“Every day, I attract unwanted attention from Indian men — even if I am drenched in sweat and sporting a parachute’s worth of cloth (for modesty of course). Cars slow down to pass me, roadside workers stop, and groups of guys get the giggles when I traipse by. Sometimes they whisper. Sometimes they ask for a photo. Sometimes they touch me. Once a man in the market, after staring for some time, threw a grape at my roommate’s chest and winked.

At first I thought it was because of my fair skin. But sexual harassment is rampant throughout India for all young women, regardless of race or nationality.”

This excerpt is from Riane Menardi’s piece in Politics Daily about street harassment, or eve teasing, in India. In the article, she shares her own experiences, covers how men’s violence against women is the fastest-growing crime in India, and discusses the specific problem of eve teasing.

Eve teasing is a big problem in India.

If you’re in India and want to do something about it, you can join Blank Noise to engage in on-the-ground activism. They hold street demonstrations, use art to challenge men’s domination of public spaces, and encourage action heroes to speak out against the harassment.

Also, today a Facebook fan of Stop Street Harassment alerted me to a Safe Delhi Campaign you can join if you’re in that region. They have a funny PSA about making public places safe for girls and women and lots of campaign components you can participate in.

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I’ve never felt so clueless about handling harassment

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This is a follow up to “Have a nice day…you crazy bitch!”

I was walking my usual path to the bus stop this morning and saw the car that the men who harassed me last month used. I looked through my cell phone photos to compare it to the actual car, and sure enough, they’re one in the same. The things that aren’t clear enough in the original photo were more clear to me in person, such as a college decal on the top of the rear window, and an apartment complex parking tag in the rear window’s lower right corner. I took closer photos so I could have a clearer shot of the license plate and decals.

A rush of anger ran through me. I want to do something about it. I thought about printing up the original story and having it on me so if I were to see that car yet again, I could put it on their windshield so they know that their rude behavior is now public. I thought about getting someone involved, but who? Who would I talk to about this? Would I talk to Key Elementary and get them involved, since these guys park near them (I assume these guys work nearby, maybe in the Arlington County Building), or would they say it’s not their problem since it’s not technically on their property?

I’ve never felt so clueless about how to handle harassment before! And I’m glad it was only the car I’d seen today, and not the actual harassers. I don’t know how I’d feel if I ever ran into those losers again.

– anonymous

Location: Arlington, 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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Street Harassment Activism in History

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Because the internet is helping fuel discussions about and activism against street harassment, it can be easy for those of us in a young generation to think this is a new issue no one has addressed before. But women have been speaking out against street harassment for a few decades. For women’s history month, I want to point out a few of them on the scholarly side and acknowledge their work.

  • In 1981, Micaela di Leonardo wrote an article called “Political Economy of Street Harassment.” It’s the earliest place where I’ve seen the term street harassment used in the context of men harassing women because of their gender.
  • In 1984, Cheryl Benard and Edith Schlaffer conducted the first – and really the only – study on why men harass women. They published their findings in  an article called “The Man in the Street: Why He Harasses,” found in the book Feminist Frameworks.
  • Cynthia Grant Bowman wrote an extensive legal piece on street harassment called  “Street Harassment and the Informal Ghettoization of Women,“ for Harvard Law Review in 1993.
  • Carol Brooks Gardner led the first full-scale study on what she terms public harassment by studying 500 people in Indianapolis. Her findings are published in Passing By: Gender and Public Harassment (1995).
  • In 2002, Deirdre Davis wrote about street harassment and African American women in the article “The Harm that Has No Name: Street Harassment, Embodiment, and African American Women” published in Gender Struggles: Practical Approaches to Contemporary Feminism.

Each woman paved the way for later research on the topics. I have a full list of articles and books I’ve come across that deal with street harassment on my website if you’re interested in learning more.

Thank you to each of these woman (and to everyone I didn’t list but who have worked on this issue) for helping us get this far in addressing the widespread problem of street harassment.

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Weekly Round Up Feb. 28, 2010

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Stories:

I accept street harassment submissions from anywhere in the world. Share your story!

In the News:

  • A truck driver in Frederick, MD, harasses a girl walking to school by throwing rose petals and candy at her.

Announcements:

Resource of the Week:

  • Know your Power Campaign from the University of New Hampshire — it focuses on the power bystanders have to make a difference when harassment and assault is occurring.
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