Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

16 Days: Day 6, South Africa

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During the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence (Nov. 25 – Dec. 10), Stop Street Harassment is featuring activists who took action against street harassment this year, one new country per day.

via Africa Review

Day #6: South Africa

After two teenagers wearing miniskirts were harassed and groped by a group of 50-60 men at a taxi rank, around 3,000 South Africans marched through Johannesburg in protest. The ruling African National Congress Women’s League organized the march to emphasize “that women had the right wear whatever they wanted without fear of victimization.”

During the march, Women’s Minister Lulu Xingwana warned that she would close down the taxi rank if such harassment continued. She also said, “The scourge of women abuse threatens to erode many of the hard-earned gains of the liberation struggle. It denies women their birth rights. It condemns them to a life of fear and prevents them from being productive members of society.”

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Marching in South Africa, Art Exhibit in Afghanistan

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March protesters, via Africa Review

Here are exciting updates about activism that took place today in South Africa and Afghanistan.

South Africa: Six weeks ago, two teenagers wearing miniskirts were harassed and groped by a group of 50-60 men at a taxi rank. This was reminiscent of a sexual assault on a woman wearing a miniskirt in the same area in 2008. That attack led to a huge march. Well, the most recent bout of harassment has too.

Via BBC News:

“Hundreds of South Africans have marched in Johannesburg [today]…The organisers said they wanted to end “patriarchal views still entrenched in parts of South Africa’s society”.

South Africa has one of the world’s highest incidences of rape.

Some men, particularly from traditional and rural backgrounds, believe women should not wear revealing clothing, says the BBC’s Pumza Fihlani in Johannesburg.

Minister Lulu Xingwana is going all out fighting for women's rights. PHOTO: TEBOGO LETSIE

The ruling African National Congress Women’s League said it had called the march to emphasise that women had the right wear whatever they wanted without fear of victimisation.

Several cabinet ministers and the governor of Gauteng province were amongst those taking part.

During the march, Women’s Minister Lulu Xingwana warned that she would close down the taxi rank if such harassment continued.”

It’s encouraging to see so many government officials involved, condemning the harassment. Via Mail and Guardian:

“”The scourge of women abuse threatens to erode many of the hard-earned gains of the liberation struggle. It denies women their birth rights. It condemns them to a life of fear and prevents them from being productive members of society,” said Minister of Women Lulu Xingwana.

Afghanistan: Young Women for Change (YWC) is hosting an art exhibit and poster sale today and tomorrow (2-5 p.m. each day) to raise money to create a safe, harassment-free Internet cafe for women (donate online). Many of the pieces of art and posters address the issue of street harassment in Afghanistan.

They’re also airing a new documentary on street harassment called, “This is My City too,” produced by Anita Haidary, YWC Co-founder and a film student at Mt. Holyoke College in the USA.

Via YWC - members of the group select the posters to display in the exhibition
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“You feel like you’re a piece of meat” – New PSA

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“In societies across the world, women are still openly harassed on the streets and in other public spaces. Leering, lecherous ogling. Unsolicited physical, or non-physical sexual contact. The world is watching. Join the movement and stop street harassment.” – Pascale Neuschäfer

Last year, South African filmmaker Pascale Neuschäfer created a powerful short film about street harassment in her community.You can read a Q&A with her about it.

Now she’s working on an anti-street harassment campaign. As part of it, she just launched a new PSA against street harassment. It was filmed during the SlutWalk in Capetown last year.

To get more of a feel for street harassment in Cape Town, here’s a story that was submitted to the blog past year.

Even more alarming, a few weeks ago, a mob of 50 to 60 men harassed and groped two teenage girls who were wearing short skirts.

When I mentioned this incident to Pascale, she said, “last year at that very same taxi rank, a young woman came to an even harsher fate, when she was stripped of her mini skirt (all recorded on CCTV cameras). Converse to this news stories: women in rural areas often face the same fate when they wear pants!”

Terrible. And those are just some of the many reasons why a campaign against street harassment is necessary.

Keep up the great work, Pascale! We support you.

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60 men harass, grope two teenage girls in South Africa

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2008 Mini-Skirt March in protest of groping - via Siasa Duni's blog

1/5/12 Update: “The two teenagers who were harassed and groped by a group of men near the Noord Street taxi rank last week laid charges of harassment and intimidation at the Johannesburg central police station yesterday.

“The girls said they could remember some of the men who attacked them, so we are hopeful of their prosecution. We don’t need to arrest all the men, we only need a few to make an example,” Matshidiso Mfikoe, a member of the mayoral committee for public safety, said.”

Via IOL News:

“Two teenagers were harassed and groped in public on Friday because one of them wore a miniskirt. The Sowetan newspaper reported on Tuesday that a 17-minute long clip of CCTV footage shows one girl, wearing a black miniskirt, emerging from a shop where a crowd of between 50 and 60 men had gathered. They follow her, groped her and took photos with their cellphones, the Sowetan reported.

She screamed at her tormentors and occasionally tried to punch them as they groped her. When her friend tried to help her she was also abused.

Johannesburg metro police intervened and accompanied the girl in the miniskirt home. A nearby businessman pulled the other into his shop. Metro police arrived a few minutes later and escorted her away.

Gauteng premier Nomvula Mokonyane also condemned the incident.

“We learned with a deep sense of sadness and anger about the abuse of two young women on December 30 last year, because of their clothing,” she said in a statement.

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the animal-like behaviour of those men involved – some old enough to be the young women’s fathers – where some males went as far as groping the young women.”

Look at this similar story, via a 2008 BBC article:

“Hundreds of South African women have marched to a Johannesburg taxi rank, where a woman was sexually assaulted for wearing a miniskirt. Nwabisa Ngcukana, 25, returned to where she was allegedly attacked by a group of taxi-drivers and street hawkers, who said she was indecently dressed.

“I came here to show the guys that I’m not scared of them – to face my demons,” she told the BBC.

The taxi drivers shouted insults at the women, some of whom wore miniskirts. Some shouted that South African women were being given too many rights….

The authorities have appealed to the taxi-drivers’ association to help find those who allegedly assaulted Ms Ngcukana and other women in recent weeks.

While some South Africans have said it is against local culture for women to wear miniskirts, the National House of Traditional Leaders last week said that women often wore short skirts in traditional ceremonies.”

What chilling behavior and what scary experiences for the young women. The silver lining is the police actually reacted and intervened in the most recent incident, as did a bystander businessman. But what will happen to the harassers and gropers? Do they just get to go on their merry way, ready to harass and grope another young woman the next day? Until there are more prevention efforts and punishments in place, what will change?

And is it time for another miniskirt march?

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Anti-street harassment film out of Cape Town, South Africa

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This important new anti-street harassment video was created by filmmaker Pascale Neuschäfer. She lives in Cape Town, South Africa, and she agreed to answer a few questions about herself and the film.

Stop Street Harassment (SSH): Please tell me a bit about yourself and why you decided to make this film.

Pascale Neuschäfer (PN): I am a filmmaker and an actress and I made the promo with the help of my partner and some friends who are interested in gender rights issues and who feel comfortable speaking up about it. I became frustrated not only at the frequency with which incidence of street harassment happen, but at the fact that women are mostly told to ignore it. This included many of my friends (both women and men) who couldn’t see the inherent harm in catcalling. I think this attitude stems largely from ignorance (South Africa having one of the highest rates of gender-based violence in the world, including rape, corrective rape and murder) and from fear: the fear of a public humiliation, as well as the fear of augmented violence when confronting a harasser.

SSH: How has street harassment impacted your own life and what’s inspired your decision to speak out against it?

PN: A defining moment for me was being harassed by a 15 year old boy, who responded very aggressively when I confronted him about his behaviour (I posted this story on your blog a few months ago). Making the 30 second fictional short was an outlet for me, a woman to make the statement: women hate it when men harass us! There is nothing polite, or politically correct about it, because there is nothing polite about being harassed and I feel very strongly that women should speak up. However, I also think there are many women in the world who often cannot speak up (particularly in patriarchal societies like South Africa, where women are brutally murdered and raped, simply for being openly gay) and I think it’s important to engage in open debate about these kind of issues. I also believe that street harassment is just the tip of the iceberg to other, violent gender-based crimes.

SSH: Do you have any future plans regarding street harassment and film?

PN: I  am hoping to get funding to make full-length documentary and to start a media campaign (including Public Service Announcements which highlight how violence escalates) , because I have found that even just speaking to my friends (men and women) has had a positive effect on the way we now either DO respond (if we didn’t previously), or in the way in which we CHOOSE to respond.

SSH: Wonderful. You’re doing amazing work with your film and I look forward to seeing what you do next!

For others who are interested in filmmaking and documentaries, check out more anti-street harassment documentaries and films and find tips for making your own!

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