Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Weekly Round Up: June 13, 2010

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Weekly Round Up is back by popular demand.

Story Submissions Recap:

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

In the News:

Announcements:

Resource of the Week:

The Welsh Government’s excellent video “One Step Too Far” and the companion website.

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Eve Teasing Protection Day

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In Bangladesh, the number of young women taking their own lives to avoid harassment has prompted the education ministry to declare tomorrow (Sunday, June 13) “Eve Teasing Protection Day.”

“Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid said female students and female teachers are at present not safe on streets or in schools.

‘That is no exaggeration. In some places, schools have been shut down and exams delayed because of the problems caused by Eve teasing stalkers.

“Those who are teased do not like to go to school and sometimes guardians do not allow them to go to school for their safety and honour. So the drop-out rate of female students in many schools is increasing,’ Mr Nahid said.

‘Another negative manifestation of the problem is the tendency of parents to push underage daughters into early marriages so that they can escape Eve teasing. Parents think that if their daughter has a husband, they will be saved from the dangers.

‘It has become a vicious cycle.”

To learn more, you can read a BBC article about the problem of suicides and harassment in Bangladesh. Here’s info on eve teasing and you can read about the problem in India via Blank Noise. I’m in a hurry and couldn’t quickly find info about what actually is happening tomorrow for this day, so please share in the comments if you come across anything.

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Through a phone call

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I’ve had to deal with cat calling and staring since i was in my early teens, and i was ALWAYS extremely uncomfortable with it. So i had an attitude that i will NOT deal with the crap these creeps put girls through and pretty much…be a b*tch if anyone tries to hit on me or say disgusting things to me. i don’t like to be hit on. these days, being hit on mixed with some vodka can lead to something called rape.

im 21 now and has any of this stopped..nope! these men are thick headed and don’t GET IT. i am a 21 year old girl living in new jersey. i have an amazing boyfriend, a Marine and Iraq Veteran. you would think i have nothing to worry about regarding my safety. wrong!! the other night, when my boyfriend was away for the marines for a few days i got a weird phone call. it was a guy..and he was pretty much screaming at me saying he knows me and needs to know where i am exactly. i didnt know this guy. i told him i dont know anyone named anthony. and he said my full name, that he has a situation and he needs to know my location NOW because he needs to see me tonight. i told him if he has an emergency to call 911 not me and i hung up. i cursed a little here and there but that is me. i go into defense mode. i did not know him and i knew this because he had a “jersey shore guido” accent. im from NJ and i dont associate with those fake people thank you.

anyway i was scared…and my sister was next to me so she googled the number. it was a google proxy number..its confusing i think verizon has it too… that u can pretty much buy the phone number to only use it once and it cant be traced. so now i have a stalker???? and i guess he knows when my boyfriend is away. my full name and my phone number. since that night…i dont like to go anywhere without my boyfriend at all. i dont even like to go to my car in my driveway in the dark. SICK OF THIS.

– NJpink

Location: New Jersey

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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Belizean Culture

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I never experienced street harassment until I moved to Belize, Central America almost 9 years ago. I always thought that only very attractive women were harassed, as was my experience growing up and living in the USA. There is no ONE story of harassment in Belize. It happens to almost all women nearly everyday, from little girls in primary school uniforms to elderly grandmothers. We are constantly harassed on the street for the simple fact of being women.

Harassment takes all forms from some, “hey, beautiful!” to graphic descriptions of what men want to do to you, to touching and following. A particular Belizean practice is a “hissing” noise that sounds like how someone would call a dog. Many times the ones who touch or follow are drunk or under the influence of something else. One of the most disheartening things is that all my female friends can talk with “reasonable” men we know and be told how it makes us feel, ruins our days, etc. and we are told we should be flattered and that lots of women “like” it and respond positively to it. I’ve been told over and over, “it’s just a part of Belizean culture.”

It’s not uncommon to see police officers IN UNIFORM harassing women. Sometimes we chose to ignore, sometimes to speak up assertively, and sometimes use humor to diffuse. As a self-defense instructor working with women and girls, this concerns me. I thank you for this forum to share experiences, tips and ideas! Until street harassment ends, women will remain “second class citizens.”

– S. Renee Wentz

Location: Belize

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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Online radio show TONIGHT about street harassment

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Need ideas for dealing with street harassers? Listen to a Crime Prevention 101 online radio show tonight at 8 p.m. EDT focused on the topic.

Hosted by Susan Bartelstone, Crime Prevention Specialist

To Listen: http://www.voiceamerica.com/voiceamerica/vshow.aspx?sid=1306

Missed the live show? Available as a podcast and on iTunes: http://tinyurl.com/CP101itunes

It doesn’t just occur when women pass by a construction site or a group of men hanging out in front of a store.  Simply by being in ANY public place, women can be subjected to behavior that ranges from the merely annoying (catcalls, whistles, references to body parts) to the downright terrifying (public exposure, public masturbation, threats of rape).  It’s called street harassment and it happens pretty much all over the world.

This week, I’m interviewing national street harassment expert Holly Kearl, author of the upcoming book Stop Street Harassment:  Making Public Places Safe and Welcoming for Women for a definitive look at this problem.  She runs the website Stop Street Harassment and the companion blog where people from around the world submit their street harassment stories and where she discusses street harassment incidents that make the news.

Then I speak with Chai Shenoy and Shannon Lynberg, co-founders of Holla Back DC which is part of a worldwide grassroots organization that aims to empower people to build a community free from public sexual harassment and assault.  Trust me; they offer a very unique way to effectively “holla back” at your harassers.

You’ll also learn some awareness and prevention skills and simple verbal responses to street harassment that’ll increase your chances of staying safe in these situations, when I speak with self defense instructor Lauren Taylor, from Defend Yourself, who’s also based in Washington, DC.

IT’D BE A CRIME NOT TO LISTEN!

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