Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Hey handsy guy at the club, look out for Salwa!

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During my college days, I stopped going to clubs with my friends because of the inevitable harassers. Just because someone is dressed up and out with friends does not mean it’s okay to rub up against them, grab them, follow them, or make them feel uncomfortable! I know many other women face this unwanted attention/harassment/and even assault too.

That’s why I’m happy to see that my favorite Lebanese feminist collective Nasawiya produced a new video about their heroine Salwa and how she stopped a sexual harasser at the club. Then, when she goes to report the harasser to the police, she stops the police officer who harassed her! (Sad but true, some police are harassers).

How have you dealt with harassers at a club or bar?

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Rally against rape in Beirut

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Hundreds of people rallied in Beirut, Lebanon, today to protest rape and sexual harassment and the weak laws against such crimes.

The rally was organized by Nasawiya, a feminist collective that also runs The Adventures of Salwa campaign against street and sexual harassment. View images.

Via The Daily Star:

“Neither marital rape nor domestic violence is currently outlawed in Lebanon, and sexual harassment in the work place is also not criminalized.

Furthermore, according to Article 522 of the Lebanese Criminal Code, if a man rapes a woman, his sentence will be repealed if he marries his victim.

"We have nothing to lose but our chains!"

Farah Salka, of feminist collective Nasawiya, said the current Lebanese laws regarding sexual violence were “archaic” and that the time for change had come.

“We are also asking all police, municipalities, and Parliament to take rape and sexual harassment seriously,” she added. Activists will meet at noon outside the Interior Ministry, and march toward Parliament.”

I applaud them and send strong thoughts of solidarity.

It’s exciting to remember this is just one of several large-scale rallies organized women against sexual violence and harassment. In the past few weeks, thousands of women rallied in Egypt and as did hundreds in Israel.

As the poster above says, “We have nothing to lose but our chains” when people protest their own oppression. Let us all vow to raise our voices and protest oppression, be it our own or be it the oppression of others.

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Dancing toward change in Israel

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Image via Jerusalem Post

Remember the ultra-Orthodox Jewish men who called an 8-year-old a whore as she walked to school in Israel? That terrible incident illustrates how many men treat girls and women across the country.

In response, on Friday, January 6, a group of 250 women from  Bet Shemesh held a Flashmob in the city square.

“[They] decided to raise their voices against the exclusion of women from the public domain by holding a mass public dance in the city square. The women, residents of the city from all ages and sectors, religious, traditional and secular, gathered together in a flashmob dance, in the city square and started dancing towards a change.” – via YouTube


Via the Jerusalem Post:

“Dance organizer Miri Shalem said that the event was organized in protest of the violent extremist actions of “the group of crazies,” and to show that there is another side to Beit Shemesh. “Today the women and girls demonstrated our unity in public and I hope we will continue to do this in the future in order to improve our city,” she said.”

“We wanted to express our feelings in a unique way and highlight a different face of Beit Shemesh,” said Brenda Ganot, a flashmob organizer and Beit Shemesh resident.

“We love our city and want peaceful coexistence between the different sectors of the population; however, we will not sit quietly and let a group of crazy extremists set the tone for our city.”

Way to go!

(H/T to Hollaback for the link to the video)

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Video: Street harassment in Yemen

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One of the most common “arguments” I hear when it comes to street harassment is that it wouldn’t happen if women didn’t dress “a certain way.” When I give talks, I specifically point out studies that refute this, such as how in Yemen more than 90 percent of women experience street harassment, yet women are very modestly dressed, if not completely covered, when they are in public places.

Last year Ghaidaa Al Absi launched The Safe Streets campaign to address the problem of street harassment in Yemen and they just released a video about the issue.

It’s in Arabic and even if you don’t know the language, the opening powerfully shows how street harassment is not about what women wear. The video also brings up the complicated contexts for street harassment: sometimes a street harasser is a harassment victim too, but he is harassed for different reasons. Can pointing out the parallels of harassment to harassers help stop the cycle?

Al Absi sent me the following via email about the campaign and video:

“Safe Streets Campaign for anti-sexual harassment in the streets launches the opening ceremony of broadcasting a short movie called “Safe Streets” that is done as an activity for the campaign aims to reduce the rate of sexual harassment in the Yemeni streets.

The campaign aims to monitor cases of harassment and encourage community and women in particular to break the silence, and talk about what is happening to them on the streets in order to put pressure on decision makers to declare solutions of this serious social problem.

This short movie aims to present the problem of sexual harassment, that many Yemeni women are facing it in their daily life in the streets, and how the harasser of the woman can be a victim of harassment in the street too, so then he can understand how women feel.”

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I’m an Egyptian Girl

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Two new films about street harassment in one day! The first one was from Pakistan, here is one from Egypt:

From the filmmaker: “A short movie that we worked on against sexual harassment and verbal abuse. We just wanted to reach out to all the women and young girls who ever got harassed and hopefully this short movie makes a difference. We only hope for a better environment and safer surroundings.”

Readers in Egypt: share your street harassment stories at HarassMap.

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