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“Live up to the bravery you find inside you”

April 11, 2016 By BPurdy

Britnae Purdy, Past SSH Blog Correspondent and Anti-Street Harassment Week Manager

Switzerland, Image from the author
Switzerland. Image via the author

This past summer, at age 23, I experienced complete freedom of movement for the first time. I have been driving for eight years, living out of the family home for six – but because I am a woman my ability to move freely though the world on my own time schedule is often limited by either overt threats or an internalized sense of fear. You’ve heard them – get home before dark. Don’t wear that skirt downtown. Text a friend when you arrive home so they know you’re safe. Don’t walk alone. Not exactly conducive to a busy schedule.

I didn’t entirely know what to expect when I moved to Switzerland to pursue an internship opportunity at the World Health Organization. I applied on a whim – I was newly graduated and terminally unemployed. In no realm of reality did I expect to actually land it, and when I did I surprised myself even more by accepting immediately. The next couple weeks were a tizzy of navigating the visa system, booking flights, finding housing, and shoving as much French into my brain as I could.

I was nervous the entire time. Could I actually do this? Was it safe? All the travel materials I read assured me that Geneva was a safe place – but of course, my US hometown is supposed to be as well. In today’s world, safety seems more and more subjective. I’m not a daring person – why on earth would I think I could do this?

The first time I rode public transportation in Geneva, two days after arriving, was to a work function that ended up keeping me out long past dark. I was literally shaking the entire ride home, though the city’s busiest stops, where I briefly got lost switching lines, and to my apartment on the far, far side of town. I would never do this on the Washington DC Metro.

Not a single person bothered me that night. Nor the next night. In fact, throughout the three months I spent in Geneva I was not verbally or physically harassed once.

Slowly, I realized that the fears I learned in the United States were not necessarily universal. In the US, and indeed many places of the world, public spaces are  often not welcoming of certain genders, races, and other identities. It’s difficult to reconcile this against the image of America that I love and am proud of – but undoubtedly, some of these fears and experiences had become ingrained in my mind.

My new sense of freedom was a delicious thing. I took the usual precautions of course – assault and other crimes do happen everywhere, after all, but I never felt particularly in danger because of my gender. If I needed something from a store across town, I went. If I stayed late at work and missed the bus, I walked. If I wanted to visit a tourist site across town on my day off, I didn’t feel the need to drag a friend along. When temperatures climbed to 100 F I wore a mini-skirt and went out anyway.

Eventually my new bravery led me to take trips outside of the country by myself, as well as solo train trips to all four regions of Switzerland. Where I once was a timid traveler who often avoided social situations due to extreme anxiety, I now relished the process of picking, planning, and enjoying a trip all by myself. My confidence at work flourished. My French improved; my German went from nonexistent to…well, barely existent. If I ran across a problem I felt emboldened and competent to sort it out on my own. I felt more at home in the world.

Switzerland. Image via the author
Switzerland. Image via the author

I’m not saying this to tout Switzerland as the best country in the world, or start some kind of comparison between countries. What I do know is that my time in Switzerland shook up my deeply engrained sense of how I could travel and move as a woman. I now firmly believe that solo travel – whether domestically or abroad, long or short – can open up so many possibilities and lessons you might not even see coming.  If I hadn’t pushed through my fears of traveling alone, I might never have known that such a freedom was possible. I’m ten times less timid than I was before I took a chance and jumped on that plane.

In today’s world, travel can be scary – even more so if you’re a solo female traveler. Be smart, be informed, be precautious, be nervous – but go anyway.

Soak it in. Bring back what you learn. Grow in ways you didn’t think you could. Demand the world acknowledge you as a full human being despite any differences you may have from the status quo. Live up to the bravery you find inside you.

Britnae Purdy is a health professional and freelance writer currently in Durham, NC. Her travel blog, Nerding Abroad, focuses on promoting pragmatic, feminist, and yes, nerdy travel.

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Filed Under: anti-street harassment week, Stories, Street Respect Tagged With: switzerland, travel

NPR Looks at Street Harassment Globally and Locally

April 9, 2016 By HKearl

What’s street harassment like around the world?

This was a question that Malaka Gharib at NPR wanted to have answered after she experienced street harassment first-hand in Egypt and the USA. I connected her to women I’d worked with, from Afghanistan to Japan, from Nepal to South Africa, and they shared their stories with her. She also kindly interviewed me and gave a shoutout to International Anti-Street Harassment Week.

The article went online on Wednesday. Here’s one story example:

India: “A growing trend is pictures being taken on mobile phones”

Women and girls are constantly stared at, groped in crowded spaces and on public transportation, catcalled, whistled and commented on regularly. A growing trend is pictures being taken on mobile phones without permission by strangers. Women and girls, through experience, either avoid certain areas, do not stay out late, limit their movements in public or wear loose clothing.

Public spaces should be safe and accessible to all, especially women and girls. It is crucial and essential if we want them to fully participate in society and the economy. If not, then choices and movements are restricted — and that in turn has a negative impact on society.

ElsaMarie D’Silva, 42, founder and managing director of Safecity

The article led to over 1000 comments to the article, on Facebook, on Twitter, and today, there’s a follow-up story highlighting some of the stories shared, from Canada to Italy to Switzerland. For example:

Switzerland: “He pushed me up against a wall”

I was 14 in Endingen, Switzerland. I was walking to school when a man working on street construction grabbed me. His friends and colleagues immediately surrounded us, laughing. He pushed me up against a wall, felt me up and tried to pin me for a kiss. The men pressed closer. I got away. I told people. I told my parents. Nobody did anything. It was kind of funny, they said, and boys will be boys. — Stephanie Nakhleh via Facebook

The amazing Noorjahan Akbar, founder of Free Women Writers, and I joined Malaka and other NPR staff in studios on Wednesday to create a Snapchat video too.

The NPR team + Noorjahan and Holly
The NPR team + Noorjahan and Holly

I’m so grateful to Malaka and her team for providing space for women’s stories on the huge and respected platform of NPR.

Related, the Kojo Nnamdi Show had a segment on street harassment on Monday, featuring Jessica Raven Executive Director, Collective Action for Safe Spaces, Arthur Espinoza, Jr. Executive Director, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and Brianne Nadeau Member, D.C. Council (D-Ward 1). YES!!!

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Filed Under: anti-street harassment week, News stories, Stories, street harassment Tagged With: Egypt, India, NPR, switzerland

Silent harasser in a Switzerland hostel

January 11, 2011 By Contributor

This actually happened in a hostel rather than on the street. I was siting in the common area and was the only one there. I had the TV on but wasn’t facing it as I was using my laptop at the time. A man then came in and sat opposite me on one of the other couches. At first I thought nothing of it until I realized he wasn’t facing the TV at all – his eyes, and his whole body was directed towards me.

At this stage I thought he could just be trying to be social and get my attention in a friendly way but as I had been travelling on my own for the past 9 weeks, I was growing wary of male attention whether genuine or not. I put on my headphones so he would get the idea I wanted to be left alone.

That seemed to work and I’m not sure where his eyes were directed then as I wasn’t interested. His friend then came in and they had a conversation – it was clear by this guys loud voice and stupid “listen to me impress this girl” answers that this was no normal conversation but both guys got up and left to start cooking dinner.

Thinking that would be the last of it I pulled the headphones out of my ears and continued with my email. Less than 5 minutes later however, he was back. There were three large couches and one sofa in the common area. As I was alone I’d put my laptop bag and hand bag on the seat next to me thinking no one would need the seats. The guy then comes up to me, takes both bags one by one and throws them on the floor (yes – ‘throws’ and I thought he was trying to impress me) and sat right beside me.

I was too suprised by what had just happened to turn and yell at him, which now I think back was probably a good thing as my non-reaction was probably not what he ‘d been hoping for. I ended up picking the bags up and moving to the other side of the room. I think at this stage he’d become annoyed with me more than anything. When his friend came back and asked if he wanted to eat downstairs he said, head and eyes fully on me and nowhere near his friend, “No, I think I’ll just stay here”.

His friend, a bit confused, shrugged his shoulders and left without him. I then moved to another room and sat with my back to everyone else – a bit anti social but I had a fantastic view out the window and a heater to lean against. As expected, the man followed me in and sat a few tables behind. I gave up at this point – as long as I couldn’t see him staring he was welcome – the back of my head is not particularly exciting!! For that matter neither is the rest of me – I was still dressed in my winter hiking gear!

The problem with this encounter is that who was I suppossed to report this too? I don’t think the hostel staff would have done much but shrug it off, or jokily tell the man to leave me alone. It’s not something enough people take seriously and had me thinking also – if I was the hostel stff what would I or could I have done? He didn’t say anything innapropriate or do anything that could be considered ‘harrassment’ but he still succeded in making me feel extremely uncomfortable!

– Anonymous

Location: Switzerland

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem. Find suggestions for what YOU can do about this human rights issue.

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Filed Under: Stories, street harassment Tagged With: hostel, hostile, street harassment, switzerland

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