I haven’t made time to do news round-ups over the past two months (!!) but finally, here are some global highlights of stories about street harassment, broken out by country.
Afghanistan:
“On one recent weekend in Kabul, I sat on a ratty couch in one of the city’s beauty parlors, one of the few safe spaces for women in Afghanistan. Squeezed between a pile of handbags and a five-year-old boy waiting for his mother’s curls to set, a dozen women turned to look at me.
“Repeat your question,” one of them commanded. “Have any of you been sexually harassed in public?” I asked. The parlor exploded in bitter laughter. “Get ready,” Mariam said to me. “If you ask each of us, you’re going to fill that notebook of yours.”
The types of public harassment they described ranged from sexually charged comments about appearance, indecent whistling, and physical attacks like groping, pinching, and slapping. In Afghanistan, this objectification and mistreatment of women is all too common. Research shows that nearly nine out of ten Afghan women are forced to endure such treatment. And there’s seemingly nowhere for them to go. Women are harassed and assaulted in quiet areas when no one else is around, but also in busy public places like bus stations, markets, shops, and parks, where there are plenty of aiders and abettors.”
Australia:
Congrats to our ally MP Fiona Patten whose proposed legislation passed. The legislation “makes it an offence to film people without consent or block access to footpaths, roads and vehicles within the zone around GP clinics, hospitals and other health services offering abortions.”
Brazil:
“How old are young girls when they are “first harassed” by men? Women in Brazil are reflecting on their own childhood experiences – and sharing these stories on the internet in big numbers….
The tag #primeiroassedio has been used more than 90,000 times, with women and girls sharing the stories of their first encounter with public sexual harassment. “At 11, I was heading to my dance class and a man touched my bottom,” tweeted one. “13 years old. I was going to the supermarket. Heard from a gentleman that I already had ‘beautiful boobs.’ #firstharassment,” said another.”
Costa Rica:
“Cruz was best known as the man who confronted another man for filming an upskirt video in San Jose. He was then stabbed multiple times two days later while walking through San Sebastian…The upskirt videographer has been caught before and even received death threats. Mr. Cruz spent weeks in intensive care and was only able to communicate with blinks and eye gestures. He passed away in the hospital. He is survived by his partner Karol Zúñiga who is expecting a baby girl in 12 weeks.”
So tragic! A life that never should have ended this way or for simply challenging street harassment. Our thoughts go out to his loved ones and friends.
Egypt:
“Uber has announced it will start collaborating with HarassMap خريطة التحرش الجنسي, an Egyptian anti-sexual harassment initiative founded in 2010, to train its drivers in how to “recognize, prevent and take positive action” against inappropriate behavior. The training, which will be compulsory for all the app’s drivers, will be particularly important for female drivers, according to Uber’s Cairo general manager, Anthony Khoury. “This partnership has been done as a response to the general education and training needed against sexual harassment here in Cairo,” he said. “Education is key, which is why this partnership – and the training that comes with it – is a crucial step in stopping sexual harassment.”
France:
“Stop – That’s Enough!” This is the tagline used by the French government in an active push to stop sexual harassment on public transport.
The government launched the awareness campaign on Monday together with rail operator SNCF and Paris transport chiefs RATP. It will see flyers handed out and a set of posters put up in key places around the capital, encouraging victims and witnesses to speak out with confidence about sexual harassment. The campaign also aims to remind the culprits that sexual harassment is punishable by law and groping can lead to five years in prison.”
India:
“What do women do when faced with sexual harassment on the streets [of Mumbai]? According to a recent survey of 1,000 women conducted by the We the People Foundation, 34 per cent glared or reacted verbally, 15 per cent asked bystanders for help and 35 per cent did nothing.”
Iran:
“TNS: What should be done then to counter the problem of street harassment? How can we ensure safety of women in public spaces in a broader sense?
HH: The fact is that veil isn’t the solution. The political will to end harassment is the solution because in the context of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the veil hasn’t actually helped. Today if a veiled woman walks in a street in Egypt, relative to the 1980s when I was there, she would face as much harassment as a woman wearing western style clothing… because most women are also wearing the veil anyway. So it no longer signifies class like it used to. It was adopted in a way to negotiate, but when everybody does it, the value of negotiation comes down.”
Italy:
“Over 10 million tourists are expected to visit Rome during the Holy Year of Mercy. Hundreds of security men in uniform are patrolling our streets in order to protect the citizens. But when it comes to a girl strolling all by herself, it appears that the stereotypical Italian male traits take precedent over any official role. It’s an attitude that may Italians are used to, but it could prove uncomfortable for foreign visitors. We filmed a young woman walking on the streets of Rome all by herself, and we asked women – both Italian and foreigner – what do they feel when comments come from law enforcement men (video by Fabio Butera)”
The Philippines:
“The #FreeFromFear social media campaign is part of the program that aims to resolve the problem of women experiencing street harassment. Through the campaign, women share their experiences to raise awareness and join calls for the end of street harassment. The incidents are very common in crowded spaces like public vehicles where people are sitting or standing very close to each other.”
Morocco:
“A man was reportedly left unconscious for more than two hours after being knocked out by a woman whose bottom he had pinched. CCTV footage taken in the town of Inezgane in Morocco shows the woman wearing yellow robes and standing next to a motorcycle when the man approaches. The balding attacker then moves close to the victim and appears to grope her bottom. Without missing a beat, the woman spins around and delivers a single punch to the back of the unidentified man’s head, sending him careering into a stack of rugs in a nearby shop.”
UK:
“What traveling with a man taught me about street harassment à ‘Not having to deal with this bullshit and all the other seemingly harmless infractions in between has made me realise just how pernicious it is, just how unfair. These past four months of freedom have taught me that what I accept as life in London is unacceptable. I’m not yet sure if this realisation, this newfound intolerance, is a good or a bad thing. All I know for sure is that I’m not looking forward to finding out.’”
UK:
“A group of teenage girls are taking action to stamp out groping at venues – in a drive to make live performances safe spaces for music fans of both genders. The five girls aged 15 to 17 – Hannah, Ava, Anna, Anni and Bea – launched Girls Against last month to raise awareness of sexual assaults at concerts. Their ultimate aim is to eliminate mosh-pit groping “for good”. In the short term, they want to see the perpetrators identified and stopped from entering future gigs. With several indie bands including Peace, Slaves and Wolf Alice backing the campaign, and more than 7,000 Twitter followers, the girls are already claiming practical results in their drive to create a zero-tolerance approach. ”
USA:
“In the window of a gallery in San Francisco’s Mission district, Mirabelle Jones paced the enclosed space in nothing but nude underwear. Razor blades suspended from balloons hung just over her head. In this pink-tinted, claustrophobic exhibition, the San Francisco performance artist stripped down and endured a barrage of real (recorded) catcalls. For eight hours. The idea behind the exhibition To Skin A Catcaller is to change what we see when we hear the term “catcall.”…
In its rawness and brutality, Jones’s performance showed the reality of street harassment that women encounter everywhere, especially in supposedly pedestrian-friendly cities like San Francisco or New York. This is why women have a newfound sense of urgency in the ongoing effort to effect change by, say, criminalizing street harassment and finding effective ways to prevent these all-too-common attacks on our personal safety. Misogyny in America is not a neat and tidy issue. It’s the kind of trauma that sticks with you and festers until you’re a little afraid to go anywhere alone.
Jones’s exercise in exposure speaks to the sad fact that most victims of a sexual assault do not file a police report. When people try to excuse catcalling as harmless or downplay it as a compliment, it only increases trepidation about seeking help for fear of being blamed or slut-shamed. The reality is that being sexually harassed makes women feel exposed, vulnerable, defensive. Catcalling is ultimately somewhere between micro-aggression and actual threat, the kind of imperative grey area that sometimes only art alone can translate.”
USA:
“Gay, bisexual, transgender and queer men need to elevate their own narratives and use the examples provided by feminism to stage sustainable interventions and engage in consciousness raising about eradicating toxic masculinity from the community once and for all.
The community has long prided itself on celebrating and enjoying an array of sexual proclivities, but not every unsolicited advance, or act of sexual aggression, is fun for every man. The only reason that’s hard to recognize is that we’re still being held back by the heterosexual masculinity that so much of queer culture has worked to reject. We must foster community that celebrates a healthy, pleasurable sexuality – one that respects bodies and boundaries.”
USA:
“”We do an annual Halloween rally every year to protest against street harassment and rape culture [in Santa Barbara, CA],” fourth year global studies and feminist studies double major and TBTN Co-Chair Ashley Morgan said. “It gets pretty hectic during the holidays; there’s a lot of grabbing and sexual comments that are very much unwelcome. We just want to make sure that people understand that’s not a joke, it’s not a compliment — it’s violence.”
The demonstration began at 11 AM at Harold Frank Hall, and students marched to the front of the UCen. Several groups of people touring campus looked on as participants chanted “Hey-Ho, Hey-Ho, Catcalling has got to go,” “Whistles are for dogs, not for women,” “However we dress, wherever we go, yes means yes, no means no,” among other statements.
“We’re having a safe space this Friday and Saturday from 10 PM to 2 AM in the Pardall Center,” Morgan said. “We’re going to have…advocates there as well as CAPS counselors for anyone; it’s specifically for sexual assault, but it’s also for anyone that’s feeling unsafe or triggered.”
