As the month April is approaching and is celebrated as Sexual Assault Awareness Month talking about it will might aware many people worldwide and is effective as well.
Street Harassment comes as a different topic but is a part of Sexual assault. It’s defined as verbal, physical, or psychological harm done to women in public spaces. It is a unique overlap of the offenses of assault, stalking, and sexual harassment. The majority of street harassment is done by men towards women and may include unwanted commentary, leering, vulgar sexual and racist remarks, threats, catcalls, whistling, touching, groping, indecent exposure, public masturbation, and assault. Harassers may follow a victim in the street, block her pathway, stand uncomfortably close, or engage in other behavior that may cause the victim to fear violence and physical harm.
Street harassment has severe consequences for women’s psychological health in addition to fear or discomfort, victims may feel embarrassed, ashamed, confused, angry, disgusted, or guilty, among other responses, especially because street harassment often occurs in front of other people and thus may be additionally humiliating for the victim. Furthermore, women may justifiably fear that the harassment will go up to rape or other forms of assault.
The non-profit organization Stop Street Harassment has compiled a list of definitions of street harassment from scholars and community organizations. In 2008, Stop Street Harassment also collected definitions of street harassment from over 400 people through an informal online survey. The definitions from the latter survey are particularly important as they reflect the wide range of victims’ experiences while simultaneously illustrating common threads in most instances of street harassment, such as the behavior being unwanted, invasive, reflective of a power imbalance, done by strangers, and done with the intention or having the effect of making the recipient feel very uncomfortable. Another common pattern that emerges from this research is that women reported less frequency of harassment when accompanied by boyfriends and other men. Men may be less likely to harass women who are with other men. Although the protection of a male companion may be an effective way for women to ward off harassers, requiring male protection is a limitation on women’s freedom of movement and independence. It also perpetuates the myth of the “fairer sex” needing protection from men. Because street harassment is often considered to be a form of flirting, it’s more playful names such as “eve teasing” or catcalling.
Street harassment is a major problem but it isn’t being viewed as one. People have a misconception that it is something to brush off and taken lightly but in reality it causes a negative impact on people. The measures to reduce this problem and solutions of the problem. People who have been harassed feel insecure and uncomfortable which leads to them changing their behavior or even causes them lash out or become aggressive. In some way street harassment is limiting a person’s freedom and putting them in mental/physical strain. If street harassment is accepted, then other forms of violence against women are accepted. And that’s simply NOT OK. It goes beyond molestation to questions of power and patriarchy. Backed by the desire to create a society where street harassment is not tolerated and where everyone can enjoy equal access to public places, Hollaback! Kathmandu was officially launched through the collaborative effort of the college students of St. Mary’s High School and the organization Women LEAD Nepal.
This harassment creates negative impact in people’s life and as it is more faced by the women they need to go through different self-defense mechanism which is help full for them to protect their life. The extent of violence against women around the world today is shameful, and shows little sign of reduction. While, as a global community, it is possible to pass laws to criminalize the violence, law alone will not ask men to respect the opposite gender. How do we make it about a sense of responsibility?
And also, being a woman, we should be familiar with our rights and take action when we feel that our rights are being overstepped. Mostly in social media, it is obvious that women are often not given the respect that they deserve. So as active users of social media, we should stop the spread of cruel and uncivilized posts about women. It’s not just to raise awareness but also to help eradicate it.
Reference
- https://stopstreetharassment.org/resources/definitions/
- Vera-Gray, B. F. (2017, Jully 5). Street harassment. Retrieved December 14, 2018, from springer links: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10691-017-9350-3
- Mishra D, L. J. (2018, 9 22). Experience of sexual harassment in public transport among female health science students: A cross sectional study of Kathmandu, Nepal.
- https://thediplomat.com/2018/10/metoo-nepals-women-speak-up/