Safe Urban Space Committee declares women friendly zones all over the NCR.
Wednesday 25 July 2012
Texts the Posters which are used to declare and take over new zones.
By the way 5.30 am in the morning proved to be a really good time for undisturbed action - not many men out there, most of them sleeping and already enough light.
Public
Announcement
As of today this
area will be declared women friendly territory!
As most
public places are occupied by men and the authorities and the majority of men
failed to create a safe environment for women, the Safe Urban Space
Committee decided to create women-friendly zones all over the NCR in order
for women to be safe.
Men are still allowed to enter the
public space declared as women-friendly zones.
But all forms of violence and street
harassment are strictly forbidden in this zone.
Street harassment is defined as any
form of unwanted attention towards a woman.
In order to secure and to enforce the
street harassment- free environment:
· Men are not allowed to come in groups
· Every man has to be escorted by a
woman
· Men are not allowed to speak to
unknown women, only to the woman escorting them
· There is a total ban for men from
7.30pm to 7.30am.
In case of a violation of the
women-friendly zones, street harassment or any other form of violence against
women
Call the Police: 100
The Women Cell: 1091
The Anti-stalking and Anti-Obscene
Calling - Cell: 1096
change of strategy against street harassment
Street harassment is a strategy to scare women away from the public space
so they do not work or go to school, earn their own money, go into politics,
make decisions, claim property and take power.
Decades of women-focused victim-blaming approach did
NOT result in a decrease of harassement, rape, murder and other gender-based
violence. To the contrary, according to the National Crime Records Bureau numbers
are increasing. More women might report more crimes. But clearly they do not
feel more safe.
The plan is to take over the National Capital Region and declare more and more women friendly zones.
Newly claimed territory, the progress and development will be closely monitored.
Everyone can declare a women-friendly zone!
Everyone can be part of the movement and report how it goes and for how long it lasts on the facebook page or send their report and pictures to safeurbanspace@gmail.com
As response to
the failure to create a safe environment for women in public spaces the Safe
Urban Space Committee decided to create women-friendly zones in the NCR.
In the style of
the women-only compartment in the metro, these zones should create a safe haven
for women. But opposed to the women-only zones, the women-friendly zones will
still allow men in the public places. Sex segregation is obviously a step
backward not forward and does not contribute to the elimination of harassment
in the long-term. Segregation is a drastic measure, which can only be seen as a
temporary method, because other strategies by the authorities proved to be
unsuccessful.
The permanent
feeling of insecurity makes women follow unwritten rules to go out in public.
They are always
careful, they are made to think about what to wear (although not at all
relevant as a strategy to avoid harassment), avoid going out alone, go in
groups or with trustworthy male friend, avoid being out in the dark, avoid
certain routes, avoid to generate attention, change their body language and
attitude.
For all these
efforts women are neither rewarded by feeling safe, not are these restrains
publicly acknowledged.
It is time for
a new approach to address street harassment.
The focus needs
to shift towards the perpetrators.
As women´s
behavior has no impact on their safety, it is time to demand change in men´s
behavior.
The women friendly
zones do allow men to enter, but in order to secure and to enforce a street
harassment – free environment; these (half-seriously meant) opposite rules of what women follow in order
to be safe, apply:
- · Men are not allowed to come in groups
- · Men have to be escorted by a woman
- · Men are not allowed to speak to unknown women, only to the woman escorting them
- · No cameras, no mobile phones
- · If men are unsure if they are still creating an atmosphere of harassment, they have to option to be blindfolded
- There is a total ban for men from 7.30pm to 7.30am
Monday 23 July 2012
Safe Urban Space Committee
Safe Urban Space Committee declares women-friendly zones in the NCR!
It takes over public spaces by announcing that it is from now on a women friendly zone.
The aim is to create awareness about street harassment.
The approach is perpetrator -based and solely focuses on what men need to do/ need to stop doing in order for women to feel safe.
It recommends men to change their behaviour, the same way women tend to change their behaviour when they are out in public in order to avoid harassment. As this strategy fails, the only solution is that men do the opposite of what women do.
Women do not need to change! The mind set of men needs to change!
It takes over public spaces by announcing that it is from now on a women friendly zone.
The aim is to create awareness about street harassment.
The approach is perpetrator -based and solely focuses on what men need to do/ need to stop doing in order for women to feel safe.
It recommends men to change their behaviour, the same way women tend to change their behaviour when they are out in public in order to avoid harassment. As this strategy fails, the only solution is that men do the opposite of what women do.
- Women avoid going out after dark - in order to change that, men should not be out after dark.
- Women think about how to behave and how to dress - in order to change that, men should stop staring at women and if they cannot control that, they can get blindfolded.
- Women always try to avoid being out in the streets by themselves and coordinate to go in a group or with a male they trust - in order to change that, men should not hang out in groups and should be escorted by a woman, so that other women see that this man is under supervision of a woman who knows him
- Women are harassed by men who take pictures of them with cameras or mobile phones - in order to change that, men should not take cameras and phones with them.
Women do not need to change! The mind set of men needs to change!
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