HarassMap: Ending the social acceptability of sexual harassment

Dear Young Feminist Wire members,

On this International Women’s Day, with the theme “A promise is a promise: Time for action to end violence against women”,  we’re excited to present you with an interview we recently conducted with an inspiring young feminist initiative out of Egypt. The initiative is called HarrassMap.

HarassMap works on combating sexual street harassment.  Sexual harrassment is a daily struggle for women (and even some men) in Egypt; from catcalls, to groping all the way to more extreme forms of sexual harassment like rape. But, four young women decided they had enough. Together, they co-founded HarassMap, an online reporting system that empowers victims to share an incident of harassment and map out where it happened. The information collected online is used by teams of volunteers who use facts and figures
to talk to people in their neighborhoods and convince them that harassment needs to stop. More than just a mapping tool, HarassMap wants to end the social acceptability of sexual harassment and they have innovative and new ideas to reach that goal.

While harassment is a daily occurrence, over the past months, there has been a surge in gang rape and violence in and around Tahrir square.  Women’s rights groups say these attacks have been organized by the regime to try to stop young women from claiming their rightful space to be at demonstrations and in the public space. But, the response from young egyptian women has been: “You will not stop us, you will not break us.This is our revolution, these are our streets.”

Listen to the Young Feminist Wire’s interview with Rebecca Chiao, co-founder of HarassMap: