DUBAI: Some 50 Afghani women and men marched from Kabul University to the Afghanistan Human Rights Commission on July 14 in the country's first anti-sexual harassment campaign. Brandishing banners and placards that read, “We will not tolerate harassment,” “Islam forbids men from insulting women” and “I have the right to walk freely in my city,” the aim was to raise awareness in a country deemed the worst for women in the world by Amnesty International. According to Holly Kearl, writing in The WIP, many of the onlookers simply stood stunned, not knowing how to respond. “It is not common to see women and men marching together through Kabul, nor is it typical to hear people speak out on an issue like street harassment,” she wrote. “Despite the presence of a police escort, some men even heckled the marchers and called them names. Others were supportive and took fliers or started walking with the marchers.” Afghanis across the world chimed in to support the march. Tabasum Wolayat, a student at Middlebury College in Vermont, was quoted in the WIP article that she was both excited and nervous to participate in the march. “As an Afghan woman who is harassed on a daily basis in the public sphere, I thought, ‘it is me who has to fight for myself, my mother, and my sisters' safety, dignity, and rights.'” In the spring of 2011, Akbar founded the Kabul-based group Young Women for Change (YWC) to help increase the political, social, economic and cultural participation of women across the country. Through discussions at their first meetings, it quickly became clear that the sexual harassment women experience on the streets hinders their participation in all these areas. In collaboration with another group, Hadia, they decided to launch an anti-street harassment campaign that began with the march. “Women often remain silent when they are harassed and men believe it is normal to assault women,” YWC organizers wrote on the Facebook event page. Through their efforts they hope “sexual harassment will be recognized as a problem, discussed in the Afghan media, and men – rather than the victims who are women – will be held responsible for their disrespectful behavior.” ** Bikyamasr.com would like to thank The WIP for their great coverage of this event. BM
