{"id":2780,"date":"2015-11-11T14:36:00","date_gmt":"2015-11-11T10:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/?p=2780"},"modified":"2015-11-11T16:07:49","modified_gmt":"2015-11-11T12:07:49","slug":"stop-telling-women-to-smile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/stop-telling-women-to-smile\/","title":{"rendered":"Stop Telling Women to Smile!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cStop telling women to smile!\u201d exclaimed Tatyana Fazlalizadeh in the face of street harassment, or at least, that\u2019s what her project for street harassment is called.<\/p>\n

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh is an American New York based artist and activist, who uses street art as a way to protest against \u201cgender based street harassment,\u201d among many other causes. Other projects of hers include Get Angry and The Red Wall.<\/p>\n

Fazlalizadeh\u2019s art work for the Stop Telling Women to Smile project consists of portraits of real-life, every day women, whom she had interviewed photographed, and drawn, portrayed above a phrase that said women want to say to their harassers.<\/p>\n

Some of these phrases include \u201cDon\u2019t call me baby,\u201d \u201c My outfit is not an invitation,\u201d \u201cYou are not entitled to my space,\u201d and several others.<\/p>\n

In a video on the Stop Telling Women to Smile project website, Fazlalizadeh explains, \u201c I started (the project) because I wanted to talk about my experiences with street harassment, it was my way of speaking back to my harassers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project, which started in 2012 in Brooklyn, has now expanded to Paris and Mexico City, and is still on going.<\/p>\n

\u201cI try to put (my posters) wherever I can, because I realize street harassment doesn\u2019t happen in one community, it doesn\u2019t happen in one neighborhood, it happens everywhere,\u201d said Fazlalizadeh in her video.<\/p>\n

\u201cSexual harassers may have low self-esteem, or a desire to showcase their ego and manhood to their friends, however, there could be many other underlying causes, like if the harasser himself was harassed when he was younger,\u201d said Resha Erheim, M.Ed, Personal Counselor at the American University in Dubai.<\/p>\n

According to a US based study that was conducted by the non-profit organization Stop Street Harassment, \u201c65% of all women had experienced street harassment … 23% had been sexually touched, 20% had been followed, and 9% had been forced to do something sexual. Among men, 25% had been street harassed (a higher percentage of LGBT-identified men than heterosexual men reported this)\u201d<\/p>\n

In the UAE, little to no information is provided on the exact number of sexual harassment and rape cases reported in the past few years.<\/p>\n

However, out of 20 female Dubai residents interviewed, 18 reported being sexually harassed. The degree of harassment varied from \u201ccat-calling\u201d to stalking or un-wanted touching.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think people need to talk about street harassment more in this region,\u201d said Nour (19), a student in the American University in Dubai (AUD) \u201c I feel like girls think its shameful to speak up about being harassed, even to their parents, and that\u2019s an attitude we need to change, or else we will never solve the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem is that if you\u2019re walking in the street, and someone hits on you, you\u2019re a coward if you walk away silently, and you\u2019re a tramp if you talk back to them,\u201d explained Stefanie (20), a student in the American University of Sharjah (AUS), \u201cI think maybe the issue is with the social expectations set for girls, if we were all raised to believe that we had the right to wear and behave however way we want, without being pestered, then together we can slowly solve the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s starting to feel like being whistled at or yelled at when walking in the streets is inevitable,\u201d said Hala (19), a student at AUD. \u201cWhat\u2019s worse is that it became something we accept, even though it makes us uncomfortable,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast week, I came back to the dorms at night after a party and I was wearing a dress. The walk from my car to the dorms gate felt like I was walking through hell because of all the terrible things that some guys said to me,\u201d said Mayar (21), another AUD student.<\/p>\n

When shown Fazlalizadeh\u2019s Stop Telling Women to Smile street art, the students greeted it with positivity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really respect how she gave all those women a voice,\u201d said Stefanie, \u201c I think she understood that most of the time its very hard to speak up against your harassers, and I think this will empower girls to stand up for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other students felt that Fazlalizadeh\u2019s project only gave a female face to street harassment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know it\u2019s hard to believe, but men get harassed on the streets as well, and sometimes very brutally,\u201d said Abdallah (21) an AUD student, \u201c In some parts of middle east, a man might get beaten up for walking or speaking in a way that is not \u2018manly.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c It\u2019s almost 2016, we shouldn\u2019t still have to put up with the slurs and gestures we put up with. We need to be treated like humans, not objects, and restricting our own freedom is not the answer to that problem,\u201d said Mayar.<\/p>\n

\""My<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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