Are streets safe for girls? — Assembly

Girls from Brazil, India and the U.K. explain how street safety has affected their lives and education.

Sukirti Agrawal has always dreamed of seeing her country by night. “Many places in India have a different scenic view in the evening and are known for their nightlife,” the 23-year-old shares. “But I haven’t seen it. I cannot travel at night because I am scared.”

For young women like Sukirti, fear of gender-based violence in public spaces like streets, parks and buses affects their ability to travel freely and commute to work and school. Around the world, girls and women walk less than boys and men due to safety concerns; 84% of women report experiencing street harassment before the age of 17. “Lack of street safety means I am unable to live how I truly imagine,” Sukirti says. “Even though I have a black belt in karate, I know that it will be extremely hard — if not impossible — for me to defend myself against a strong man if he approaches me in public.”

We asked young women from Brazil, India and the U.K. to explain how street safety has affected their lives and education.

Renata Carlous Daou, 20, Brazil

Do you feel safe as a young woman walking alone in your community?

In my hometown of Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state in Brazil, I don’t feel safe or comfortable walking alone — especially at night. Not only am I afraid of regular crimes, such as robbery, but I am also afraid of being catcalled, harassed or kidnapped. I have heard of deeply disturbing things happening in Manaus, such as flash kidnapping where they take you only for a few hours, enough time for your family to give the kidnappers the money to release you. I am currently living in State College, Pennsylvania, which is a much smaller city than Manaus. Since the majority of the population is college students I rarely feel threatened walking alone at night, but I still take care and avoid being alone in the dark since you never know what can happen.

How does street safety affect your life and the decisions you make?

It affects how I go places. If I want to go running in Manaus, I have to call a friend or a family member so I don’t go alone. In my university many times I want to do late studying at the library and usually I have a friend that I trust to walk me home. No matter where I am, I always cross the street if I realize I am walking alone with a man close to me. When I lived in São Paulo for six months, I would choose one path to work instead of another because I didn’t want to pass a building that had a bar in front of it where men were always drinking.

What safety precautions do you have to take in order to feel safe in public?

Both in my hometown and my university, we girls try to look out for each other. There have been many occasions where we’ve shared our locations while we were out on dates because we were nervous to be alone with a guy we barely knew. When we used to go to parties, we would always walk there and back together. If we were drinking anything, the rule was simple: Never put your drink down or someone might spike it. Sometimes my friends would throw a drink out even if they never put it down because they were suspicious of men bumping into them.

If I’m walking the streets alone at night in the U.S., I always have someone on FaceTime with me. This way if something happens, there is someone on the phone with me that will know what happened. In Brazil, this is more tricky; if I do that I am at risk of someone stealing the phone. To solve that, I simply don’t walk alone at night.

“In my hometown of Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state in Brazil, I don’t feel safe or comfortable walking alone — especially at night. Not only am I afraid of regular crimes, such as robbery, but I am also afraid of being catcalled, harassed or kidnapped.”

— Renata Carlos Daou

What are some similarities and differences between your experience of street safety in the U.S. and in Brazil?

In State College, I feel more threatened at the dorms and parties than on the streets. I feel like it is harder to trust the men around me in college. In the U.S. one in five women is a victim of sexual assault in college and in 90% of cases the assaulter was a person they knew; all the time in my university we get e-mails about sexual assault happening in dorms. This is one of the reasons that I try to stay alert even with men that I consider my friends.

In Manaus people my age have known each other for a long time, so I always felt safe being alone with boys my age from my school and social circle. In Brazil, I feel more threatened by strangers on the streets, especially because attacks against women increased 39% in Amazonas last year. Many of these cases happen because of men reacting poorly to being rejected by a woman. I have always heard from my family members and friends in Brazil that if you are rejecting a guy who is hitting on you on the streets, you have to be firm but polite. Even if they are being inappropriate there is a possibility of them getting violent if you are rude.

Can you share about a time when you felt unsafe on the streets or in a public place?

One time I was alone and it was at night. I was walking on the street right in front of my house with my dog and a man came up to me, a little bit too close for my liking, and asked me if I was going to be the one he was going to take home tonight. Considering I was alone, I was extremely scared of him. I tried to do anything to get away, so I just picked up my dog and walked as fast as possible. After that, I don’t think I have ever walked alone at night in my city.

Sukirti Agrawal, 23, India

Do you feel safe as a young woman walking alone in your community?

I believe that safety in India depends on the time and place. I have lived in Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai for the longest points of time in my life. Since all these are metropolitan cities, I have felt comparatively safer as compared to a rural area. That said, I have never felt completely safe in any location in India. Firstly, I feel powerless on the streets. Even though I have a black belt in karate, I know that it will be extremely hard — if not impossible — for me to defend myself against a strong man if he approaches me in public.

Secondly, I know that the people around me might not help. India has a bad reputation for street safety — in 2020, India reported an average of 88 rape cases per day. Because of this, many police officials have given up hope of resolving the problem and taken a back seat. Even the citizens of India have become comfortable with the fact that the safety issue in our country might not change, and girls will have to take the responsibility to protect themselves.

“Lack of street safety means I am unable to live how I truly imagine. Many places in India have a different scenic view in the evening and are known for their nightlife, but I haven’t seen it. I cannot travel at night because I am scared.”

— Sukirti Agrawal

How does street safety affect your life and the decisions you make?

Lack of street safety means I am unable to live how I truly imagine. Many places in India have a different scenic view in the evening and are known for their nightlife, but I haven’t seen it. I cannot travel at night because I am scared. Moreover, I cannot go to buy food at night if I am hungry. This might seem like a small issue, but the smallest things have the deepest effects on my life. I cannot travel unless I have a male friend with me. My parents do not let me out of the house unless they know that I am with my brother. There are so many moments I have not lived because the streets are unsafe for girls.

Have you ever missed school or been late to class because you felt unsafe on your commute?

I had to miss school whenever my brother could not go to school. If he had a stomachache or a football practice, I had to miss my classes too because my parents never allowed me to travel alone. If the school bus was late one day, I had difficulty travelling to school because I felt unsafe walking on the street and I was not allowed to use public transport by myself. Many men who are the same age as me and in the same educational program can have better learning experiences because they do not have the same fears as me.

What safety precautions do you have to take in order to feel safe in public?

The clothes I wear must always cover my body, regardless of the weather. This is not how the ideal society would work, but I have learnt the hard way that I need to protect my own body. When my girlfriends and I travel together we must be back before 8 p.m. at night and we always carry pepper spray with us. Most importantly, I have started to keep my finger on the side button of my iPhone so I can make an emergency call as soon as possible. Clicking the side button twice triggers the emergency SOS from the iPhone and I keep my finger on it every time I am commuting and walking on the streets of India.

What can your community do to help girls and women feel safer in public?

The law exists to hold the criminals responsible, but it is not enforced. Police officers in India need to be serious about issues like violence on the streets. Their attitude is that such situations are very common and do not need their time and attention. Perpetrators know that they can walk away after they have done something and there is no one to stop them from doing it again.

The municipality needs to set up a better surveillance system in public transportation systems that is thoroughly monitored. The municipality could also set up poles with a button that someone can press in cases of emergencies to alert the police, because incidents of violence on the street sometimes happen so quickly that there is not enough time to call the police.

Gemma Tutton, 15, U.K.

Do you feel safe as a young woman walking alone in your community?

Public sexual harassment (PSH) makes girls, women and femmes feel unsafe in public. On a personal level, I have now experienced so many forms of harassment in so many places that I feel I am constantly in danger of experiencing it again.

How does street safety affect your daily life?

PSH makes me feel nervous every time I’m in public. I’m constantly looking over my shoulder, pausing my music to hear harassers and walking faster to reach my destination. One day on my way to athletics, two staff members leaned out of a school bus and started sexually harassing me and my friend. I arrived to training late and struggled as I was so distracted. The next day in school, all I could think was that my teachers could be thinking the same thing about me as those staff members were. We hear stories at Our Streets Now [a campaign Gemma and her sister Maya founded to end public sexual harassment] of girls having to change schools because of the harassment they face on their way to and from school. This is not an uncommon occurrence but it is still a taboo topic due to the lack of public awareness.

“Public sexual harassment makes me feel nervous every time I’m in public. I’m constantly looking over my shoulder, pausing my music to hear harassers and walking faster to reach my destination.”

— Gemma Tutton

What safety precautions do you have to take in order to feel safe in public?

When marginalised people take steps to keep themselves safe, it is called safety work. We don’t walk alone or at night, we pay for taxis and Ubers we can’t afford, avoid certain routes or streets and change our clothing. The problem is, this doesn’t change anything. We still get harassed. The responsibility of stopping PSH rests with the harasser, not the victim.

Can you tell us about a time when you felt unsafe on the streets or in a public place?

One day on my way home from school, I walked past a cafe near my house when a group of men started harassing me. I turned around and told them that I was 13, I didn’t understand why they ignored my uniform — a clear sign I was under 16. They responded by laughing and shouting “age does not matter to us.” This not only shocked me to my core at the time but made me feel unsafe every time I experienced PSH after that, as it gave me a greater understanding of what lies behind it: A desire to exercise power, control and dominance.

What is Our Streets Now, and how did the movement begin?

Our Streets Now is a youth-led, grassroots campaign that my sister Maya and I set up two years ago. We have two goals: The first is to end public sexual harassment through cultural awareness-raising and policy and legislative change. The second is to support victims of public sexual harassment by ensuring they have access to adequate support systems in their schools and workplaces. You can keep up with our movement on Instagram and Twitter.

Why is it important for students to learn about street harassment in schools?

The sad truth of PSH is that it starts incredibly young, before we even understand what is happening. Due to the lack of education, we often blame ourselves, thinking it is our fault because of what we wore or where we were. We must teach girls that PSH is never their fault and they shouldn't feel shame if it happens to them. We must also teach boys about the realities of PSH. Many boys simply do not realise what it means to walk down the street as a girl which leads to them not believing us and making us, again, feel like harassment is our fault.