Glaiza de CastroInternational Women's Day 2016Press ReleaseQuezon City GovernmentWomen Street Harassment Law
Quezon City’s Pioneering Law To Stop Street Harassment of Women
Three out of five women have
experienced a form of sexual harassment while commuting in Metro Manila,
according to a new research, “Baseline Study on How safe are women in our city
streets” commissioned by Quezon City local government and United Nations Entity
for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (UN Women). And even more alarming
is that 1 in 3 of these women experienced the worst forms of sexual harassment
such as witnessing male public exposure and masturbation, and rubbing or
groping (panghihipo) inside the MRT/ jeepneys.
To put a stop to street harassment
and sexual violence against women and girls (SVAWG) in public spaces, the LGU
and UN Women held back-to-back
eventsto commemorate International Women’s Day (#IWD2016) as well as to
kick-off the celebrations in March as the National Women’s Month.
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Glaiza de
Casto is the new UN Women Safe Cities celebrity supporter
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Whether due to shame or fear, women traditionally ignore and keep silent about catcalls, wolf-whistling, stalking, repeated harassment for their numbers, even bearing indecent language being yelled at them by men as they walk by.Women experience all these forms of sexual harassment as they move about in the city, using public transport, terminals, markets/malls, and even just walking home in their own neighborhoods.
During the press conference discussing the
problem of the frequent street harassment of women, De Castro observed, "We
know about it, we are offended by it, but we don't know how to prevent
it."
The
second event was a grand
assembly of 1000 supporters who released sky lanterns to light up the Quezon
City skyline and called for safe cities where women are free from fear and free
from all forms of street harassment and sexual violence.
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Credit:
Blogger Just Jing’s Journal
It was a visual spectacle where supporters of
women’s right to safety in the city banded together to celebrate the spirit of
community fighting to stop street harassment of women. Hosted by PTV4’s Good
Morning Boss talents, Jules Guiang and Karla Paderna, the event was graced by
musical performances from Cooky Chua and Bayang Barrios.
Guiang
expressed, “This is such an important issue and we are grateful that for the
first timewe have a programme on women’s safety in public spaces and educating
everyone that sexual harassment of women
in any form is not acceptable.”
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