Last Sunday, I went downtown for an action organized by the Blank Noise Project. The project fights street sexual harassment, which is known in India by a ridiculously misleading term -- "eve-teasing." We went to a popular street downtown (think Rush St. in Chicago) where men usually line the sides of the street, creating a kind of gauntlet, and leer at all the women passing by. Sometimes they make lewd comments or try to rub up against you, and sometimes they just stare. On Sunday night, twenty women lined the railings and stared back.

Here's a shot of a final 'showdown' we had at the end, cornering a guy who'd been harassing one of us.














Eve-teasing is so common in the city that women are sadly used to it. Even I'm used to it after just a few visits here over the years. You walk quickly by and try to ignore them. And it is difficult to do anything as an individual. For example, just this morning: the bus was packed and several men were hanging onto the side of the bus because they couldn't fit inside. I was standing in the center aisle, holding the ceiling rail for balance, and noticed that just a few feet away one of the men was (obviously) leering at me through the open bus window. I glared at him but he was totally shameless. I snapped at him to 'watch the road, asshole' but he just smirked and kept staring. I felt very exposed, with my arms raised as I hung onto the ceiling rail, but there was nothing I could do and no way to move even an inch on the jam-packed bus. Continuing to yell at him would just confirm to him that he'd gotten to me. So I looked away and tried to ignore him, hoping his stop was nearby.

It's incredible that this (and much, much worse) is just part of the daily routine for so many women. On Sunday it was really empowering to fight back as a group. I'm definitely going to participate in future actions in other parts of the city.