Blank Noise This Place!

"My daughter ( 46 years) and grand daughter( 22 years) were walking by the lake. A mad man lift up his lungi and flashed his body parts at my daughter. My daughter was hoping that her daughter didnt see this. She panicked and tried to change her route. He flashed again. She yelled for a security guard from an resident apartment. In the meantime I the mad man ran away.

I told her never to walk there again."- (age 77 years)

It is familiar to most of us. I could hear my mother, father, grandparents, uncles, aunts, friends, all well wishers say. ' just dont go there. '

How many such city spaces will not be accessed because sexual violation was experienced there?

Shabana in Manchester never stepped out alone. She never experienced street sexual harassment either.
and then again Bangalore, Tokyo, Mexico City and other cities have women only public transport.


Blank Noise This Place is building evidence.

We ask you to revisit the site and exact location where you experienced harassment and photograph it. Please send in an account of what happened with a photo of that place. This project is open to women from across the globe, across age groups.

It would be fantastic if you could get others around you involved- more so if you got people without cameras involved and even shared them.

We could organize week long events with small groups of individuals who want to participate in this.

(Amrutha Bhushan and Goonja from Bangalore will be re -visiting their site. I will be doing the same from Kolkata. If you would like to get involved from your city and get others involved too- email us!)

All photographs will be uploaded at :
http://flickr.com/photos/blanknoisethisplace

and put on a world wide map at :
http://flickr.com/photos/blanknoisethisplace/map/

To participate email us and we will add you right here. Email us at blurtblanknoise at gmail.com subject titled BLANK NOISE THIS PLACE!

Also see: http://blog.blanknoise.org/2008/03/blank-noise-this-place.html


Why are we doing this?

• Because our experience of the city is based on fear and mapped with places to 'avoid'.
  
• Because we want to break the myth of site- that sexual harassment takes place only in 'certain places' at certain hours.
• Because we want women to reclaim their city spaces and not fear them.
• Because Blank Noise collects testimonials in different forms of media and disseminates them back in public.
• To build an argument collectively.
• The collective building of evidence will trigger towards social transformation
  
• this could also be 'fun'- something for all of us to do and make more meaning once people have participated.
• for those convinced- please add more!

List of Participants for Blank Noise This Place:

Dianne Sharma Winter
Amrutha Bhushan
Goonja
Jasmeen Patheja

signs for citizens

important: Blank Noise is not anti men. Poster were published on this blog- extending the argument of the previous post- on segregated public spaces.

WOMEN SPECIAL-BMTC

Bangalore's 'women only' buses. Painted pink.

The women Soumya C. Shekhar of Blank Noise and I spoke with, saw this as an immediate relief, as something convenient.

How do you experience public environments that are exclusively male or female?

Perhaps bloggers and Blank Noise blog visitors from Bombay/ Mumbai who take the 'ladies compartment' in the train will have anecdotes to add!

Also see - Pukar's Gender and Space project

http://www.pukar.org.in/genderandspace/index.html

Laughing Out Loud

This time we invite you to laugh.

Laugh out loud. Record it. Email it to us/ or upload it on yousendit.com

3 months from today the Department of Fun and Games will construct devices that will broadcast your laughter through independent radio.



simply put- imagine a street scape filled with the sound of many laughing women!

Here's one Blank Noise recorded in 2006 August. This was played at Delhi's South Ex Subway. (hear)


Simple ways to record on a windows machine:

On a windows machine

1. Plug a microphone to the "sound-in" of your sound card
2. Open Windows sound recorder and hit the record button
Watch the instruction video here:

OR

2. Download a free recording and sound editing software-Audacity is one of the best one's around[download it from here:http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

and use it to record your audio:

Watch the instruction video here:

[more detailed instructions here:

http://info.umuc.edu/de/ezine/how_to/audacity/audacity.htm]

On a Macintosh:

1: Open Garageband

2: Record

watch the instruction video here:

Or read the easy insructions here:http://macaudioguy.com/2007/12/27/how-to-do-basic-audio-recording-on-your-mac-using-garageband-08/

Italian convicted for staring at woman on train

via Fred Miller

LECCO, Italy (Reuters) - An Italian man was given a suspended jail sentence for staring too intensely at a woman sitting in front of him on a train.

A judge sentenced the man in his 30s, whose name was not revealed, to 10 days in prison and a 40 euro fine after a 55-year old woman filed a complaint for sexual harassment.

His lawyer said on Friday he would appeal the sentence. The court will explain its verdict later.

The two met on two separate occasions in 2005 on a commuter train going from Lecco, a town in northern Italy, to Milan.

The first time, the man sat next to the woman but she felt he had moved too close for comfort. The next day, the man sat in front of the same woman and according to her complaint, stared at her for the whole journey.

The two did not speak.

(Reporting by Silvia Aloisi; Editing by Catherine Evans)

Where are you going?

Shabana 6 mins 30 sec credits: Dale Copley – project assistant Jamie Finlay- sound editing
(audio link)


This is not about the experience of street sexual harassment.

Translated text: “My name is Shabana. I moved to Manchester from Lahore 20-22 years ago. I got married here and have been staying here since. We do visit Pakistan, but now this place is our home. I think women are safer in Manchester than in India or Pakistan. I don’t think women in Pakistan or India are unsafe, however I think women here are safer. Women have a place in society here. They are respected and taken care of. If someone sees an elderly woman standing, she is offered a seat. This is what I feel. If you are in Pakistan you could belong to any age group, be a little girl or a much older woman, but if you are walking alone, you are bound to find men stalking you or harassing you in public. It isn’t the same here. In Manchester if a woman does not allow it a man cannot even look at her. There is no way he could try touching her. It is 4 pm. I am returning home from work. I will get home and cook dinner. If I need to shop I will go with my husband. We don’t go out on social visits or for fun in the evenings. No. If there is a holiday, like the recent bank holiday, we travel together, as a family, not alone. My children are busy with their games and they do not consider going out much. I have three sons. They are 18, 16 and 3 years old. I always have a phone. Why must I complain about someone harassing me? I have never been harassed or violated. Even when I was younger I was never harassed or bullied on the street. I don’t feel any kind of fear in Manchester. There is no reason to fear. My children fear going to Pakistan when they hear about genocide. I feel safe here. At this point, I am lost. I don’t know my way home! I started my new job yesterday and am lost today.” 10 minutes into meeting Shabana, Dale and I realize she is lost. She pulls out a used enveloped from her handbag which bears the home postal address. Dale locates her address on the map and we soon find ourselves at the bus stop waiting for bus no. 15 Shabana contd. “I used to spend my day at home, sometimes watching tv, doing household chores, talking with friends and gossiping about them.” The bus arrives The phone gives us immense security. It also makes us gossip about each other. We will have to pay for our sins one day. We gossip and we sin. Despite this knowledge we don’t stop talking on the telephone. I know someone who has been warned by the doctors to not use the phone, but she just wont listen. Whenever I phone her I cannot get through. It is always busy. I realized how ignorant I am now that I am out alone. It is a big problem. The fact that I don’t know my way around town is the biggest problem. There is no other problem. I am grateful to God for introducing me to strangers who help, and drop me home. Today is my second day. Someone helped me make a bus pass yesterday. Today you are dropping me home! I used to spend all my time at home before. My children were much younger then. It was a different phase. Now I am in another phase and hence I decided to get a job. I always wanted to work outside home but it wasn’t an acceptable idea for my mother in law and family. They wouldn’t agree to the idea of me going out to work and them cooking for me. I did the cooking. I have been cooking. It is only now that I am doing what I want to do. Working outside home is not culturally accepted. No. It is impossible to see that acceptance come from an Asian mother in law. When it was the right time to learn English, I was busy cooking food for the family. Today I realize that I should have learnt English. I feel the need for it now. I regret not having learnt it. No one let me learn. They told me that I wasn’t going to be out and interacting with others anyways and so I don’t need to learn English. I know what I am doing is courageous but there are many challenges. Not knowing how to speak in English makes it a bigger problem. My sisters live in UK as well.

Am so glad I put this envelope in my handbag this morning. A letter had come this morning. I kept the envelope. I knew this would be helpful if I were to lose my way home. Dale and I met Shabana while wandering through the streets of Manchester. We were looking out for people to interview. She was the only one who agreed to be interviewed. Ten minutes into the conversation we realized that she was lost. She found a used enveloped in her handbag, which had the home address. Dale located her address on the map and we soon find ourselves at the bus stop waiting for bus number 15. Shabana is home by 5 30. She said she would take us to interview her friends. She comes out of her house 10 minutes later to say that the friend whom we were to interview is not at home and goes back inside. We have not been in touch since.

STREET TALES OF HYPER WOMEN BETWEEN THE AGE GROUP OF 11-80 YEARS

Editing assistant- Jamie Finlay- Cornerhouse
Project assistant- Dale Copley

In conversation with women between the age group of 11-80 years, in Manchester, UK.
Groups spoken with include Chinese Women's Centre- Wai Yin Society, Bangladeshi Women's Centre- Ananna, Salford Women's Centre, staff of Cornerhouse and strangers!

Supported by Cornerhouse as a part of Asian Triennial '08, organized by Shisha.

http://ia360908.us.archive.org/3/items/StreetTalesOfHyperWomenBetweenTheAgeGroupOf11To80Years/hyperwomen_64kb.mp3

Ongoing project: Blank Noise Action Heroes

This time, squeeze them properly. Put your hands inside my T-shirt and squeeze.
Blank Noise Action Hero Janet

Blank Noise Action Heroes
http://blanknoiseactionheroes.blogspot.com archives your inspiring, brave, spontaneous, and even humorous stories of resistance. Write to us how you dealt with being sexually intimidated/ attacked/ violated/ or 'teased' in public. What worked for you? How did you 'deal with it'? How were you an Action Hero?


Share your story now. You can participate if you have a story to share. If you experienced it or witnessed it, or even heard about it! Find out from mothers, grandmothers, aunts, cousins, strangers, colleagues.

You may find this submission form useful to submit your story or you could even email us your story at blurtblanknoise@gmail.com- subject titled Action Hero Online.