[Eve-teasing] Sexual Harassment

Eve-teasing SEXUAL HARASSMENT

Eve-teasing is a euphemism in India for sexual harassment. The phrase infuriates me, and I only use it here to demonstrate how offensive it is (and I can't put strikethrough in the title). If you follow the news about India at all, you have certainly heard about the 23 year old girl who was brutally gangraped on Dec 16 and died of her injuries on Dec 29. Everyone has been talking about it here and there have been noisy protests as well as candlelit vigils almost every night.

On the 19^th I went to the protests with about a dozen co-workers. I was tasked with writing “Shame” on a posterboard, and while I didn’t make it on the front page, my two supervisors, fellow intern, and the sign did. A lot of different things are yelled at the protests:

we want justice!
chemical castration!
kill the rapists!
shame on Delhi Police!
shame on Delhi minister Sheila Dikshit!

HRLN has a strict policy against the death penalty, so I watched my Indian colleagues to make sure that the chants I was repeating in Hindi weren’t something we actually disagree with. It was interesting to actually participate in a protest after seeing Occupy and living in DC for years, but it did not sway my opinion about protests in general.

Current India law provides for seven years to life imprisonment for rape (not sure about applicable punishments for the one minor accused (EDIT: he can receive a maximum of three years imprisonment, but cannot be held past his 18^th birthday, in about six months)). There’s a huge uproar about this single gangrape, but the worry among activists is that the broader conversation on how women are treated will get forgotten once this passes.

Women are treated differently here. It’s as simple as that. I sit around with my three white, female, in their 20s colleagues and we discuss how the streets are 90% full of men. Where are the women? And why do the men stare? Within a few days, I’d perfected a 100-yard stare of not making eye contact with strange men, and I use a combination of gently saying “Na Na” (nay nay) and loudly saying “Nahi!” (na hee) when someone is too persistent in trying to get me to take a rickshaw ride, or look at their items in a market, or just won’t leave me alone. It’s an aggressive, louder, pushier environment than I’m used to, but it’s also just different than the U.S.

I’ve been drafting this post on sexual harassment and the gangrape for two weeks, and it’s hard to express it in a blog. For example, I’m having trouble coming up with a description of how men act, so I’ll refer you to this short article from Times of India and a longer one from Slate. They help explain how men in India think it’s okay to ask, assume, judge, and even touch.

I’ve mostly been fine, except for a few inappropriate comments by a waiter and a trail guide, both on Dec 26 in Nepal. I must have been looking exceptionally good that day <--- that, right there, is half the problem! The idea that women have done anything to deserve being treated with less than full respect. The idea that we must dress in a certain way so as not to attract attention. I’ve been dressing very conservatively and was actually quite bundled up on my hike and even at dinner, so I guess I was just unlucky that day. I’ve varied between trying to dissect why my trek guide thought I wanted a “Nepali boyfriend” and why my waiter emailed me after dinner, and wanting to forget about those creepy moments and move on.

At the time I took the steps I could – telling the guide to stop talking about it, and firing him from the next day’s trek. And I reported the email to the restaurant owner, who responded promptly and reprimanded the waiter. (If you want more details on either story, just email me.)

It all serves as a reminder of how uphill the battle is for every aspect of women’s rights – not just reproductive rights – in India. I’m glad I’m here and for now I’m choosing to brush off those incidents, because there is so much work to be done.

Nepal

I went to Kathmandu, the capital, on little more than a whim. People from work recommended it and I found reasonable flights and a hostel room. For a holiday, I found it to be disappointingly like Delhi – dirty, crowded, and loud. With a little more research I would have chosen Pokara, the second most popular destination in Nepal, known for its peaceful lakes and towering mountain views.

It all worked out okay. I negotiated with the hotel and stayed in a decent room with a big bed, warm comforter, and private bathroom with a working, HOT shower. It was my first hot shower from a showerhead instead of a bucket in a month.

I made it to 9am Christmas services at Assumption Church in Patan. The mass was part in English, part in Nepali, and I could sing along to Gloria in Excelsis Deo and O Come Let Us Adore Him. We ended on Joy to the World, something my mom’s choir at Ascension in Bowie always did, and it was the perfect start to my vacation.

I was driven around to the main tourist sites in Kathmandu (Durbar Square, Pashupatinath Temple, and Bodhnath), and later took a scooter ride to the Monkey Temple. I have a lot more pictures, and I apologize for not editing and posting more, but this is the quickest way to get pictures on the blog. If I start using photoshop, I will never upload anything.

First time on a scooter - I was a little scared!

I spent days 3 and 4 going on hikes, about 10k/6 miles each day, and getting to see the Himalayas.

On my last morning we woke up at 4:30 am to go see the sun rise over the mountains, and then I was dropped at the airport.

A Little Bit of Christmas for Myself

Christmas is going to be weird this year. I’ve been telling myself that since July, when I decided to apply for the PHRGE HRLN co-op. For the previous 26 years, I have been with my family every Christmas. Christmas morning with my mom and sister, Christmas day with my dad’s side, and a get-together with my mom’s side before (Tree Day) and often another gift exchange in early January. This year, I’m going from three family celebrations to none (I should have wifi and skype, if anyone wants to say hi).

So, I’m going to Nepal to find a little bit of Christmas for myself. I set up a mini-tree at work to cheer up my supervisors who were going to HRLN’s annual conference 24-25 Dec (worst idea EVER, and requires a 35 hr journey in the lowest class of train travel (sleeper class) each way).

My landlady’s pre-K on the first floor had a recital for all the kids on Friday where they attempted to sing carols (dressed up as: bride, fairy, goddess, tomato, apple, mango, tree, train, spider, santa claus (2), kimono, and a few I couldn’t make out).

For Nepal, my only plan is to take a tuk-tuk (3 wheeled auto) to a Catholic church on Tuesday and hopefully hear services in English. I may go trekking, I probably will visit temples, and I most assuredly will get lost. My flight is booked and so is a room in a hostel – the rest will be an adventure!

Exploring Uttarakhand

I spent Sunday-Friday last week (days 12-17 in India) in Uttarakhand, a state in the Northeast, visiting various medical facilities to ask about sterilizations of women, access to contraceptives, and HIV/AIDS treatment. It was beautiful, but it also makes me feel a bit dizzy with so much change, from Boston – MD – Delhi – UT. It would be nice to sleep in the same bed for two weeks straight.

During my first week here, I wrote the questionnaire that we used on the fact-finding. It was great to do some field work and to talk to the doctors and some of the women in the villages.

 We stayed in the city of New Tehri, above Tehri dam and its lake, which submerged Old Tehri in 2006. A HRLN-associated lawyer acted as our guide and translator and is working on a lawsuit related to the dam. It provides water all the way to Delhi (about 8-9 hrs drive away) and electricity, but the creation of the dam has caused cracks in the foundation of houses on the surrounding mountains.

It was beautiful – we could see the Himalayas from our hotel room – but the roads were treacherous. We spent 3-7 hrs each day in a Landrover going to rural sub-centres and hospitals.

Especially when it snowed on Tuesday!

My World in India

Most people know that I'm a big fan of maps and using the cardinal NSEW directions to figure out where I am headed. Here's an idea of where I am wandering around most days. View Google Map (make sure to zoom in).

 

After the first few days, I have been doing a pretty good job finding new parks, making it to work on time, and not overpaying for transportation. Zoom out to see my trip to Uttarakhand and my upcoming adventure to Nepal!

Amazing Animals (and alliterations)

Cocky cow (he made a fast move towards me)

Pudgy Pig

Marvelous Monkey

Decapitated Ducks (in a playground near my apt)

Snuggly Sheep

Guard Goats

 

Creepy Cockroach (was in our hotel room but I squished it)

Playful Puppies! (these are 5 of a litter of 7 wrestling and cuddling to stay warm in the mountains)

More Marvelous Monkeys

Existing-in-India-but-not-yet-seen Elephant

Fact-finding mission

I'm headed on a week-long fact-finding mission for work. I'll be at 30°23′N 78°29′E / 30.38°N 78.48°E / 30.38 near two famous points of geographic interest :)

I promise to upload photos and have a new post by the 16th.

Sights, Smells, & Sounds

A recap of my first week in India

SIGHTS

Colorful and crowded. This is Central Market, a big market only a few blocks from my house where you can get almost anything you need, from clothes to kitchen appliances to jewelry.

SMELLS

There are five chief smells I’ve identified so far with India. The first is a particular scent that I associate with Indian people in the U.S., and it carries over to clothes and bedding here, too. The second is the food, which is amazing. I usually only notice this when I’m eating but I am hoping as I get out more that I will experience it more.

That was butter chicken...and it was awesome.

 The other three are not good smells. Some of the sidewalks, especially when they border a deserted lot or park, reek of urine. Imagine the worst area you walk past in D.C., multiple it by 10, and you might be getting close to the smell. There is also a terrible reek as I come out of the Jangpura metro station on my way to work. I believe it’s related to some sort of canal behind the metro that doesn’t seem to serve any purpose. It’s either the water or lots of people are going to the bathroom on the banks. It’s a pretty terrible smell, but after learning last month in IHL that 55% of people in Delhi don’t have access to a toilet, I’m not surprised.

The final smell is smoke. When I first wake up (~7am) the air is fine, but by the morning commute people have begun to smoke. It accumulates all day and the air just sits heavy with smoke. There are about 25 people on my floor at work and it seems like at any moment, someone is coughing. Later on, when the fireworks go off (it appears to be a daily thing around 10pm), you can feel that smoke in your lungs, too.

SOUNDS

The sounds Do. Not. Stop. There’s a continual chorus of car horns and rickshaw bells blended with vendors advertising their wares, punctuated by the occasional dog bark or parade. My third morning I asked my landlady about the melodic chant I heard each morning from down the block. Was it part of a religious ritual? She laughed very hard, and only when she recovered her breath did she tell me what he was saying: “Vegetables! Vegetables!”

Cars are another story. Honks are used as a basic form of communication – I’m behind you, I’m passing you – and “please honk” is written on the back of trucks. Because there are no lanes and bikes, autos (3 wheeled), cars, and trucks are constantly passing each other, there is non-stop honking. Also, all cars beep constantly as they back up, and drivers do plenty of the New York-style leaning on the horn when the car in front isn’t moving. Some scooters have a funny duck honk, but the rest are pretty annoying.

(my rickshaw pics so far are blurry, so I'll add one later)

Rickshaw drivers ring a bell as they pass if they are looking for a customer. They also slow down and come rather close, which can be disconcerting at first. It seems they ring the most at women, and I’ve been getting a lot of attention, probably because I look lost and foreign (which is often true).

Several times around 5pm what sounded like a parade passed by my work, but it’s the next block over, and I haven’t been able to figure it out yet. I’ll investigate further next week.

Home is a little bit quieter where I am staying with a landlady. My room is on the roof, and the building behind is under construction, so there is a dull roar that occasionally peaks into annoying from approximately 5am – 11pm daily. I’m guessing they work such long shifts to complete construction during this ideal weather. During dinner my landlady flips from a soap opera to Big Boss (Indian Real World) to Kaun Banega Crorepati (Who Wants to Be a Millionaire) and there is lots of random Bollywood music.

Fall + India Reading List

• The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander - incredibly interesting theory that the War on Drugs, like slavery and Jim Crow before it, is a systematic oppression designed to keep black and brown people down. I agree with most of what Alexander argues and she presents it in a way that is interesting to both skeptics and those wholeheartedly in agreement. She provides good historical background but it gets a bit repetitive at times.

Wow, that is sad. I only read one book this fall, and it was assigned reading for my Crash class, so I'm not sure if that even counts. I haven't done a Reading List post since Fall 2011.

I've made up for with my plane rides and first few days in India, reading:

• The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett - I read The Secret Garden as child, and when I saw the play with BrandonB last year (his roommate is an actor) I realized the book was more complex that I remembered. Who knew it started in India? So I added to the Kindle and read it on my way over here. The book only takes place in India for the first chapter, but it was still an enjoyable read.

• The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson - Rum Diary was on Justin's reading list, and it looked like it would be fun. A quick, easy read about journalists in Puerto Rico in the 1950s doing a lot of drinking and very little reporting.

• The Phantom of the Opera  by Gaston Leroux - it's been on my to-read list after missing part of the show during my high school freshman field trip to Broadway in 2000. The book was totally different than what I expected, but it was a lovely picture of Paris in 1870. The Phantom is also known as "Erik from India" although a quick google search shows the India claim is disputed.

Thanks to Lynda and Bruce for getting the kindle, and for Justin to lending it to me. It's perfect for this trip.

Any recommendations? I have two 9 hour train rides coming up, and potentially a week without internet access, so good books are important!

JB in Delhi!

Yes, I am wearing leggings. Let the mockery begin.

Today is my second day in Delhi and most of my time has been spent trying to figure out exactly where I am. I got in Wednesday at midnight, and have already spent approximately 3 hours wandering around lost trying to get to and from work. I have also paid about 5 times the going rate for a bike rickshaw several times, once I hit the point where I admit I am lost and need help. I've been overpaying because I am clearly white, unprepared to haggle in Hindi, and I didn’t have small bills yet. My experience so far is exactly what I was told it would be by former PHRGE fellows and the guide books, so I try not to get upset when the driver stops to ask for directions or claims he cannot give me any change.

Once I get a better grasp of the city, I am hoping to walk to work in the morning when it’s daylight and to take some combination of rickshaws and/or the metro on the way home. I usually love finding my own way, but google maps doesn’t work because there are a million small winding roads and no street signs.

It’s a crazy, noisy city, but I feel quite safe walking around, or at least, safer than I expected to feel. People do stare, and I’ve encountered one persistent beggar woman, but mostly I am walking through neighborhoods and a few parks. The streets are crowded with cars, motorized 3 wheeled autos, bike rickshaws, motorcycles, and bicyclists, so most of my energy is spent watching where I walk and occasionally dashing across the street.

This is a very dull post about transportation and getting lost, and I hope to have something exciting to write about next time. I wanted to let everyone know that I’m alive and well, and getting lost is pretty much all that has happened to me so far. I did get a few assignments at work today and I will be doing research on sterilization and late term abortion when there are significant birth defects in the next month. It looks like I will be traveling to Uttakarhand, a state that borders Nepal and China, next week for a few days for a fact-finding.

I have work tomorrow :( as most Indian offices work a half day on Saturday. I am planning to have dinner with colleagues on Saturday night, and perhaps go to a soccer tournament on Sunday that I learned about from an expat listserv. The next post should be more interesting.

In the meantime, you can reach me through email and skype (Julia.butner). I am 10.5 hours ahead of the east coast. I also have a cell phone here, so if anyone has vonage (17 cents/minute to India) or a similar calling card and wants to talk by phone, let me know.