HarassMap
= "‘HarassMap is working to build a future in which neighborhoods, schools, universities, cafes, restaurants, shops, workplaces, and eventually all of Egypt are all safe spaces that never tolerate sexual harassment and always help people when they are harassed.’
URL = https://harassmap.org/en
Description
Interview with Mariam Mecky, Communications Unit Head at HarassMap, Cairo, Egypt, 13 March 2019.
* Sophie Toupin (ST): What is HarassMap? And how do you think it is linked to peer production?
Mariam Mecky (MM): HarassMap, a volunteer-based organization, was launched in December 2010 by a founding group of four women together with tech partners, advisers, and volunteers. The four founders were prompted to launch after experiencing sexual harassment in their daily lives, and that almost everyone we knew, witness it on a daily basis. They have also been working against it since mid 2000s. HarassMap focuses on working against the social acceptability of working harassment where its vision is to engage all of Egyptian society to create an environment that does not tolerate sexual harassment. Part of HarassMap’s work is to highlight the prevalence of the issue to work against it. To be more specific around HarassMap scope of work, HarassMap is an information and communication technology (ICT)-based participatory action initiative that serves multiple functions: It highlights the gravity of the problem by providing an outlet for testimonies from those who have suffered or witnessed sexual harassment; it provides data that improve understanding of how sexual harassment is evolving in Egypt, which in turn provides HarassMap with information to create relevant communication campaigns and research programs; and it serves as a tool for community outreach teams to motivate the public to stand up against sexual harassment. In this manner, the idea behind HarassMap is directly linked to peer production; where the four founders were self-organized, collaborated, and coordinated on this project with a shared outcome relying on voluntary engagement. Capitalizing also on the idea of crowdsourcing, in which I elaborate more on in further questions, this project very much utilized the internet for this shared outcome.
* ST: According to you what is the impact of HarassMap? In what way does it make a difference?
MM: The main successes of HarassMap work is that we use the reports received on the map to draft and publish studies and build campaigns on this data that counter social acceptability and normalization of sexual harassment debunking stereotypes and raising awareness. One of HarassMap’s early successes with creating a zero tolerance anti-harassment policy is its partnership with the biggest public university in Egypt, Cairo University. In that process, HarassMap provided a draft of a recommended well-rounded policy that encompassed definition and types of harassment, enforcement mechanisms and penalties for harassers. We, then, worked with stakeholders from the university, NGOs, and activists to tailor and implement it in the university. This policy is now used as a guideline and reference for 15 other universities in Egypt. HarassMap also assists businesses with adopting and enforcing anti-harassment policies. As a result of our work, we have received requests from hundreds of activists and organizations in other countries to assist them with replicating our model. The founders made the HarassMap concept completely open-source. Since its launch, although it was not its mission until 2016, HarassMap has advised and supported over a hundred activists and NGOs from around the world on setting up HarassMap-inspired initiatives. Independent groups in at least eighty different countries have been advised on how to launch similar projects. The countries include Jordan, Libya, Turkey, South Africa, US, Canada, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, Cambodia, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Kenya, Sudan, UK, India, Nigeria, and some groups in South America. The groups and activists from these countries received advice, and other succeeded in setting up local versions of HarassMap.
* ST: What are the main drivers of HarassMap?
MM: At the time of HarassMap’s launch in 2010, legal recourse for people who experienced sexual harassment was limited by several barriers. Victim-blaming and negative effects on reputation were powerful deterrents keeping many silent, and away from police stations. Moreover, the law required bringing the harasser to a police station, where additional harassment often occurred, providing witnesses, and convincing police to report the crime. While not denying that legal reform was needed, the co-founders believed that in a context in which existing laws were not enforced because sexual harassment was not seen as a crime, advocacy for a new law would have little impact on its own. Therefore, they decided to tackle what they believed to be the source of non-enforcement – social acceptability. This idea remains at the core of HarassMap’s work also today. In fact, there are strong social roots and an established history in Egypt for rejecting sexual harassment. We believe that bringing back social discouragement needs to come from within, and we consider ourselves to be ordinary members of the public. We see crowdmapping as a way to decentralize activism on the issue away from experts and policymakers, who often view society as a passive beneficiary, and restore an active role for society in addressing the problem on its own behalf. For the first time in Egypt, HarassMap’s crowdmap offered a free and easy tool for providing a direct means to voice sexual harassment experiences safely and anonymously. And speaking out, HarassMap’s co-founders had learned during their work on the issue prior to HarassMap, was very often the first step to activism. Crowdmapping has, however, been only one element in our approach since the beginning. More than “just a map,” HarassMap simultaneously launched a community mobilization program to train and coordinate anti-harassment activism in neighborhoods, interactive social media outreach and media relations, all designed to build off of each other and the crowdmap to convince people to stand against sexual harassment and deter harassers. The system also bridged a gap, sending victims an auto-response about existing but little-known services like legal aid and psychological counseling. Finally, the reports and map provided evidence for volunteers to mobilize bystanders to create neighborhood “safe areas” in which sexual harassment would not be tolerated.
* ST: In your view, what are the main advantages of this approach for the generation and dissemination of a specific type of knowledge?
MM: As previously mentioned, the main driver for HarassMap was working against the social acceptability of sexual harassment. Part of the work against sexual harassment, HarassMap worked on highlighting the extent of the problem initially through the map and expanding into other programs and means. As one of the founders Rebbeca Ciao put it “We can’t say today how bad the problem really is and that’s one of the things that we’re trying to do with HarassMap.” Crowdsourced data collected from the reporting system helps document facts about the issue, counter stereotypes that blame the harassed and make excuses for the harasser, challenge previously held views about who harassers are and what their motivations are, and emphasize the criminality of sexual harassment in Egypt. HarassMap uses an integrated approach to creating zero-tolerance for sexual harassment and assault that includes reporting and mapping harassment incidents to document the problem; public campaigns to spread accurate information and mobilize the public to take action; and anti-harassment policies inside institutions such as universities, NGOs, corporates, and schools, to establish consequences for harassers. These policies are easier to implement and monitor within an institution, empowers their own leaders, and are an important step to spreading a culture of zero-tolerance."