Anti-Muslim bigots such as Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller, Geert Wilders and co. love to trot out the talking point that Muslims (due to Islam of course) are unique in harassing and oppressing women. According to them, anytime a Muslim man harasses or otherwise assaults a woman it is considered a result of Islam or somehow encouraged by “Islamic behavior.”
This belief, however, is not limited to anti-Muslim bigots but has also crept into the popular imagination and perception of the mainstream. This was evident during the Egyptian Revolution when reporters, pundits and opinion-makers latched onto the Lara Logan incident as a marker for Arab and Muslim societies, viewed as monoliths that are separately “unique” when it comes to the treatment of women.
Take for example Bill Maher, who took the incident as an opportunity to explain why “our culture” is better than “theirs” (Arabs, Muslims). We reported on Maher’s comments at the time:
On his last show Bill Maher went on a speel undermining the Democratic character of Revolutions sweeping across the Arab world. Amongst his ludicrous statements he claimed “women can’t vote in 19 of 22 Arab countries,” that “women who have dated an Arab man, the results aren’t good,” that “Arab men have a sense of “entitlement,” etc. He also went onto forward the argument that “we are better than them,” justifying it by implying he is not a “cultural relativist.”
Such statements not only defy facts and logic, not only are they racist but they serve to undermine the truth about the status of women in the world today. Maher’s all too typical tirade covers up the fact that what is at the heart of the problem is not a clash of cultures or civilizations (the familiar “us vs. them” paradigm), or a simple difference in the degree of harassment.
Reality asserts that at the end of the day, women are mistreated across the globe, across cultures, races, and religions at unfortunately high and gross levels.
The website Stopthestreetharassment.com deals with the issue of harassment, and in its category on statistics does away with the myth that somehow “harassment” and “assault” are unique to men from the Middle East or Muslim countries. The report indicates that this is a world-wide pandemic ranging from such divergent places as India, Europe, Egypt, Latin America and of course…the USA.
In its report on Statistics, stop the street harassment informs us:
In one of the first street harassment studies ever conducted, Carol Brooks Gardner, associate professor of sociology and women’s studies at Indiana University, Indianapolis, interviewed 293 women in Indianapolis, Indiana, over several years in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The women were from every race, age, class, and sexual orientation category of the general population in Indiana and the United States. She oversampled women of color to better represent their experiences. Gardner found that every single woman (100 percent) could cite several examples of being harassed by unknown men in public and all but nine of the women classified those experiences as “troublesome.”
Using a national sample of 12,300 Canadian women ages 18 and older from 1994, sociology professors Ross Macmillan, Annette Nierobisz, and Sandy Welsh studied the impact of street harassment on women’s perceived sense of safety in 2000. During their research, they found that over 80 percent of the women surveyed had experienced male stranger harassment in public and that those experiences had a large and detrimental impact on their perceived safety in public.
Laura Beth Nielsen, professor of sociology and the law at Northwestern University conducted a study of 100 women’s and men’s experiences with offensive speech in the California San Francisco Bay Area in the early 2000s. She found that 100 percent of the 54 women she asked had been the target of offensive or sexually-suggestive remarks at least occasionally: 19 percent said every day, 43 percent said often, and 28 percent said sometimes. Notably, they were the target of such speech significantly more often than they were of “polite” remarks about their appearance.
…
During the summer of 2003, members of the Rogers Park Young Women’s Action Team in Chicago surveyed 168 neighborhood girls and young women (most of whom were African American or Latina) ages 10 to 19 about street harassment and interviewed 34 more in focus groups. They published their findings in a report titled “Hey Cutie, Can I Get Your Digits?” Of their respondents, 86 percent had been catcalled on the street, 36 percent said men harassed them daily, and 60 percent said they felt unsafe walking in their neighborhoods.
In 2007, the Manhattan Borough President’s Office conducted an online questionnaire about sexual harassment on the New York City subway system with a total of 1,790 participants. Nearly two-thirds of the respondents identified as women. Of the respondents, 63 percent reported being sexually harassed and one-tenth had been sexually assaulted on the subway or at a subway station. Due to collection methods used, the report “Hidden in Plain Sight: Sexual Harassment and Assault in the New York City Subway System” is not statistically significant, but it suggests that a large number of women experience problems on the subway system.
The author’s own studies support the pervasive and widespread nature of the problem of harassment that exists in the USA,
Nearly every woman I have talked to about this issue has been harassed by men in public. Further, every woman can cite strategies, such as avoiding going in public alone at night, which she uses to avoid harassment and assault. To learn more about women’s harassment experiences I conducted two informal, anonymous online surveys about street harassment: one in 2007 for my master’s thesis at George Washington University and one in 2008 as preliminary research for a book. Between both surveys, there were 1,141 respondents. Similar to the other studies conducted on street harassment, nearly every female respondent had experienced street harassment at least once.
In my first online survey, conducted during the spring of 2007, I asked the 225 respondents: “Have you ever been harassed (such as verbal comments, honking, whistling, kissing noises, leering/staring, groping, stalking, attempted or achieved assault, etc) while in a public place like the street, on public transportation, or in a store?” Ninety-nine percent of the respondents, which included some men, said they had been harassed at least a few times. Over 65 percent said they were harassed on at least a monthly basis.
Over 99 percent of the 811 female respondents (916 respondents total) of the second informal survey I conducted in 2008 said they had experienced some form of street harassment (only three women said they had not). In one question they could indicate the types of interactions they have had with strangers in public, here is a sampling of their responses.
- Leering
Ninety-five percent of female respondents were the target of leering or excessive staring at least once, and more than 68 percent reported being a target 26 times or more in their life.- Honking and whistling
Nearly 95 percent of female respondents were honked at one or more times and 40 percent said they are honked at as frequently as monthly. Nearly 94 percent of female respondents were the target of whistling at least once and nearly 38 percent said it occurred at least monthly.- Kissing noises
Just over 77 percent of women said they were the target of kissing noises from men and 48 percent said they’ve been the target at least 25 times in their life.- Making vulgar gestures
Nearly 82 percent of female respondents were the target of a vulgar gesture at least once. About twenty percent said they had been a target at least 51 times.- Sexist comment
Over 87 percent of women said they were the target of a sexist comment, and about 45 percent said they’ve been a target of a sexist comment in public at least 25 times in their life.- Saying sexually explicit comments
Nearly 81 percent of female respondents were the target of sexually explicit comments from an unknown man at least once. More than 41 percent have been the target at least 26 times in their lives.- Blocking path
About 62 percent of women say a man has purposely blocked their path at least once and 23 percent said this has happened at least six times.- Following
Seventy-five percent of female respondents have been followed by an unknown stranger in public. More than 27 percent have been followed at least six times.- Masturbating
More than 37 percent of female respondents have had a stranger masturbate at or in front of them at least once in public.- Sexual touching or grabbing
Nearly 57 percent of women reported being touched or grabbed in a sexual way by a stranger in public. About 18 percent said they have been touched sexually at least six times.- Assaulting
About 27 percent of women report being assaulted at least once in public by a stranger.
These jarring statistics of abuse, harassment and assault upon women in the “enlightened, culturally superior” West should give us pause and a heavy dose of perspective on the meaning of that age old adage, men are pigs.
Once and for all let us quit the holier-than-thou hypocritical obfuscation of the facts and realities on the ground when it comes to women and harassment. Women do not feel safe on Western streets, not because of the “evil Mooslims” but because too many men are unable or unwilling to control themselves.
To rectify this pandemic we must not divert the truth but face it head on. Instead of resorting to racist diatribes, innuendo, hate speech and efforts to destroy a race, religion and culture, organize to stop the harassment and aid in creating a safe space for women in our societies as opposed to the present status quo on our streets.
I encourage everyone to visit StoptheHarassment.com and check out how to End It.
April 5th, 2011 at 2:23 pm
I have never been harassed, but it is a problem for women all over, it is not unique to Muslim countries.
April 5th, 2011 at 2:41 pm
Amazing! These legitimate scholars conduct studies over several years of diligent work (interviewing thousands of women and even oversampling to eliminate bias). On the other hand, we have the fake wannabe scholars like Spencer et. al. who can pull statistics outta their axx in a second.
Here’s my random bogus statistic for the day: Only 50% of the hot air emitted by these bigots comes out of their mouth – and that is why they stink!
April 5th, 2011 at 2:47 pm
Nice Article.
There are some truly bizarre attempts to link street harassment of women to Islam. I found one loon insisting that Muslim men have “conquered” Europe and have taken all the women as war booty and so they were free to harass and even rape them. Whaaaa?
They of course ignore that the Quran recommended the Hijab to deal specifically with the harassment that women had to deal with at the time. Other religions and cultures also frown on the mistreatment of women. It’s shocking that this still happens all over the world — in the 21st Century. *sigh*
April 5th, 2011 at 2:55 pm
By the way, good video on Wacky Wilders!
April 5th, 2011 at 3:22 pm
That was a great video!
I lived in Rogers Park Chicago back in the day (like 10 years ago, before I left the midwest)And that’s where I met my wife, who if I remember was harassed quite frequently on the street, even in my company!
April 5th, 2011 at 3:39 pm
Well don’t expect a retraction from the imbecile we call Billy Maher or any of the anti-Muslim bigots. They want to beat Muslims over the head with the idea that Muslims repress women so as to justify bombing, invading, occupying, stealing the natural resources of Muslim lands. Forget that women are afraid to go on the streets alone in the US or in Sweden, by the Wilders and these dodo’s actually think the reason rape and such sexual assault crimes happen in their countries is due to Muslims. It’s a primitive form of them trying to assert the idea that the “honour” of their women is at stake, cover for their xenophobic and racist beliefs!
April 5th, 2011 at 4:04 pm
Great article.
It should go a long way in destroying the Islaamophobic beliefs being pushed about Muslim men and their behavior and treatment toward women.
To me it seems like this problem is eternal, it is in our very natures as men to have a strong urge and desire for the opposite sex. Islam polishes our nature and tells us to treat women in a dignified manner. Muslims who don’t are going against the Islamic principles.
Any reform or revitilization of the Muslims (as is beginning all over the world) must include attitudes towards women as well as their treatment.
April 5th, 2011 at 5:22 pm
“More than 37 percent of female respondents have had a stranger masturbate at or in front of them at least once in public.”
Really!? Are you sure they just didn’t interview incredibly attractive women? I don’t know, I just find it somehow hard to believe that 37% of all women have had someone masturbate to them in public. Then again, maybe those guys doing it just never do it when anyone else is around. Makes sense.
April 5th, 2011 at 6:14 pm
Wow, these numbers are surprising. Some of them are quite shocking actually, not to mention downright bizarre. Is it repeat offenders who are mainly responsible? Or are these women simply familiar with Bill Maher? Of course, the Islamic world has major problems when it comes to sexual harassment (then again, the Islamic world has a lot of problems in general). However, attempts by Islamophobes to link this social ill to Islam aren’t convincing or helpful.
April 5th, 2011 at 8:06 pm
I have witnessed public masturbation by men (apparently for my “benefit”)
In Spain
In Italy
In Mexico
In the US
and I don’t think I’m that “hot” –
I’ve been molested on trains in Japan (lived there for years), Mexico, and Germany.
When I was 12, just about every clown in my US small town neighborhood over the age of 40 was trying to get busy with me.
On a trip to Egypt, oddly, I did not feel as threatened. Maybe I wasn’t there long enough.
Been almost mugged, raped, knifed, about 5 times in the US (all males).
I repeat, I do NOT look like a supermodel.
And that isn’t everything
I’m not surprised at the numbers. Frankly, I fail to see men as protectors.
April 5th, 2011 at 9:57 pm
*sigh* men just don’t know how to treat women anymore, it’s a fact and this the world over, not exclusive to anyone. I feel sorry for some of my female friends, expectantly the Muslims, who are going into male dominated words such as engineering. But all the more power to them!
April 5th, 2011 at 10:24 pm
Narrated Aisha: The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said: “Indeed, the believers with the most complete faith are those with the most excellent character and are most kind to their family.” In another narration he, peace be upon him, said: “most kind to their women.”
[Jami’ At-Tirmidhi, Book 36, Number 2612]
عَنْ عَائِشَةَ، قَالَتْ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم إِنَّ مِنْ أَكْمَلِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ إِيمَانًا أَحْسَنُهُمْ خُلُقًا وَأَلْطَفُهُمْ بِأَهْلِهِ
April 6th, 2011 at 2:36 am
I have spent about 22 years in Pakistan and about 18 years in USA. I have never had anybody masturbate in front of me or sexually harrass me. I guess I am lucky
I tend to think that *wrong* sexual attitudes in men towards women would depend upon the environment they were brought up in and would have nothing to do with religion. It probably has more to do with lack of religion, if anything. Religion prevents a person from becoming a beast.
April 6th, 2011 at 2:52 am
America has become such a hedonistic place that we have completely objectified both men and women to the point too many of us look at one another as objects not people. This attitude cuts across all groups and demographics, even the upper crust of our society, as this news article about Yale University shows
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/04/04/feds-investigate-sex-assault-claims-at-yale-university/
The photo on the accompanying article pretty much says it all. What’s even more frightening is we’ve had several major politicians graduate from there which leads me to speculate about their predatory nature. GWB, you feel me?
April 6th, 2011 at 3:03 am
Even in the Quran, it tells men to lower their gaze & guard their modesty, which of course means muslim men should not be staring at women they are not related to, in order to avoid impure thoughts etc
So even if you got muslim men nowadays sexually harassing women, or those pakistani gangs in England grooming young white girls, it has nothing to do with Islam. But then…when have facts ever mattered to hate mongering bigots like Spencer, Geller & co
April 6th, 2011 at 6:56 am
Regarding lowering one’s gaze. Al-Qadi ´Iyad, one of the foremost authorities within the Maliki school of jurisprudence, stated that the niqab is a sunnah, i.e. not obligatory, whereas it IS obligatory for MEN to lower their gaze.
I thought that was rather interesting, how he pointed toward MEN and not women with regard to respectable behavior and good character. Today, I feel that too many Muslims are too focused on how women dress.
April 6th, 2011 at 8:05 am
As I stated in the Bill Maher post: What happened to Lara Logan happens to women in concerts throughout the United States.
Our country needs to get off its high horse and realize it is no better or worse than any country when it comes to social issues. The only difference is that the United States has the largest military in the world, by far.
At the end of the day, it is all about marketing. In the United States and Europe, killing your wife is called domestic violence. When a Muslim kills his wife, it is called an honour killing.
On top of that, many in the US population as quick to believe negative stories about the Muslim World, just because they have been taught to. One example was the book by Norma Khouri, who wrote, “Forbidden Love” about her friend in Jordan named Dahlia who was murdered by her father. People just believed the story without examining it. Turns out there was no girl named Dahlia and many of the details of the book were shown to be false upon examination.
@Ibn: One of my dearest friends in college was a girl who was taking the train in New York and some dude walked up to her, unzipped his pants and started masturbating in front of her. She got up and ran. I believe the 37% number.
As for Bill Maher, I think its time to turn off the channel. His act has gotten tired and old. Even his last standup comedy, the one with the Burka fashion show, did not make me laugh. He’s gotten more mean-spirited.
April 6th, 2011 at 8:57 am
Cassidy or whatever you are calling yourself these days such comments based on racist assumptions will not be tolerated. If you don’t like LW you are free not to comment here or read any of the articles.
April 6th, 2011 at 8:59 am
The biggest difference is that in the West women do have equal rights and have some possibilities to have the perpetrator indicted. In countries other than EU states, Canada, Australia and US, discrimination is often institutionalised and reporting a sex crime can have severe negative consequence for the woman reporting it. Even more than in Western countries.
Western cultures are far from perfect but at least we are trying to fight it and strive to keep reliable statistics.
As much as I hate to say it, the majority of all men who have ever called me names in the streets and treated me like a whore were from predominately Muslim ethnic groups.
There are plenty of sexist and racist people in the West and plenty of them belong to religious and ethnic minority groups.
That does not make Spencer’s hate mongering okay, but the stereotype of the misogynist Muslim does not come out of nowhere.
To be quite honest I am completely fed up with all men who claim that it does not happen in their group, or that their religion does not allow it and every other excuse that allows them to stick their heads in the sand and do a thing.
Make the world a better place and speak up next time you see one of your fellow men harassing a woman.
April 6th, 2011 at 9:34 am
I was wondering how long it’d be before he turned/washed up, Garibaldi. I guess he needed a break to recharge before resume his non-stop trolling.
IMO, LW should just stop approving his comments altogether. As long as he’s allowed to post here he’ll turn every comments section into complete garbage.
April 6th, 2011 at 10:01 am
@Linda: As much as I hate to say it, the majority of all men who have ever called me names in the streets and treated me like a whore were from predominately Muslim ethnic groups.
I think you are a liar. I went to Depeche Mode and Metallica concerts all the time in my younger days and saw groups of white men groping women. They would usually come in groups then form a circle around the women and start grabbing their breasts and behinds. If I was to base my opinion of white men on what I saw at those concerts, I would not want anything to do with them.
Also, when I went to college, a white fraternity was holding up numbers to rate women as they passed by and would make comments about them. Did the university suspend them or revoke their charter. Absolutely not. So much for the western world fighting against women being treated like cattle.
Contrast that with what goes on in Pakistan. Trying groping women there and you will get the crap kicked out of you. I was once walking with my wife in a market over there and some jerk came from behind and pinched my wife’s butt. She started cursing the guy out and, before I could get my hands on him, a bunch of Pakistani men started punching and kicking him ferociously. By the time they were done, he was a bloody mess.
You also state, “Western cultures are far from perfect but at least we are trying to fight it and strive to keep reliable statistics.”
Oh really? Did you know that the US is the number one destination country for sex trafficking of women? What is the US doing about that? Absolutely nothing because they don’t care.
It’s not just foreign women that are treated like garbage. My father worked for a bank on Wall Street for over 22 years. The only women in upper level management were the ones that had to sleep their way to the top, usually with a married man. That’s really sad, that even with an education, those women are treated as high class callgirls.
My advice to you is to leave race out of the equation. There are bad men in every race. Don’t make it into a unique thing when it is a “Muslim” man.
April 6th, 2011 at 10:22 am
No surprise to me either as someone who has worked with domestic violence victims . Many men view women as less than human because of their own failings . Its wrong .
and unfortunetly it happens everywhere……….
It should be stamped out by imprisoning offenders or cutting their organ off.( not really the whole thing makes me very angry )
As well as teaching our children better.
Suprisingly all these men have mothers ,you would not think it sometimes
April 6th, 2011 at 11:29 am
Finally! Thank you for writing this post. Although this article does not have much to do with Muslims or any specific loons, I think it goes a long way towards showing the point that I’ve been consistently making since becoming a commenter here on LW: the lie that Islamophobes peddle about women’s rights and welfare is an illusion.
Clearly more work needs to be done in “Muslim” countries, but non-Muslim countries are no haven for women either. Let’s not kid ourselves.
April 6th, 2011 at 12:41 pm
“80% are Muslims” oh really Linda?? How do you know they’re Muslims. Did you ask them when they harassed you?? or were they just brown people you ASSumed were Muslims. Somehow I don’t believe you!
Men of all races, faiths and cultures have harassed women one way or another, verbally, through gestures, or physically. It’s disgusting and should be stopped!
April 6th, 2011 at 1:49 pm
Let me take a wild guess as to the logic behind Cassidy’s comment: some Muslim countries have institutionalized discrimination against women while Western countries do not. Sorry Cassidy, but no one said anything to the contrary. In fact, I’m sure everyone here recognizes that Saudi Arabia, for example, discriminates against women with its current set of laws (e.g. laws against women driving). However, that doesn’t change the survey highlighted in the article. And no, rambling about the Ottoman Empire doesn’t prove anything either.
April 6th, 2011 at 3:19 pm
Actress turned Humanitarian, Ashley Judd mentioned that in the US “every 2 seconds, girls/Women are sexually aggressed on” on “The View” this morning.
April 6th, 2011 at 8:22 pm
Garibaldi,
Let us face it: the status of women in Islam is just as misunderstood as the concept of Jihad is and perhaps even more so,in the West.
Since the status of women in Islam is considered a rich ammunition store for the Islamophobes to pick from as they see fit,I feel uncomfortable getting involved in the business of criticizing the mistreatment or harassment of women by non-Muslims. I must have profound knowledges before getting involved here.
Therefore,I suggest that loonwatch.com does itself and its readers a favor: a good research paper on the status of women in Islam.
Perhaps,you,Danios and others may like doing so,as you have wonderfully done on Dhimitude,about two years ago.That was a masterly hard work based on scholarly reserarches. Need a similar paper on the status of women in Islam.
If loonwatch.com has already covered the subject of women in Islam I am unaware of,please discard this request. Thank you.
April 7th, 2011 at 2:55 am
When I lived in the Middle East, the front section of the public buses was cordoned off and the first three rows of seats on the bus being reserved for women/families. One of my defining memories of the time is going to work on a crowded standing room only bus full of men at 5AM *and those three rows of seats still remaining empty*, such was the culture! Sure, I remember that my Mum used to have men stare at her but I also remember she never complained about being groped or anything more and could go out at night, something she could never do when she lived in London. And I also remember that the city where I lived was a big destination for trafficked women, not for the local Muslims mind, but for the western tourists. Funny how these things work…
April 7th, 2011 at 4:35 am
I’m one of those guys who lose their sense of reason when I see/or hear a woman being harassed by a man or men. I mean i just wanna sneak up on those jerks and pull a CQC move on them. Really its probably one of the lowest point a man can go in doing something and i believe that such men should be severely punished without hesitation (well provided that they are convicted)
April 7th, 2011 at 7:33 am
I would also like to see a comprehensive breakdown of the argument that Islam is inherently oppressive to women in the style of Danios’ takedown of Spencer’s crappy book. There are probably some good examples to respond to.
As Garo said, this is one of the subjects that Islamophobes love to dwell on, because they think they have the upper hand, even if they have no understanding of it whatsoever. If the goal of LW is to dismantle their arguments and shut them up, that’s something that will need to be addressed.
April 7th, 2011 at 9:55 am
Long time reader, first time commenter. I enjoyed this article a lot, it tackles the issue in the same vein as the “All Terrorists..” article and the “Europol…” article. Statistical evidence goes a long way in aiding the fight against those who believe that Muslims or Islamic Law are somehow inherently misogynist, oppressive of women or as you say “unique” in that regard.
To echo JN, however, the empirical evidence you present should also be followed up by a theoretical discussion of Islamic belief regarding women, and some of the theological “obfuscations” pushed by Spencer and his SS brigades. For example the misrepresentation by these haters of the verse in Surah Nisaa’ and so forth.
Thanks again, and keep up the good work!
-Verasu
April 10th, 2011 at 3:11 pm
It is not by spreading misandry toward western men that you’ll defend muslims from the accusation of “oppressing women”. And I say this as a staunch anti-islamophobe. By citing bogus “womyn studies” professors or male-hating feminists you’ll not be doing honor to truth. Read Erin Pizzey to know something about “domestic violence”.
April 11th, 2011 at 4:39 am
Hahaha there was an article on walmart a few weeks back not paying equal pay to men and women!!!! hahaha so much for equality. linda do me a favour take up this fight on behalf of women and lets see where you get. ka ching