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| Action Hero Sapna "I am a widow. My husband always told me to wear my nose pin even if he died. I wear this nose pin and people taunt me for it. According to my religion, women are not supposed to wear gold or any jewellery or the colour red when they become widows. Widows don’t wear a nose pin. I am thinking of my husbands words and wearing it. What is wrong with that? I’m not wearing sindoor, or anything red. If I wear a nose pin, what’s wrong with it? Is it a problem? " I Never Ask For It. I really wish to wear a pair of jeans and a sleeveless shirt. I want to take a photo wearing it on the Puri beach. Asking For It. Action Heroes Build Evidence - Share your testimony |
Making "Rapist Lane" the Safest Lane
This lane in Yelahanka, Bangalore was referred to as the "Rapist Lane" by a number of women between the age of 18- 22 years. We don't have evidence of rape in this location but it had taken this name because a number of women had been molested in this stretch. It had earned a reputation of being unsafe; something you don't negotiate, but accept. The Yelahanka Action Heroes ( a locality specific Blank Noise Action Hero network) intervened to change the scene. This place was seen as unsafe due to the following reasons:
1. No street lights working
2. No commercial activity, a vegetable cart at 4 pm, an ice cream cart at 5 pm, factory workers leaving at 5 15 pm.
3. Men would stop their cars and drink. And or get out and pee.
4. Buses were parked by the pavements all day, they belonged to the factory and would take the women factory workers home in the evening. The rest of the day, the buses were stationery and empty, hence often perceived as threatening.
Unlearning Fear. Asserting Presence
Here's one of the projects towards making Rapist Lane- the Safest Lane
Three Action Hero giants were painted on the wall along this stretch.
They had a neon paint and so they would glow at night.
While painting, the Yelahanka Action Heroes befriended the locals and the bus drivers who also got involved in giving feed back, or adding paint to the Giant Action Hero mural.
{Yelahanka Action Heroes / YAH! was built during a month long Action Hero course
at Srishti School of Art Design and Technology, November-December 2012}
Team includes : Vishaka Jindal, Anamika Deb, Radha Rohit Parulekar, Pallavi Datta, Masood Ali, Aneri Jhaveri +
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| Also here |
Action Hero Pledge
Street Sign: No Misbehaving. No Eve Teasing.
photographed by Manu
spotted by Mohnish Moorjani
Location: Joggers Park. Bombay
Seen anything like this before? Tell us about it- (better still if you could attach a photo)
e: blurtblanknoise at gmail dot com
THIS PLACE
photograph it
place it here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blanknoisethisplace/map
e:blurtblanknoise at gmail dot com
BLANK NOISE/D THIS PLACE
Watch out for this place every Sunday morning.
To participate revisit the site where you experienced sexual intimidation in public, photograph it and send us the picture with an anecdote. I
f you would like to participate in getting people from your city involved in Blank Noise This Place, do let us know by writing in at blurtblanknoise at gmail.com
Lead volunteers on a rotating basis. Current volunteers include:
Suparan Kudesia- Delhi, Nabila Zaidi- Lucknow, Sunayana Roy- Kolkata, Amruth Bhushan - Bangalore and Varsha Chandwani- Mumbai
Blank Noise This Place!
http://flickr.com/photos/blanknoisethisplace
"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
- Purba Sarkar
- Poorna Banerjee
- Sunayana Roy
- Dana Roy
- Nabila Zaidi
- you?
BLANK NOISE THIS PLACE!
We invite you to engage with our new project- Blank Noise This Place.
The site is a witness and your photograph is your testimonial.
Blank Noise This Place will archive photographs that you send of public places and locations you have been sexually assaulted in any degree that you consider sexual harassment/ violence.
To participate we ask you to revisit your site of violation with a camera. ( any camera will do- quality is not important as much as your act of revisiting and documenting). Please email it to us at blurtblanknoise@gmail.com with an account of -
what occurred- what time-which country.city it took place in
Please add in details such as your age and name
Your contributions will be put on a world wide map that will specifically identify each participant's site of sexual assault. www.flickr.com/photos/blanknoisethisplace/map/
If you do not wish to have your name up- do tell us.
You are further requested to get others involved! Do introduce this idea to friends peers and all the women you know! In true spirit, cameras could be borrowed, shared, collective trips could be made to each person's site of violation. Organisations and groups are also invited to participate. We hope to hear from you. Let's Blank Noise This Place!
