China.

China cross posted from WSJ

In a world that is full of places where women can’t walk the streets alone, China appears to be relatively safe.

Yet Chinese women are facing a rise in sexual harassment, according to asurvey from China-based research firm Canton Public Opinion Research Center.

Of the 1,500 women above the age of 16 surveyed, 31% reported a rise in sexual harassment incidents over the past three years, while 48% of those between the ages of 16 and 25 said they have faced increased incidents, the survey, conducted by phone with women in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, said.

Compared with countries such as India, where “aggressive sexual harassment is a fixture of daily life,” as reported today in The Wall Street Journal, China has appeared comparatively safe for females. Sexual harassment in Japan has become such a problem that subways now offer female-only cars.

Yet women have long faced many obstacles in Chinese society, including cases of domestic violence and acts of subjugation, such as foot-binding.

The Canton survey reported that 35% of victims suffered sexual harassment in verbal form, in person, or through text messages or phone calls. The survey did not provide reasons for the rates of increase.

Research from the University of Chicago in 2006 suggests that as China’s economy has undergone a massive transformation in the last two decades, so has its society, including its views of sex and of women.

continued here

Email from Anon-

Hi Blank Noise,
Have you addressed the issue of unsolicited mobile phone and internet harassment? It's quite a rampant form of harassment, the cons of advancements in technology. Just three weeks ago my friend had an unpleasant encounter with such a prankster. I have been at the receiving end too, for the past two weeks now I have had someone following me on Facebook, my email & my cell phone, info that I am generally careful about giving out. All my personal info is set to be private to be shared with people who I add as friends alone.

The options to counteract such incidents seem limited and ineffective.
An FIR against this offender with his mobile phone number as his only
info guarantees no action against him. The most the police will do is
maybe call & warn him, which is futile. It actually happened to this
friend of mine three weeks ago. This stalker has gathered a lot of
details on me, I have no assurances for my safety if this person also
happens to know where I live.

I thought you may have some suggestions/ideas on how to tackle such
offences & offenders & bring them to book.

Truly,

Anonymous

Thank you!

Have you experienced harassment on the web?

Have you b

ee

n harassed by phone calls and text messages from unknown people?

How do you define web based harassment/ intimidation or phone based harassment? list- stalking, sexting (sending unwanted sexual messages on mobile

phone) How did you respond to it? (did you find yourself changing your mobile phone number . email id etc or did you confront it?)How was this experience different from the threat of being sexually assaulted / harassed on the street?

Send in your thoughts. suggestions. strategies aka Action Hero stunts to blurtblanknoise@gmail dot com

Your responses will be shared on the Action Heroes blog by May 21