Everyday Sexism: The Study of Women’s Experience of Street Harassment and Victims’ Reaction to it in Sanandaj

Subject Areas : Islamic-Iranian Family Studies Journal

Jalil Sahabi ¹ , Serve Fayeqhi Fayeqhi ² , Faranak Shahmoradi ³ , Saeed Khani ⁴ , Soheila Hossainpour ⁵

1 - Assistant Professor.Department of Social Science, Sanandaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Sanandaj, Iran
2 - Masters Of Sociology, Payame Noor University,West Branch,Tehran,Iran
3 - Department of English Language, Ghorveh Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ghorveh, Iran
4 - Department of Sociology, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran
5 - Assistant Professor Department of Educaion Science, Sanandaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Sanandaj, Iran

Received: 2022-02-22 Accepted : 2022-03-10 Published : 2022-02-20

Keywords: Verbal violence, Street Harassment, women and girls in Sanandaj, fear and social insecurity,

Abstract :

The issue of womens' harassment has been the center of this analysis, synchronously with the presence of women in society. Street harassment by men includes any act that involves verbal, physical or even praise of women. This study aims to discover the types of harassment created for women and girls and investigate their reactions in Sanandajaj. The research field included all women and girls aged 18 to 40. The participants were 36 women who had experienced street harassment. They were selected based on the purposive sample and Semi-structured interviews implemented for collecting data. The basis of analyzing data was on the underlying theory. Fifty-one categories extracted concerning the cause, reaction, strategy, outcome, and core category. According to these women, street harassment is more common in public places such as streets, parks, and recently in cyberspace. The main reasons for occurring street harassment cited as wandering, emotional deficiencies, and the dominance of a patriarchal atmosphere over society. The most common reaction of women was silence and ignoring the ugly act of harassment, especially teasing. The result was a sense of fear and insecurity for women. The final core category of the research was the concept of "street space for emptying men's socio-economic failures".