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The D Word
The most important word in self defense programming
Thanks to our partners at Aurat Raaj, Pretty Deadly Self Defense has been working with Pakistan youth group The Mirror, to develop a self defense against street harassment workshop the members of The Mirror can bring directly to their communities.
The Mirror is an organization based in Lahore, Pakistan dedicated to educating and eradicating gender-based harassment. They report that street harassment in Pakistan has been reaching nearly intolerable levels, and can range from mildly annoying to physically threatening and, in a few cases, have resulted in death.
Street harassment itself is a problem everywhere. Usually targeting women, it’s a form of male ritual, dominance over public space, establishing territory, and intrusion based on a sense of entitlement to women’s right to occupy space as well as a right to privacy within that public space, e.g., the right to not engage in performative behavior in public space for the benefit of men (smiling, staying quiet, subrogating, stepping around, moving out of the way, accommodating, and allowing touch, teasing, flirting, following, etc). It is, at base, an intrusion on women’s…
