Sonke Gender Justice has launched a one-month-long initiative during Women’s Month documenting the lived experiences of womxn, girls and members of the LGBTQI+ community in South Africa in collaboration with an international social media advocacy campaign, @catcallsofnyc.
Sonke Gender Justice is a South African-based non-profit organisation working throughout Africa advocating for gender-based violence. Their current initiative is a partnership with Catcalls of Cape Town which was, in turn, inspired by the Instagram initiative Catcalls of NYC created by Sophie Sandberg and has a following of more than 164 000 people.
Sonke’s initiative includes incidents of gender-based violence and its intersections such as slut-shaming, victim-blaming, verbal and non-verbal micro-aggressions perpetrated against womxn, girls and members of the LGBTQI+ community.
The organisation does this through conversations with people affected. People are given the option to send messages detailing their experiences privately while ensuring that the stories they share are posted anonymously. The ultimate aim is to offer an emotional release while opening avenues for discussion and awareness through collective experience. The dialogues and private messages are creatively drawn in chalk near where the incident occurred. This expression is a commentary on the normalisation of sexual and gender-based violence in urban and rural spaces where womxn, girls and members of the LGBTQI+ community should feel safe and protected.
Sonke Gender Justice’s multimedia and communications specialist, Gadeeja Abbas said, “Every womxn we approached had a story to tell. Many were not sure what constituted sexual harassment. The exercise provided a space for education as well.
“We explained that sexual harassment is behaviour characterised by unwelcome and inappropriate sexual remarks or physical advances. It is an action or speech that makes you feel uncomfortable. I cannot count how many times I have been sexually harassed on the street and approached aggressively by people who did not respect my agency.”
Abbas concluded, “This initiative should create a conversation among those affected to build solidarity.”
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