In 2012, the brutal gang rape of 23-year-old Jyoti Singh in a city bus in Delhi, India, shocked the world. Everyone was outraged at the heinous, despicable incident.
Just recently, tens of thousands of women in Argentina took to the streets after the 16-year-old Lucia Perez was raped and murdered. The hashtag movement NiUnaMenos — meaning “Not one less” — that not one more woman should be lost to male violence, took over. Resonating with the issue, the movement transcended the country’s borders as protesters took to streets in solidarity in Bolivia, Chile, El Salvador, Mexico, Paraguay and Uruguay. A sign at one such protest against femicide, read, “Walking home I want to feel free, not brave.”
Women have historically been excluded from the city’s agenda. Less than 5 percent of cities across the globe are led by women and this lack of political agency is impeding the goals of making cities safe and inclusive. With each passing day, more women are prone to violence in the cities they dwell in. Street harassment, catcalls and violence against women in public spaces are rampant everywhere. Excluding women while planning cityscapes could be a dangerous approach.
Several facets of city planning and urbanization were recently discussed at the U.N. Habitat III conference held in Quito, Ecuador, a conference on housing and sustainable urban development, that took place between Oct. 17-20.
But yet again, little attention was paid to the women’s “Right to the City.”
“‘Women’s ‘Right to the City’ has long been an invisible topic,” said Professor Ana Falu of Argentina’s National University of Cordoba. “We, women, have a radical agenda — equality for all, social inclusion.”
Falu, who spoke at a panel discussion, “Right to the City and Cities for all,” added that when it comes to “recognition of women and their rights to the urban agenda, women are still left out.”
It's All About the "Right to the City"
Women protest in Mumbai in 2013, a year after 23-year-old Jyoti Singh was raped and killed in Delhi, India. | Source: Reuters
The idea of the “Right to the City” first came into being in French Marxist philosopher and sociologist Henry Lefebvre’s 1968 book, “Le Droit à la ville,” or “The Right to the City.” It was a concern for the rising neoliberal restructuring of cities that brought Lefebvre to discuss the topic at the time. Later, David Harvey, in his essay “Right to the City,” expanded on the idea.
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“The right to the city is far more than the individual liberty to access urban resources: it is a right to change ourselves by changing the city,” said the British Marxist geographer. According to Harvey, the “right” is mostly in the hands of the few who shape the cities to their own ends and desires.
At the U.N. Habitat III, this important aspect almost did not make it to the New Urban Agenda. But for the first time in the history of a U.N. Habitat conference, the “Right to the City" has finally been cited in an internationally recognized document. The concept now, very sparsely, finds mention in the 23-page-document of the New Urban Agenda. The “Right to the City” was mostly raised as an important issue by the civil society groups working in urban social-justice campaigns. The focus areas were the issues of gentrification, forced evictions, foreclosures, refugees, the privatization of public space and the criminalization of homelessness. While the term “gender equality” is mentioned in passing in the New Urban Agenda, the issue of women's' access to safe spaces still hasn’t found its deserving spot in the confining definition of “Right to the City.”
By definition, the 2004 World Charter on the Right to the City that came into existence almost a decade and a half ago, envisioned, "The right to the city is realized when the government structures, processes, and policies enable all inhabitants as social and political actors to exercise the full content and the meaning of citizenship,” that implies the equal and active participation of all stakeholders including women.
Mexico and Europe have Charters based on the “Right to the City” where several municipalities have adopted the idea and Ecuador and Brazil have enshrined the concept in their national law to facilitate inclusion. The “European Charter of Women in the City” (1995) and the “Montreal Declaration on Women’s Safety” (2002) are two examples where the women’s agenda has been taken into serious consideration in urban planning. The European Charter’s 12-point declaration situates women at the heart of the city planning and their non-negotiable role in it, access to safe spaces, and their role in implementing decisions concerning the city are explicitly mentioned.
The Montreal Declaration on Women’s Safety appeals to both men and women. To women, it seeks to mobilize and voice concerns on the issues of “violence and insecurity,” and actively participate in leadership roles to promote accountability and equality. And to men, it appeals to:
“Listen, accompany, and support women in their drive for autonomy and empowerment, and work to reduce men’s violence. Mobilize men and boys to challenge traditional gender roles in order to prevent violence against women and girls.”
Cities For Women, by Women
Falu said, “Cities are not lived in and perceived in the same way by women as men … women have different perspectives, difficulties in getting to different places and not all places are accessible,” which calls for “participation by women in the decision-making process.”
The key to sustainable, safe cities, is having women in the leadership roles at the city level. Rosario Robles Berlang, Mexico’s secretary of Social Development, said in the panel discussion, “If we don’t talk about equality and inclusion, then the purpose of the New Urban Agenda is defeated. Local governments need to implement policies but a national framework is needed to put things in perspective.”
Berlang emphasized during the panel “Right to the City and City for All” that women’s perspective in city building is absolutely essential as they face obstacles that are unique such as gender-based violence, discrimination and access to housing, jobs, etc.
According to U.N. Women, the percentage of women in parliaments has nearly doubled in the last 20 years, but they still make up less than 25 percent of all parliamentarians. The ratio of women in political roles is extremely skewed as women make up less than 5 percent of the world’s mayors and merely 20 percent of local councilors. As part of the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals, the U.N. members have agreed to end violence and discrimination against women and girls and ensure that they have access to equal opportunities, including politics. According to U.N. Women, women-led local governments have made significant difference in their areas. For instance, in India, the number of drinking water projects headed by women-led councils was 62 percent higher than in those with men-led councils.
Mission: Occupy Public Spaces
Activists in Hawaii fighting street harassment, via the Pixel Project | Source: AutoStraddle
Women suffer several degrees of violence on streets, in parks, public sanitation facilities, in and around schools, colleges, and workplaces. Such violence against girls and women in public spheres remains largely neglected, hampering women’s access to essential everyday services. According to a survey conducted by the Centre of Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) Women and Housing Rights Programme taking into account women and girls from over 20 slum areas around the world, violence against women is alarming in cities. Similarly, an initiative by local women in Hyderabad, India, “SHE Teams,” is ensuring that women are safe on the streets. The strict vigil kept by the “SHE teams” has led to an overall reduction of 20 percent in offenses against women in public spaces in the region.
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Statistics prove that some of the fastest growing cities in the world have the highest number of rape cases and violence reported against women. And the fear of being in public spaces is not limited to the developing countries where the urban landscape is changing rapidly. Countries like France are paralyzed by the issue. According to a study by the National Institute of Statistics and Economics, France, 1 in 4 women in France are afraid to be on the street fearing sexual harassment.
Several transnational and local women’s movements are demanding equal and safe access to their cities. In Manila, under the new legislation, catcalling is a punishable offense. The most populous city in Manila, Quezon City, revised its Gender and Development Code in May this year to include penalties for sexual harassment of women in public spaces. Catcalling and other verbal exchanges that embarrass, ridicule, or humiliate women carry a fine ranging from PHP 1,000 to PHP 5,000 (around US$20 to US$100) or up to one month in jail. Stalking and making offensive gestures carry similar penalties.
Social movements and nonprofit activism targeted at reclaiming access to public spaces such as Take Back the Night, and others, have risen all over the world to mark solidarity against the violence endured by women. Locally, a social media movement stemming from Karachi, Pakistan, called “Girls at Dhabas,” in 2015, became extremely popular in South Asia. The idea behind the movement is a growing concern “by the disappearance of women from public space(s).”
As thousands of attendees waited outside the U.N. Habitat III venue in meandering queues, sighing and panting about how hot it is, inside the venue women at several forums were discussing matters that concerned them in the most in high-pitched tones, women’s access to public spaces and safety.
It starts with physical autonomy of one’s own body and the ability to move freely.
“The first territory is our body,” said Falu. “ It’s difficult to live with violence, (we have to) eliminate violence in order to access the right to the city.”
