London Mayoral candidate takes on street harassment

Around the world, street harassment is not taken seriously by politicians, governments, and society at large. But that finally may be changing.

Vicky Simister, founder of the London Anti-Street Harassment Campaign, has been pushing politicians in London to acknowledge and address street harassment. In the few months since she launched the campaign, she’s received political support from local London politicians Diane Abbott and Keith Angus. This good news gets even better.

Today Simister announced that Oona King, a London mayoral candidate for 2012, has promised to make street harassment one of her campaign issues.  Simister wrote that King, “will commission police reports on street harassment, ensure local authorities recognize it as a form if violence against women, establish police ‘best practices’, coordinate a poster campaign and more!” (Read the full statement)

This is truly amazing and completely unprecedented! Thank you, thank you, thank you, Simister and King for taking real measures to make London free from street harassment and for raising awareness around the globe that this is a serious issue that deserves serious attention.