HARASSMAP

Designers: 2010 launch: Rebecca Chiao, Sawsan Gad, Engy Ghozlan with Justin Kiggins, NiJeL, and volunteers (Egypt); 2017: Rebecca Chiao, Sawsan Gad, Engy Ghozlan, Hadeer Mohamed, Alia Soliman with Paul Barton, Noora Flinkman, Timothy Quinn, and volunteers (Egypt); Locations: Canada, Egypt, Mexico, South Africa, Switzerland, Turkey; Years: 2010–present

After experiencing daily sexual harassment on Egypt’s streets, four women designed an online crowd-mapped anonymous reporting system, HarassMap. Anyone can share an incident—via text message, online, email, and social media—noting the location, date and time, giving either a personal or witness account, and telling whether an intervention occurred. The posts are then geotagged and aggregated to reveal harassment hotspots on a digital map. The anonymity of the reporting platform has eased the burden of a topic that can be taboo, and the posts provide clear evidence to instigate social and policy changes that can lead to more secure and safe public spaces for all.

Image: Woman participating in HarassMap program, Cairo, Egypt, 2015; Credit: HarassMap © Mostafa Abdel Aty