Investigating the Level and Types of Street Harassment

The purpose of conducting this research was determining the level and types of street harassmentin the city of Ilam. Statistical population of this research included males and females aged over 10years in Ilam from which 500 subjects were selected through simple random sampling method. Themeasurement instrument was a questionnaire designed by the researcher including 25 items.Results indicated that 56.1percent of males and 71 percent of females in one way or another havehad the experience of street harassment. Highest level of street harassment was observed amongmarried women, single women, married men, and single men respectively. Jobs that require higherlevels of social relationship are faced with street harassment more than others; for instance,visitors, drivers of public transportation means, and journalists. The most common types ofnuisance in Ilam included nasty look (58.46 percent), verbal nuisance (54.4 percent), honking anddeliberate stopping of personal automobiles for pedestrians (34.12 percent). And, the leastcommon types included shouting (21.01 percent), physical assault (21.55), and touching (21.87).Results of data analysis indicated that there are significant differences in the level of streetharassment with respect to variables such as educational degree, time span of being out of home,subjects’ companion, age ranges, social-economic classes, types of cell phone lines, and males andfemales’ clothing style. However, there were no significant differences in the level of streetharassments with respect to means of transportation.

Keywords:

Street harassment , Clothing , Females’ veils