The attack on Lara Logan of CBS was a worst-case scenario for many female reporters. Yet gropes and unwanted advances are common occupational hazards. Here are some tips from safety experts who have trained soldiers and journalists. While not every assault can be prevented, anticipation and sound judgment go a long way toward minimizing risk.
ALWAYS
• Wear a wedding ring, or a band that looks like one.
• Respect the local dress code and err on the conservative side.
• Be aware of how sources see you. You may be dressing appropriately but still viewed as promiscuous because of culture misperceptions.
• Carry the cell phone number of someone senior in the army or police. Threaten to report a would-be attacker to authorities.
CROWDS
• Travel with a male companion.
• Dress like a frump. Wear a thick belt, laced boots, loose pants and a pullover shirt. (Slows down attackers.)
• Stay on the edge of crowds. Deploy an idling car nearby for a quick get away.
• Always plot an escape route. Establish landmarks such as high trees or lampposts to get your bearings in case of a stampede.
• If a mob suddenly materializes, make sure someone is watching your back.
• Don’t wear ponytails or necklaces that can be easily grabbed.
• Carry a rape whistle.
• If surrounded at close quarters, fight with everything you’ve got.
HARASSMENT
• Make clear that you will not tolerate inappropriate touching or comments from support staff, sources, or colleagues.
• Say you are married, or engaged.
• Don’t drink alone with sources. The presence of alcohol may embolden a source to make a pass. Drinking can slow your ability to respond quickly if assaulted.
• Do not offer alcohol to men at roadblocks. Do not accept alcohol from men at roadblocks.
HOTELS
• Take a hotel room next to colleagues. (Unless they have been sexually harassing you, in which case stay on another floor.)
• Put furniture against the room door.
• Use doorknob alarms. They emit a loud noise if someone tries to break into the room.
• Develop peripheral vision. Don’t get into an elevator or walk in the corridor if you think a man is following you.
• Don’t ask for your room key within earshot or sight of strange men.
• Report harassment by other guests to the front desk and say you want to alert authorities.
• Don’t open your hotel door to strangers. Always ask who is knocking. Look through the keyhole before opening the door.
• Use every lock on your hotel door, and travel with your own lock just in case.
• Avoid hotel rooms with windows facing terraces.
• Keep a can of deodorant by the bed to spray into an attacker’s eyes. It will temporarily blind, but won’t cause lasting damage.
RAPE
• Holler. Fight back.
• Soil yourself with vomit, feces, or urine.
• Say you are HIV positive, menstruating, or pregnant.
• Try to break the momentum. Distract the attacker with an unrelated topic, or pointing out something around you.
• Try the deodorant spray trick.
• Don’t struggle if you think he is HIV positive. Drawing blood can spread the infection.
• Know where to obtain anti-retrovirals in the event of rape by someone with AIDS.
• Don’t blame yourself.
Anyone that's female but less than 5 foot 8 inches must be even more careful. Men--all cultures like women small and petite. Along with all those married and engaged statements, ask men--if it's one on one--if they know how to be well mannered or in English a gentleman. Backhanded compliment that they have to fulfill. After all, gentlemen aren't gentlemen if they plan to attack women. And follow those notes given above.
#1 Posted by Patricia Wilson, CJR on Wed 23 Feb 2011 at 02:34 PM
These and other tips are a good start- esp the ones about crowds and positioning tips- and YES with respect to varying cultures where reporters might be dug in. (One correction: deodorant spray won't necessarily do much except annoy an "attacker." There are a lot of misnomers out there...it might be a good momentary distraction but then it would need to be immediately backed up with physical skill and other ways to utilize e the environment to your advantage - in order to escape or do more if necessary. Just saying- don't expect a pumped up guy to go plop from a spritz of spray! ...)
I'm commenting one two levels: First as a veteran 26 year (award winning) women's self defense pro and advocate, best known for my PRIMAL non-nonsense methods and messaging to women- unabashedly calling for all women to recover their innate instincts and basic know-how for aggressive self protection - when all else fails I mean - beyond the myriad prevention methods and fortifications, so to speak. I view this as critical to women's safety and well being and to help reduce the ills and impotencies of fear. Which all women possess. And which isn't always unfounded. This Fear is heightened when traveling or in unfamiliar regions -- dodgy outposts, odd hours etc-- where emotions and bullets fly and where it's still MANISTAN! Meaning largely machismo or heavily patriarchal cultures -- where risks often run higher.
I'm familiar with Judith Marloff's FABULOUS writings and also had some brief contact with CPJ.ORG re: new handbook-- and I wanted to let her know that I'm VERY Interested in getting involved in helping to design/ implement/ create or jointly create a "crash course" if you will specific to women's needs and realties re: sexual assault and violence prevention against women journalists, including last resort, down and dirty fight back skills-- the goal is to facilitate escape. Seriously!
Secondly, I'm also a woman who's been attacked....once surrounded in a mob (Peshawar) and stoned with rocks---and managed to crash and bash my way out. I've also fought off would be rapists and a couple of street thugs. So I know of what I speak.... and I know what its like to be "scared to death" - the kind of terror that could rip the flesh off your face...And like many women I've also suffered manhandling indignities (serious groping and touching) while traveling years ago-- the kind that left hand prints etched on my body long after the event- like telltale DNA at the scene of the crime...And finally, I'm a former psychotherapist having worked primarily with women and survivors of one kind or another, trauma related mostly.
IMO and experience one of THE Biggest/ MOST IMPT things women in general need to learn is how to mobilize IMMEDIATELY - not freeze - when the electrifying survival charges of fear mixed with adrenaline are unleashed, and how to harness this juice effectively. Because here's the deal: Seconds count. NOW is the time that most matters. It's one thing to have a tip or idea in your head- I'll spray with chemical irritant - but it's another thing to do it fast and mitigate the disabling effects of that stress. ALSO critical to ALL levels of self protection - from rebuffing unwanted advances to acting on danger recognition, to having to fight for your life - is the cultivating of a gnarly survival mindset. Re: safety we dames need the mindset of a MARINE or Survivalist, the HEART of a LIONESS, and the BRAINS of a Security Director! MINDSET is vital in helping women powerfully deliver whatever level of protection is needed - even to set a firm boundary-- and to be perceived as more of a force, versus "easy." Journalist so often want to help, to "lend the helping hand" - being empathy driven - and this has certain vulnerabilities that need to be compensated. Women need to learn how to thicken their skins. My MOTTO: "Compassion must tempered with a ruthless attention to reality..." Here's how, here' why
#2 Posted by Melissa Soalt , CJR on Wed 23 Feb 2011 at 06:18 PM
Wear a burka?
Place furniture against the door?
Soil yourself?
Wouldn't it just be easier to get a sex change operation? Or maybe pop enough hormone pills to grow a beard and a set of testicles?
I mean seriously... The thing I don't see on this list is "stay off the streets in predominantly Muslim countries, where women are treated like chattel to be raped at will". This would seem to be the first warning to heed.
And a close second would be "appear not to be a Jew in predominantly Muslim countries".
#3 Posted by padikiller, CJR on Wed 23 Feb 2011 at 09:17 PM
A tip I was told many years ago is for a woman in a dangerous situation not to shout "help" but shout "fire".
The rationale is that many people will be hesitant to answer a call for help, but a fire attracts people either eager to help put it out or to gawk!
#4 Posted by Ray, CJR on Sat 26 Feb 2011 at 04:21 AM
I appreciate your adivice. In my little english, I would like to addit some recommandations. Some of the members of arm group during the war, different strategies to get the women journalists. One of them is to give the appoitment very late in evening, be careful if they tell you the conversation must be private, or for security of myself you must be alone,...When you are colled for a trip caverage, you have to be sure if otheres journalists are coming,... To call for a help when you are with the rebelles can not stop the danger, but try to tolk about your family when you are with a married man before ITW, married or not try to telle him that you heard he is a good man, have a pretexte to be very busy and have emergency report, let him have a hope to meet you again for next time.
To be in my period or to HVI posive never heped me when I was reporting from Eastern Congo. Some af the members of army group are HIV positive or don't care about the infection, because they know that they can be killed anytime on front.
The other advice is to have a famele condom which one you can stay with for a long time, even if you are not alone. Have advice af your doctor before traveling, and take the necessary treatment for the prevention of infection when you are raped.
Lucie Umukundwa
Rwandese journalst at Paris
Ex correspondent in Rwanda and Eastern Congo
#5 Posted by Lucie Umukundwa, CJR on Fri 1 Apr 2011 at 02:37 AM