Haebangchon residents fight street harassment
By David Keelaghan
Brittany Hayes
Concerned residents in the Haebangchon neighborhood, located next to Itaewon in Seoul, have formed a community awareness group in response to an increased amount of sexual harassment in the area.
People Unite against Street Harassment (PUSH) was established in March this year and held a fundraiser during the 10th anniversary of the HBC Festival last weekend.
Brittany Hayes and Alicia Trawick from Florida in the United States lead the group.
“Over the past year there have been different things happening, but it was kind of being brushed under the rug,” said Trawick. “The police were not doing anything, so we took it upon ourselves to do something.”
PUSH President Hayes believes the police response has left a lot to be desired.
“A lot of people have contacted the police about this issue but nothing has happened,” she said. “A girl wrote on the HBC forum on Facebook that she had been stalked by a guy and when she went to a police officer on the street he ignored her.”
Ashley Pifer, also from the U.S., said she had such an experience.
“I was with my friend in a mart along HBC road when an African man came in,” she said. “He said, ‘Hello, how are you?’ My friend responded and I just ignored him.”
“We walked down the road to CU Mart. I went inside and made a purchase and as we were leaving the same man walks in. He proceeded to rub my arm and say, ‘What’s this? I like.’ I moved away and walked out.
“I left my friend and walked further up the road to the pharmacy. When I came out the same man was standing across the street. I panicked and called my boyfriend and then the man ran away. To me it wasn’t coincidental that we were in three places in a row.”
As she later discovered, the incident was not isolated but part of a pattern.
“I wasn’t even going to report it until I saw a post on the HBC forum,” she said. “A guy said a similar man had followed his girlfriend home. So I decided to make a report because others came forward with similar stories,” said Pifer.
“My Korean boyfriend and I spent two hours being transported to three police stations. The whole time the police were trying to convince us not to make a report. One of the officers spoke to us in English and tried to help but after speaking with his superiors he came back and pretended he could not understand me. I eventually gave up. They didn’t believe me and it was pointless.”
The PUSH fundraiser was an attempt to raise money to help any victims in the area, with donations also going to the Korea Sexual Violence Center in Mapo, Seoul. However, rather than acting after the fact, the main aim of the group was to ensure that proactive measures mean a serious crime does not happen in the first place. As Alicia Trawick explains, this is certainly a possibility.
“I think it’s a real problem in Korea,” said Trawick. “In the United States the police would take you seriously if you reported harassment like this. Here you’re told it’s not a big deal and just to go home. It has got to a point where I’m really worried a woman is going to get raped in this community.”
David Keelaghan is a freelance writer from Ireland based in Seoul. He works with The Korea Times. You can contact him at https://twitter.com/davidkeelaghan, or https://bulmerhobson.wordpress.com.