CONSEQUENCE: Beyond Resisting Rape
by Loolwa Khazzoom
Pearl in a Million Press, 2001. TPB $12.95. 92
pp. ISBN 0-9703128-9-X
Review by Laura
Saiter
What is street
harassment? How far does attention from strangers, specifically male-to-female, have to go
to be considered harassment? I suppose it’s fair to say that uninvited attention
ranges from mild to extreme and women have different opinions on how far it has to go to
be considered harassment. After all, the world places so much importance on female beauty
that we could be led to take virtually any wanted or unwanted sexual attention barring
direct physical aggression as good attention. While harassment has been a big focus of my
own life for the past year and I have much to say that will not fit into this small space,
ultimately street harassment has to be examined in light of the myriads of assaults on
women’s human rights that occur around the globe daily, and Khazzoom herself says
something along these lines in her book.
In her memoir Consequence:
Beyond Resisting Rape Loolwa Khazzoom mostly describes incidents that happened to her
while she was traveling through Israel, although she says that this is not a distinctly
Israeli phenomenon but rather a problem more or less everywhere. As for myself, I cannot
think of a single place I have lived where I did not experience harassment of some sort
from men of all different races, ages, religions, etc. The harassment Khazzoom describes
ranges from stares, catcalls, men following her in the mountains, what seems to be an
attempted rape in a youth hostel by, among others, a security guard, and an ex-boyfriend
who raped her. How does she react to all this?
Khazzoom takes self-defense a step
further by hitting men who harass her, not just at the point of danger. It seems that in
these situations verbal resistance was the only “acceptable” way she could have
resisted, which she did at first. But, as it often goes, “stop” “please
leave me alone” “go away” and “fuck off” showed her resistance
but did not stop the invasion. She takes the next step: hitting a soldier in the crotch
who was staring in a lewd way at her breasts. The
violence is not extreme (I cannot recall her doing any permanent physical damage to the
men) but she does put herself on the line by going outside the legal limits of fighting
harassment. Over and over again in the book she talks of her conflicting feelings about
what she’s doing, for example her sense of rage at harassment and the need to fight
back versus her fear of punishment (getting locked up.) I can only imagine how scary an
experience like that can be as I have never as of yet hit any men who have harassed me.
Although, how many times have I wanted to? If there is a real physical threat, or a real
degradation or humiliation occurring and the power setup is unequal, even sanctioned by
the world around you, how far can you be backed into a corner? You can either give in and
accept that this is a war you may not win or step outside the parameters of niceness and
politeness. That’s how I see it, anyhow.
Consequence:
Beyond Resisting Rape is raising some hairy but crucial issues for women that are
thoroughly relevant to the situation women find themselves in the world today.
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