Supplemental Information on Nonviolent Intervention

We had a great turnout for our nonviolent intervention workshop on February 23. If you missed it, here are the handouts that were given out.

It was illustrated by French Muslim illustrator Maeril, who says the following about this illustration:

“This is an illustrated guide I made as part of my co-admining work at The Middle Eastern Feminist on Facebook! It will be published there shortly. The technique that is displayed here is a genuine one used in psychology – I forgot the name and couldn’t find it again so if you know about it, feel free to tell me!

Some could say: “Yes but you can use that technique for instances of harassment other than Islamophobic attacks!”, and my reply is: Sure! Please do so, it also works for other “types” of harassment of a lone person in a public space!!
However I’m focusing on protecting Muslims here, as they have been very specific targets lately, and as a French Middle Eastern woman, I wanted to try and do something to raise awareness on how to help when such things happen before our eyes – that way one cannot say they “didn’t know what to do”!

I’d like to insist on two things:

1) Do not, in any way, interact with the attacker. You must absolutely ignore them and focus entirely on the person being attacked!

2) Please make sure to always respect the wishes of the person you’re helping: whether they want you to leave quickly afterward, or not! If you’re in a hurry escort them to a place where someone else can take over – call one of their friends, or one of yours, of if they want to, the police. It all depends on how they feel!

Please don’t hesitate to share this guide as it could push a lot of people to overcome bystander syndrome!!”

Also, the American Friends Service Committee created their own do’s and don’ts guide for bystander intervention, which you can read here.

Photos from the event.