The hidden video footage below exposing the incessant harassment encountered by a woman walking alone on a Brussels street is simply shocking. At least, it is to me.
Question for readers: Do women walking in Belfast face anything similar, not just in type but in degree? All responses appreciated.
According to The Guardian*,
French feminists said the film showed how street harassment was a universal issue for women.
But how universal is this?
No doubt street harassment exists as a universal phenomenon but surely not to this degree?
The scale and severity, the casual confidence of the offenders and the preposterous “if you’ve the effrontery to leave your home unaccompanied by a man what do you expect but molestation?” ‘thinking’ shared by the youths interviewed by Peeters, indicate that this level of abuse is anything but a universal problem.
Indeed, the same Guardian report reveals that female acquaintances of Peeters,
admitted the problem was so bad they never went out in a skirt, avoided the metro, never made eye contact with men, avoid walking certain streets, never wore shorts and in one case, only ever left their house by bike.
Again, isn’t this a sign – and an urgent one – that there at at least some specific and localized causes here that must be identified and tackled?
Feedback from readers on the realities of street harassment in Belfast, Dublin and across Ireland is appreciated.
*hyperlink was broken: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/03/belgium-film-street-harassment-sofie-peeters
Strategic Communications Consultant, located in Washington, D.C.
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