France just rolled out a nationwide anti-harassment transit campaign!
Info via The Local FR:
“Stop – That’s Enough!”
This is the tagline used by the French government in an active push to stop sexual harassment on public transport.
The government launched the awareness campaign on Monday together with rail operator SNCF and Paris transport chiefs RATP.
It will see flyers handed out and a set of posters put up in key places around the capital, encouraging victims and witnesses to speak out with confidence about sexual harassment.
The campaign also aims to remind the culprits that sexual harassment is punishable by law and groping can lead to five years in prison….
Outspoken French feminist group Osez le Féminisme! was one of the organizations behind the push to get authorities to take notice, and welcomed the move on Monday.
“I’ve seen the posters everywhere in the subway now, it’s great that the public service takes this point so seriously,” one of the group’s members, named Aurelia Speziale, told The Local on Monday…
The campaign has taken to several channels to push the message, including encouraging women to share their experiences on social media with the hashtag #HarcèlementAgissons (“Act now against harassment”). The topic was trending on Twitter in Paris on Monday morning.
Other measures saw the implementation of the emergency number 3117, which can be used to report cases of harassment, and to trigger the intervention of security staff. It will soon work via text message too for situations when women aren’t able to speak on the phone.
Night buses in western France’s Nantes have also introduced “on demand” bus stops, meaning people can get off the vehicle as close to their home as possible rather than at the bus stop with everyone else….
When its survey of 600 women in Seine-Saint-Denis and Essonne, two areas in the outer suburbs of Paris, revealed shocking responses. It found that 100 percent of the women said they had experienced at least some form of gender-based sexual harassment in their life while riding the train.”
In Lille in northern France, Ville Sans Relou released a video showing some of the comments that people have been subjected to while out and about in Lille. The video, with English subtitles below, sees one woman recount how someone asked her “Hi, can I rape you please?”…
