My body, my temple!
It is very sad how street harassment is something I’m used to at this point, but this is definitely not something I would like to tolerate!
Whenever I go out for a walk, I either witness a random guy screaming out disgusting sexual comments or their phone number, whistling or gazing with hungry look, guys stopping their cars and offering a ride, or, even worse, grabbing a passing by girl’s buttock.
I saw it all, but I never felt able to do anything and that was angering me. One day, I was walking home from the gym, on the main road I always walked on. As I’m walking, four guys (who looked to be in their early 20s) were walking towards me. I was not worried for my safety as first of all, I was wearing modest sports clothes and I was walking down on of the main roads. However, I was mistaken.
The closer they were getting to me, the more they started to spread out to block the road. Not to provoke them, I moved very close to the roadside. However, it did not help. One of the guys grabbed my hand and pushed me towards him. My self-defense reaction emerged pretty much immediately. I hit the guy’s hand and he ran away from me while three of his friends headed towards me. The only thing I had handy was my to-go bottle filled with protein cocktail. I started to hit them with it. The lid of the bottle fell wide opened and we all were covered from head to toe in a protein cocktail.
Although it was one of the main streets no one stopped to help. Ironically, there were not even patrol cars. I was lucky when the guard of a nearby organization started to whistle. The guys got scared off and ran away.
I am confident the guys did not expect such a wild reaction from me because in our culture men do not expect women to stand up for themselves, to fight, or to shout. They expect us to be fragile, afraid and silent. They do not expect that girls can bring unwanted attention to their misdeeds. I breached socially constructed expectations because I was angry and would not stand to be grabbed as if I were someone’s property.
My body is my temple. No one has the right to touch me without my consent!
Optional: What’s one way you think we can make public places safer for everyone?
More police patrol cars. There should be alarm buttons to press so that police arrives to that spot.
– Dilber
Location: Ashgabat, Turkmenistan
Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more idea.
