I was taking driving lessons and the instructor used to ask me to take the car towards outskirts of the city, which was quite secluded and didn’t have many people.

Once on that way, he remarked I was a quick learner and that I drove well. The next thing I knew, he put his arm around my neck and tried to touch my boobs. When I pushed myself away, he took my face in his hands and kissed me on my cheek. I froze. I didn’t know how to react and I wanted to punch him, but I couldn’t as I didn’t know how to tackle the situation after that or how to go back home. I was scared that he might rape me, there was no one around. After he kissed me, he kept asking me not to tell anyone. I just kept my mouth shut. I got back safely and got out of the car and shut it as hard as possible.

That bastard called me back the next day, but i told him I was done with the classes and I wasn’t going to attend them. He never called me back after that…I felt yucky that day. I went back home and washed my left cheek hundred times… I can still feel that facial hair all over my face.. yuck… I felt so violated…

– Anonymous

Location: Gurgaon, India

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Pretty weird:

I was sitting in the tram and that guy stared and smiled at me. The whole time he was looking at me. I was pissed (because one day another guy stared at me in the tram and followed me through the city and I had to trick him like an agent or something to get him off). I left the tram and he was still behind me. OMG!

Then I had to walk a little while between 2 houses, dark with no people around and he was still behind me. Then I reached some kind of market place with a lot of people and dived into the crowed. He gave up and turned around.

A couple of days later I was reading the news online and there was a picture of him. Taken from the video camera in a tram in the night. Because he stared at a women, followed her, attacked her and tried to rape her. She could escape.

I didn’t go to the police. What should I tell? He stared at me?

– NN

Location: Germany

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I was a bystander to an incident of harassment yesterday.

I had popped to my local town to do a spot of shopping. When I was on the bus going home, some girls and boys got on the bus. The girls sat at the back and the boys sat in the front. The girls were no older than 13 and the boys were a year or two older.

So everything was normal until about halfway through my journey. After most passengers had got off, the boys decided to sit in front of the girls and start chatting them up. Ok fair enough right? Wrong. It wouldn’t have been such a problem if the conversation hadn’t turned into a sexual one. The boys were asking the girls personal questions and it was clear the girls were uncomfortable. The boys kept on firing questions at them and were being really pushy. “Come on, don’t be shy” the boys kept saying. Then one boy said to the girls, “You must be lesbians.”

Another boy boosted that he had slept with 15 girls. Whilst this was going on, I said nothing but couldn’t help giving them a few looks. It was impossible to ignore it because they were so loud and I was only sitting two seats in front of them. I was tempted to say something (I know how it feels to be harassed) but I was nervous.

One of the girls said something about giving oral (I’m guessing to shut the boys up) and suddenly the conversation took a turn. One of the boys sat in between two of the girls and swayed side to side. He then started lecturing them about how disgusting they were to be doing stuff at their age and called them sluts.

At this point, I started to feel angry. How dare they speak to those girls that way?! I gave them a filthy look and the boy looked at me and said, “Sorry about this but don’t you think they are disgusting?” I replied that I don’t think they had a right to judge those girls. I went on to tell them that they shouldn’t call girls “sluts.”

“Ok I won’t call them sluts,” he answered. Then he turned to the girls and yelled, “SLAGS.” I was now ready to get off so I couldn’t say much more.

As I got up, a boy asked if I had any children. Another piped up saying, “Does she look like she’s had children?” I told the bus driver as I was getting off. He got out of his seat to have a word with them. I don’t know what was said.

This incident left me feeling very upset and helpless. I felt sorry for those girls because they were young and didn’t know how to handle the situation. I wish I could have done more 🙁

– Clarice

Location: no 63 bus, Bridgend, Wales

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It happens everyday. Everyday is the same…I object when the person is very near from me i.e. in any public transport..but mostly they are in groups, like 13-14-year-old school-going kids..even college kids. They form a group and stand at a roadside corner and stare and comment at girls passing by.

Once i was traveling in a share rickshaw and at a traffic signal when the auto halted, a man pulsar was giving me very dirty look, i was feeling very uncomfortable. He was staring at me below the neck and he even started taking his tongue out, so i got out of my rickshaw and slapped him 4-5 times so hard that even his glasses broke and fell off. After that he followed my rickshaw and told me, “station pe utar tab batata hu.” i stopped my rickshaw driver and again got down from it and told him, “tu mujhe baad me batayega na mai tujhe abhi bata deti hu” and again i whacked him. I called a nearby police and told him. The policeman yelled at him and left and that pulsar man never dared follow me anymore….Follow swami vivekananda. Never run away from your problems.

– Bindiya Saheba Khan

Location: Near Lokmanya Nagar bus depot and near kashrali talav traffice signal on nitin company road, thane(W)400606

And around the world. Wherever I go, I notice the same; no place is free

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