Marinella Matejcic, Croatia, SSH Blog Correspondent

One time I was going home from a club in Zagreb, a capital of Croatia, with a couple of friends. Two guys stopped us, asked us for directions, and when we continued our way, one of them slapped me on my behind. As I was the unfortunate one to be addressed in such an obnoxious way, I returned to them and asked them politely who did it, told the perpetrator to take off his motorcycle helmet – and slapped his face pretty hard. Sure, there is no need to answer violence by perpetuating violence, but something just snapped and I was beyond irritated. And I was lucky: nothing serious happened after this incident. That guy just asked us out, we, naturally, declined and that’s it.

But I’ve rejected being the object and the victim.

According to the research conducted by Hollaback Croatia in 2012, as much as 70 – 90% of women have experienced some form of a verbal encounter from a stranger in public space at least once in their lifetime. The harassment ranged from swearing to comments about their appearance. A fair percentage of women have been flashed, have seen public masturbation, been groped or followed. Every third woman was physically attacked at least once in her lifetime. Every second woman in Croatia will experience some form of street harassment by the age of 18.

Since street harassment is so hard to itemize, there are no official data, just this research done by the Hollaback Croatia initiative. The thing with this research is that most of the women who participated in it are living in the biggest city in Croatia, where is it somehow expected for this to happen. It’s not justified, it’s just expected. If there was any research conducted on the national level, the results would provide a better picture.

Just to be sure about the lack of institutional statistics on the subject, for the sole purpose of this blog post, I contacted the Croatian Ministry of the Interior, asking them if there are any data that could be used. They responded surprisingly quickly, asking me for the clarification of the query. They didn’t know what I meant by the term “street harassment”. The whole situation gets even more absurd when you realise that Croatia basically has the legal frame that puts (sexual) harassment in the penalty code.

When being harassed, most women just stay passive, ignore it or try to move away. It is this society that we’re brought up in, that’s something we learn to do: if you’re a woman (or any member of the LGBTIQ community) you’re not allowed to raise your voice, to fight back. If you’re witnessing that kind of event and not doing anything about it, you’re helping the perpetrator. That’s something most of us are very aware of while debating or chitchatting but have you ever actually stood up and stopped the harasser from harassing?

The fact that in most cases street harassment does not include “more” than “just words” is just not enough to justify it. Not in any community. That’s not the matter of culture, but patriarchy and male domination. We shouldn’t just let it be. We have to act. Stand up. As with any other form of violence, it is never the victim’s fault. Don’t judge, act (but think on your own safety). Raise your voice!

Marinella is a freelance journalist/writer, feminist activist, and soon-to-be administrative law student. She writes for Croatian portal on gender, sex and democracy called Libela.org and covers CEE stories for globalvoicesonline.org. Follow her on Twitter @mmatejci.