One night, I was going home on the bus, when a man about forty started talking to me, completely out of the blue. At first he told me about his life and I tried to act polite, I clearly didn’t want him to talk to me but I couldn’t really walk away. Then he began to ask me what my name was, where I lived, where I studied and so on. It completely took me by surprise, so I had to come up with a plausible lie for every question he asked me; I was really panicking on the inside, but I knew I couldn’t absolutely let it surface. At the same time, I looked around, looking for some support from the other passengers: they all looked away when our eyes met.

They saw I was young -I was 19 at the time- and rather frightened, but no one intervened, not even to try and distract him. When he began asking me whether we could go out for a coffee some time or other, there I knew I couldn’t really stay on the bus any longer: I got off three stops earlier, just to make sure that man wouldn’t follow me home or find out where I lived in any way. The fact that I now have to be very careful when I use public transportation after 10 p.m. and check who is already at the bus stop trying to figure out whether that person could be dangerous is not tragic enough; the worst part has been seeing that nobody, neither the passenger nor the driver, cared to help me in any way, even though they clearly perceived the danger; they simply acted like they didn’t notice.

I feel like women are forced to learn to be paranoid and self-conscious everywhere they go, lest they have to deal with any kind of danger or harassment.

– G.C.

Location: Not specified

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
Check out the new book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers!

The other day I left my friends house at around 1 a.m. and I wanted to take a taxi back home. Unfortunately I found the road blocked (welcome to Egypt) and so I had to walk a bit to reach another street. The streets were empty and all of a sudden there was this car that started driving next to me and then a guy got off. There were two more in the car. He started walking next to me, talking to me in Arabic, I ignored him and told him to leave me alone. Of course he didn’t, so I decided to change the roadside, but he followed me.

He tried to grab my hand and all I thought was, “Please, you damn taxi, where are you?!”

Meanwhile his friends in the car made a U-turn and came driving towards us, all laughing and whistling. I was really scared. Finally in the last second a taxi came and stopped. I rushed inside and the guy grabbed my ass from behind. I was in total shock and fortunately my taxi driver was super helpful and realized immediately, that these were NOT my friends. He shouted something at the guys and then drove off and brought me home safely.

– Kerstin

Location: Around Behooth Metro station, Dokki, Kairo, Egypt

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
Check out the new book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers!

One night I was harassed three times within 20 minutes.

I’m a student and I recently went out for some drinks with friends and they carried on after I left at around midnight. I walked home alone because it was only 20 minutes from my house and I cant afford to get taxi’s everywhere.

I had just left my friends (wearing a coat and jeans) and walked past some men who cat called me, then it happened again with another man I walked past, and then a student stood drunk outside of his house.

It makes me feel incredibly scared, every time I walk past any males at night I put my head down and wish for them to walk past silently.
I feel so awful about this!! In the day I feel perfectly safe and if anybody talks at me, even if I don’t like it, i feel comfortable and calm. At night it seems like these men really would do something to me if I replied in the wrong way, I would love to shout back at them the same way they do to me but I am terrified of what would happen.

Please let this stop soon!!

– Chloe

Location: Swansea, Wales

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
Check out the new book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers!

Since I was in middle school, I’ve been honked at, stared at, and had vulgar things of a sexual nature yelled at me. In high school, my friends and I would count how many times we got honked at during the 7 minute walk from our campus to a restaurant nearby- if I remember correctly, our record was 17.

Today, I was walking from my college campus to my apartment in broad daylight, and a delivery truck driver began honking and staring at me, and when I went to cross the street he began yelling lewd things at me. I felt embarrassed, ashamed, and vulnerable- and it was only 2pm.

I’m currently writing a letter to the company the truck and driver belonged to inform them of the incident and that, as a result, I will always have a negative connotation of their company. Things like this need to stop. I should be able to walk down the street without being treated like this- it is scary and disgusting.

– Anonymous

Location: Boston, MA

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
Check out the new book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers!