Street harassment face by my friend

Dear world pulse sisters,

I had a phone chat with one of my friend yesterday. She shared her problem of how street harassment affected her in adolescent stage which I would like to share with you all.

“12 years before, when she was in first year of higher education, she used to walk from home to college. A gang of boys followed and teased her. She didn’t report her parents because she got scared that her college studies will be affected. This continued almost for almost a month and one day a boy form the gang came near to her and tried to pull her hair and run off. She screamed out of fear where a lady came for her rescue and warned all the boys in the gang verbally.

The next day as usual she used the same way believing that the boy’s gang will not disturb her but, things got worst. The same boys gang followed her again and another boy from the gang came near to her and sprayed ink all over her body and ran away, as they want to revenge for the before day incident.

This incident completely made her to scared and finally she reported to her parents. The solution offered is her dad or brother will accompany her till college to avoid such situation and finally she completed her studies.

She questioned me saying “Tiffany is that the right solution offered to her? She felt that how long her dad or brother can accompany her. How long she has to be quiet, offended, feeling nervous and run away from that boy’s gang. Her parents advised her to be safe instead of taking actions against those street boys. Her parents insisted her to be careful rather than giving her full self confidence and how to face the situation boldly. She was blamed as a victim and got depressed because of this situation”.

As women I feel like “always women are accused for not being psychic or to be aware of the sexual predators around us. Usually parents tell girls saying that “Don’t talk to strangers, be careful when you talk to a boy, you are responsible for your safety” and so on................. This lesson is inserted into the minds of young girls by the elders.

Is the same thing taught to all young boys and men in the world? NO.

During road harassment a girl shies away from the situation to guard her uniqueness and self-esteem form the society. Usually girls are blamed in the name of culture and tradition, where people uses the play game saying, daughter/sister/wife, you have to be careful and correct where she didn’t even commit a mistake.

Girls experience harassment on the roads in many ways. Constantly keep in mind that individuals who do such things on the road believe that girls and women are mentally weak and so, they can move ahead with it. When we are quiet it will boost the opposite gang.

“Raising our own voice and to be stronger as a girl/women is the biggest weapon we have against street harassment”