Deborah: “I’m starting to feel uncomfortable and take another step aside. He follows.”

I can tell a lot of stories. This is just one;
Early afternoon. My class finished. I take the tram from VUB to petillon. This must be 5 stops. The tram was not crowded at all. I do not take a seat. An old man comes to stand next to me. He standing really close to me. His body touches mine. This would be normal behaviour if the tram was crowded, but it was not. I thought this must be a confused old men, so I see no harm in his behaviour. But I move away from him. He follows. I’m starting to feel uncomfortable and take a another step aside. He follows. Again leaning his body against mine. I’m starting notice something poking me. Something hard from the pocket of his pants. Naively, I thought this was his mobile phone. Realizing that this man was not planning on stopping to lean on me. I really move away from him, but he keeps rubbing me. Then he gets out of the tram. This all happened in less than 10 minutes, with other people being there. It took me a while to realize what had happened …
I’m a Flemish girl, I write in English to reach a lot of people. This event was a couple of years ago. The verbal and physical abuse continued. I’m scared to walk alone in the evenings. Sometimes I run to friends’ places, just to avoid situations. It’s sad…

Deborah.

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1. hollaback! brussels zegt:

   september 5, 2012 om 17:37

   Dehorah, thank you so much for sharing your story and for your courage! Know we’ve got your back and feel terrible you had to experience this.
   No one has the right to invade your privacy like that! It’s absolutely a violent act and must be treated as such.
   We ask everyone who reads this: know that as a bystander you can always intervene! You can always do something to help, don’t let these girls and women down, they need your support: TIPS: http://brussels.ihollaback.org/about/ive-got-your-back/

   We’ve got your back Deborah!
   Your Hollaback!Brussels team

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