Catcalling: What’s your story?

*Trigger Warning: Public street harassment.*

Catcalling and public street harassment against women and girls can be found in almost every corner of our world. In the U.K., 85% of women aged 18 to 24 years old have experienced sexual harassment in public spaces. A survey in Nepal found that 98% of the women respondents had experienced street harassment. A Chilean study found that 40% of women respondents are harassed on a daily basis. In Kenya, more than 50% of women have experienced gender-based violence while using public transport. The statistics are never ending.

But behind each shocking statistic are individual women. Women with stories that need to be heard. This film contains just a few of these stories. Through using voice-recordings of women talking about the harassment they have faced, and footage filmed on my daily lockdown walks, these stories are brought to life. They are interwoven, demonstrating just how prevalent public street harassment is. You will never know to whom these stories belong. They could be mine, your’s, your sister’s, your mother’s, your best friend’s, your cousin’s; they could belong to any woman who graces this world with her beautiful presence.

This film was not easy to make. It made me so angry and upset to hear the horrific harassment women have endured when simply occupying public space. Women and girls should be able to go for a run without being harassed. Women and girls should be able to walk down the street without a man sexually assaulting them. Girls should not be sexualised when walking to school in their uniform. Women and girls should not feel on edge from the moment they step out of their front door. It is not okay, and it needs to change. Now.