Despite the #metoo movement intended to give women who are victims of harassment a platform, acts of violence against women are far from a thing of the past.
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Recently 22 year-old Marie Laguerre, a victim of street harassment, posted a video of her assault on Facebook in order to bring attention to the intolerable act. The entire incident was caught on tape by CCTV, and the young woman can be seen walking down the street when a man begins to approach her. After harassing her with obscene remarks, the man, frustrated by her rebuffs, grabs an ashtray to throw at the young Parisian’s face.
‘I knew he was going to hit me’
‘I told him to shut up as I continued on my way, because I do not tolerate this type of behaviour. I can’t keep my mouth shut and we don’t have to keep our mouths shut anymore,’ Marie Laguerre explained on Facebook.
‘This guy was not pleased,’ continued the young woman, to whom the man then returned, this time to hit her in the face, in front of several witnesses sitting on the terrace at a café. The young woman told the French radio station RMC that she knew what was going to happen. ’As soon as he turned around and came back at me, I knew he was going to hit me.’
Since the altercation, the victim has filed a complaint against the aggressor. Asked by French newspaper Le Parisien, she explained that her ‘cheekbone and eyebrow were injured’ and said that she is ‘overwhelmed by the magnitude of the video,’ which has been retweeted and shared hundreds of times since it was posted online. At the same time this led to the emergence of the French #harcelementderue (street harassment) movement, and Marie Laguerre has received the support of dozens of people who are shocked that such acts still occur in this day and age.
Marlène Schiappa, French Secretary of Equality, when speaking about the case in an interview published Sunday on Le Parisien’s website said that this kind of aggression was now severely punishable by law. Thanks to a law voted on last May by the French National Assembly, street harassment is now punishable by a minimum of £80 in immediate fines. According to information provided by radio network France Info on Monday July 30th, an investigation into the ‘violence’ and ‘sexual harassment’ perpetrated by the man would be opened by a Parisian prosecutor.
‘The biggest change is that the law will allow us to get in front of any violence in order to prevent escalation. By prohibiting street harassment, punishable by a class 4 sexual harassment fine, we lower the threshold of tolerance, and there isn’t the feeling that this kind of behaviour is inevitable anymore,’ said the Secretary of State, who ensures that the first fines for this type of behaviour should be put in place by the autumn.
