Many women, including girls and adolescents, have been the object of street harassment, a phrase that, although it does not sound so strong, has a great impact on the lives of women, mainly.
Carlos Smith, director of the Enlaces program, explained this Thursday on Radio Panama that street harassment is those approaches, comments, actions, uncomfortable looks, unwanted and non-consensual words that are said, usually to an unknown person.
“This is a very normalized form of violence that goes unnoticed, but it has a very marked impact on people’s lives. Sexual or street harassment generates a feeling of insecurity on the street,” he said.
Smith highlighted that many women say that this harassment makes them uncomfortable, however, for some they find it difficult to recognize that this behavior can be stopped and that we have to stop.
“If there is a cultural element, there is a lot of social permissiveness, there is a lot of normalization of the subject and vulgarization of the subject because they think it is a simple compliment, and we minimize the situation that is seriously serious,” he remarked.
