Harcelement: Top 5

Living in Paris, one is prone to a bit of friendly harassment now and then. The chances of which happening are much increased if you live in Barbès, leave the house in anything less than a nun's habit and, well, is a given if you go out in the evening dressed up to go to a club/bar/party. I would like to share my favourite moments of harassment, most of which are actually exceptions to the above circumstances.

5. Grabby
Luckily, I haven't been a victim of such extreme incidents as my friends; however, I have been repeatedly grabbed and held on to. It happened to me at the Paris Techno Parade, it has happened in clubs and, where else but, Barbès metro station. I have been managing to fight my way free so far...


4. Money for sex
There have actually been two separate occasions on which this has happened. One took place in Le Marais at 10.30am while a friend walked to uni; a man followed her all the way from the metro station to campus and offered her money to spend the night with him. The other was at 4am, somewhere near Barbès, my housemate was followed home and when she got to the door the guy tried to shove his tongue down her throat and some money into her hand to, again, spend the night with him.

3. Indecent exposure
A friend was minding her own business on the notorious line two of the metro (notorious because it goes through all the suspect areas of Paris - Barbès, La Chapelle, Pigalle, Belleville...) when the man opposite her brushed her knees, she looked over at him and mid 'Pardon' she noticed that he had his trousers unzipped and was exposing himself to her. To make things worse this sneak preview was just for her as he had shielded himself from the rest of the passengers with his briefcase. To quote the friend "tears were shed."

2. Taser
A friend was waiting at Saint-Lazare station when she heard a buzzing noise, but disregarded it as a noise made by the metro lines. She then spotted a shady character who was approaching people, repeating the phrase "Je suis policier." He was not a police man. He had somehow acquired a taser and proceeded to follow my friend up and down the length of the platform threatening her with said taser. Luckily she managed to jump on the train in time to escape him.

1. Pelvic thrust
We were three girls sitting on a four seater on the metro with an empty set of four seats next to us, when we pulled into Montparnasse station and were joined by a few rowdy boys. Understatement. One sat on the empty seat with his legs wide open blocking us in while his friends occupied the other four seats and shouted at us. This was just about manageable; the harrasment part comes in when they all proceeded to get off the metro and one ran back, pressed himself against my friend, grabbed her and repeatedly thrusted his pelvis into her head. Hard. Luckily, she found the funny side and laughed about it. I would have cried.

To conclude, we are all going to go home stronger, more assertive people or completely traumatised. On verra...