7 out of 10 women experience sexual violence on public transport in Paris

December 9th marks the “Day to Combat Violence against Women in Transport”, organized by the Ile-de-France region.

In ten years, the number of victims of sexual violence recorded by security forces on transportation has increased by 86%.

In the Paris region, seven out of ten women declare that they have been exposed to this type of violence at least once during their lives, according to a study by the National Observatory on Violence against Women. Harassment, persistent looks, physical attacks.

At a station Saint-Denis UniversityAt the end station of Metro Line 13, passengers crowded together during rush hour heard a voice announcement saying: “If you are a victim or a witness to sexual harassment on public transportation, do not hesitate to sound the alarm.” RATP has assigned a reporting number: 3117.

Of the 10 women interviewed by RTL magazine for this report, all of them had previously been harassed or assaulted on public transport.

One of them says: “I was exposed to someone staring at me, approaching me, and following me in the corridors. I was walking for a long time and changing my route repeatedly, and yet the person was behind me. Unfortunately, we are used to that.”

As for her friend, she narrates: “When I was returning from university and the metro was almost empty, there was a man on the platform. I saw him standing directly in front of me, very close, and then he started touching himself through his pocket.”

“The main problem is the looks,” says Lillian, a thirty-year-old resident of the area. She has developed her own strategies for staying safe: “When someone stares, I look away. I approach other women or stand near doors to get off before or after my stop.”

Lillian avoids being alone on the bus and prefers to travel during the day. Some women even go so far as to refrain from using transportation at night.

“We urgently need artificial intelligence”:

What are the potential solutions today? There are several options on offer. The Ile-de-France region calls for the use of surveillance cameras equipped with artificial intelligence.

“The Île-de-France Mobilités network is equipped with 80,000 cameras, but the problem is that the number of cameras is so large that observers cannot see them all,” says Frédéric Péchenard, deputy head of the region in charge of security, speaking to RTL. “So we urgently need artificial intelligence and enhanced cameras.”

But this system is currently illegal in France, and requires the issuance of a new law. Feminist associations completely rejected this proposal.

As for the co-founder and general director of the association En avant toute(s) he calls Naban, so she says:

“First we have to raise the awareness of the rest of the passengers. We can rely on the people around us. There is something called the bystander effect: the more people there are, the less they interfere.

She adds that what is needed is “a massive investment policy to combat sexual and gender-based violence, in addition to teaching children from an early age the behaviors that must be followed.”