16 Stories

<Home

Skip intro

Back to campaign

Don’t Look Away

EN ES FR AR

DON’T

LOOK

AWAY

16 stories
of sexual harassment
on public transport

Skip intro

HARASSED

ON THE MOVE

Sexual harassment is an insidious expression of gender inequality. It knows no social, economic or national boundaries.
Especially when the threat persists in public spaces, sexual harassment restricts women and girls from pursuing education and employment by restricting their movement.

This is doubly the case in Sri Lanka, where women and girls depend more on buses and trains than men do. Sexual harassment undermines their health, dignity and autonomy – and suspends them in inequality.

Yet nearly every woman who relies on public transport in Sri Lanka has been subjected to it.

Skip intro

IN

SRI LANKA

90%

of women and girls have endured sexual harassment while taking public transport

74%

say the harassment
is physical in nature

92%

don’t seek help from
law enforcement

Skip intro

Women remain silent for many reasons. By the time they reach safety, most have a good sense of how others will respond to their anguish. The majority of incidents occur with witnesses. And the vast majority of those witnesses choose never to intervene. Women and girls endure, while others look away. All videos © Studio Zoo.

Skip intro

16 DAYS

16 STORIES

Worldwide, an estimated one in three women will experience physical or sexual abuse in her lifetime. Yet sexual harassment remains shrouded in a culture of silence. For the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, UNFPA has teamed up with Eliza Hatch of Cheer Up Luv, a photojournalism series that tells women’s stories of sexual harassment in their own words, to amplify the voices of those unheard.

Join us over these 16 days for the stories of women who have endured sexual harassment in Sri Lanka, and who refuse to be silenced.

Coming 24 November I never told anyone what happened Shanuki

Coming 25 November The conductor said nothing Sara N.

Coming 26 November Too afraid to confront him Megara

Coming 26 November It’s not a risk I’m willing to take Sasmini

Coming 28 November No one did anything Nadee

Coming 28 November He continued to touch me Gayathri

Coming 29 November He was pretending to sleep Hesha

Coming 30 November Exposed his private parts to us Sharanya

Coming 1 December His hand was on my thigh Shiyalni

Coming 2 December I was not sure how to react Ronali

Coming 5 December Have you never seen a girl before? Renushi