I was checking out twitter when I caught a tweet that said:
Mar Mikhael is my neighborhood and it’s not the first time I’ve read something about this, in fact I’ve even seen it.
I’ve walked the streets of Beirut alone during all hours of the night and morning without any problems for the most part. Even without any slight fear. From Geitawi to Hamra to Bourj Hammoud and Achrafieh, I’ve always felt safer than I did in the quietest Italian neighborhoods or relaxed American suburbs.
It just seemed like Beirut was a place where everyone had bigger problems than to go fucking around with women on the street (during the night at least, they certainly look you up and down and murmur during the day, but that’s different.) And I was fine with that and I felt liberated for having no reason to be afraid.
That was until I myself experienced something, however big or small you want to judge it, that turned my perception around. One jolly evening my flat mate (a young Lebanese woman), the 2famous Norwegians, and I were walking home from Coop D’etat towards Radio Beirut. The two men were on one side of the street while my flatmate and I were on the Electricity Building side. On our way we walked up to a guy who was kind of leaning on a car and standing on the sidewalk.
I thought nothing of it until we got closer and he murmured something. We looked at him and realized his dick was in his hand and he was masturbating at us. My mind froze and I was numb but my roomate had the better sense to SCREAM BLOODY HELL! She screamed and screamed and I snapped out of it and screamed as loud as I could too!
He immediately freaked out and jumped on a scooter and drove away. Before he jumped on the scooter I thought he was chasing me (I guess we were headed in the same direction for a moment) and I ran as fast as I could and didn’t look back but made it my one goal to fucking scream my lungs out.
I was shaking and my body was on fire from adrenalin. I don’t know what it sounds like to just hear that a guy was masturbating really close to you on a dark sidewalk, but the reality of it is terrifying. It’s sickening and scary. And I keep hearing about it and reading about it in Beirut news publications. What the fuck is this kind of sexual deviancy flooding the streets? It happens alot here.
Every time I walk past that part of my neighborhood at night I cringe in fear trying not to look under that tree and see the shadow of a monster. I can’t help but want to cross the street, even with my boyfriend when I’m passing by. And the other night I walked home from our neighborhood bar to our house alone at 1am. It’s only 220 meters, a one minute walk, and yet when I pass the super dark corner where there’s usually some guy sitting I get nervous. I try to bolster my courage and get inside but then I’m pissed because I’m feeling this way I’ve never felt before!
Another time my roommate was walking home and a man came by and slapped her straight on the ass. Again she screamed but this time two local bartenders ran after him and beat the shit out of him. I can’t say I have any objections with how they handled it.
According to my roomate, the problem doesn’t rest in the foreign disenfranchised men of Beirut, namely the Syrians or Egyptians. They, if turned into the police, are caught and arrested (supposedly). But most of the perpetrators are in fact Lebanese. Ask the Lebanese women who’ve experienced this, I’m sure they can confirm. And because these men are Lebanese the police are not actively searching for and catching them. It’s a problem they don’t want to claim as their own — and that is repulsive. The saddest thing is this isn’t just a problem here in Lebanon, it happens all over the world and the police everywhere just aren’t taking it seriously. I read a great article in Jezebel yesterday from which I’ll take a quote:
These are crimes that should be taken seriously. Most men who graduate to rape and murder start small and build. They don’t just go out one day and decide, You know what? Rape. Going to get me some of that rape. They start by threatening, by exposing themselves, by peeping, by groping.
And that’s where we are now.
First I commend **Stephanie for doing something about it in the first place. I feel you girl.
The bottom of this poster says to the men of Mar Mikhael: “Support your female companions and insist on accompanying them home.”
This is a bittersweet call to action, because it saddens me that there is a necessity to be escorted home instead of these guys getting what they deserve by law. I think it’s important to take action and not cower down in fear when these things happen. I have to admit the poster is a bit sensationalist and (understandably) passionate in its message. But I think the fear is directed to the wrong audience.
This message would be better if it scared the men who are doing this rather than the women who are potential victims. It’s like telling a short skirted woman to wear a longer skirt so she doesn’t bring her own rape upon her. Don’t walk alone, we’re warning you, what happens next might turn out to be your fault.
I see it mostly as a HIDE YOUR KIDS HIDE YOUR WIFE kind of thing. It’s scary and it makes everyone else scared when you say there is a sick freak who will sexually harrass or rape you if you walk alone. We know that’s not true all the time but we also know there’s a chance.
Maybe let’s make this message in Arabic and post it on this famous street full of sexual harassers? Let’s let all the neighborhood men know what’s going on in their own language.
So now readers I have some questions to be answered by all and everyone. As various residents of Beirut and Lebanon in general can you clarify some things for us?
1. Do these public masturbation scenes go on in other parts of Beirut and Lebanon in general? I’m only reading about Mar Mikhael. What about Hamra, what about Dahiye, what about in the villages?
2. Kind of related to #1: Is it mainly Christian neighborhoods? Are veiled women still exposed to this?
3. Has anyone reported these instances to the police? I once had my cell phone stolen and the police recovered it, can you report sexual harrasment and they follow up on it?
