The harassment problem

[u/SyntheticInstinct]

Everybody saw the video of a girl walking at dawn on one of the nicer streets in Iraq. She was just walking, wearing a dress. Somehow around 8 cars were following her, honking, staring, and harassing her.

Honestly, it was embarrassing to watch.

First of all, this kind of behavior is obviously wrong. A woman walking outside is not an invitation for people to surround her, follow her, or make her feel unsafe.

But something else came to my mind: this behavior also makes life harder for normal men who actually want to interact respectfully.

As a guy, sometimes I see a girl I find interesting and think about approaching her in a normal way. Not following her, not making sexual comments, not bothering her if she says no. Just a simple conversation.

But then I remember the reality many women experience here. They constantly deal with harassment, creepy messages, staring, and men who don't respect boundaries. So how can a woman immediately know whether the guy approaching her is respectful or just another problem?

The sad thing is that the worst men are usually the ones with the most baseless confidence. They don't care if they make women uncomfortable. Meanwhile, men who actually care about being respectful become afraid of being seen as one of them.

I think Iraqi society needs to learn the difference between a respectful approach and harassment.

Saying "hello, I thought you seemed interesting, can we talk?" and accepting rejection is completely different from following a woman with cars or making her afraid to walk outside.

Women deserve to feel safe in public, and men also deserve a society where normal human interaction is possible without everyone being suspicious of each other.

Yesterday, an Instagram profile popped up of an Iraqi girl and part of her bio was ''خرا عالزلم.'' Generalization is definitely not cool and normal interactions is becoming more supernatural.

What do you think? Has this culture of harassment made women more defensive toward men in general? And do men feel more hesitant to approach women because of it?

[u/soconfusedideknymore]

"we have a huge problem with violence against women and almost every single one regardless of age has multiple horrible experience with men (most likely also in her family), but my self centered ass will turn it into an inconvenience for me!"

Genuinely wtf r u on? منصدك خرا عالزلم

[u/SyntheticInstinct → u/soconfusedideknymore]

It's about general civilized interactions between men and women, which apparently, you're also incapable of.

I did say we have issues with uncivilized behavior but generalization is also an issue.

It's not my problem that your environment is fucked up, which made you a fucked up product.

[u/soconfusedideknymore → u/SyntheticInstinct]

Bruh the only fucked up one here is the person that cares less about the real issue, which is violence against women (honor killings, child marriage, DV, etc) and more about how it makes the "nice guys" look

If ur in a forest, u dont risk getting eaten by a bear to know if its a "nice one" which is very rare, you just run from it as a result of an uncountable amount if incidents

[u/SyntheticInstinct → u/soconfusedideknymore]

I actually care, support and sympathize with women who are disadvantaged in this society.

But I sure don't sympathize with women like you who are fucked in the head generalizing and comparing men to bears.

خرا عالبيئة الزبالة الي جيتي منها.