Sexual Harassment of Women on Public Transit Remains a Problem in Mexico City El Jefazo - The Fulano Forum
go to original June 21, 2015

Despite institutional programs to stop abusive behavior, sexual harassment of women remains pervasive in Mexico City’s public transit system, with 65 percent of female riders being targeted and victims continuing to be reluctant to report incidents.

Mexico City is the world’s second most dangerous public transportation system for women, a YouGov report released last October and based on a global survey of capital cities said.

In 2008, the National Institute for Women, or Inmujeres, launched the “Let’s Travel Safe on Public Transportation” program, which included the segregation of men and women in areas within buses, and even whole buses, to reduce physical and verbal harassment in the Federal District.

So far, however, it has been difficult to persuade most women of the benefit of reporting harassment, Inmujeres director Teresa Inchaustegui told Efe.

In early May, a new Federal District court system that holds oral hearings handed down its first sentence in a case involving sexual abuse of a woman who was waiting for a bus.

After fondling and mocking the victim, the assailant walked away, but the woman followed him until she found a police officer who arrested the man.

But that is not the usual outcome in gender violence cases involving public transportation which, according to a World Bank report released last year, has been suffered by at least 65 percent of women in the city.

Hindering the filing of complaints is the fact that most of these incidents happen when women are commuting to work and have no time to spare.

Court proceedings can be cumbersome and burdened by cultural issues relating to both men and women.

A recent Inter-American Development Bank, or IDB, study found that for many people in Mexico, this type of harassment is considered “natural” since men are viewed as being prone to “seek those kinds of situations,” and women are seen as willing to “endure or feign that it’s not happening,” Inchaustegui said.

See the original at The Fulano Forum

Graphic: Gulas

Related: What Does Consensual Frotteurism Mean in Mexico? (Global Voices)

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