HARCELEMENT Since the end of November, the “Angela” device, against sexist and sexual harassment, has been tested in Lille public transport
A woman in the Lille tramway. (Illustration) — M.Libert
- Inspired by a British initiative against sexual harassment, launched in 2016, the “Angela” device begins to develop in France.
- It is currently being tested in public transport in the European Metropolis of Lille (MEL).
- The aim is to provide victims of harassment with places of refuge and assistance adapted to the mere mention of the codeword “Angela”.
In France, there is no chance that a woman will never be the victim of harassment at home. sexual connotation during his life. None. It’s a fact, it’s deplorable, and it’s not improving, despite the many actions implemented by institutions or associations. If it seems difficult, if not impossible, to change the mentality of the perpetrators of such acts, the company; must, however, protect their victims. Severe; again, the devices are not lacking, meeting with more or less success. In Lille, it’s the copy-paste of a British initiative, called “Ask for Angela”, which is currently being tested. in public transport.
According to the government, “8 out of 10 young women are afraid to go out alone at night” and the majority of the women interviewed “have already been harassed or followed on the street and on public transport” A statement confirmed, in March 2021, by an Ipsos survey for L’Oréal Paris and the NGO Hollaback, which shows that “80 % of women in France already have a healthy lifestyle. been victims of sexual harassment in public places.” Conversely, this same survey shows that only 20% of women victims of harassment were able to find help. It’s on the basis of a comparable observation that in 2016, the mayor of London and its metropolitan police set up the “Ask for Angela” in bars and discos and licensed businesses.
A “real need to create safe havens”
In Lille, the “bars without relou” or the local branch of the association “Stop street harassment” have been long fired. We also saw, in 2021, some retailers of the Française des jeux (FDJ) turn into places of refuge for harassed people. Public transport is not left out. In 2019, Ilévia, had set up the stop at demand for buses and introduced “exploratory walks” to determine what was wrong. the origin of the feeling of insecurity travellers. Angela’s experiment stems directly from this. “The real need to create safe havens in the event of gender-based or sexual assault has been identified. highlighted by these marches,” inclusive at ilévia.
In the Ilévia agencies at the Lille-Flandres and République station, people who are victims of harassment can take refuge by pronouncing the code word « ;”Angela”, and receive “appropriate assistance” by specially trained agents. If, of course, victims can request assistance from any network call terminal without saying Sesame, Héloïse Gerber believes that “the Angela plan facilitates the call to real-time help with its key message, easy to understand. to transmit and to understand”.