Let’s Talk: Ali and Omar
Do you ever think that someone might bother or harass you while walking down the street in Beirut?
Ali: The kind of harassment or bothering that I feel as a male maybe is a bit different than the one a woman might feel. There are still, let’s say, not very nice people sometimes at night in Beirut who would bother anyone. But not naturally, I’m far less afraid than I would imagine any woman to be if she walks at the time that I would walk in.
Omar: Personally I’ve never had that fear, but the streets in Beirut, especially at night, they could be kind of scary when they’re not lit properly.
What are the resources you resort to for help in this case (of harassment)?
Ali: Ideally the police [would be a channel to deal with harassment]. I generally don’t know. I wouldn’t go to the police. I don’t know what I would do.
Omar: I think there’s a counseling line, I’m not sure exactly. But I think there’s a number you can call when you get harassed. I think that could be an option.
What do you think should be done to deal with issues of street harassment and the unsafe navigation of public spaces?
Ali: Aside from lighting, on a community level, I think certain groups of people could do some sort of night watch, not just for street harassment, but for anything that is related. At an awareness level, I think the problem with raising awareness in Lebanon and in general, is that it’s often initiated by wealthier individuals who come from mostly Western backgrounds and the target audience tends to be also wealthy individuals with access to this information who may have been exposed to it before, may, not necessarily. It doesn’t reach out to other large layers of the social strata in Lebanon…I think that any kind of awareness should be targeted everywhere, especially in places where there hasn’t been much presence before, and it should be used in their language. Communication should be according to their values, their ideals, their community variables. And as for policy, there’s a lot to work on there.
Omar: First of all, I think the streets should be lit properly, that’s the first step. That wouldn’t just solve that problem, but it would also solve the problem of car accidents, for example.
– Ali Amhaz, Psychology and Omar Dahduli, Agriculture
Note: This interview was originally published on November 22, 2016, by AUB’s official student newspaper, Outlook, as part of the KIP Project’s online campaign against street harassment, called #NotYourAshta.