Video of a man punching a woman after she told him to shut up after cat-calling her was captured on CCTV.
Marie Laguerre, 22, was walking home in Paris’ 19th arrondissement when she was attacked by a man near the terrace of a bar.
Parce que j'ai répondu à son harcèlement, un homme m'a frappée en pleine rue, en pleine journée, devant des dizaines de témoins. Inadmissible. Stop au harcèlement de rue. #noustoutes #metoo #balancetonporc #harcelementderue @MarleneSchiappa https://t.co/lV9AIKndlX
— Marie Laguerre (@marielaguerre_) July 28, 2018
The man reportedly wolf-whistled Marie and she retorted by telling him to shut up. In the video footage, it could be seen how the man punched Marie in the face.
Marie described what happened in a post on social media. She wrote:
I walked past a man who sexually/verbally harassed me. He wasn’t the first one and I can’t accept being humiliated like that, so I replied ‘shut up’.
He then threw an ashtray at me, before rushing back to punch me, in the middle of the street, in front of dozens of people.
She also told a local news outlet how the man repeatedly insulted her, wagged his tongue and made sexually suggestive “groans”.
In the video, it could be seen how Marie was pursued by the man and violently hit in the face. He walks off and several bystanders who saw the attack immediately stood up to try and retaliate.
Marie also said, “It happens everyday, everywhere and I don’t know a single woman who doesn’t have a similar story. I am sick of feeling unsafe walking in the street. Things need to change, and they need to change now.”
She ended her post with the hashtag #MeToo, the movement launched against the Harvey Weinstein sex scandal in Hollywood last year.
Marlène Schiappa, France’s gender equality minister, is pushing plans to introduce on-the-spot fines for harassment. She called the latest assault an attack on the “freedom of women”.
Marie has spoken out that she suffered a “damaged cheek bone and eyebrow” after the attack.
“He rushed towards me. I looked at him straight in the eyes. And I took the blow with the utmost pride just to show him that if he thought he could put me back in my place, it hadn’t worked.”
On Monday, Marie filed a legal complaint against persons unknown, and the Paris prosecutor launched an investigation into “sexual harassment and violence with a weapon (an ashtray)”.