Last week UN Women published a story in the ‘From where I stand…‘ editorial series about Salma Belhassine, a 21-year-old activist from Tunisia, part of the Youth Leadership Programme, an initiative by UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) in partnership with UN Women.
Belhassine recently attended the ECOSOC Youth Forum at UN Headquarters in New York and spoke to UN Women about her efforts to end sexual harassment in public spaces.
In Tunisia, a lot of good work is happening to advance women’s rights and gender equality. There are new laws protecting women’s inheritance rights, and a law that makes it easier to pros-ecute domestic abuse. We even have a law against sexual harassment in public spaces. But many of these laws are not being applied in practice. But having such progressive laws makes me feel more hopeful. It encourages me to make noise, because we want things to change.
Belhassine and four other university students are working to devel-op SafeNes, a mobile app to protect women from sexual harassment in public spaces.
It would be a better world if women and girls felt safe in public spaces. Women would be more active, more productive. The best thing young people can do is to make noise, speak out for ourselves. Because we are not the future, we are the present. We can’t wait for the adults to do things for us. We have to stand for ourselves and for future generations.
In two days, on March 8, we will celebrate International Women’s Day and the mobile app by Salma Belhassine to protect women from sexual harassment in public spaces is a great initiative!
