No More Street Harassment for Belizean Women

Hissing and making lewd remarks to women is considered a form of violence and in some cases these actions escalate to attacks. Well today, a group of students—particularly females from the University of Belize, Belize City Campus—along with their Counselor Renee Wentz organized an anti-street harassment initiative. Just before midday, they paraded from the Social Sciences campus in West Landivar on to Princess Margaret to send a message to men that they will no longer accept this form of abuse.

Renee Wentz

Renee Wentz, Counselor, University of Belize

“For the students that were able to attend today, we had asked them to make some t-shirts or wear orange or wear white t-shirts with messages about street harassment. It’s because most women experience it, particularly women, and it usually starts in primary schools. It’s something that starts very young and when you speak to a lot of women, they’ll tell you it’s happened to them. A lot of people like to say, oh it’s just wi culture; that’s just how we go. But there are a lot of things that we have in different cultures that are not, even if they have become part of our culture, it has to be changed. Street harassment actually causes women to feel fear. It’s a first step sometimes towards a very violent act and so women don’t know when what some people may consider a minor incident of harassment can turn into a major one. Many times it depends on how you as a woman respond. If you don’t respond, sometimes they will take it to another level and if you do respond, sometimes it makes it worst. So it is hard to even know what kinda response to give.”