Sisters Maya and Gemma of Our Streets Now are demanding catcalls be made illegal (Picture: OurStreetsNow)

‘One of the biggest things we’ve noticed is the amount of very young girls contacting us to say they have been harassed in moments when they are very obviously underage.

‘Most of the time it’s when they’re in their school uniforms, or walking home in PE kits.’

Sisters Gemma, 14, and Maya, 20, are leading a campaign to make street harassment, or catcalling, illegal.

She’s in the middle of exam season, but schoolgirl Gemma, from Brighton, is still making time to campaign for Our Streets Now, the project she set up with her big sister to call for a change in the law.




Gemma was only 11 when she started getting harassed in the street by adult men.

She said: ‘The first time I really remember, it was the middle of the day and two men in a white van slowed right down and started whistling.

‘They continued to drive really close to me and actually followed me down the high street.

‘I was so scared that I ran to my friend’s house as I had no idea what I was supposed to do.

‘Since then, actually it’s only got worse.

‘When I was walking home from school one day I walked past a cafe and there were three men sitting out side.

‘They started shouting like “oi come here”. I actually turned around and said “I’m 13. I’m in my school uniform – don’t do that”.

‘One of them said to me: “Age doesn’t matter to me”. I found that shocking.’

Sisters Gemma, 14, and Maya, 20, wanted to do something after both experiencing street harassment (Picture: Our Streets Now)

Maya said she could not believe sexually harassing young girls in the street was not illegal (Picture: Our Streets Now)

It is shocking, but it’s also increasingly common, as the girls have come to know in the two months since launching Our Streets Now and a petition to make catcalling a crime, which now has more than 6,500 signatures.

Cambridge student Maya said: ‘One girl contacted us and said “I was sexually harassed in the street before I had even started my period”.

‘The first experience I had was when I was 14, I was with my two best friends, it was at the very latest 7pm and a car drove up to us and stopped.

‘Men inside started shouting over at us “I want to f*** you” and then other stuff that was so sexually graphic we had never heard anything like it before.

‘I went home and realised – that’s not illegal. There’s nothing you can do about it.’

A recent study by Hollaback! and Cornell University found that 90 per cent of British women report experiencing street harassment before the age of 17.

Out of over 3000 stories submitted to campaign group Catcalls of London – who are teaming up with Gemma and Maya to protest the government – 72 per cent were from girls under 17.

More than half were wearing a school uniform at the time and in every single case the harasser was an adult man.

Maya and Gemma have heard from hundreds of girls and young women who have shared their own experiences online (Picture: Our Streets Now)

The sisters hope a peacful protest will get the government’s attention (Picture: Instagram/Our Streets Now)

The sisters have been contacted by hundreds of young women and girls desperate to share their experiences, who have so far been too afraid to speak out.



Gemma has been told by classmates in the past when she has spoken up about harassment that she is simply ‘boasting’.

She said: ‘It’s really really hard and so obviously it makes everyone feel like they don’t want to speak up if it happens to them.’

In August last year, French lawmakers passed a bill that banned gender-based harassment, both on the streets and on public transit, after widespread outrage over catcalling.

The law also implemented a fining system, where people caught harassing women on the street could pay the equivalent of £80 to almost £700 depending on the case.

Maya said: ‘When I heard about the French law I went home and said to Gemma, I think we should do something about this.

‘We have teenagers contact us to say they’ve never told anyone about it before because they have been too scared, or they have been made to feel ashamed.

‘Women are also told they should take it as a compliment, as if they should be pleased they are being harassed in the street.’

Our Streets Now and Catcalls of London have organised a peaceful protest to be held on Thursday (Picture: Instagram/Our Streets Now)

The sisters are also keen to recognise the intersectional aspects of street harassment too.

‘We have heard from women who have been attacked for being fat while they are being catcalled,’ Maya said. ‘Asian women are harassed in a different way because their race is fetishised.

‘One woman told us she had a man shouting at her “I’ve never f***** an Asian before”.’

Referencing a recent homophobic and misogynistic attack on two women on a night bus, who were punched for refusing to kiss for a group of men, Maya said: ‘We know lesbians are subjected to really high rates of street harassment because they are sexualised in a way straight women are not.


‘That’s why we really want to focus our campaign – and most importantly any legislation – on inclusivity and not just focus on the experience of people who are white cis – it needs to be intersectional.’

Our Streets Now and Catcalls of London have joined forces to ask the government to make street harassment a criminal offence.

They want the UK to follow France, Belgium and Portugal in making catcalling illegal.

The groups will be holding a peaceful protest in Trafalgar Square on Thursday, June 20, from 5.30pm to 8.30pm and are inviting members of the public to join their fight.

For more information visit the Our Streets Now Facebook page.

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