Why is it that wherever Halima Boland goes, a herd of men follows?
In a video posted on Twitter, the infamous Kuwaiti TV host is seen peacefully walking around in London, when a group of Saudi men disturbed the peace and began to act rowdy around her.
تم إنشاء هاشتاق #حليمه_بولند_تتعرض_للتحرش بعد إنتشار هذا المقطع
— Mohammed Alzahrani (@iM7md_z) August 11, 2016
pic.twitter.com/GMJOJ903pu
All they wanted was to take selfies with her, but it's the way they did it that was out of place and borderline harassment.
A distressed Halima is seen trying to get away from the men rudely surrounding her, but to no avail. She begs them to just let her go, but they laugh and are continuously heard saying: "Just another photo, just another one."
Towards the end of the video, one of the men loudly orders them to "let her go," but even then the crowd wouldn't budge.
Their voices were loud, their laughter condescending, and their attitude was to be ashamed of.
After the video made it on to Twitter, the now trending hashtag "Halima-Boland-Harassed" followed.
Halima wasn't even dressed in a provocative way - she was wearing jeans and a long-sleeved leather jacket - yet some Twitter users thought otherwise, stressing that she "desereved what she got for the way she was dressed."
One male user posted this narrow-minded post to illustrate "why harassment is spreading." According to him, if you don't wear the Islamic hijab then you're a "w*ore."
#حليمه_بولند_تتعرض_للتحرش
— السعيد (@7e950a845c4b46a) August 11, 2016
هالصورة توضح سبب انتشار التحرش، جعلو كل كاشفة للوجه عاهره تستحق التحرش وكل متحجبة عفيفة pic.twitter.com/kndx16upwF
Meanwhile, another male user posted a video of a fully-covered (in the Islamic way) woman being groped by a Saudi man in the street, alongside the caption: "Regardless of how much of her body is covered, she's always going to get harassed, because the problem is not her, it's in men's minds."
#حليمه_بولند_تتعرض_للتحرش مهما كانت مغطية اجزاء جسدها ستتعرض للتحرش لان المشكلة ليست فيها بل في عقول الذكورpic.twitter.com/Y0j3IVtGeQ
— بندر الفرم (@bandarBF_) August 11, 2016
Regardless of what Halima's wardrobe choice was, she shouldn't have been subjected to such harassment, on the street or on social media.
