< Translator’s note: The original formatting of the stories has been preserved. The translations aim to remain as close as possible to each author's original wording and expression.

 

I have a few stories:

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1. I was about 8 or 10 years old. I was walking with a friend near a lake not far from her house. There were garages nearby — you could see their backs from where we were standing by the lake. At some point, my friend called out to me and pointed towards the garages. I saw a man standing there, masturbating. I quickly looked away, and my friend and I froze — we didn’t know what to do. A few seconds later, my friend grabbed my hand and started running. At first, I didn’t understand why, but then she told me the man had started walking towards us without his trousers on. I don’t know what would have happened to us if she hadn’t reacted the way she did.

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2. I was 14. I was with a friend in Poland. We were coming back from a shop near our hotel. It was around noon, and the street was well lit. We were crossing the road, and at the traffic lights, there was a man standing nearby. We noticed him straight away but didn’t do anything, and decided to just keep walking. After we crossed the road, we headed toward the hotel entrance. The building had a garage drive-in. As we were walking past it, we saw the same man standing inside. He started speaking to us — at this point, his underwear and trousers were pulled down. He was saying something along the lines of: “Touch me.”

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Sofiia; story shared in 2023 as part of the “16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence” campaign