By Sara Valle-Martínez
Female students regularly put up with harassment in the Holloway area.
Female students at London Metropolitan University said that they regularly have to put up with catcalls, wolf whistles and unwanted comments about how they look in the area around the campus.
Nicci Kinsler, 30, a London student in Dietetics and Nutrition, said: “I’ve experienced catcalling a lot. Vans driving past commenting on how I look… I have also walked to the station and had someone slapping my butt. I think, unfortunately, it’s staff that you don’t necessarily twig as being bad.”
Harassment and assault were the most reported crimes in Holloway. Metropolitan Police listed 17 assault cases and 11 violence cases reported during September, the start of the academic year. Two of the hotspots for crime are next to the North London university.
Before the start of the pandemic, the Office for National Statistics estimated that 4.9 million women had suffered sexual assault. Unwanted sexual touching was the most common type of sexual assault.
Jhona Buenaventura, 18, an Economics and Finance student from London, said: “It is horrific that you cannot even trust [men], you know? You may just want to go home or go to get food and this can happen to any of us. I think it happens everywhere.”
Sara Valle-Martínez 