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full screen A pilgrim on the Camino de Santiago near Pamplona in northern Spain. Archive image. Photo: Alvaro Barrientos/AP/TT
Flashers, lewd comments and unwanted touching.
Lonely women on the pilgrimage routes of the Camino de Santiago testify to sexual harassment in deserted hiking areas in the countryside.
Nine women who walked along the Camino de Santiago testify about harassment during pilgrimages in the last five years. Several of them have feared for their lives, they told The Guardian newspaper.
Most of the incidents occurred when the women hiked on their own along deserted sections of the trail.
Seven of the women testify about naked men masturbating or caressing themselves. One of the men chased the hiker through the countryside.
One woman says that a man asked her to get into a van, another that she fended off unwanted touching and received lewd comments from several men.
Six of the nine women have reported the incidents to the police. In only one of the cases has the perpetrator been found and prosecuted.
The data is shocking but not surprising, says Lorena Gaibor, who has founded an online forum for female pilgrims.
– Sexual harassment is endemic on the “Camino”. It feels very ordinary. Every damn year we get reports of women experiencing the same things, she says.
Pilgrim trails have become increasingly popular in recent years. Last year, 446,000 people hiked there – 53 percent of them women, according to official statistics.
In 2021, the Spanish government launched a safety campaign in Galicia, where female pilgrims will have access to information in several languages on how to raise the alarm if something happens.