“I was alone in the street with the workers who were doing the work. When I arrived near them, they played at full volume the sound of a lady’s sexual antics, who could be heard moaning. They were dying of laughter, I saw them giggling in their van. It made me very uncomfortable.she explains. “Not only is it inappropriate, but I put myself in the place of little girls who also pass through here on their way home. This is unacceptable.” She took out her cell phone to film the scene.
This type of behavior has a name: sexism in public spaces. And since 2014, a Belgian law punishes “any person having behavior or gesture aimed at reducing a person to their sexual dimension”. Which is the case here, “joke” or not. The workers risk a year in prison and a €1,000 fine. “Mentalities need to change… we see that there is still work to do” Kadija Koutaine despairs.
The site manager “is going to talk to his teams about it”
The candidate did not immediately contact the press. On the evening of the events, she wrote to the entire municipal council, to the mayor and to the aldermen of Charleroi, to denounce the facts. Remember that this is road work: the workers are subcontractors, but they work on behalf of the City of Charleroi. “But to date (Friday) I have not received any response. I had a few informal expressions of sympathy from certain advisors during the campaign, that’s all.”she said. She went to find the site manager, on site, to denounce the actions of the workers, who responded laconically: “that he was going to talk to his teams about it”. And she wants to file a complaint, “but impossible to have an appointment before October 10 at the Charleroi police”, she said. It’s almost collective indifference.
The Charleroi court gives him 6 years in prison for raping a 16-year-old girl: “I find that a bit exaggerated”
So, we can demonstrate every March 8 or brag about having made “advances in gender equality in Charleroi”, there is still work to be done…
