“This additional element that female hikers face, this huge safety issue, completely affects their ability to take on these other challenges or enjoy them as others do,” analyzes Rosie. Local Portuguese authorities said they had received five other reports from pilgrims, all linked to incidents of exhibitionism, without having identified a suspect or made an arrest. “This is not an isolated incident,” assures Rosie, after other women have confided in her. It’s happening all around us, […] I know so many other people this has happened to.”
Sylvie has walked almost all the variations of the trails leading to Santiago de Compostela: meeting in Habay on January 27
“Arrested, attacked, victims of exhibitionists”
In 2023, more than 446,000 pilgrims took on the challenge of covering all or part of the Camino de Santiago, according to the Guardianincluding 53% women. Many attempt the adventure alone, despite the risks of sexual assault. “Sexual harassment is endemic on the Camino,” affirms to Guardian Lorena Gaibor, founder of an online forum that has connected women pilgrims since 2015, called Camigas. “It seems very common. Every year we receive testimonies from women who experience the same things,” she indicates. The paths are popular, and the known presence of single women on the route reinforces their vulnerability. An investigation into the Camino, published in 2021 by French journalist Marie Albert, already made this observation: “I suffered incessant sexual harassment there, like other pilgrims. We are questioned, attacked, victims of exhibitionists.”
Eight other women agreed to tell their experience to the British daily, claiming to have been victims of sexual harassment on the different routes to Santiago over the past five years, whether in Portugal, Spain or France. Several of them even say they feared for their lives. This is the case of Sara Dhooma. In 2019, the Canadian woman was walking through Mieres, a town in northern Spain, when she noticed a man following her. She takes refuge in a café, but when she sets out again, this same man is waiting for her on a section of the road. He unzips his pants and grabs his genitals, before moving towards her. “I felt very, very unsafe at that moment.” She runs away, but he chases her. “I didn’t know if he had a weapon, I didn’t know what he wanted to do. I thought I was going to die, I thought he was going to hurt me.” She spots a house where smoke is coming from the chimney, and calls for help. A police officer comes out and takes Sara Dhooma to safety. Upon investigation, the man had a knife and bullets in his backpack. He had also previously been convicted of rape.
A Belgian found dead on the roads to Compostela: Rita retraces the steps of her son’s tragic pilgrimage
In the Landes or Pyrénées-Orientales
The insecurity of hikers on the Camino de Santiago came to light in 2015, when a 41-year-old Spaniard murdered a 40-year-old American woman. He lured the victim to his home by placing fake signposts along the way. Two years later, he was sentenced to 23 years in prison. Since then, news stories of sexual violence on the Camino are multiplying, including in the local French press, demonstrating a systemic rather than isolated issue. In October 2023, a resident of Landes sexually assaulted a 37-year-old Danish woman by touching her buttocks and genitals. In March 2024, a report and a complaint were filed by two hikers, a Swiss woman and a French woman, for successive sexual assaults committed in a lodge near the route, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. Complaints are rare and convictions even more so. Among the nine women who spoke to the Guardiansix reported the incidents to the police. In only one case was the perpetrator found and prosecuted.
On the other side of the Pyrenean border, the Spanish authorities are moving timidly on the subject. In 2021, the government launched a safety campaign across Galicia, to inform women on how to contact emergency services. Spain’s national gendarmerie, the Guardia Civil, has also reportedly increased its patrols on several routes to combat these incidents, particularly sexual exhibitions. A protocol also requires that security forces be dispatched whenever a pilgrim calls. The same goes for the Portuguese police, who increased the number of patrols between May and October, in order to better protect women along the way.
