Last week, Peru passed a new law calling for jail sentences of up to 12 years for men who make inappropriate comments to women in public places. Fusion reports that the “catcall crackdown” came shortly after a street harassment video called “Silbale a tu madre” (in English, “Catcall your mother”) was released in Peru and went viral. Since then, men’s attention has been drawn to the street harassment that women in the country deal with regularly.
Police officers are being trained in handling situations like this, according to a Peruvian daily newspaper called El Comercio. Some, like lawyer Luis Lamas Puccio, are not on board with this new law. “How do you determine whether a look or a whistle is being done with sexual intent?” Lamas Puccio asked.
We don’t know about you, but here at Her Campus, none of us have been whistled or hollered at on the street without it feeling sexual in nature. But that’s just us.
Regardless of the naysayers, this new catcalling law is here to stay, at least for now. Maybe now that Peru has taken steps in this direction to crack down on street harassment, other countries will follow suit.