Oh, my story is nothing exceptional. I alone know of dozens of such cases… I dream of the day when, as in developed countries, people here will speak about it loudly and hold abusers accountable even more loudly. For now, we either stay silent and endure, or quietly quit our jobs…
I am Maryna. I am 27. For a long time, I put up with unwanted touching at work. Someone will say: “Goodness, what a problem!” I will answer: “Yes! And a serious one. Because it is not OK!”
At first I kept silent, I was ashamed, I felt guilty, as if I had “provoked” it myself. Every touch made my heart pound, my hands tremble and my thoughts run somewhere I wasn’t afraid. The way I felt about my own body changed: it was no longer only mine, it became a battlefield between fear and the desire to stand up for myself.
For the first months I said nothing – I was afraid of being judged and didn’t know how to explain why I was constantly as tense as a stretched string.
I searched online for descriptions of similar situations and found confirmation that this was violence. Then I came across information about events on countering it and started attending them. I felt that I was no longer alone with the problem.
Various psychological techniques helped a lot. You know what? I learned to say “stop” loudly, clearly, without shame. Every refusal, every boundary I set gave me new strength – small, but real.
