• Two students have created a Facebook group, Bring your sister, so that women agree never to walk alone again in Montpellier.

  • “When I'm alone, in the street, in Montpellier, to come back from an evening, I don't necessarily feel safe,” confides one of the group's creators, Loïs.

  • "A lot of people make the same journeys" in Montpellier, explains the student from Montpellier.

    So as much as they federate.

Loïs and Elise, tired of constantly seeing, on social networks, articles and testimonies relating to acts of harassment, or verbal and physical attacks on young women in the streets of Montpellier (Hérault), have created Raccompanies your sister ( accessible here).

On this Facebook group, Internet users can agree to go a long way together, to come home from the evening.

And even to move in the middle of the day.

To never walk alone again.

"When I'm alone, in the street, in Montpellier, to come home from an evening, I don't necessarily feel safe," explains Loïs, a 22-year-old student.

It's much nicer when I'm with my friends.

It happened to me, a few years ago, that a woman came to see us and asked us if she could simply stay with us.

Because she didn't feel reassured, all alone.

“If she has never been attacked, Elise confides that she is often afraid too in Montpellier.

"I pay attention to how I dress," explains the young woman.

If I know I'm going to be home late from a party, I take a jacket.

To be as invisible as possible.

»

"A lot of people make the same journeys"

For Loïs, there is a real feeling of insecurity in Montpellier, "especially in the city center", points out the young woman.

Much more “than in certain neighborhoods which can suffer from a bad reputation, where, ultimately, it is much calmer”.

In the Ecusson, continues the creator of Raccompanies your sister, “the atmosphere has changed a lot.

It wasn't like that a few years ago."

In terms of security, “Montpellier has fallen enormously”, deplores Elise, who meets more and more, in the streets, drug addicts, alcoholics or people in precarious situations.

The group Raccompanies your sister has grown little by little, since its creation, at the start of the 2021 school year. Around 1,400 women have now joined it.

Some ask for a helping hand, and others list their availability to accompany someone.

"A lot of people make the same journeys", notes Loïs, so as much as they federate.

But for the alchemy to work, the group has to grow, even more.

The two young women are thinking, perhaps, of founding an association, and creating an application around this idea.

And to export it, why not, elsewhere in France.

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  • Company

  • Montpellier

  • Women

  • Harassment

  • Assault

  • Occitania

  • Languedoc Roussillon