‘Zavi Z’ spoke to Alina Choudry about the ‘brave’ men of Green Street who won’t leave her alone.
‘I have been living just off Green Street for about six months and during this time I’ve noticed that the men around here are exceptionally brave. Not in the sense that they would jump into oncoming traffic to save a child or single handedly stop a bank robbery. No, the men of Green Sreet are brave when it comes to women.
‘It doesn’t matter if the woman is walking with her children or if her six foot husband is walking next to her. Whenever they see a woman some of the men round here, like they’re going to go over and do whatever it takes to strike up a conversation.
‘One evening after getting off the tube at Upton Park I noticed that there was a man who would go wherever I go. If I went left, he would go left; if I stopped, he would stop. So I walked into Superdrug thinking he’ll get bored and go away after a while.
It didn’t quite work: he seemed to be very interested in makeup, too. Ah well, next stop sanitary products – that’ll scare him away. Asian men prefer to pretend that stuff doesn’t exist. Not this guy, though. He spent 10 minutes standing there examining each product carefully and then turned around to me and asked “do you know which are the extra-large ones?”
“Err, try asking someone who works here – I don’t know,” I replied.
“Oh, you looked the type who would know.”
Not sure what that type is. Anyhow, after I had actually spoken to him, he became less ‘brave’.
‘I’ve seen a man walk behind a heavily pregnant lady and her friend, saying in Urdu, “these British girls are like shining stars in the night”.
‘Since I am often mistaken for Eastern European, I get to hear a lot of things that perhaps others wouldn’t. Around me remarks in Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi often go uncensored, such as “I love her flat stomach. Wonder if she’ll let me lick it.”
Sorry, mate, don’t think she will!
‘I’m not sure why these men think they can get away with it, when I know from having stayed in Pakistan for a year that over there they wouldn’t dare to approach a woman.
‘Perhaps Bollywood has made them think that serenading us on the street will make us fall head over heels. Perhaps it’s the freedom they suddenly have here, perhaps it’s the fact that women here are not as out of reach as they are back home.
‘I don’t know, but I’d love to see a woman turn around and show them that just because we are “within reach” doesn’t mean that we have to put up with their lewd behaviour.’