Moscow (AFP) – In the sweat and heat of Nikolskaya Street, men hug and pose for photographs with smiling women amused by their coloured wigs and horned Viking helmets.
The strip of bars and shops a few hundred yards from the Kremlin is a feast of beer and mirth for football fans visiting Moscow for the World Cup.
It is also where Mariana Zacarias was sexually harassed while doing her job. Like numerous other female journalists, she has been groped and kissed while covering the tournament.
With more women watching and working in football than ever before, stories like hers have drawn outraged reactions on social media, thrusting the problem of sexism and harassment into the spotlight at the world’s biggest sporting event.
A man in a white T-shirt grabbed Zacarias’s head in both hands and forced his mouth onto her face as she struggled, microphone in hand, in front of the camera. She published the video online in a report for Mexican sports website Medio Tiempo.
During another broadcast, a passing man slapped her bottom. On a third occasion, another man grabbed hold of her.
“It is unpleasant and offensive and it shouldn’t happen,” she told AFP.
“We are doing our job and you deserve respect, whether you are a man or a woman.”
– Groping live on air –
A string of clips published online have shown fans kissing and groping reporters or singing obscene or insulting songs at female fans.
At least two female AFP journalists have been harassed by fans while covering the World Cup. One of them was groped and thrown in the air by fans celebrating a goal.
In Nikolskaya Street on one match night, AFP caught on film the moment a man grabbed and kissed Russian television reporter Yulia Shatilova.
“It has turned into a sort of entertainment, a kind of game, especially with female reporters,” she said afterwards.
“It’s rather embarrassing what is happening here, especially at night.”
– Women stepping up –
Women journalists say they often hear men telling them they know nothing about the beautiful game. But more women appear to be watching and working in football than ever before, bringing the issue of sexism to the fore.
A FIFA survey of television viewing figures across 25 key markets during the 2014 World Cup indicated that nearly 40 percent of viewers were female.
The London-based network Fare, which campaigns against discrimination in sport, named 44 female broadcasters involved in frontline broadcasting at the World Cup and said there were known to be “many more”.
from World Soccer Talk https://ift.tt/2tGiKtY
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