If you have a dog, there's no reason why to be afraid alone at dark. Otherwise, following some basic safety rules should be enough.
I received an interesting question from one of my readers from Israel:
My daughter has been accepted to the vet school in Brno and will be starting her studies in the fall. […] Could you please advise regarding the safety of women outside at night? Until what time is it acceptable? Are there any neighborhoods that should be avoided?
I have been reading news from the local police department every day since last year and I am glad to say that these bad things don’t happen often in Brno. But, sadly, it doesn’t mean they don’t happen at all.
It’s impossible to tell any time until which it’s acceptable to walk alone outside. Here is why:
- Most rapes in the Czech republic are commited by men known to the victim. (I think it is the same in other countries.) And these things rather don’t happen “outside at night”. It’s wise to be careful when you are alone outside, but it’s more important to take seriously all the hidden threats, such is dating a guy you know from internet etc.
- Generally speaking, distant suburbs built in the 1970s-1980s are less safe for women than the centre of the city. It’s probably because there are more places – let’s face the disgusting truth – where nobody will hear the screaming. That means hedges between distant blocks of flats, huge cellars and elevators. Women living in these places should use taxis at night or ask their roommates to wait for them at bus stands.
- If you have a big dog, then there’s nothing to be afraid of. Otherwise, buy a defensive spray (€5).
- Although policemen in Brno don’t have to deal with rape often, Czech republic still has a problem with sexual harassment. Twenty years ago, it was pretty common to slap butts of female coworkers. Pretty women still have to deal with whistling and other uncivilised acts. Sadly, police won’t help with this – so there are basically two possibilities: to ignore the savage man, or to slap his face.
I also asked one of my female friends to tell me something about the issue from her point of view:
Night buses are usually filled with students, so there’s nothing to be scared of. However, you can stay alone in the bus if you ride to distant suburbs – that’s just not nice. Some of my female friends are not afraid to walk alone through whole town at night, other are afraid to leave their apartment alone and without a defensive spray. I think that the right strategy lies somewhere in between – buy a defensive spray and walk with friends if that’s possible.
Still: Czech republic is one of the safest places for women on Earth and Czech men take women more seriously than, let’s say, members of some nations of southern Europe. However, there are still issues to be solved.
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m from southern Europe and Brno inhabitant. Explain me why (copy&paste) “Czech men take women more seriously than, let’s say, members of some nations of southern Europe” and Czech Republic is the one of the biggest porn producers of the world.
This comment is insulting.
I’m sorry I have insulted you, but I have never experienced so much whistling at women (and other sexist acts) as in Italy and Portugal.
Recording porn movies is based on the free will of the actors and actresses, whistling at girls is just rude.
I also consider the comment quite insulting to the big southern Europe’s community in Brno, just due to the fact of your personal experience.
In your opinion, whistling is a sexist act, but you say nothing about hlavní nádraží advertisements, encouraging girls to work as a “private-party-line-sex-chat” by using big boards which are visible to everyone who wants to take the tram, including kids. And, of course, don’t forget about the huge supermarket pictures promoting the goods by showing a half naked girl with big boobs. Aren’t they sexist acts?
In “Southern Europe”, we have already overcome these 2 quick examples of male chauvinism…
Carlos, it’s not true that I say nothing about the sexist ads – I consider these banners to be one of the biggest shames of my town, see: http://brnonow.com/2009/03/5-big-and-silly-problems-of-brno/
Nudity in ads is not a Czech speciality, it’s a world-wide spread issue. However, we just have more liberal approach to nudity than more conservative nations.
Note that there are many topless men in Czech ads promoting goods that could be advertised in many other ways. There have been nude people in most Czech films since the 1960s, including movies for kids. I don’t think that absence of nudity in ads at Sicily or in Greece is a sign of overcoming male chauvinism – it is rather a sign of decent, conservative culture.
Still, I insist on the opinion that whistling at unknown women is far worse than displaying banners with half-naked people.
I am sorry that i insulted some people from the southern Europe – but remember that this is a personal weblog and there is no reason why I should not write what I want. Try to calm down. Next time I’ll maybe say a Polish joke or write something wery mean about my Czech fellow-citizens from Brno. If you don’t like it, just stop reading Brno Now and use other source of fresh news from Brno in English. (I wonder if there is any.)
I am a Czech woman, I’ve been to Spain, France and Italy a couple of times and I’ve certainly experienced more whistling and, on occasion, even shouting there than back home. I’m generally OK with men showing that they find me nice – in a polite way that is (typically a good old-fashioned smile without sleaziness sends the message just right and I would usually feel nothing but flattered), but being whistled at and commented on is really kind of annoying.
I’m not sure if Czech men take women “more seriously” though, I don’t quite think the two are necessarily related.
I agree that “whistling” and “taking seriously” are not necessarily related, but I think that the percentage of men who don’t take women seriously is bigger in the South than in the Czech Republic. For example, some Spanish or Italian men (my experience – don’t know about the other southern nations), when talking to a couple, look just at the man and ignore the woman. It has happened to me in Spain that I asked a man a question (an impersonal one, something like “where is the train station”) and he answered to my boyfriend. It seems to me that in the South there are more machoes who regard women not really as personalities, but just as counterparts of men, they see them only in their role of the man’s mate. This is my opinion and I don’t mean to insult anyone; I hope it is clear that I am generalizing my own experiences and observations.
Zuzana: I noticed that as well. It´s particularly funny when I´m with my boyfriend in France, because I speak some French and my boyfriend does not. Which means that when I ask a French man a question, he answers to my boyfriend… who doesn´t have a clue what the guy is saying. Not all southern men do that, of course, but it happened to me several times.
In Spain, we have the only government in the world that have parity. That means 50% of our politicians are women and 50% are men. We have a Ministry for equality, which veils for woman not to be discriminated in our society. We have the best maternity and paternity periods (16 weeks for mothers, 8 for fathers). We also have one of the most punishing laws against gender violence and sexual harassment.
Whistling at women in the street it’s not a “machoman” attitude, its a cultural heritage. I remember in Czech Republic you have the tradition of whipping girls in Easter. But that’s not sexist, right?
Maybe in Czech Republic nudity is not as “tabu” as in “southern european countries”, as you were not as influenced as us by the church (here I have to declare my envy), but one thing is not being ashamed about naked bodies, and other is to announce car cleaning services with girls using their boobs to do this job (you can find these adverts near Mendel University).
Saying that once in some southern european countries you saw one, two or a hundred guys whistling – not even talking or touching – a girl, all these countries have no respect to woman, is the same that, as I saw a lot of drunk people sleeping in the streets, buses and trams of Brno at 4 PM, Czech Republic its a country full of drunks.
You are right, this is your (great) personal blog and you write your opinions. But one thing is to have an opinion and other is to be chauvinist (we are the best because we are czechs).
Helena, Zuzana, this also happens to me here in Brno when I’m with a friend-girl.
Txarli, just calm down. How can you survive an average episode of the Simpsons with so much pride mixed with anger and desire for political correctness?
I don’t think that “Czechs are best”. As I wrote in the article, “there are still issues to be solved.” I think I am among the 10 % of Czechs that are most critical to their own nation and country. But most men in Brno definitely treat women better than most men from Albania or Macedonia. I also know that most men in Stockholm or Helsinki treat women better and with more respect than we do.
I don’t claim that to show that we are better than some other nations – I really don’t think so! I just want to inform one lady who is afraid about her daughter studying in Brno – and could not find out a better way than being slightly politically incorrect.
I totally agree this is your personal weblog and, of course, you have the whole right to express your thoughts on it, but, good for you, this webpage is also a reference and it´s visited very often by many foreigners who want to know what´s in the city. If the contents of this blog are about offending people you will loose many loyal readers like me.
In that case – avoid being politically incorrect – , just say Brno is a very safe city, and link to some official statistics or ask people to post comments. Don’t say that in some countries we have not as much respect against women as here, when this is not true.
Again, I found this blog very helpful and really interesting. This is just a question about the form, and not about content.
Carlos, I understand that, but just I had no idea this would be an insult to so many people, investing so much energy into defending their beautiful cultural heritage of whistling at unknown women from other cultures, who really don’t want to be whistled at and who understand that as a threat.
I am not insulted when foreigners claim that “whipping girls in Easter” is sexist or chauvinist or when I read complains that Czechs don’t clean pavements after their dogs etc. Some of these stereotypes are wrong, some right – so what? Some commenters here at Brno Now were saying some really mean statements about Czechs – but c’est la vie and being offended never changes the controversial opinion nor improves the image of a nation.
Yeah, a link to a statistics or some kind of a source would be nice, actually.
Txarli: Czech men definitly still have a long way to go (there’re still a lot of men who expect their partners to do the household chores for them!) and sexism is present in the Czech Republic. But we’re talking about “taking women seriously,” which, in my opinion, has to do more with taking the woman as a person and not just as a specimen of the feminine; and I still think that there are percentually more men who can’t do that in the South than in my country. And this is a mental thing, deep down in their thinking, which, I’m aftraid, can’t be fixed by any Ministry of Equality, by positive discrimination in the politics, etc.
I did some googling and found various stats – the problem is that many victims don’t tell anybody about the rape. Police is investigating approx. 600 rapes in the Czech republic every year, but some gender institutions say that the real number of rapes is approx. 18,000 (however, the estimation is not based on any apparent methodology).
The important fact is that more than 90 % of the evil deeds is commited by men known to the women, which means that it is more important to choose a good partner and friends than to choose a good defensive spray. (I know it isn’t easy, although it seems so.)
Finally, there is one more interesting number – one raped man to ten raped women in the Czech republic. I remember an essay written by an American claiming that if we count violations that take place in prisons, there are more raped men than raped women. I think that this remains a tabu, although it is a big problem too.
Michal: Well, I guess it´s not quite as easy to rape a man, unless you do it the prison way :) Otherwise there would probably still be more female victims (yes, we are generally easier to physically violate), but the numbers would be closer to a par I think.
Ah, the r-word and PC… I’ve yet to experience being whistled at in the Mediterranean countries, though that may be due to me not being exactly the best specimen of the feminine. :-)
Anyway, I just wanted to comment on the relative safety of the suburbs. I lived there for well over 5 years and I’ve never felt more safe than in Kohoutovice. Though perhaps you meant Kamenný Vrch or Starý Lískovec/Bohunice — truth be told, I wouldn’t want to live in either place for aesthetic reasons even more than for (relative) safety reasons.
Great site, by the way, keep it up! Too bad I don’t live in Brno any more.