There seems to be a burst of posts about women being harassed.
I’ve posted on some of those threads but will add just a few comments here. Of the five or six times it has happened to me, I was walking with another women in all but one or two cases (thankfully, the memories fade). And with regard to the eternal question about whether the incidence has gone up or whether we are just learning more about it now, I can tell you that between 2000 and 2006, I was flashed at least four times. And when talking to others in albergues, etc, I learned that I was by no means alone. I remember hearing about it many times on my first camino in 2000, all the way from the Pyrenees to Monte Gozo. The underreporting makes good statistical tracking very difficult.
Whether or not the amount of flashing has increased, what has remained constant is the extremely low level of violent criminal activity. I believe I saw some figures after the murder of Denise Thiem that reported that on all caminos over the last twenty years, the number of violent crimes was under 20. I am in no way trying to diminish the importance of these disgusting incidents, but I think that, as others have said, in today’s world, the Camino remains one of the very safest places to be.
And one p.s., sorry. In light of some of the recent threads about “disconnecting” and being more in the moment, those who carry a cell phone can walk with a lot less worry, because the coverage on the Caminos is very good. I’ve done a mental calculation of the pros and cons of walking with a cell phone and I have no doubt about which is best for me, and I say at the risk of being provocative, it is also a good idea for anyone who is neither immortal nor immune from bad things happening.
