On 23 July, a 21-year-old Brazilian national in Singapore shared a TikTok video “publicly shaming creeps” after a man allegedly stalked her on the MRT.
In the video, she points to a man behind her, saying that he is harassing her and was trying to get close to her.
Sofia, a recent polytechnic graduate who has lived in Singapore for 20 years, shares her harrowing experience with MS News.
Source: @spellcasterr777 on TikTok
In an exclusive with MS News, Sofia recounts that she and two friends were heading to Paya Lebar to café-hop.
As they boarded the East-West line train at Bugis, Sofia’s friend pointed out that a man was staring at them.
Sofia says that she had not noticed prior to her friend’s observation.
During this time, the man made eye contact with the group and promptly stood up from his seat, walking closer to the group.
At one point, one of her friends texted in the group chat saying that the man was standing right behind her other friend.
Sofia shares that she decided to “straight up tell him to stop staring at [them]”, but the man “just smiled creepily and continued staring”.
While Sofia was loud enough for others to hear, she claims that other passengers merely looked on without doing anything.
As the women reached Paya Lebar station, they noticed the man was getting even closer.
Assuming he was also alighting, they wanted to let him pass and pretend they were getting off at a later stop.
Source: Yiyang Liu on Pexels, for illustration purposes only
After he alighted, the group felt that it was safe to make the stop.
Her friends decided to take the stairs while Sofia opted for the escalator instead.
However, to Sofia’s surprise, the man then appeared and ran down to catch up with her.
When the man caught up to Sofia, he “pressed his body against” her, leaned into her ear and said, “Give me your number.”
“At this moment, I was really uncomfortable with him being this close.” Sofia says to MS News. “He seemed mad and demanding.”
Uninterested, she told him to move away from her.
However, he ignored her rejection and told her to give him the number immediately.
Sofia claims that the man even shoved his phone near her during his uncomfortable advances.
Desperate for the man to leave her alone, Sofia decided to film him in the hopes of scaring him away.
“I thought if I filmed him and seemed really confident and unafraid, he would have left me alone,” she says to MS News.
“This guy is currently harassing me, and he is trying to get really close to me. And he is stalking me,” Sofia says in the video, aiming the camera at the man behind her.
Source: @spellcasterr777 on TikTok
In the video, a camera ‘click’ can be heard in the background. The man attempts to cover his face with his phone, trying to hide his identity.
The man does not respond to her accusations and overtakes her to head down to the Circle Line platform.
“Walk away, buddy. Walk away,” Sofia said as the man went ahead of her.
Source: @spellcasterr777 on TikTok
The video quickly garnered attention, with more than 384,000 views and 34,000 likes at the time of writing.
Most netizens applaud Sofia for standing up for herself, encouraging her to make a police report since she had video footage.
Source: TikTok
Some thought the video was a skit and believed it was a ‘joke’.
A few were in disbelief that such incidents can happen in Singapore, and some even shared their own personal experiences of harassment.
Source: TikTok
Overall, many netizens are in support of her and glad that the “public shaming” is able to bring more awareness to the issue.
“The amount of sexual harassment that occurs in Singapore, especially in public places like trains and buses, occurs way more than you think,” Sofia told MS News.
“Every single girl I have met in my life has experienced some kind of harassment.”
Unfortunately, these women often go unnoticed or have their claims invalidated, she lamented.
If one finds themselves to be a victim of molestation or sexual harassment on an MRT train, they can press the Emergency Communication Button by the train door or approach station staff for help immediately.
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Featured image adapted from Wikipedia and @spellcasterr777 on TikTok.