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Lesedi: The story you’re about to hear contains references to sexual harassment, rape, and child abuse.
Munira Kaoneka remembers an incident that really shook her. It was a few years ago in a hotel in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.
Munira: I had just finished my dinner and I was waiting for the lift up to my room. A man walked up beside me and struck up conversation, asking me personal questions.
Lesedi: Munira remembers feeling uncomfortable and replied as vaguely as she could.
Munira: I even lied that I was married.
Lesedi: When the lift arrived, Munira and the man both got in. She got off on her floor, and so did the man.
Munira: I didn’t pay attention to where he went. I just focused on opening the door to my room and getting inside. Minutes later, the hotel phone rang. I just knew it was him. I picked up. He wanted to know if I was alone. I didn’t bother answering. I just hung up.
Lesedi: But the phone rang again. This time Munira panicked.
Munira: I unplugged the phone and dragged the huge hotel table to the door so no one could get in. That night, I played a movie on loop. I hoped it would fool people into thinking that I was awake. I don’t know when or how I fell asleep.
MUSIC
Munira: I can talk about this incident now because I made it out safely, but I know how lucky I was. That night could have ended very differently.
MUSIC
Lesedi: Hi, I’m Lesedi Mogoatlhe, and this is Radio Workshop. For the women listening, you’ll likely have your own story like this, and if not, maybe you recognized the feeling. Where you’re constantly alert, whether it’s finding yourself alone with a man you don’t know, like Munira did, or even just minding your own business. You know, getting your groceries done. That feeling of a lurking danger somehow always there is eerily familiar to women all over the world.
And nothing serious happened to Munira, but that’s not always the case. According to a 2024 report by the World Health Organization, violence against women in public and private spaces remains a significant global issue.
Assault can happen anywhere, even in our homes. And it happens every single day. That’s the reality, including for Lella Miskir, a young woman living in the city of Addis Ababa.
Munira Kaoneka reports this story.
STREET SOUNDS
Lella: So we’re just now walking around Bole Joppan.
Munira: It’s afternoon. Lella is out in busy Addis Ababa on her way to meet some friends. There’s construction going on so the streets are more chaotic than usual.
Lella: Okay, there’s a guy who’s selling bananas and pineapple. They look real good, not even gonna lie.
Munira: At 31, Lella has lived in Addis for much of her life. She was born here, she knows these streets. But being out in public still makes her tense. Uneasy.
Lella: I’m not walking around as much as I want to because then I’m always in like a state of fight or flight, you know?
Munira: It’s the catcalling that makes Lella uncomfortable. Men verbally harassing her, commenting on her looks, whistling.
Lella: The minute I step out of my house, I’m on high alert. Even in my own neighborhood, I am, because I’m just uncomfortable. But the further I am away from my door, then the more uncomfortable I am.
Munira: It’s so severe, she avoids going out at night. And secluded areas are out of the question. She takes private transport. But even that’s not always safe.
Lella: I got into the private car service, right, like an Uber, got in the back, and then he turned around and he said, [Amharic] and I’m like, which means like, “Oh, isn’t that a little too much lip gloss?” And then I told him, “Actually, I saw the mirror when I was at home, and I liked the way it looked. Thank you for the information.” So I had to be polite because, at the end of the day, I’m still at his mercy.
MUSIC
Munira: Lella is now fighting back. It’s risky and upsets people. Men in particular. But she does it anyway. And she’s doing it with what she’s wearing on her wrist: A red whistle.
Lella works as a yoga instructor, somatic experience coach, and occasional Tarot card reader.
Lella: So I’m pretty good at it, not to toot my own horn or anything, but yeah, I really, really enjoy it. I, I, I love symbolism. You know.
Munira: This is really cool. One day you have to read my…
Lella: Ah!
Munira: My tarot cards.
Lella: I would love that actually.
MUSIC
Munira: She was 10 years old when the harassment started. It was someone she knew, a man in her neighborhood.
Lella: I never liked him, never got good vibes from him, never wanted to say hi to him.
Munira: The man tried luring Lella into his home, but she refused and resisted.
Lella: And then at some point he gave up and then I kind of fell back and then I ran back home to tell my mom. And then she told me to never say hi to him again.
Munira: That’s the moment Lella took to arming herself with a frown on her face and a weapon.
Lella: I started carrying around a stick in my arm, like a walking staff. It was one of my favorite things that I did when I was a child because I still want to carry a staff now.
Munira: Lella’s friends were also catcalled and harassed.
Lella: Just men saying all sorts of things, holding them, touching them, slapping them, whatever, you know?
Munira: Slapping them?
Lella: Yeah, like, you know, maybe touching their ass or something.
Munira: I came across this, this statement. Have you heard this before? “Should I come back when you’re older?”
Lella: Yeah, that’s f-, yeah, that’s what they say. Should I come back when you’re of age so I can be with you, basically. To young girls who are literally six or five or four. Grown ass adult men…
MUSIC
Munira: Catcalling happens everywhere in Ethiopia. I spoke to Dr. Sehin Teferra, founder and director of Setaweet, which means “of women” in Amharic. Setaweet describes itself as Ethiopia’s first feminist research and training movement.
Dr. Teferra: A man will catcall you and if you ignore him, how’s he going to react? He’ll come up to you and say, “Why are you ignoring me? How dare you ignore me? Who do you think you are?” He’ll grab you. So we see this every day, how things completely escalate and very quickly.
Munira: She told me, police corruption and negligence are what makes many women afraid to report cases of GBV – gender based violence.
Dr. Teferra: Perhaps they would have gone and not been treated well, or they’ve been laughed at or been told, well, this is not important, or have been asked for money. In some extreme cases, we’ve had survivors, um, actually re-traumatized by police and even raped.
Munira: According to Dr. Sehin, GBV isn’t a government priority. She says laws and policies protecting women aren’t being enforced. So she often advises women to stand up for themselves.
Dr. Teferra: I always tell women, “Just scream.” And it’s incredibly powerful to just scream really very loud. And if you think about it, a whistle is an extension of that. It’s creating a lot of noise and it’s more powerful than we think.
MUSIC
Lella on Tiktok: For all the TikTokers in Addis or whatever, in Ethiopia now, okay? What you need to understand, influencing is changing. People are expecting value. People are gonna hold you responsible for social impact and social change. That’s the direction of influencing, that’s where it’s headed. And now I want us to know, if you…
Munira: That’s Lella on TikTok. She filmed that impromptu video outside, holding the phone right up to her face. Lella started posting in 2020 and now has over 75, 000 followers. She uses her account to advocate for social justice, particularly for women and children.
Who is Lella on TikTok?
Lella: Lella on TikTok is exactly Lella in IRL. Like, there’s no filters. I cut to the chase and I say what I want. And then, and then I close off.
Munira: Lella says her advocacy has seen results. Like in March, 2024, she used her account to bring awareness to the outcome of a court case against a 17-year-old boy who raped a five-year-old girl. The judge sentenced him to just six months in juvenile detention.
Her video got over 1 million views, stirring the public. That same month, the judge in question was suspended and Lella believes her video played a part in that.
Lella on Tiktok: [Amharic]
Munira: Which brings us back to the red whistle on Lella’s wrist. Fed up with the harassment. Lella decided to fight back. Joined by fellow activists Betelehem Akalework and Jordin Bezabih, they launched an online campaign, Fishka Dimits’i, which means, “my whistle, my voice”. Lella has been wearing her whistle almost every day since the start of the campaign.
Lella: So we’re no longer numbed out. We’re no longer normalizing this and it’s no longer okay.
Munira: They launched in November of 2023 during 16 Days of Activism, the international movement to end violence against women. She shared the instructions on TikTok.
Lella on Tiktok: So every time on the streets of Addis, if you’re walking, or really just doing whatever you need to be doing, if a man assaults you, uh, catcalls you, acts inappropriately towards you, you take your whistle and you blow your whistle.
Munira: Now did it ever cross your mind that whistling might be dangerous? Like instead of like, um, scaring the men, you might anger them and like, cause harm to the women who blow the whistle?
Lella: But my thing is, um, they have done it without being provoked. We have been hit just minding our business, walking silently. We’ve gotten the worst type of harassment and treatments and also physical violence, you know? So at least this time, somebody will be watching you. At least this time when you blow the whistle, you have all eyes on you.
Munira: In just half a year, #MyWhistleMyVoice got over 20 million views on TikTok. The campaign caught on and women around Addis started carrying whistles and blowing them. Women like Fasika, a 25 year old assault survivor from Addis Ababa.
Fasika: I always wanted to experience what it feels like to talk about what we are experiencing – that we don’t like it, that how it makes us feel is bad. So, this is the perfect thing.
Munira: She says one time, walking home late from work, a man followed her, calling her names. So she took her whistle out from her bag.
Fasika: And I just whistled in front of him. He just said, “Is that your canine? Is that your weapon?”
Munira: She says the whistle got people’s attention, and the man ran.
Fasika: The moment he took off, I felt like, okay, this thing can help. This thing really is the help we need. It’s going to break our silence.
Munira: The My Whistle, My Voice campaign caught the attention of the media, and Lella got invited for an interview on national TV. Things didn’t go well. When she was asked why she and her friends took off, she looked straight at the camera and confronted those who don’t help when they witness women being harassed. She said that they too are part of the problem. The people in charge didn’t like her confrontational tone. They stopped the interview and tried to censor her. Then, chaos.
Lella in studio: Excuse me? Excuse me? I have the right to say no, and to say yes. Do you understand? Also, you can get this on tape, okay? [blows whistle]
Munira: As a result of this incident, Lella stopped doing interviews. She felt people weren’t really interested in promoting the campaign. They were inviting her for all the wrong reasons.
Lella: They’re using me as clickbait more often than not. So like, I, I’m not, you’re not going to use me for clout.
Munira: It didn’t stop there. Lella also received a lot of hate comments on TikTok, especially from men, attacking her looks, her intellect, and shaming her for being unmarried.
Lella: Like, I was shocked to realize there was so much push-back from them.
MUSIC
They were not ready to let go of, uh, catcalling. That’s when the death threats happened too, for me.
I was just minding my business, he DM’d me, he slid in my DM’s on my TikTok and said, “You’re gonna get killed soon.”
Munira: Immediately, Lella took a screenshot of the message and made a video about it. She shared it with her followers and soon after, she says the man responsible deleted his account. Lella may have been laughing in the video, she says the incident made her feel a lot less safe. She stopped going to public events.
Lella: I don’t feel like I can just be myself because I, I just, I, uh, yeah. Yeah… it’s changed.
Munira: Do you feel safe in Addis Ababa?
Lella: No, I don’t. I don’t feel safe.
MUSIC
Munira: According to the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association, femicide is prevalent in Ethiopia, but severely underreported. There is currently no published data available on femicide rates, but Dr. Sehin says threats of murder need to be taken seriously.
Dr. Teferra: Women’s place in society is such, is so diminished that a man who catcalls you, who grabs you, who slaps you, who rapes you, if you think about it, it’s a few steps away from killing you. They’re all, it’s a spectrum and they’re not all empty threats, huh? Some, some men are very, very violent.
Munira: But Lella says the threats won’t stop her. Even though she keeps a low profile in public, she still posts videos. She says she has to. Her work is still needed in Ethiopia. In fact, it’s the only reason she remains in the country.
Lella: If I can’t use my voice here, I have nothing to do here. I’m done here. This is what it takes, you know? And we did not get here because no woman was harmed in the process of liberation.
CAFÉ SOUNDS
Lella to friends: Hey, darling! Hey! I’m so happy to see you. Thank you so much for your time. Don’t worry at all. This is an honor.
Munira: In 2024, Lella launched her Whistle Ambassador Program. She envisions a world where everyone carries a whistle. Men, women, young, old. Not only in Ethiopia but across the continent. She hopes the whistle will stand as a symbol of solidarity to support women.
Lella to friends: Oh my god, you got me flowers!
Munira: So far, about 400 whistles have been distributed. Hela Teshale and Eden Negah are university students who have agreed to help Lella hand out more whistles to other young women.
Lella: So I brought you like a hundred fishkas. I hope that’s enough. [I hope] Once you finish it you can holler at me. [Okay.] I have like only a thousand more. [Okay.] Actually a lot more
Munira: Eden takes a whistle for the first time.
Eden: I’m very excited. This is, I already feel powerful. I can’t wait until I start blowing this
Lella: Slay all day, okay?
Eden: Slay all day.
Munira: Eden remembers when she was younger, she was silent, silent out of shame because she blamed herself for being assaulted. The campaign made her realize it wasn’t her fault. She knew she had to meet Lella.
Eden: I remember the first time we met, I hugged you and I cried because I remember I had just gone through some sort of assault and it was like, “Oh my God, I’m not brave enough to speak about this, but she is.” And like seeing you for the first time made me so emotional. I remember hugging her and crying and saying, “Thank you.”
Munira: Eden’s been speaking to her friends about carrying a whistle. She says although women take the whistles, they don’t always use them. They say blowing the whistle has become a joke and they’re scared to be labeled as feminists.
Ellen: I told them, it was women 50 years back, because of feminism, that like, now we can go to school, now we can work. So it might not make a difference now, but think of your child being catcalled. Maybe like, 10 to 20 years from now, it’s going to be about your daughter. So just do for your daughter. Start the change now.
Group: [someone blows a whistle] Clap! [clapping] It’s amazing.
Lella: You guys are stars.
Whistle Ambassador: You are a star, my god!
STREET SOUNDS
Munira: Back on the street, Lella is on high alert.
Lella: So I’m very aware of my surroundings. I’m very aware of who’s behind me, who’s next to me, who’s ahead of me and stuff like that. And so these are my techniques, having my bag close, my phone even closer, uh, keeping my ears open. I would love to be able to wear AirPods sometimes, and I do, but that just makes you even more vulnerable.
Munira: After a while, the tape recorder was turned off. Not too long after that, Lella says a passing driver catcalled her.
Lella: And so I proceeded to blow the whistle. Yeah, everybody looked at me and everybody was like, “What are you, a child?” And they put their fingers in their ears. Yeah, good, because that’s exactly how I feel. So now everybody feels how I feel. He’s also shocked and floored and he started hiking up his window.
Munira: So what has changed for you now, walking down the streets now that you have a whistle compared to before when you were whistleless?
Lella: I feel more ready for the road, you know, like equipped for, for
Munira: Armed…
Lella: Yeah, I feel a little low-key armed and yeah, I just feel the power of making a scene is so baller and it’s so feminine for some reason to like go berserk. Just to be a wild woman and they don’t know I’m wild. So I kind of love knowing that it’s my little secret. [laughs]
MUSIC
Lesedi: This story was reported and produced for Radio Workshop by Munira Kaoneka with the support of assistant producer Elejha-ze Gengan. Reporting in Ethiopia by Selam Teshome. Interviews were conducted and recorded at NewGenn Studios in Tanzania and Shegar and Walter Studio in Ethiopia.
Rob Rosenthal and I edited this podcast. Additional production support from Sam Broun.
Original music by Qhamani Sambu at Edible Audio in Cape Town. Sound engineering by Jo Jackson and Mike Rahfaldt.
Jo Jackson is our managing producer. Mike Rahfaldt is our executive producer.
This episode and the work of Radio Workshop would not be possible without the support of Luminate, the Shin Creek Trust, the Anne Levy Charitable Trust, the SCP Foundation, and Pam and Bill Michaelcheck.
Find out more about what we do and support our work at radioworkshop.org.
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Sources:
Sehin Teferra – Co-founder of Setaweet, an Ethiopian feminist network which aims to create a shift in consciousness on gender equality.
World Health Organisation report on femicide
UN Women article on violence against women
Resources:
Radio Workshop and UNICEF collaborated on a selection of resources available via our website. These include:
- Gender-Based Violence and Femicide Fact Sheet – a one-page fact sheet that breaks down the definitions and drivers of gender-based violence and femicide.
- Gender-Based Violence and Children Fact Sheet – a one-page fact sheet that explains the interconnectedness of gender-based violence and violence against children.
- Talking about Gender-Based Violence and Gender Stereotypes – A mini-guide on how to approach conversations on radio about gender stereotypes and gender-based violence.
- GBV/VAC Production Guide – An in-depth radio guide that breaks down the issues of gender-based violence and violence against children and how to talk about them on air.
Acknowledgements:
Luminate, The Shin Creek Trust, The Anne Levy Charitable Trust, The SCP Foundation, and Pam and Bill Michaelcheck.