Three victims report Sexual assaults on women on the Camino de Santiago are on the increase

The Camino de Santiago attracts hundreds of thousands of people every year. More and more women are also embarking on the pilgrimage - and now some are reporting sexual harassment and attacks on their journey.

In spring 2015, a murder case shook the pilgrimage community. The American Denise Pikka Thiem suddenly disappeared on her pilgrimage on the Way of St. James in the León region in northern Spain. Her body was found five months later. She had been killed by a local man.

Women repeatedly report attacks and sexual harassment on the Camino de Santiago. Victims of attacks on the Camino de Santiago share their experiences in a Facebook group.

Lorena Gaubor, the founder of the Facebook group, says that the reports are shocking, but not surprising. "Sexual harassment is widespread on the Camino. It happens very often. Every damn year we get reports of women having the same thing happen to them," she said.

TheGuardianspoke to nine women who recounted their experiences on the Camino de Santiago.

"I felt very, very insecure at that moment"

Sara Dhooma tells how she was walking past colourful stone houses in 2019 when she realized that a man was following her. She then disappeared into a café. When she came out again, the same man was waiting for her at another section. When he saw her, he unzipped his trousers and "grabbed his genitals", as Dhooma recounts.

The man ran towards her. "I felt very, very insecure at that moment," she says. Dhooma fled, but the man continued to chase her. She discovered a house, pushed her way through the door and screamed for help. The man continued to follow her. "I didn't know if he had a gun, I didn't know what he was going to do," she says. "I thought I was going to die, I thought he was going to hurt me."

The house happened to belong to a police officer who was off duty. He helped her. It later turned out that the man had a knife and ammunition with him and had already been convicted of rape. "If I hadn't found the house, I don't know what would have happened," says Dhooma.

The local police did not react

Dhooma is not alone in her experience. Rosie, 25, also reports that she was walking through a wooded path in Portugal earlier this summer when she came across a man who was not wearing pants and was masturbating while watching her. The local police did not respond to her call.

Journalist and author Marie Albert also draws attention to the dangers. She documented a series of assaults when she hiked around 700 kilometers through northern Spain in 2019. One man tried to kiss her, another masturbated in front of her, she said. One man harassed her by text message, another followed her on the street. Sometimes her attackers were pilgrims walking the same route as her, she said. "These routes are considered safe for women and there is a taboo on saying otherwise," she told the Guardian.

446,000 people walked the Way of St. James last year, half of whom were women

The Way of St. James attracts pilgrims from all over the world. 446,000 people walked it last year. More than half of them are said to have been women, as the Guardian reports. And the more female pilgrims there were, the higher the number of assaults.

It was mostly men who exposed themselves to the women walking alone. But cases of abduction and rape are also on record.

However, exact figures are not available. The authorities in France, Spain and Portugal do not keep specific statistics on cases on the Camino de Santiago.

Of the new women who spoke to the Guardian, six reported the incidents to the police. In only one case could the perpetrator be traced and prosecuted.