Sexual assault on solo trip: Should have followed my instincts!”

Sexual assault on solo trip: Should have followed my instincts!”

In her podcast “Schnack aufachse”, Ann-Kathrin Bendixen, better known as “Monkey on Bike”, reported on a harrowing experience during a solo trip. The incident occurred while she was traveling in a camper. Despite a bad gut feeling, she got in with two men. How Focus According to reports, a man rubbed himself naked against her and gave her money, which she found extremely humiliating. Bendixen was only able to end the situation with a strong kick and the intervention of another man who helped her escape.

She says that she could have avoided the threatening situation if she had listened to her intuition. She was financially stretched during her trip and had been working on farms to support it, which gave her additional feelings of shame over the incident. In modern times, however, she has increased her security and carries bear spray in Canada and Alaska, as well as carrying a knife in other countries.

The reality of sexual assault

Bendixen is not alone in her experiences with assault. In Berlin, numerous women report sexual assaults every day. The Berlin police have published statistics documenting the nationalities of the perpetrators and the crime scenes. Loud Berlin newspaper In 2022, most of the suspects were Germans, followed by Turks and Syrians. If you look at the crime scenes, it becomes clear that many sexual crimes took place in unknown locations. Apartment buildings and streets were also frequent scenes of these crimes.

The statistics show an alarming reality: of 1,891 cases, the majority took place in unknown locations. 1,544 offenses were recorded in apartment buildings, while 761 offenses, including sexual insults, were recorded on the street. There were 290 cases in green areas, a point that had been incorrectly linked to the botanical garden. In fact, the Botanical Garden itself has hardly been affected in recent years.

A call for openness

With her open confession, Ann-Kathrin Bendixen would like to encourage other women to talk about their own experiences. She notes that many women have experienced similar attacks, but often remain silent out of shame or fear of not being taken seriously. Bendixen criticizes the social normalization of everyday border crossings and calls for an open discussion on the topic.

During her travels, she not only experienced the attack, but also a serious accident in Vietnam that resulted in hospitalization. These experiences have shaped her and make her voice even louder in pointing out the injustice.