Woman harassed by man who won't take no for an answer gets rescued by helpful stranger
When Amna Saleem was hanging out at her favourite writing spot in east London, she was approached by a man who wouldn't take no for an answer. What happened next, however, will restore your faith in humanity.
Saleem says that she was waiting for her boyfriend to finish work and join her for dinner when a man started talking to her.
"A man approached me while I was reading and refused to accept that I wasn't interested in being bought a drink or further conversation," Saleem told Mashable. The man's persistence, despite her protestations, began to irritate Saleem. But, thankfully, a woman stepped in to lend some assistance.
"I was trying to remain polite so it didn't escalate but I was getting irritated at which point a lovely woman nearby intervened pretending to be an old friend," says Saleem.
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"He looked annoyed and awkwardly hung about before finally leaving," she added.
Saleem says she "profusely" thanked the woman who helped her, who also invited her to join her and her friends. She says she was so touched by the woman's gesture that she tweeted about it. Her tweet clearly resonated with many people as it gained almost 430K likes and 84K retweets.
She says she hopes that other people do the same when they see people in similar situations.
"I feel like we should look out for each other," she says.
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
