DUBAI, 8 December 2021 – Award-winning actor, producer, director, activist and philanthropist, Eva Longoria has given women her advice on how to deal with a global issue – street harassment. The star was a special guest of worldwide training programme Stand Up Against Street Harassment by L’Oréal Paris, in collaboration with Hollaback!, a world-renowned NGO and global leader in the movement to end harassment, which was held at 2020 Club by Emaar, Expo 2020 Dubai, on Wednesday.
A L’Oréal Paris spokesperson, Longoria is also a key figure of the #MeToo movement, calling for women to speak out about harassment, and CEO of UnbeliEVAble Entertainment, a production company focused on creating content centred around stories of underrepresented communities.
Expo News Service caught up with the star after the event, which was attended by thought leaders, doers, media and influencers.
What are your first impressions of Expo 2020 Dubai?
Expo 2020 is in Dubai so I expected greatness and it delivered. I expected nothing less from this city in this country. Every exhibit has been magnificent, beautiful, so inclusive and celebratory of the world that we live in – it really reminds us that we live in a global community.
Can you explain what your role is today at Expo 2020 Dubai?
I’m here with L’Oréal Paris doing our Stand Up Against Street Harassment to end street harassment for women all over the globe. It’s been a tremendous success and I’m so honoured to be here on this global stage, bringing awareness to this issue.
In a spirit of optimism, Expo 2020 is gathering more than 200 participants – including 192 countries, as well as multilateral organisations, businesses and educational establishments. How important do you think it is to be hosting this event here?
I think it’s very important for global brands, like L’Oréal Paris to be in a global place, especially with this Stand Up campaign – it’s important we use a global stage to create global awareness.
Could you tell us a little more about the campaign?
L’Oréal Paris initiated an international study that found the number one issue women face globally is street harassment. For women everywhere, street harassment is a problem – no matter their nationality, culture or where they live. So, they [L’Oréal Paris] partnered with an organisation called Hollaback! to create a training programme to help bystanders intervene in a safe and effective way.
What advice would you give on how best to react to witnessing street harassment?
The Stand Up training is based around the five Ds methodology – distract, delegate, document, delay and direct – five simple actions that can help everyone to intervene safely, whether you are being a witness or a victim of street harassment.
For ‘distract’, if you see a woman getting harassed, go up to her and say: “Hey, can you give me directions?” or “I haven’t seen you since school. How have you been? Are you ready to get out of here?” You just distract the situation and help her get out of the situation. For ‘delay’, you can go up to them after the incident and say: “Are you okay? I saw what happened.” You can ‘document’ the incident using video and give that video to the person who has been harassed. There are so many ways you can help, such as ‘delegate’ by getting someone of authority to intervene.
Expo 2020 is all about inclusivity – how significant do you think this Stand Up training event is for attendees today?
This training is for everybody: not just the people attending. This really has a multiplying effect. Everybody who is here is going to take this information and tell their girlfriends, mothers and sisters. You can visit standup-international.com and get the training yourself.