You’ve probably seen or heard of the #nomakeupselfie craze which swept the nation a couple of weeks ago, thousands of women posting ‘selfies’ of themselves on Facebook and Twitter in a bid to raise money for cancer charities.


As the momentum of the campaign reached its peak, a woman in Oxford posted a different kind of selfie and encouraged people to donate to Oxford Sexual Abuse and Rape Crisis Centre (OSARCC).
Her photo showed her bruised and battered face, the result of a horrific attack she’d experienced in an Oxford nightclub.
Jeanne Marie was assaulted after telling a man that it was inappropriate to touch women without their consent. This man had groped her, without her consent, and when she challenged him, he beat her up.
Sadly, this is not an isolated incident. OSARCC’s work supporting over 350 women and girls every year shows that sexual harassment and abuse is more common than many people might think.
Some 400,000 women are sexually assaulted every year in the UK and one in five women will experience some form of sexual violence in her lifetime — a prevalence echoed by many comments from women on Jeanne Marie’s JustGiving page who had experienced something similar.
This is unacceptable. OSARCC would like to see all clubs and pubs in Oxford adopting a zero tolerance policy on sexual harassment.
They’d also like the police, schools and community leaders across Oxfordshire to do much more to prevent the abuse of women and girls before it happens.
Natalie Brook, service manager at OSARCC says of the success of the fundraising via the photograph: “The response to Jeanne Marie’s fundraising campaign for OSARCC — over 2,000 donations totalling more than £16,000 — has been overwhelming.
“We believe this response clearly shows both the shared outrage felt by the public at what happened to Jeanne Marie and the understanding of the need for services like Rape Crisis Centres.
“The donations will provide a real boost to our work running services that support women and girls who have experienced sexual abuse, harassment, rape or any other form of sexual violence at any time in their lives.
“It will enable us to maintain our existing services, and develop new ones that meet the needs of survivors of sexual violence — like specialist counselling.”
OSARCC welcome any woman who has been affected by sexual violence to contact them on 0800 783 6294 or support@osarcc.org.uk or visit oxfordrapecrisis.net