A young Tennessee woman managed to escape abduction this week using a hand signal that was promoted on TikTok – at least the second time the signal was used to escape a life-threatening situation.
The fact that both the woman and the passer-by knew the hand sign in both cases gave hope to the Montreal sisters, who popularized the signal that it was indeed becoming widespread.
It was also unclear at first whether the signal would go the way it did or why, Marie-Emmanuel Jenes, one of the sisters behind the TikTok account that spread the idea, told CTV News.
Women who “verbalize” the danger they face are often not believed, Genes said.
“People, when they see a physical sign as a hand signal … I don’t know, it worked in their brains to [help them] trust the women, “she said.
“For us, it’s just beyond words how happy we are that this is really changing people’s lives.”
In Tennessee last weekend, a woman silently sought help at a grocery store after her ex-boyfriend stopped briefly after locking her in his car, according to local news.
Jenes, who maintains Instagram and TikTok domestic violence awareness accounts with her sister Florence-Olivia, said one of their followers warned them about the incident and they investigated it.
“I believe there was a woman, she was at her brother’s house and … her ex-boyfriend took her and then he got physically with her when she tried to tell him she was leaving him,” Genes said.
She learned that the man had threatened to kill the woman.
“He drove and locked the doors so he couldn’t escape,” she said. “They stopped at a gas station and then she was able to go out with him.”
The local newspaper WKRN reported that the woman repeatedly flashed the hand sign in the store, causing the employee to call 911.
Another buyer, Eric Striwell, told the paper that she also gave him the word “help.” He went outside and removed the registration number of the truck she came from.
Police arrived quickly and chased the truck as it left, eventually using a stun gun on the 31-year-old man, driving him, arresting him and allowing the woman to return unharmed.
Strieval said he was part of a motorcycle group that helps women trying to escape domestic violence, and said he welcomed the woman’s “courage” to seek help and that it was important for people to know that they could count on more than just to family and friends, but also to a “complete stranger” if necessary.
The hand sign involves raising the hand with the palm facing out to another person and closing the four fingers above the thumb.
It was invented by the Canadian Women’s Foundation, but the Genesse sisters wanted to spread the word, so they made videos showing how to use it on their social media accounts.
These videos have been watched by more than 20 million people, Genes said.
The nurses, both on their way to master’s degrees in domestic violence and on their way to doctoral studies, said they were inspired by the premonition that many people do not want to read complex research on the problem but are hungry. for direct, “quick and easy” ways to help.
“We thought, why don’t we give them advice for both the victims and the people who want to help?” She said.
They were still surprised at how many people were “invested” in spreading the idea even more, she said.
She was nervous that she hadn’t fully realized she was there, she said: people’s willingness to take the signal of an emergency physical disaster seriously, when sometimes they don’t do the same for a verbal remark.
And also that strangers can sometimes act more urgently in cases where sometimes people who are closer to those in danger are hesitant.
“Most of the time, when women go out with violence in their relationships … they don’t believe it when they verbalize, ‘I’m in a violent relationship, I need help,'” she said.
“People are on the lookout for, you know, ‘it’s not really our place to intervene.’
Last fall, the hand signal was used by a 16-year-old girl who was also abducted by car.
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