A young woman in South Australia has issued a plea for women’s safety to be taken seriously, after an interaction with a man on a popular walking track left her “absolutely terrified”.

Mikayla Gradara was on her “usual morning walk” along the Linear Park trail at Athelstone on Wednesday when she was intercepted by a man who was behaving “aggressively”.

The 26-year-old said she first saw the man threatening an older woman, “sticking the middle finger in her face,” before he turned on her, The Advertiser reports.

“He began walking toward me but, unless I turned around, there was only one way to go,” Gradara recounted.

“I tried not to make eye contact and just kept walking, but he started blocking the trail so I couldn’t walk around him.

“He then started bouncing on his feet as though he was in a boxing ring before he came up right into my face … I said to him, ‘Can you please stop?’ But then he jolted at me in a really intimidating movement.”

3

An “absolutely terrified” Gradara began to dial 911 while raising her voice at the man, which drew the attention of a walking group nearby.

“I thought: ‘Okay, well, if he pulls out a weapon then I probably won’t be able to defend myself,’” she said.

“If people weren’t around, I really couldn’t imagine what could have happened.”

It was only when Gradara attempted to take a video of the man, and bystanders came to intervene, that he left her alone and fled.

While she was thankful there were people around to help, “I feel like I’ve been watching my back ever since – even the slightest noise has me constantly turning around,” Gradara told The Advertiser.

3

After sharing the incident to social media in the hopes of raising awareness, she was overwhelmed by friends and family disclosing their own similar experiences.

There were also the unhelpful few who responded Gradara should not have been out walking alone – to which she pointed out women (rightly) “should be able to feel safe stepping out anywhere”.

As she wrote on her Instagram Story: “The point is that this shouldn’t be happening and there needs to be a stop to it. People should be able to freely exercise, go out, socialize, etc without having to worry about their safety.”

Gradara’s interaction comes at a moment when women’s fears for their safety are more pronounced than ever.

In the past 18 days, nine women have been killed across Australia, all allegedly by a male perpetrator.

3

Last Saturday’s horrific mass stabbing at Westfield Bondi Junction saw five women (and one man) murdered, who NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said were “obviously” targeted for their gender.

The tragedy has left many to question what it will take for the Federal Government and authorities to step up and actually deal with “our nation’s great shame” in a manner befitting the magnitude of it.

In an address at a family violence symposium in Melbourne on Friday, the nation’s chief politician called on men to step up and bring Australia’s “crisis of male violence” against women to an end.

“To create lasting change, women cannot be expected to solve violence against women alone. It’s time for men to step up,” Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said in his speech.

“It’s our responsibility to educate ourselves, our sons, our colleagues and our friends. We must focus on prevention, working together and finding new ways of doing things.”

His comments echo those made by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in the aftermath of the Bondi stabbing.

“Men are overwhelmingly the perpetrators of this violence and men as a group have to change their behavior,” Albanese said on Tuesday.

“We have to be prepared to speak out about these issues. We have to be prepared to talk to our friends and people we know. We have to be prepared to call out behavior that we see when it’s unacceptable.”