At first glance, this may sound harmless, but it is often unwelcome. As a rule, such exclamations come from a group of mostly young men. "This happens towards a person," says Semmler, "who is alone or at least clearly outnumbered. Shouts, kissing noises, whistles or sometimes crude comments are used to 'inform' the person concerned about the caller's personal sexual feelings - this is called 'catcalling'." - Named after the mating cries of cats, except that the person concerned would usually have little interest in a closer acquaintance with the "catcaller", who is usually a stranger.

The effects are worrying, explains the Equal Opportunities Officer: "Catcalling often leads to young women and girls feeling insecure or frightened, avoiding places or entire areas and no longer setting off on their own. If it happens at the beginning of the pedestrian zone, they shop somewhere else," explains the Equal Opportunities Officer. "The difference between flirting/compliments and harassment is very easy to recognize: Compliments bring pleasure to both parties involved."

"Girls and women have the right to move freely and unmolested everywhere in our city," emphasizes Erik Maaß from the Salzgitter Youth Parliament (JuPSZ), "and that's exactly why we have to do something about it."
The youth parliament is keen to work with the equal opportunities officer to raise social awareness of the right to this freedom.
The first step is to raise awareness of the issue. The young people want to use large posters to make visible what girls and women have to endure.
"Anyone who thinks the slogans are too crude to read on posters: Let it sink in how it must feel to be yelled at as a girl. It's certainly much worse than reading it uninvolved on a poster," says Lenya-Marie Denecke from JuPSZ

"But we want to do more than just talk about it - or shock citizens," says Semmler, "we want the situation for women and girls in this city to change for the better."
According to Lara Duwe, Chairwoman of the Youth Parliament, the aim is: "To create certainty that the places where this happens more frequently are known so that something can be done there. In addition, those affected should be encouraged to defend themselves with the simple sentence: 'No compliments!' so that they no longer have to run away speechless."

"Raise awareness for everyone - many people are not even aware of how it feels for others to be harassed in this way," adds Muhammed Dalkiran, another youth parliamentarian.

Ideally, "No Compliments" could promote civil courage. Others could also point out to a catcaller that their behavior is "Not a compliment!". This one sentence is enough, no long lectures are needed. "If this were successful, the face of the city would change significantly," says the Equal Opportunities Officer. "However, we would need to know what has happened and where, especially in order to localize focal points. So we need the reports of incidents".