#IsThisOK: Sexual harassment podcast will 'open discussions'

Noz Choudry hosts the podcast

Bringing men together to talk about attitudes and behaviours towards women will help ignite "open discussions", the host of a new podcast has said.

It is part of a Greater Manchester campaign which aims to tackle gender-based violence following the murder of Sarah Everard by a police officer.

Mayor Andy Burnham launched the #IsThisOK? campaign with a video of a woman being sexually harassed.

Half the men who saw it said it made them think or want to act differently.

The new three-episode podcast hosted by Mancunian writer, journalist and influencer Noz Choudry brings together men from different backgrounds to discuss attitudes and behaviours towards women, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Guests on the publicly-funded podcast said having these kind of conversations has opened their eyes to what women and girls put up with.

Mr Choudry said: "I love the fact that this podcast is part of a greater strategy to deal with this in a real way.

"Also what I loved about the whole strategy and what we were getting involved in is that it spoke to this really Manc attitude of 'let's get to the crux of what the problem is, let's not faff about with things that are unimportant, let's get to what's important.'

"What can we do in a practical sense? What is the practical difference we can make? So much of that is speaking to men."

One of the guests, Daniel, recalled an occasion when his friend honked a horn and shouted something at a girl he liked. "But I didn't say anything at the time," he said. "I laughed. That was me not having the courage to say anything."

"It's good to be humble and learn from what you've done," he added. "You're part of it, unfortunately, because if you don't say anything, you're part of it.

"But if you learn from it and you're actually humble and accept I need to learn and be part of the change, then we can actually start to see a change."