It loses nothing in translation, that’s the most striking thing about the video footage of 22-year-old student Marie Laguerre being attacked outside a cafe in Paris by a street harasser she had told to shut up.

For those of you who have not seen the CCTV clip Laguerre released showing what happened (a clip which duly went viral), it runs for just over a minute and encapsulates so much of female experience despite its brevity (it’s soundless, too) that it should be awarded some kind of equalities prize.

As customers sit peacefully chatting in the courtyard outside the cafe, a woman in a red dress – Laguerre – crosses paths with a man in a black T-shirt. According to Laguerre’s description of events below the posted clip and subsequently, he was making sexual comments and “animal noises”. She says, “Shut up”, low enough not even to be sure he’s heard, but he has. He picks up an ashtray from a cafe table and throws it at her head, missing by centimetres.

She stops and shouts back at him (“I felt hatred. I refused to be demeaned, it was humiliating”), he comes towards her fast and hits her in the face hard enough to knock her into the courtyard’s fencing.

“Women everywhere can relate to the horror of the catcall”