May 2022

After the murder of Sara Everard, the authorities promised to ensure the safety of women no matter what; but what we hear says something else

Two years ago in London, a woman named Sarah Everard was abducted by a police officer on her way home at night, raped and then brutally killed. That police officer threw Sarah’s body into a bin liner and left it somewhere. This wasn’t the first time that this happened to a woman in the UK, which is why when this story went viral on the media across Britain; women staged protested because of the lack of security in the country

Following the widespread wave of women’s protests, the authorities pledged to address the situation and provide the necessary security and comfort for women in the community. Nearly 2 years after this incident, a Sky News reporter went to the British people and interviewed several women from different parts of the society and asked them, “Will the security that was promised to them be provided after the Sarah Everard incident or not?”. We have their words as follows

Anna Birley, Job Occupation: Organizer, “Reclaim Our Streets”

“Short answer, no. I think what’s really disappointing is how politicians, decision-makers, senior police officers all said that last March was this watershed moment for women’s safety and not only has it happened again, there was the tragic case of Sabina Nessa, for example, but very little has happened as a result of their words

“Every woman I know, myself included, still checks their behaviour – not walking down certain roads, especially at night, getting a taxi if it’s not more than a short distance away. I don’t know a woman who hasn’t at some point put their keys between their fingers. If the answer was street lights and more CCTV cameras there wouldn’t be an issue of women’s safety

It’s not an easy fix. We’re not being attacked by a lack of street lights; we’re being attacked by men feeling empowered and emboldened to behave that way towards women. And that stems from a culture that allows misogyny to go unchecked

Salwa lives in Brixton, near where Sarah Everard went missing

“I don’t feel like there have been any formalities or any policies that I’ve been in direct contact with that make me feel safer over the past year. As a woman, there is always that element of fear that surrounds how you act and how you can be. And I’ll do things myself to keep myself safe. I don’t ever think that feeling of fear will ever go, that’s routed in something that’s a much larger conversation

Ella Morrison, Year 13 pupil, Alleyn’s School, South London

“It was so scary – the fact that Sarah Everard was walking down a road that many of us walk down as well. She did everything that we are told that you are supposed to do – walk along a main road, not listening to music. But the conversation that we have had at school now as a result, I think the pupils have really benefited from that, in just opening up the conversation and having it not as stigmatized as it was before

The sad truth is a lot of Year 7 and Year 8 pupils will experience cat-calling or gender-based violence and it’s better to educate them before that happens, rather than just be left in the dark about it, and allow it to be normalized