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Kat Parton. Patricia Aust. Sophie Watson. Montserrat Elias. Rachel Simpson. Mary Ward. Tavia Da Costa, who was just 23 months old. In separate incidents, these seven women and girls have been murdered in the north of Ireland this year alone. This is in addition to the recent spate of sexual violence on the streets of Derry, prompting activist group < target="_blank" rel="noopener">Derry For Choice to organise a rally for women’s safety in the city and across the island of Ireland.
It’s, sadly, no surprise that the north is now dubbed one of the most dangerous places in Europe to be a woman. A terrible accolade to hold. But how to solve a risk to life like misogyny? How to tackle a growing trend in a deep hatred for women?
Violence against women and girls is a spectrum, spanning from catcalling to femicide. Women the world over are aware of these violences. I don’t remember ever being explicitly told as a young girl to be wary of men. It was absorbed as if by osmosis, through sitting at dinner tables with the news on. Another story of a woman murdered within her own home. Suspect known to the victim. Or the knowledge could have arrived at the numerous campaigns in bars, a poster of a woman stumbling home through the park. Get home safe, it warned, don’t take the short-cut home. These campaigns were never aimed at men: don’t murder a woman on the way home from the pub. Get home with hands unbloodied.
Aimée Walsh is a writer from Belfast. She is the author of a novel, Exile, and Writing Resistance in Northern Ireland, an academic monograph.