In October 1975, young microbiologist Susan Alexander Speeth walked home after work in Philadelphia when she was stabbed to death on a few streets of her door. The murder led to a wave of protests, not only in the United States but also in Europe. The slogan with which women took to the streets: Take Back the Night.
Almost fifty years later, the murder of 17-year-old Lisa in the Netherlands started a similar reaction. After the girl was murdered on the way to her house in Abcoude in Duivendrecht, countless women expressed their anger and frustration online about insecurity in the public space – especially in the evening and at night. This week it led, among other things, to the campaign ‘We demand the night’, which is now prominently present in the public space with billboards.
It may disappoint that so little has changed in five decades that an almost identical slogan can be dusted again. At the same time, the great social anger about gender violence and insecurity on the street made the theme more urgent this week than in a long time. After women with #MeToo previously asked for sexual cross-border behavior in private and working atmosphere, they now demand comparable attention to insecurity in the public space.
Justifiably. The determination that the murder of Lisa is a very exceptional incident and the risk of being killed by a stranger is extremely small, should not lead to the fear of women to trivialize. For that, there are too many incidents every day and especially evening and night that the news do not make – hiss on the street corner, chases on the way home, unwanted touches on the train compartment. Anyone looking for evidence for the felt insecurity may not find that in the newspaper or statistics – but certainly with a short survey among (young) women.
Moreover: recent figures from Statistics Netherlands showed that almost half of the young women sometimes make a detour for fear of her safety. The murder in Duivendrecht was, in the same week that sex offenses in Zeist and Rotterdam made the news, a confrontation with their own vulnerability for many women.
That does not immediately make all women a victim and that is why it is important to not let the fear prevail. Fortunately, the Netherlands also remains one of the safest countries in the world for women and this new mobilization may not have the unintentional consequence that those feelings of insecurity fuel. A solution can never be that from now on women and girls merely go to the street after sunset. And leave no doubt about it: no woman who cycles home alone at night, the disaster calls out herself.
Is the ball now with the man? It is grotesk to keep all men responsible for this murder and also not all men now have to account for bastard behavior of their sex colleagues. But it is even more absurd to think that such a clear social problem can be solved without men’s involvement. The conversation that has started may feel uncomfortable for men, but that is why it requires their active involvement.
Everyone starts that conversation. And that is still the case after it became known that the suspect of the murder in Duivendrecht lived in a nearby AZC. Although politicians have since tried to hijack the murder for campaigning purposes, examinations show time and again that violence against women in all population strokes and groups occur. Reducing the problem of insecurity on the street to the background of this suspect is not going to solve it.
What then? Now suggested ad hoc solutions such as more cameras, more lighting, free taxi crashes or cycling clubs cannot and should not be the end of the conversation. That must be kept going on, at the kitchen table, online and in the pub. How much space do you take in public? How do you deal with rejection? How do you keep an eye on the other’s boundaries on the street? How do you support others with experienced insecurity in the public space? These are questions about what men and women have to discuss and which hopefully lead to new standards.
It is easy to become despondent due to the stubbornness of the problem, fifty years after the first attempt of women to claim the night. But standards can indeed shift, show recent discussions about racism and cross -border behavior. For that, it is first of all important to acknowledge that it is not normal that many women are sometimes scared on the street.