The case of Sarah Everard: the abduction of a woman in London brings waves of concerns about women’s safety

The case broke out in the UK, in part because Mrs Everard has done many of the things women are often advised to do to ensure their safety.

She wore bright and visible clothes when she left her friend’s apartment at 9 pm for a trip home that should have lasted no more than 50 minutes. He had called another friend to tell him he was on his way. And he clung to the well-lit main roads. However, she was abducted – and, investigators suspect, by a police officer.

Many women have shared their own experiences of being harassed or feeling insecure on the streets of the city.

Some described wearing comfortable shoes in case they had to run away or pretending to be engaged in a loud phone call to discourage potential attackers. Others recounted how the locking keys between the joints had become second nature, so as to cause as much damage as possible if they needed to hit in the hope that they would buy enough time to escape safely.

Author Julie Cohen said on Twitter that she once had to change trains because of three seemingly ordinary middle-aged men who had started harassing her. “We can’t say which men are safe, because even those who are supposed to be safe feel able to humiliate us for fun,” she wrote.

Fern Brady, a Scottish comedian, remembered wondering how old she must be before stopping to worry that she will be killed because she is a woman. She said she realized the answer was “never”.

UN Women, a United Nations agency, released a poll this week that found that about 70% of women and girls in the UK had been sexually harassed in public and urged the government to do more to combat the problem. Among the findings, only 3% of women between the ages of 18 and 24 said they had not experienced any sexual harassment. It is also a global issue, said UN Women, reporting that in some cities around the world, nearly nine out of 10 women feel insecure in public.

A group called Reclaim the Streets planned a vigil for Mrs. Everard in London on Saturday night. Similar meetings were planned in another part of the country, despite police warnings that it would violate Covid-19 blocking restrictions. Opposition lawmaker Harriet Harman was one of many who said she would attend, although it is unclear whether the event will continue.

“When the police advise women not to go out alone at night, women ask why they should be subjected to a briefing?” Ms Harman told Parliament earlier this week. “It’s not the women here who are the problem, it’s the men.”

Conservative ruling party leader Andrea Leadsom said she was upset that women who go home in the dark should be scared if someone else goes after them.

Labor MP Rose Duffield alluded to the months of Black Lives Matter racial justice protests that have spread around the world after George Floyd was killed in police custody in Minneapolis last year.

“Sarah Everard has revived the fire in us just like George Floyd – it’s here,” said Duffield.

Some politicians have suggested that men be subjected to extinction. While British government ministers quickly downplayed the idea, Welsh government leader Mark Drakeford said he would not rule out whether circumstances required it. He later rejected the possibility.

Meanwhile, anger rages at London police for trying to prevent Saturday’s vigil from moving forward and for revealing that the officer in custody on suspicion of Mrs Everard’s abduction has been arrested separately for allegedly indecent exposure in a three-day fast food restaurant. before it disappears.

Several parliamentarians demanded that vigilance be allowed without consequences for the organizers, who told participants to wear face masks and observe social distancing.

The Reclaim the Streets group that suggested the event tried to persuade the London High Court to allow the vigil to take place without any legal repercussions. The court rejected their appeal and refused to intervene.

Write to James Hookway at [email protected]