Reclaim the Night ~ Cardiff ~ 17th March
RECLAIM THE NIGHT ~ march to end violence against women!
Tues 17 March 2009 … Assemble @ 7pm (see route below) … Cardiff city centre
I’m writing to invite you to a safe, empowering event to draw attention to women’s right to walk the streets at night without the fear or reality of violence.
A survey by a young women’s magazine in 2005 found that 95% of women don’t feel safe on the streets at night, and 65% don’t even feel safe during the day. 73% worry about being raped and almost half say they sometimes don’t want to go out because they fear for their own safety. Women cannot claim equal citizenship while the threat of violence restricts our lives as it does.
We demand the right to use public space without fear.
We demand this right as a civil liberty; we demand this as a human right.
Reclaim the Night is about taking back the right to walk our streets whenever we want to, without the fear or reality of violence.
Why march?
The march has 3 main focuses:
1. Challenge people’s attitudes towards women who fall victim to sexual violence. A 2008 study by our members NUS Wales Women’s Campaign and Amnesty International Wales found that 38% of students in Wales think a woman is totally / partially responsible for being raped if she has acted ‘in a flirtatious manner’, 28% if she is wearing ‘sexy or revealing clothes’, 34% if she is drunk and 23% if she is ‘alone and walking in a dangerous or deserted area’.
2. Demand improved conviction rates for rapists. All four Welsh police areas are below even the appalling UK average (6.1% of reported rapes lead to convictions). In 2006, South Wales Police convicted 5.9% of reported rapes (down from 12.18% in 2004).
3. Continue our campaign to get the Welsh Assembly Government to develop an integrated strategy to end violence against women, complying with UN recommendations, addressing ALL forms of violence against women and recognizing such violence as both a cause and consequence of women’s inequality.
Gender
The front part of the march will be self-defined women only, and will be followed by a mixed march so that anyone, regardless of gender or gender identity, can show solidarity for the cause.
Route
We will assemble at 7pm at the start point indicated on the attached map (from town, walk along Castle Street, over the bridge towards Canton, and we will be meeting on a triangularish patch of grass between the bridge and the turn-off to Cathedral Road!). We will march up Castle Street, under the underpass by the Hilton to the civic centre, past the Crown Court, ending up at the Welsh Assembly Government building in Cathays Park at approx 8pm, where we will have speakers including:
* Paula Hardy (Chief Executive, Welsh Women’s Aid)
* Naomi Brightmore (Director, Wales Women’s National Coalition)
* Katie Dalton (Women’s Officer, NUS Wales)
+ more tbc.
For further information there is a Facebook event page at http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/event.php?eid=54203726942#wall_posts.
