Attacks on five women in South Belfast

Raise Your Voice is shocked by the attacks on five women in South Belfast and offer them our support. This week is Hate Crime Awareness Week, providing the opportunity to emphasise that these attacks were misogynist in nature, targeting young women specifically, and were carried out at random. Currently our law does not allow the police to record these as hate motivated crimes. This needs to change, and that change can start by calling these attacks out for what they are.

The media should not seek to minimise these violent assaults by focusing on the fact none of the injuries were life-threatening. These young women may heal from their physical injuries, but it is important to highlight the long-term impacts of trauma on survivors of violence, often heightened when the violence was motivated by hate. These young women are at a formative stage in their lives, and they may suffer the impact of these actions long into the future. These attacks fracture their sense of security on the streets, as well as the security of their families, friends and the community as a whole. Women must be able to move through life safely, and the city should be safe for everyone.

Police have advised people to be careful and not to walk alone. We know that some of those attacked were with others at the time of the assault and therefore this advice is of limited help.  Ultimately, we must remember the focus should be on the behaviour of the assailant and not on what women can do to be safe. We urge people not to panic, but stress that we should be looking at the motivations of the assailant above all else.

These kinds of attacks are examples of gender-based violence. This type of violence takes many forms, but its root is always in antagonism towards women, or misogyny. Misogyny is so normalised in our society that people often deny its existence or seek to minimise it, insisting that women are making a fuss about nothing. The truth is that gender-based violence and misogyny ruins lives. We must not shy away from thinking about it, discussing it and tackling it in every way we can.

Raise Your Voice is challenging this with our online workshops and we have been campaigning for some time to have misogyny recognised as a category of hate crime. We have provided a detailed submission arguing for the inclusion of misogyny as a hate crime[1] to the Review of NI’s Hate Crime Legislation, underway at present under Judge Marrinan. We have also brought a motion to multiple Councils[2], calling on them to support our submission regarding misogyny as a hate crime, with more to come soon. Today we renew that call.

Anyone with information regarding these crimes should contact the PSNI on 101.

We extend our thoughts and support to the victims of these terrible crimes, and we urge anyone in need of support to reach out, a list of support organisations is available on our website: https://www.raiseyourvoice.community/helpadvice

[1] https://www.raiseyourvoice.community/news-resources/misogyny-as-a-hate-crime-an-explainer

[2] Belfast City Council, Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council, Ards & North Down Council, Derry City & Strabane Council