Sarah Evard, 33, disappeared without a trace on the evening of March 3. Last Wednesday, her body was found in a forest. The suspect in the kidnapping and murder is a police officer, so discussions about women’s safety have flared up in the UK.
“The Clapham neighborhood where she was kidnapped is not known at all to be unsafe,” says reporter Tim de Witt in News & Associates. “It is also possible that she has been walking down the street there a lot.”
It is precisely for this reason that the discussion has caught fire online, says Anneliese Falk. She lives and works in London on her own. “The most painful thing was that Sarah did everything she needed. She wore light clothes, wore flat shoes on which you could quickly escape, and she called her boyfriend and walked alone in the large, lit streets.
Many women recognize this. “Things like that make you realize that you, as a woman, may unconsciously work on internal mechanisms to create more security.”
Annelies herself does everything to stay safe on the street. “For example, I will never go to Uber on my own without a charged phone because you don’t know where it will take you. And I always have the feature of finding my phone so friends can follow where I am if something goes wrong.”
The debate continues on social media: The women share their personal experiences under #SheWasJustWalkingHome and wonder if the problem is something else. The statement returns regularly:
De Witt says it stirs a lot in politics. “This is being discussed at the highest level. The vigil that will be organized tomorrow is now also in court – there is still a lockdown – because there is a huge need to deal with this. Ultimately, this should also lead to action.”
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