By Beth Mosettig
Leicester University’s Feminist society are launching their ‘Reclaim the Night’ protest for a second year running in light of the “sheer number of women affected by sexual violence and domestic abuse.”
The protest, that will take place tomorrow (November 24) at 6pm, starts at the Clock Tower in the city centre and will walk towards the War Memorial in Victoria Park.
The society decided to hold another protest as they wanted to raise awareness of just how dangerous it is for women to be out alone in public at night.
The news comes just after it was an alleged ‘serious sexual assault’ was reported in Bede Park, near the DMU campus, in the early hours of the morning earlier this month. A 32-year-old man has since been charged with sexual offences.
Arva Gilbey-Jones President of University of Leicester’s Feminist society said: “For night time to be safer for women, we’d like, to begin with, better street lighting, more CCTV and more funding and support for survivors of sexual violence.”
After the success of the protest last year, the society decided they wanted to make this year’s “bigger and better”, believing the more people in involved, the more issues relating to gender inequality are brought to light.
The society stresses the protest is inclusive for all in Leicester and that they are happy to accommodate any preferred pronouns.
Ms Gilbey-Jones went on to say: “The issues we are raising awareness of start with how women are viewed.
“We think it would be great, and easy to implement ideas of gender equality and consent to be discussed in schools from a young age.”
Alongside this, there will be a vigil held at the war memorial in Victoria Park for those who have been affected by sexual violence.
There has been 203 reported incidents of Violence and sexual assault in the Riverside police district between January and August this year.
