Today (Saturday 4th, March), women will be marching from Oxford Street to Trafalgar Square as part of a powerful demonstration against male violence against women and girls.
Million Women Rise [MWR], a collective of women who are “united by outrage at the continued daily, hourly, minute-by-minute individual and institutionalised male violence enacted against women worldwide,” has organised the demonstration.
The march couldn't be more timely. As MWR explain, “The march is taking place at a time when despite government promises and commitments, state failings are causing women and girls to be subjected to violence, including violence perpetrated by police officers themselves.”
They further cite the examples of David Carrick, a police officer who used his power to commit more than 80 sexual offences over almost 20 years; the various police failings that failed to prevent the murder of Zara Aleena; and the impact that the cost of living crisis is having on survivors of domestic abuse.
The cost of living crisis is forcing survivors of domestic abuse to stay with abusive partners.
Mina Smallman, the mother of murdered Black women Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman, is expected to speak at the rally following the march. Ahead of the demonstration, she said, “When women rise up and make a stand, there’s no stopping us. Women are saying it’s time.”
“This movement of women and girls' is a manifestation of the heartbreak, grief, power, outrage and beauty of women and girls all around the planet and of our resistance to male violence in all its forms.”
Echoing this sentiment, Michelle Daley, activist and member of Million Women Rise, said: “We rise because we are against decisions, policies and practices that repeatedly contribute to the deaths and harm of women and girls through neglect, trauma and violence.
"We cannot find peace with the systems that legitimise the victimisation of thousands of us through institutionalisation and segregation from society. The ongoing deaths of women and girls through neglect and harm in so-called places of ‘care’ is devastating.”
Million Women Rise Founding Coordinator, Sabrina Qureshi, further added: “Our power is together. While the tools of patriarchy seek to divide us and keep us in fear, Million Women Rise holds an alternative vision of revolutionary love and a world free of male violence.
"This movement of women and girls' is a manifestation of the heartbreak, grief, power, outrage and beauty of women and girls all around the planet, and of our resistance to male violence in all its forms.
"Million Women Rise provides an important and precious space of interconnectedness and solidarity across our differences, where no woman or girl is forgotten.”
For more from Glamour UK's Lucy Morgan, follow her on Instagram @lucyalexxandra.
