A woman is raped every 10 minutes: Reclaim The Night

By Cat Smith / @cateysmith

I was struck by a statistic this week from a Department of Health press release – a woman is raped or sexually assaulted every ten minutes in the UK.

Each week 1,000 women are subjected to rape or attempted rape. One in four women have been affected by domestic violence. And it is for these reasons I am leading the women of London Young Labour on the Reclaim the Night march through central London this Saturday.

Reclaim The Night marches started in the 1970s as a reaction to the high levels of violence against women and low rape conviction rates. Fast forward to 2010 and I am marching to demand justice for rape survivors because things have changed, but for the worse. It is disgrace that our ‘justice’ system fails to protect women. That there are an estimated 47,000 rapes every year, around 40,000 attempted rapes and over 300,000 sexual assaults. Yet our conviction rate is the lowest it has ever been (one of the lowest in Europe) at only 5.3%. This means that more rapists were convicted in the 1970s when Reclaim The Night marches first started than they are now.

You don’t often read blogs on LabourList about rape. In fact it’s not a topic that often comes up in conversation because we’re uncomfortable about the fact that it happens, a lot. Many readers were shocked when they read the account of a regular blogger who wrote a comment piece on the Stern Review earlier in the year. Her account of her rape prompted a conversation and supportive comments, now re-read it and let it prompt you into action.

Men rape women and walk away free. All too often women take the blame when they are raped. We are told it’s our fault – that we provoked it by what we wear, how much we drink or how we act. No. This narrative cannot win out. No means no. No doesn’t mean maybe. No doesn’t mean you can push us into ‘giving in’. No means no. It means stop. It means we do not want to have sex with you.

The women-only march is assembling at 6pm in Whitehall Place, nearest tube Embankment. We will take back the streets of London and then end with a huge rally and party at the Camden Centre, opposite Kings Cross. The rally and party are mixed and open to all.

Today we march, as so many women have done before us to say that we are never to blame for rape and male violence. Those men who choose to commit these crimes are to blame. We march today to demand our right to live without the fear or reality of rape and male violence, we demand an end to male violence against women, we take back this night to win the day.

Cat Smith is the Women’s Officer and Vice-Chair of London Young Labour