The ‘This is not Love’ project encourages us to have conversations about domestic violence rather than pretending it does not happen.

This Is Not Love: challenging violence against women

Every week two women die at the hands of male partners. In schools around 40 per cent of girls are sexually harassed on a regular basis. Women’s Voice is inviting women to come along to Concordia Hall this coming Saturday 25 September to explore ways of empowering ourselves and challenging violence against women. Ann Kramer, chair of Women’s Voice, tells HOT readers more about the project.

Virtually every young woman in the UK is subject to sexual harassment, sometimes on a daily basis. And it doesn’t stop there. Domestic abuse rates are soaring but fewer women are reporting incidents than ever before.

Women die: Sarah Everard earlier this year, Blessing Olusegun found dead on Bexhill beach last year. Women are increasingly angry and looking for ways to empower themselves and challenge what is going on.

We want to start a conversation and develop an action plan for tackling this situation so we’re holding an all-day event  this Saturday, 25 September. In order to create a safe space to talk about domestic abuse, this will be a women-only event.

It’s going to be a varied, interesting and full-on day: extracts from our video This Is Not Love, discussions around domestic violence, coercive control and abuse of women; music; speakers; empowerment though drama workshops; placard making; and a cooking workshop. The day is completely free and we are providing lunch. Our aim is to get women together to talk about how we feel about the situation and what we can do to empower ourselves and to make changes.

We also want to start a women’s peer support network and plan for a Reclaim the Streets March on Saturday 23 October, which will highlight the incidence of violence against women and our intention to take back our streets.

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