This is Not Love

As part of the lead-up to White Ribbon Day on 25 November, Women’s Voice is keen to highlight the reality of domestic abuse and coercive control. To do this, Women’s Voice is asking whether there are women locally who would be willing to share their experiences of domestic abuse. Ann Kramer explains the initiative.

Violence against women, domestic abuse and coercive control of women appears to be on the increase, and certainly intensified during lockdown, when many women found themselves trapped in dangerous domestic situations.

For a long time, Women’s Voice has wanted to find ways of demonstrating and exposing the lived realities for women – and what better way is there than women’s own words?  Before Covid hit, a couple of women who had survived domestic abuse contacted us to say they wanted to speak publicly about their experiences which they felt might help other women. We now want to take this idea forward.

Using the title This is Not Love, we are looking to gather women’s stories and experiences of coercive control and domestic abuse. Guaranteeing complete anonymity, we will then take these stories and, using actors, either act out the situations, or use a talking heads approach to portray the experiences online, via Zoom or YouTube.

To achieve this, we are therefore inviting women to write in to us about their experiences of domestic abuse/coercive control. Pieces can be as long or short as women want; they can describe events or emotions; it is entirely up to women how they want to express themselves. As already explained, we will then gather these together and look at how best to present them.

We have already received a few pieces, which are brave, powerful and very moving. We are sure that women sharing their experiences this way will help other women in similar situations as well as informing the general public.

Women who would like to contribute their experiences of domestic abuse should send them to Women’s Voice on hastingswomensvoice@yahoo.com. Anonymity is assured. Ideally pieces should be received by early November.

White Ribbon Day is an international day on 25 November focused on eradicating male violence against women and girls.

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