Edinburgh group collects stories of violence against women for magazine

The folks behind Edinburgh Reclaim the Night are putting together a magazine aimed at raising awareness of violence against women in the city.

Rachel from RTN Edinburgh writes on Facebook:

There are big statistics out there, saying things like one in four women experience rape or attempted rape in their lifetime, saying that almost no rapes result in conviction, that domestic violence rapes are sky high, that street harassment is a terrible problem. But these statistics don’t really seem to sink in, they’re such impossibly large numbers, it often doesn’t seem personal enough to be real.

However, for those of use who are that one in four, or who have been in or currently are in an abuse relationship, or simply live and walk in fear of violence, the statistics are all too personal. On International Women’s Day (March 8th) women and supportive men will be marching through Edinburgh to show our anger at a culture which would rather allow women to live in constant fear of violence than try to abolish violence against women. To go alongside this, we want to provide a forum where women who have experienced all forms of violence against women can have their voices heard (including rape, sexual abuse, domestic violence including emotional and psychological abuse, street harassment, female genital mutilation, and those who have experiences of living in the fear that violence might happen, even if just when walking the streets at night).

If you’re interested in this idea, then we’d love to put your story into a magazine we want to create and distribute in Edinburgh, to make it clear that violence against women is a problem in our city and needs to change. This is not a pressure, we want to provide a forum for those who want to tell their stories, if you don’t want to or don’t feel ready to then don’t. It’s your choice.

Feel free to send us your story in whatever language you feel most comfortable writing. (Although we won’t have the funds for video, so BSL isn’t possible.)

You can email us your story at [email protected]

Alternatively, if you don’t have internet or want to be more anonymous you can write to:

Reclaim the Night Edinburgh

124 Fernieside Crescent

Edinburgh

EH17 7DH

(Urdu and Polish translations of the full explanation of the magazine’s aims, and the call for stories, can also be found on the Facebook group