On Sunday 24 November, members of two women’s rights groups in Norfolk met at Norwich City Hall to commemorate women in the United Kingdom who were killed by men (or where a man is the main suspect) in the last year. On Saturday 7 December, they will gather again to hold a silent vigil for women in Afghanistan.
The first gathering was on the eve of the United Nation’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (Monday 25 November). Also known as ‘White Ribbon Day’, this year, it kicked off a UNiTE campaign of 16 days of action to draw attention to the “escalation of violence against women”.
A vigil on the steps on Norwich City Hall
The group met at dusk. They lit candles and tealights, and then laid evergreen leaves with a white ribbon, on heart-shaped cards, on the steps of City Hall. Each card bore the name and age of a female victim. Then, speakers took turns to read the names of over 100 women who were killed since the last commemoration. These names were compiled from the Counting Dead Women account on X and updated from court cases, as they come in.
This year’s day of remembrance
This is the third commemoration that the Norwich Women’s Rights Group and Women’s Rights Network Norfolk have carried out. Sarah Walker, a former trainer for the College of Policing, is a member of both groups. This year, when she got to the two children found dead in Costessey along with the body of their father, she said:
I thought, ‘Ok, I can’t read any more now’. You know what it’s like when you edit something, and you check you’ve got the spelling right, have you got the age right, and then you read it, and you realise, it was an eight-year-old girl.
The names read out also included Tara Kershaw. Tara was killed on 19 January in Great Yarmouth. The day before, she had told Norfolk Police that her attacker had been violent towards her. He was arrested on suspicion of common assault, but later released without charge. On 7 November, this man was found guilty of her murder at Norwich Crown Court.
Una Crown was also remembered. Una died in 2013, in Wisbech in Cambridgeshire, from stab wounds to the neck and chest. A man was charged with her murder in April 2024.
The group made the decision to read the women’s names, but not those of the men who had been convicted of their murder, or who were the main suspects. Sarah says:
We don’t read the names of the killers or suspects. Our focus is on commemorating the women whose lives they took. But we do mention the relationships, if known, because the biggest pattern is that women are not only killed by men, but mainly by men they know and have at some point trusted.
Sarah says that this is not just partners or ex-partners, but can also be siblings, a son or a father.
One of the women at the memorial, Linda (her name has been changed), said:
I could quite easily have been one of those names many years ago. I feel lucky to have survived some of the abuse I went through – broken elbow, strangled, chased with a knife…
New domestic abuse protection orders
Reacting to the stricter restraining orders that have recently been brought in to help to protect those in situations of domestic violence, Sarah Walker says:
You can have really good laws but if you don’t enforce them, it doesn’t matter. Every year, there are women killed by men who are on restraining orders.
The current Norfolk Police and Crime Commissioner, Sarah Taylor, was elected partly on a manifesto of prioritising the safety of women. In a statement about what she has been doing to pursue this, she said:
I have recently met with several organisations which serve victims of violence against women and girls in Norfolk, through NIDAS, which is supported by my office.
I am pleased that the government is prioritising this area and is asking PCCs to continue to support victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence as there is no doubt that these crimes affect women disproportionately.
I’m also keen to ensure that victims of stalking are better served in our county and will continue to talk with the Suzy Lamplugh Trust, and others, to establish how this can be efficiently achieved.
The memorial last Sunday took place the evening before White Ribbon Day, which launched UNiTE’s 16 days of activism. It ends on 10 December, which is International Human Rights Day.
In support of women in Afghanistan
This Saturday, 7 December, at 4pm, the Norwich Women’s Rights Group and Women’s Rights Network Norfolk are holding a silent vigil opposite the Forum, in support of women in Afghanistan. Recently, the Taliban, which regained power in 2021, banned women from speaking in public, one of many laws restricting the rights of women.
A member of the group, who is a midwife, says:
When Kabul fell, my research group were approached by an intermediary and asked if we could invent an absolutely essential job for a female obstetrician who had been in hiding for months, moving from safe house to safe house every few days.
We said yes, and a few weeks later she arrived. She hadn’t been out in daylight in nine months, and wasn’t able to video call her family at all when she arrived, in case there was a clue in the background, and they could be tortured to reveal her location.
As well as turning up to the vigil on Saturday, Sarah says another action people could take is to contact their local MP about the Afghan Resettlement Scheme. This was initially set up to help Afghans who had, for example worked as interpreters for the British army. They were given the right to be resettled outside of Afghanistan. “Write to your MP and say, ‘Why not offer that to all the women?’”
Added Tuesday 10 December, the final day of activism, is this video from the Vigil in support of Afghan women.
If you’re interested in reading further about the issue of violence against women and girls, East Anglia Bylines has a series of articles on the topic here.
