Marchers will 'reclaim night' for women in fear of attack

HUNDREDS of marchers will "reclaim the night" when they take to the city's streets for a rally highlighting violence against women.

Both women and men will take part in the event to raise awareness of domestic abuse and a culture in which women feel unsafe walking alone at night.

They will set off from Lothian Road and continue through town to the Meadows.

Reported crime in the area of Middle Meadow Walk has risen from 68 incidents in 2003-4 to 166 last year.

A rally will then take place involving speakers from Rape Crisis Scotland, the White Ribbon Campaign and victims of abuse.

A spokeswoman for organisers the Edinburgh Feminist Network said: "A woman is more likely to be attacked by someone she knows in her own home than by a stranger, and yet the walk home after a night out is one that most women fear.

"Why do women still feel the need to be chaperoned home, and what can we do about this?"

Nurse Lynn Mitchell, of Merchant Street, recently complained to council chiefs that the walk she faced each day through the Meadows to her work at Astley Ainslie Hospital left her feeling frightened and vulnerable because of the level of crime in the area.

White Ribbon - an organisation backed by Amnesty International that urges men to stand up to violence against women - will also join the march.

Scottish co-ordinator Iain Wallace said it was crucial men supported the march.

He said: "We will be holding a discussion at the Wash Bar on The Mound, where we want men to talk about various issues, from matters like rape and assault all the way to the prevalence of things like soft porn and lap dancing clubs, and how it impacts on our perception of women.

"Once the march reaches The Mound we will join them, because it's important we show solidarity, but will be keeping a respectful distance at the same time. It's always hard to put a number on these things, but we are hoping for hundreds, if not thousands."

A spokeswoman for Rape Crisis Scotland said: "The extent to which the threat of violence from men forces women to restrict their movements is something that barely registers with most people, because it is so routinely accepted as an inevitable fact of life. This must change.

"By marching through Edinburgh, women will be asserting their right to the same basic freedoms as men, and openly rejecting the assumption that it is women's behaviour that will determine whether or not they will be safe, when it is violent men who must change their own behaviour in order to make this happen."

Also involved in the march will be Zero Tolerance, an Edinburgh-based charity set up to counter violence against women.

Information development officer Libi Hutchin said: "Violence against women is an issue that directly affects many men, women and children throughout Scotland and the rest of the world.

"This march is a sign of the large public support for all organisations working to end violence against women, and we hope that it sends out the clear message that there is never an excuse."

The march, which will be led by Commotion Women Drummers, will start in Lothian Road at 7.30pm on October 11.