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Reclaim these streets virtual vigil to be held in Bristol
Candles will be placed in windows across Bristol on Saturday in a show of solidarity with all women who feel unsafe on the streets or suffer violence.
The event will take place in homes and online due to Covid-19 restrictions and is one of several vigils taking place across the country.
It will be held in memory of Sarah Everard, a 33-year-old marketing executive who went missing after leaving a friend’s house to walk home in south London last week. Her body was found in woodland on Wednesday and a serving Met police officer remains in custody having been held on suspicion of her kidnap and murder.
is needed now More than ever
“On Saturday at 6pm we’re going to #LightTheWay for women everywhere,” say organisers of the event.
“Let’s normalise women walking home for a brighter future and a safer path.”
There is a possibility a physical vigil will take place in the city, but only if a high court rules it can go ahead.
The events of the last week have prompted an outpouring of messages of solidarity.
Bristol author Abigail Mansfield penned a poem out of frustration “that we still can’t be free from sexual assault and harassment”.
“I just want to prevent any further stories from women that are similar to the these described in the poem,” Abigail told Bristol24/7.
Abigail Mansfield wrote a poem in frustration “that we still can’t be free from sexual assault and harassment” – photo courtesy of Abigail Mansfield
Her poem in full:
She mustn’t walk in the dark
She must always text her buddy, tell her mum,
Prepare her phone in her pocket
She must not wear that top, her plump breasts arranged like alluring cushions for his head to lay upon
She mustn’t walk like that, like she’s tempting him.
She must not move her hips as though she’s waving him toward her.
She mustn’t let her long hair bounce like that girl does on that porno he watched this morning before heading to work.
She can’t enjoy that sexual encounter, where she screamed, and pleasure laid ambivalent with pain
She must not show any signs of genuine glee as she takes a knee and let’s him know how much she desires him.
He will not take the knee, for she does not deserve to lose herself in the most beautiful way to his mouth.
She will be a whore for most of her life.
A slag to her exes,
A bitch to her exes friends
A free slut show for them all on their iPhones to revisit over and over, to hate and love at the same time over and over.
She will have asked ‘you promise this is just for us, even if we break up’
He whispers ‘he loves you’ and tells her a thousand lies as he breaks her & unfolds her, dismantles & repairs her.
She will then be a maiden when she meets his mother for the first time, a mother herself if she has to be, wants to be, needs to be, must be or else…
When she hears familiar tales from her friends, they share some more
She was felt up at 10, her tiny chest smothered with poking hands at 12, her first kiss was an unwanted tongue in her throat at 14, her inside bruised like fallen fruit at 16…
She covered up her body, her hands wrapped around her own waist.
She locks eyes with the darkness from her window.
Her hair tied back, her tempting limbs away from sight.
She mustn’t walk outside alone tonight.
Share photos of your virtual vigil via social media using the hashtags #LightTheWay and #ReclaimtheStreets.
Main photo courtesy of Reclaim the Night
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