Recent graduate , Tabitha Green, is currently in the process of setting up organisation “Birmingham Street Huns”, a buddy system where women who feel unsafe on the streets of Birmingham can arrive home safely.
The Office for National Statistics reports that over 80% of women feel “very or fairly unsafe” whilst walking alone in a park or other open space after dark, nationally. This research comes after Sarah Everard was kidnapped, raped and murdered by police officer, Wayne Couzens whilst she was walking home alone on the night of 3 March 2021. Couzens has since been given a life sentence.
Eventually, women who feel unsafe in Birmingham after dark will be able to contact Birmingham Street Huns by a phone number, who will then send out a volunteer to walk with them, arrange an Uber or just to talk as they go. They are also hoping to collaborate with local universities in the city and their societies to get more people on board and be more accredited.
Speaking with Tabitha, we asked what had fuelled her to set up this new initiative. “Recently in Digbeth, [my friend] Alice and I experienced some quite violent, verbal assault from 2 men. This was after we had complained to security at that venue about an assault that we had witnessed in the crowd and the security woman had said “she was asking for it” “.
This comes after highlighting how unsafe she also felt as a student living in the student area of Selly Oak, “it was awful there”, “there are a lot of men always driving and walking around looking for girls to speak to”. “I got the impression people were just praying on students because they knew it would be an area of lots of young girls post night out.”
A survey that Birmingham Street Huns carried out backed up their worries about Selly Oak. Out of 100 respondents, 91% answered that they had personally experienced some kind of assault, harassment or unwanted attention while they were out in their local area. 46% of these were based in Selly Oak.
Tabitha went on to explain how the similar initiative in Edinburgh, “Strut Safe” has also inspired her, “it would be cool if we had something more physical in our area as well”. Strut Safe have a phone line that runs from 7pm-3am on Fridays and Saturdays and from 7pm-1am on Sundays.
Issues surrounding women’s safety have never been more relevant, with new reports of women being spiked through needles in nightclubs. Local nightclubs and venues, such as The Mill in Birmingham have said they will increase their security measures to help prevent spiking.
This new method of spiking women has prompted a club boycott named “Girls Night In” across many cities, including Birmingham on the 27th October.
The West Midlands Police say they “are taking all reports seriously and would encourage anyone who believes they have been a victim of spiking in any form to contact us”.
We spoke to Anna Fawcett, the fundraising manager from Birmingham and Solihull Women’s Aid about the issues women are facing after dark. “You can be just going to the shops, walking down the street, going for a run, you can just be socialising with your friends, it is never anything to do with what you’re wearing, how you’re behaving, we have to frame men’s violence towards women and we have to place the blame squarely with men to get men talking about that.”
“We know that it isn’t all men, but actually it’s pretty much only men that are doing this.”
The launch date for Birmingham Street Huns is still unknown as they are still looking for more volunteers, get involved by messaging their Instagram @0121streethuns.
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