MILLION WOMEN RISE
*A UK-wide Black women led collective of women resisting men’s violence
SAT 4 MARCH 2023
4th March: International Women’s Day march to protest men’s violence against women and girls
From 1.15pm on Saturday, 4th March 2023, Million Women Rise - a collective led by Black women - will march from Oxford Street to Trafalgar Square in a demonstration against male violence against women and girls.
Thousands of women and girls march each year in sisterhood, solidarity and unity, to protest the lack of action to address male violence. Women and girls also march to remember, and grieve, the countless women and girls who have been killed through male violence, including through state inflicted / sanctioned abuse.
The march is open to all women and girls.
This year, the march is taking place at a time when despite government promises and commitments, state failings are causing women and girls to be subjected to violence, including violence perpetrated by police officers themselves:
Million Women Rise centres and focuses on Black and Global Majority women and girls because murders and assaults on Black and Global Majority women and girls are less often reported on and have worse justice outcomes. In particular, Disabled Black women bear the brunt of the intersection of racism and ableism in society.
The march will include an accessible bus for women and girls to use and BSL interpreters will be available for the entire rally.
Mina Smallman, mother of Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry, said:
“When women rise up and make a stand, there’s no stopping us. Women are saying it’s time.”
Michelle Daley, activist and member of Million Women Rise, said:
“We rise because we are against decisions, policies and practices that repeatedly contribute to the deaths and harm of women and girls through neglect, trauma and violence.
We cannot find peace with the systems that legitimise the victimisation of thousands of us through institutionalisation and segregation from society. The ongoing deaths of women and girls through neglect and harm in so-called places of ‘care’ is devastating.”
Million Women Rise Founding Coordinator, Sabrina Qureshi, said:
“Our power is together. While the tools of patriarchy seek to divide us and keep us in fear, Million Women Rise holds an alternative vision of revolutionary love and a world free of male violence. This movement of women and girls' is a manifestation of the heartbreak, grief, power, outrage and beauty of women and girls all around the planet, and of our resistance to male violence in all its forms.
Million Women Rise provides an important and precious space of interconnectedness and solidarity across our differences, where no woman or girl is forgotten.”
ENDS
Media contact
Deniz Uğur, End Violence Against Women Coalition: media@evaw.org.uk 07960 744 502
Notes
Million Women Rise is organised and led by Black women who continue to rise up against intersecting oppressions including patriarchy, ableism, structural racism and fascism.
*A UK-wide Black women led collective of women resisting men’s violence
SAT 4 MARCH 2023
4th March: International Women’s Day march to protest men’s violence against women and girls
From 1.15pm on Saturday, 4th March 2023, Million Women Rise - a collective led by Black women - will march from Oxford Street to Trafalgar Square in a demonstration against male violence against women and girls.
Thousands of women and girls march each year in sisterhood, solidarity and unity, to protest the lack of action to address male violence. Women and girls also march to remember, and grieve, the countless women and girls who have been killed through male violence, including through state inflicted / sanctioned abuse.
The march is open to all women and girls.
This year, the march is taking place at a time when despite government promises and commitments, state failings are causing women and girls to be subjected to violence, including violence perpetrated by police officers themselves:
- Serial rapist David Carrick kept his job as a police officer despite multiple reports against him, allowing him to commit more than 80 sexual offences over almost 20 years
- Police and probation service failings meant a known perpetrator was free to murder Zara Aleena
- Black girl Child Q was subjected to a violent racist and sexist assault at the hands of the police and her school
- Police data highlighted the scale of this abuse, as 650 recorded strip-searches of children took place from 2018 to 2020 - almost a quarter without an appropriate adult present, and disproportionately against Black children
- The cost of living crisis is trapping women with perpetrators and decimating vital support services
- New research exposed the hidden victims of domestic abuse, left uncounted and unrecognised, as women subjected to domestic abuse are three times as likely to attempt suicide, and those subjected to sexual abuse are seven times more likely to have attempted to end their life
- The police inspectorate found that it is currently “too easy for the wrong people” to join and to stay in the police, as multiple high level reviews have found forces are failing to take misconduct action against officers or respond topolice-perpetrated violence against women
- The government’s racist anti-migrant rhetoric and Nationality and Borders Act is producing state sanctioned violence against survivors, including women detained (often indefinitely) in immigration detention centres, where they are vulnerable to sexual and physical abuse by staff
Million Women Rise centres and focuses on Black and Global Majority women and girls because murders and assaults on Black and Global Majority women and girls are less often reported on and have worse justice outcomes. In particular, Disabled Black women bear the brunt of the intersection of racism and ableism in society.
The march will include an accessible bus for women and girls to use and BSL interpreters will be available for the entire rally.
Mina Smallman, mother of Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry, said:
“When women rise up and make a stand, there’s no stopping us. Women are saying it’s time.”
Michelle Daley, activist and member of Million Women Rise, said:
“We rise because we are against decisions, policies and practices that repeatedly contribute to the deaths and harm of women and girls through neglect, trauma and violence.
We cannot find peace with the systems that legitimise the victimisation of thousands of us through institutionalisation and segregation from society. The ongoing deaths of women and girls through neglect and harm in so-called places of ‘care’ is devastating.”
Million Women Rise Founding Coordinator, Sabrina Qureshi, said:
“Our power is together. While the tools of patriarchy seek to divide us and keep us in fear, Million Women Rise holds an alternative vision of revolutionary love and a world free of male violence. This movement of women and girls' is a manifestation of the heartbreak, grief, power, outrage and beauty of women and girls all around the planet, and of our resistance to male violence in all its forms.
Million Women Rise provides an important and precious space of interconnectedness and solidarity across our differences, where no woman or girl is forgotten.”
ENDS
Media contact
Deniz Uğur, End Violence Against Women Coalition: media@evaw.org.uk 07960 744 502
Notes
- Spokespeople will be available for interview - this must be arranged in advance via the contact above. Questions must be provided in advance of interviews.
- There will be photo and filming opportunities but as this is a women only march, media contacts must be respectful of the boundaries set by the organisers. If you plan to film, please get in touch to discuss this.
- The march will take place from 12.30pm - 4.30pm on Saturday 4 March 2023, (ahead of International Women’s Day, 8 March) and is strictly women and girls only.
- An accessible bus will join the march and be available throughout for women and girls to use.
- BSL interpreters will be available for the entire rally.
- His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) inspection of vetting, misconduct and misogyny in the police service found that it is currently “too easy for the wrong people” to join and to stay in the police
- Baroness Casey’s interim review of standards and internal culture at the Met Police found highlighted how the Met Police enables officers to abuse their power against women with impunity
- The National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) and College of Policing review of police-perpetrated violence against women and girls found that a number of institutional failings are preventing perpetrators from facing accountability.
Million Women Rise is organised and led by Black women who continue to rise up against intersecting oppressions including patriarchy, ableism, structural racism and fascism.
