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THOUSANDS of women marched through London and Manchester over the weekend ahead of International Women’s Day (IWD) to demand that action is taken to protect women and girls from male violence.
Supporters of the Million Women Rise collective walked through the capital to Trafalgar Square on Saturday.
They warned that the lack of action against male violence amounted to state inflicted or sanctioned abuse.
Protesters chanted and carried signs reading: “Together we can end male violence” and “Women are not the problem” during the protest ahead of IWD on Wednesday.
The aunt of murdered aspiring lawyer Zara Aleena, Farah Naz, was also at the march.
Ms Naz said she is “always hopeful” that a system, which is “broken across the board” and does not protect women, can change.
Failings in the probation service were among the issues which meant that Jordan McSweeney, a known perpetrator, was free to sexually assault and murder Ms Aleena in June last year.
Mina Smallman, the mother of Nicole Smallman and Biba Henry, sent a video message of support.
The two sisters were murdered in 2020 and a pair of Met Police officers took photos of their bodies and shared it on WhatsApp.
“The slogan I would like us all to adopt is that ‘it’s time’,” Ms Smallman said in the message.
“We have had enough talk. We have had enough rhetoric. Now we are demanding that those in power put girls and women’s safety at the forefront.”
Speakers at the rally noted how serial rapist David Carrick kept his job in the Met despite multiple reports against him.
The cost-of-living crisis is also trapping women with perpetrators and decimating vital support services, they said.
In Manchester, around 2,500 women marched through the city centre in a Walk for Women, some wearing the green, purple and white colours of the Suffragettes.
Marchers assembled outside Manchester Cathedral before heading for St Peter’s Square in a noisy and joyful display of solidarity with music, chanting and singing.
Manchester’s Walk for Women group said: “Manchester has a history of some very strong women.
“We are having a walk to show the world how great Manchester and its women are.”
Banners included the Safety4Sisters group and the Manchester Nigerian Women’s Group.
The annual march was the first since the event was suspended during Covid lockdown.
