CAPE TOWN – ‘Why is it that our bodies and lives are so disposable?’
For Amrita Pande, the question is at the heart of why women need to reclaim their right to occupy public spaces at night.
Pande, a sociologist and feminist, founded After 8 Sistahood, a Cape Town-based movement that aims to reclaim women’s right to walk the streets at night.
Her question comes in light of the gruesome discovery of more than eight murdered women’s bodies in Ekurhuleni over the past two months.
Women walking after dark
The feminist walking group organises night walks for women through Cape Town neighbourhoods. The Cape Town chapter started in August 2022 and was initiated by Pande, based on a practice that began in Delhi in 2016.
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Since its establishment, hundreds of women from various parts of Cape Town have joined the monthly walk, which takes place in a different community each month.
Pande said their next walk, scheduled for Wednesday 30 September at Rondebosch Common, will be in honour of the murdered women.
“Violence has become so naturalised and normalised in our country today that it often takes something like this, an accumulation of bodies and a spectacular crime, something like a serial killer to get public attention.
“That is something that should trouble us, why does it take multiple bodies of women for us to collectively pause and realise that this violence is actually every day?”
More than just safety
For Pande, the movement is not simply about safety or making women safer in public areas. It is about making women’s presence in public spaces normal.
“It shouldn’t be that women have to be kept at home to stay alive. The movement argues that women have to be in public spaces for work and other reasons, but they are never able to be in public spaces without fear, anxiety or danger.
“If women can have a collective presence in public spaces, especially at night, their presence in all places will be normalised because women deserve to be alive.”
She adds that women deserve to have pleasure and leisure.
“They deserve the right to occupy space, to run or walk after dusk. The answer cannot be that women should be more careful, be vigilant, and not to walk alone or stay out late. That is just creating fear. That is just policing out bodies.”
Pande reiterated that the walks are non-ticketed and open not just to women but are welcoming to trans and non-binary participants.
“We laugh, we talk and we make our collective presence felt in different parts of the city at night. And that is what is needed.
“Our presence is needed so that absence of these murdered women can be felt and mourned collectively. We are calling on as many women to join,” she concludes.
ALSO READ: Women take to the streets of Cape Town at night to create awareness on women safety.
