by Olivia Warburton
There is rarely a week without a harrowing story surrounding violence against women and girls (VAWG) across headlines.
One such incident which has resurfaced recently is the tragic death of Elianne Andam. In September 2023, the 15-year-old was fatally stabbed outside a bus stop on her way to school in Croydon, South London by a then 17-year-old boy.
In broad daylight, in the middle of the morning rush one Wednesday, Andam lost her life at the hands of a friend’s ex-boyfriend.
Almost a year on, Andam’s death is in the news once again as her alleged attacker turned 18 and is therefore no longer entitled to anonymity.
He is due to stand trial for murder in November 2024 after admitting to killing Andam by pleading guilty to manslaughter - a plea that was not accepted by the prosecution.
Andam’s family and those close to her described her as “a beautiful person inside and out” who had a “bright future ahead of her.” A future that was cruelly cut short.
Alarmingly, there are a growing number of cases chillingly similar across the country.
Counting Dead Women, an organisation started by feminist campaigner and author Karen Ingala Smith to highlight the epidemic of femicide in the UK, releases a yearly document detailing every woman who had been killed in circumstances where a man was the primary suspect, to advocate for change.
In 2023, the year Andam lost her life, at least 105 women fell victim to the same fate. While teenage Andam was the youngest name on the list, the oldest was 92-year-old Anne Woodbridge who was found dead at her home after being suffocated.
Her husband was later handed a two-year suspended prison sentence for manslaughter.
While 15 is no age, neither is 92.
Nothing should be responsible for your death other than nature itself.
Elianne, Anne, and every woman in between their ages lost their life prematurely because of a man.
Counting Dead Women estimates that on average, since the end of 2009, 140 women have been killed by men in the UK every year. That’s two women dead at the hands of a man every five days.
VAWG is more than femicide. Death is just the cataclysmic pinnacle of a system of misogynistic hatred.
It is rather an umbrella term used to describe a range of abuses against women and girls including, but not limited to, domestic homicide, domestic abuse, sexual assault, honour-based abuse, and stalking.
Despite its rise in use, VAGW isn’t a new term that the latest generation can claim it invented either. It derives from the UN’s 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women which recognised “the urgent need for the universal application to women of the rights and principles with regard to equality, security, liberty, integrity and dignity of all human beings.”
That was over 20 years ago, what has really changed since?
In their National Policing Statement 2024 For VAWG, the NPCC found that at least one in every 12 women will be a victim of VAWG per year.
If that wasn’t distressing enough, they also estimated that one in 20 adults in England and Wales will be a perpetrator of VAWG per year.
That amounts to 2.3 million people ho are waiting, be it in the shadows or in plain sight, to harm a woman in some way every year. It’s important to note that this figure would not include people like Andam’s murderer, as he was still a teen at the time of the offence.
VAWG is a phenomenal threat on a national and international scale. Take the trial of Gisèle Pélicot’s now ex-husband and the 51 other men he allegedly enabled to rape her for over 10 years in their small French town.
Or think about the women of Afghanistan who are living under Taliban rule where it is against the law for their voices to be heard outside of their homes.
The problem needs addressing now more than ever. There can be no more Gisèles, no more Annes, no more Eliannes.
Enough is enough.
Edited by Emily Duff