Camilla: How many more women must be harassed, raped or murdered?
The Duchess of Cornwall delivered a deeply impassioned speech on violence against women last night.
highlighting the brutal deaths of Sarah everard and Sabina Nessa among others, Camilla said a ‘culture of silence’ and feelings of shame led many women to conceal their abuse.
And she demanded: ‘how many more women must be harassed, raped or murdered?’
The duchess also said it was crucial for women ‘to get the men in our lives involved in this movement’.
She explained that without the whole of society taking the issue seriously, violence against women would continue to be ‘just one of those things, part and parcel of being born female’.
The Prime Minister’s wife, Carrie Johnson, 33, was in the audience at last night’s event.
She arrived at the Wellcome Trust in London ten minutes before the duchess and could be seen practising her curtsy before the royal arrived.
As Camilla walked in, elegant in a black dress and Women of the World (WOW) Foundation badge, she made a beeline for the Prime Minister’s wife. She looked and gestured to pregnant Mrs Johnson’s bump and said: ‘how’s this coming along?’ Mrs Johnson then laughed.
Royal aides said the duchess had personally invited the mother-to-be to the reception.
During her speech, Camilla said: ‘We do not, in any way, hold all men responsible for sexual violence. But we do need them all on board to tackle it.
‘After all, rapists are not born, they are constructed.
‘And it takes an entire community – male and female – to dismantle the lies, words and actions that foster a culture in which sexual assault is seen as normal, and in which it shames the victim.’
The 74-year-old royal was speaking at a reception to launch the Shameless! Festival.
The festival, which will take place next month, will bring together activism and art to confront and change attitudes towards sexual violence.
Camilla has made the issue of sexual and domestic abuse against women a cornerstone of her public work since her early days as a member of the Royal Family.
She even devised an initiative to provide rape victims with free wash bags containing essential toiletries to use after invasive forensic examinations. During her speech, Camilla referenced several female victims of violent crime including Sarah everard – murdered by serving police officer Wayne Couzens;
Sabina Nessa – the primary school teacher killed minutes from home; Geetika Goyal – who was stabbed to death by her husband; Wenjing Lin – a schoolgirl found dead at home with a man due to stand trial for murder next month; and Bennylyn
Burke – a mother who was stabbed and beaten to death. The duchess said: ‘This country has been appalled and saddened by the loss of women to violence this year...
‘each one of these women endured unimaginable torment – and their loved ones who are left behind continue to suffer in the wake of their deaths.
‘On September 30, Sarah everard’s mother stood before her daughter’s killer to give her searing victim impact statement. I know that all of you here today join me in paying tribute to all these precious lives that have been brutally ended, and in renewing our commitment to do everything we can to bring about the end of violence against women.’ Shameless! Festival will be a collaboration between WOW and the Sexual harms and Medical encounters (ShaMe) project at Birkbeck, University of London.
Last night Camilla referred to a visit to WOW’s own festival shortly before the first lockdown last year, where its founder, Jude Kelly, asked her audience to put up their hands if they could imagine a world in which violence against women did not exist.
Camilla recalled: ‘The reaction was mixed. Some hands flew up, some remained firmly planted in laps, most of us glanced at each other, rather taken aback.
‘Dared we even dream of a world without rape and sexual abuse? Or were we too indoctrinated into believing that violence against women is normal, just “one of those things”, part and parcel of being born female?’
Turning to the ‘immense’ challenges facing the country over this issue, the duchess highlighted The Crime Survey for england and Wales which shows that 144,000 women were victims of rape or attempted rape in the last year, equating to roughly 16 of the most serious sexual offences every hour.
And she concluded by calling women across the country to get their fathers, brothers and partners to take up the cause.
‘Unimaginable torment’ ‘Precious lives brutally ended’