00:00This is not a winter walk in the countryside.
00:05It's a protest, and it happens once a year.
00:09Reclaim the Night is a friendly walk from Rust Hall, where I live, to the Pantiles.
00:16I started it a couple of years ago in 2022 because a woman had been attacked on the corner of Tunbridge Wells Common
00:25on the route that I would take.
00:27Obviously it was awful for the women concerned, but also there's a ripple effect on every woman in the community.
00:34There have been lots of incidents of indecent exposure around the village I live in on Rust Hall and Tunbridge Wells Common.
00:42There is no place that is safe in the whole country if you are a woman or a girl.
00:49It's pitch black and freezing cold here, but over 50 people have shown up to walk today in solidarity.
00:56One in 12 women experience violence every year, and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has promised to halve this within the next decade.
01:04But are local authorities doing enough to help keep women safe?
01:07There are usual things of lighting and stuff, but I think the council deserves some credit.
01:13It is a white ribbon accredited organisation, but essentially it's something that society needs to own and society as a whole.
01:21And because it's individual men who actually perpetrate the kind of behaviour that needs to be changed.
01:28A lot of it is down to individual attitudes. I think it's important that men and boys are educated right from a young age.
01:39So I think education is the key in this, along with support for groups such as the White Ribbon Group,
01:46who are dedicated to encouraging men to call out other men if they witness inappropriate behaviour about women or make inappropriate comments about women.
01:58People would talk about, well, do you want better street lighting or do you want more police?
02:03And yes, these are all factors, but the real thing that we want is cultural change.
02:07We want an end to sexism and misogyny, which creates violence against women and girls.
02:14The government have set out new measures to tackle this issue, but until Reclaim the Night and Tambridge Wells see a difference, they will carry on walking.
02:22Jasmine Sandar for KMTV.
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