Letter to Jeremy Corbyn on women-only carriages

On women-only carriages

Dear Mr. Corbyn,

As one of your suporters and as a woman, please let me give you my feedback on your idea above. In a short sentence, my feedback about women-only carriages is, "Forget it!"

The idea to make public transport safer for women is noble and I appreciate it. The same strategy is being used in Indonesia - the country where I grew up - and it works well today. It would not work here. (http://gu.com/p/4bzfb?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other)

Why? Because in Indonesia, it is still common and considered alright for a pervert to grab a woman's breast or buttocks in public. Believe me I grew up there, and the first lesson my father gave me in my puberty year was how to defend myself against perverts, how to use my knee as a weapon etc - I spare you the rest of the details.

The UK today is much better than that. Yes there are still sexual harassments and abuse, but not as blatant. Women here are also more aware of their rights. We do not need protection in the form of separate carriages like in Indonesia. Within 10 years of living in the UK, I never needed to use my knee as a weapon of self defense or walk with my hands folded to prevent any pervert to grab my breast. 

I believe that women in the UK today are powerful enough to prevent and to report harassments if it happened. I deeply moved by your brotherly gesture to protect us women, but I think we are good in this area. 

Maybe what we need is a more aware and sensitive or empathic police force, so that victims - regarsless of their genders - feel safe to report crimes and later to testify. We learn from historic sexual abuse cases how the law enforcement dismissed victims' evidence and how some women suffered! We need to make sure that our law enforcement understand how it feels to be a target or to be victimised. 

Empathy should be taught and discussed in training courses for public servants. The stiff upper lip bureaucrats need to learn how to make a crying woman feel accepted. Feeling is not a sin! Now this, would be a positive change that we women need from you. 

That is my feedback for you. I hope you will become the leader of Labour and in 2020, Prime Minister. My motherly instinct says that you do care. Thank you

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Here is the email reply that I received not long after my letter:

Hi Adeline, 

Thank you for your email regarding women only carriages.

 

Jeremy was approached by members of the public, campaigns and organisations with the idea and has decided to open it up for wider discussion. Women only carriages is not a policy proposal, as the media are reporting today, but simply something Jeremy is willing to explore due to demand. 

I recommend having a look at the policies on ending street harassment that Jeremy is outlining here: http://www.jeremyforlabour.com/end_street_harassment. Policies include but are not limited to a 24/7 police hotline for sexual harassment and assault, more rigorous legislation for licence holders when harassment occurs on their premises and comprehensive advertising campaigns. 

 

Thank you for your input, it is exactly what Jeremy was hoping to receive and I will now feed it into our policy making process. 

 

Thank you again for taking the time to get in touch. 

Kind regards,

Team Jeremy