Copyright Jean Hatchet

On 9th March 2017 I was riding my bike at the coast around Whitby in North Yorkshire and I had been reading that morning about yet another woman murdered by a man she knew. You have a lot of time to think on a ride. Particularly going up the hills. I began to think of what I could do. My wheels turned. My heart followed.

I decided to do a small personal act to honour the lives of women murdered by men. I decided to dedicate a bike ride to each woman murdered by a male current or former intimate partner or family member. I thought as I sat on my bike at the top of a hill overlooking Runswick Bay that it would make me feel I had paid them some respect. A salute to them each time I rode.

But.. the personal is always political.

On that day I rode for Katrina O Hara. She was the first woman murdered in 2016 by her ex-boyfriend. He had been unable to accept her ending the affair. He had been harassing her including climbing into her bedroom through her window. However, after an incident where he slammed her to a concrete floor numerous times, police confiscated HER mobile phone and saw her as an aggressor, accepting his version of events. This left her vulnerable. Days later he lay in wait outside the shop she worked in as she closed up. He stabbed her twice in the chest. She had no way to call for help.

By the time I got back to our digs for the night, with the brutal murders of women by men whirling around my brain I had decided that I would also try to raise money and awareness and that I would post each ride on my Twitter account with a brief story of the woman’s murder.

At first no one really noticed very much. I decided to raise the money for Wearside Women In Need who faced the closure of all 4 of their women’s refuges in one of the places where there is the most dire need of women’s services.

I cannot thank people enough for the way they eventually responded. Over time the rides picked up more and more support and lots of donations. Wearside Women In Need use the money to fund an IDVA (Independent Domestic Violence Advisor). These women work on a one to one basis with the women most at risk of domestic homicide. Their job is to keep women — like the women I ride for — alive. I wish I could raise more. I wish no woman would be murdered. I wish men would stop killing women. I do what I can. We all have to do what we can.

I’ve now ridden my bike in honour of 266 murdered women. I’ve ridden a total of more than 6500 miles.

I carry each of those women with me forever now. Up and down hills. I carry their families too. All those shattered lives and fractured futures. Men did this to them. These women were killed because they were female.

To raise awareness of this fact I have decided to invite women to join me for just one ride. So that we could honour all the women I’ve ridden for so far at once.

This won’t be an “event” as such because the logistics of co-ordinating that nationally are proving too difficult. So many women in so many different locations is just wonderful! The ride will therefore simply be groups of women gathering together and riding as friends and sisters to commemorate women who have died at the hands of current or former intimate partners or family members. Each woman takes responsibility for her own safety. I hope women will still join us.

Women will be joining us from their exercise bikes. Women will ride in isolated locations alone. Women will ride in other countries and post their rides online. It is going to be a wonderful tribute to our dead sisters.

There will be a group of us gathering in London at a meeting point yet to be announced but the route will be short and flat with the option of a slightly longer ride and a dip in Hampstead Ladies Pond afterwards. Other groups of women will gather across the nation (details below). All the rides will set off at 1pm on Saturday 7th September. I would invite each woman who wants to join us to wear a red t shirt to reflect the blood of women spilt by men they knew. I invite each woman to carry the name of a woman from a list I’ll publish. Or if women prefer to ride for all the women all the women as a whole that’s fine. Write that on your sheet to pin to your shirt. I’ll provide sheets to attach to shirts and if women would prefer to write a reason they are riding that would be great too. Please see below for women to contact on Twitter if you want to meet up and join some of us.

It is important that each woman takes responsibility for her own safety as this is not a corporate event and has no official leader. We are just women riding bikes together. This is activism as much as memorial. We need to show the nation how women die, how many of them die and that it is men who kill them.

It is important to me that the ride is for women only. There can be no men on the ride. It is crucial that women highlight the sexed nature of the crime. Women are killed by men. Between 2009 and 2015 … 589 women were murdered by current or former intimate partners or family members.

I have taken a level of criticism for saying this ride will be women only. It is vital that it is. The sexed nature of statistics on male violence against women need to have integrity and validity. For us to save women of the future it is vital that statistics reflect the sex of the victim and perpetrator. Women should be able to say that men are the sex that commit these crimes and women are the victims. This is essential for funding applications for women’s services, for political representation of these crimes, for accurate data recording.

The nominated charity will be NIA. Please donate here to support women. This is to recognise the incredible work of Karen Ingala Smith their phenomenal CEO who began the horrific task of ‘Counting Dead Women’ and without whom I would not be riding. Thanks also to Claire Moore whose lists from Onein4 I have also used.

Speaking at the London Ride before we set off will be the sister of Dawn Rhodes whose husband was cleared of her murder.

I hope that trans women will respect this is a decision to highlight the fact that this is a crime specifically and predominantly affecting women in this country and that the trans community will support the rides via donations and other involvement such as promoting and applauding women’s efforts. The statistics show that in the UK not one trans woman was killed by a current or former intimate partner or family member in the time span of these rides. We are all pleased that is the case and long may that continue. It is also not suitable as a ride for children due to safety issues and also the nature of the women’s deaths.

What has become clear over the last few days is that when women wish to organise something for women alone that is immediately under attack. It should not be.

I will not be moved on this. The ride is about women. The ride will be for women. We are the Female Peloton. We will ride.

If you want to arrange to meet up women contact these women on Twitter

Derbyshire contact @alicekellartist or @burtring

Manchester contact @WomanchesterMMN

Bristol contact @DanniSinnett

Leeds contact @Northernruth

Cambridge contact @HJJoyceEcon

Birmingham contact @HubbleVicky

West Sussex contact @stalk_support

Cardiff contact @RadFemsCardiff

Argyll contact @DrMoragKerr

Mid-Suffolk … contact @youarethepitts

I will update this list as other women organise to meet together. Please let me know if you are organising and not listed here so that other women can ask to join you if you’d be happy to have them along?