Violence against women remains an epidemic in our society as new figures from Fermanagh Women’s Aid show 390 women sought help from the organisation over a period of a year.

In an interview with this newspaper, Kerrie Flood, Development Manager in Fermanagh Women’s Aid, revealed that over the recent two-week Christmas period from December 26 – January 6, Women’s Aid received a threefold increase in the number of referrals in comparison to the same period in 2021.

In this 2022/23 timeframe, 13 women from Fermanagh sought help from Women’s Aid over the festive period, compared to four in 2021/22.

Reflecting on recent PSNI figures which showed 3,604 calls for help over the festive period across Northern Ireland, Kerrie said: “ “In the broad picture, police referrals account for about a third of all of our referrals.

“We would talk about there being two ways to leave a relationship and that would be an emergency exit – which the police figures reflect – and the other type of exit is a planned exit.

“In relation to Christmas, a lot of women will say, ‘We will get through Christmas; maybe this year will be better’, and then come to us in January, and that is a planned exit.”

From April, 2021 to March, 2022, Fermanagh Women’s Aid received referrals from 390 women, whereas in the previous 2020/21 period, they received 336 referrals for the same timeframe, showing a sharp increase.

Kerrie and her colleagues have noted that the nature of the domestic abuse faced by the women who use their services has become more violent.

She said: “There is much more in terms of physical assault. They may be telling us about a situation that has occurred over a course of time. Women might tell us of them being threatened, that [their partner] will kill them, or he is going to kill himself, or kill their children.

“Women have told us about situations where they’ve been in a car with their partner and the speed increases over a period of time, and [the perpetrator] points out a tree or a wall and says, ‘All I have to do is move my hand and you and I would go straight into that’.”

‘More brazen now’

Remarking that perpetrators of domestic abuse are more “brazen now”, Kerrie said: “We are looking for the ‘why’ – we know domestic violence gets worse over time, but perpetrators are a bit more brazen now.

“There’s been more opportunity to abuse, as women have had no opportunity to escape [due to previous Covid-19 lockdowns].

“It has been much more overt; [there are] women who are attacked in public, or have been humiliated in public. Perpetrators aren’t afraid to continue the behaviour in a more public domain.”

When asked by this newspaper if we live in a misogynistic culture, Kerrie said: “I don’t know if we necessarily live in a more misogynistic culture. What I do think is we are less tolerant of a misogynistic culture.

“What we do know is we have systemic and endemic issues around discrimination against women, whether that is in relation to pay and positions of power, or the types of jokes we tell when we are on a night out. We know we have a major problem with that, but I do see a shift.”

Kerrie made reference to teenagers calling out misogynistic situations, and the change in laws and culture over the past number of decades. She believes women are at the forefront of this change.

She said: “You have women who shine the light on that culture and misogyny and tell their stories. The next step is we need men to be doing it too.

“What’s really dawning on us since the murder of Sarah Everett [who was killed by a serving Metropolitan Police Officer in London] is that perpetrators are not monsters, they are not hiding in bushes – they are normal, everyday people.”

Fermanagh Women’s Aid can be contacted at 028 6632 8898.

You can contact a 24-hour Freephone Domestic and Sexual Violence Helpline (managed by Nexus NI) at 0808 802 1414.

Contact the police in an emergency at 999.