Residents Diemen campus feel less safe after incident
Female UvA students living at OurCampus in Diemen have been extra cautious lately. Cycling home alone late at night no longer feels like a safe option for everyone since the various violent incidents that have taken place in the area: “The sense of safety in the neighbourhood has decreased.”
In recent weeks, three shocking incidents of violence against women took place in quick succession in the Diemen area. First, there was the woman who was sexually assaulted while walking along the Weespertrekvaart canal. A few days later, 17-year-old Lisa was murdered on Holterbergweg in Duivendrecht, and most recently there was an attempted sexual assault on Zilvermeeuwpad in Diemen, which was prevented by an alert couple.
A striking similarity between the incidents is that all three took place along cycle routes frequently used by UvA students living at OurCampus in Diemen. Almost a thousand students live on the campus, which borders Amsterdam Zuidoost and is home to an Albert Heijn supermarket, a bicycle repair shop, a dentist and various cafés and restaurants. For many of those students, the remote cycle path along the Weespertrekvaart is the most logical route home after a night out in Amsterdam. But the incident on Zilvermeeuwpad is particularly close to home for the campus residents. The bicycle tunnel where a woman was overpowered by a forty-year-old man is less than two hundred metres from the campus. How safe do the students still feel there?
Femicide
Jade Hu, a 23-year-old master’s student in medicine at UvA, has been living on the Diemen campus for over six years. “Lately, I actually had the impression that this area was becoming increasingly gentrified, which made me feel safe,” she says as she takes off her large white headphones, “but after everything that has happened now, that has changed.” Hu says that she was always alert when walking alone at night, but that lately she prefers not to take such evening walks at all. “After eight or nine o’clock, I never leave the campus for a walk anymore. You’re alone and you don’t know who you might bump into.”
The medical student explains that the incidents have had a big impact on her fellow students. “Femicide and women’s safety are topics we have been discussing a lot lately. For example, many women are now more inclined to cycle together and text each other when they get home. If I do have to go home from the city on my own, I try to avoid poorly lit paths.” She has the following to say about the solution to the problem: “Many men are now trying to shift the blame onto migrants, but I think every man should take a critical look at his own behaviour.”
Victoria Townsend (20), a master’s student in media studies, steps out of the metro and begins the short walk from Diemen Zuid station to her studio on campus. In broad daylight, it’s a relaxed stroll, but in the evenings she follows a number of strict rules when she has to walk this route. “I often walk here alone in the dark, so I know I have to be alert. Walk with purpose, don’t get distracted, don’t look at my phone, don’t talk to anyone. Even if it’s only a short walk, I always try to be careful.”
“When I tell people where I live, I often hear that it’s not the best neighbourhood,” Townsend continues. “Especially when I leave the campus in the evening, it does feel a bit tense sometimes. It’s also very worrying to hear about everything that’s been happening in the area. In any case, I try not to put myself in situations where I’m completely alone on the street as much as possible. I want to avoid that.”
In response to the various incidents, Arnolda van der Kaap from Diemen set up the WhatsApp group Get Home Safe Diemen. Through the group, women who have to cycle to Diemen alone in the evening or at night can post a request to find a cycling buddy.
Uber
Elif Eker, a 21-year-old master’s student in cultural psychology, is also on her way home, where she lives with her boyfriend. “If I have to take my bicycle, I prefer to do so with him,” she says. “I cycle alone as little as possible. It feels unsafe.” She uses the Zilvermeeuwpad, where the incident took place, almost every day. “The day after it happened, I walked past it. When I saw the signs saying that the police were looking for witnesses, it really shocked me. When I cycle to Amsterdam, that’s the route I always take.”
Eker still feels safe on campus, but that feeling has been significantly affected in the immediate vicinity. “Recently, my sense of safety has diminished when I walk through the neighbourhood on my own. The same is true for many of my friends. They no longer cycle through the city on their own, but prefer to call an Uber.”
