Protestors who took part in Sheffield’s Reclaim the Night march said they were harassed during the demonstration on Saturday 26 November.
Several women and non-binary attendees reported men catcalling and confronting them soon after the protest began.
A young student attending the event said, “It was honestly so scary.
“We’d just set off and there were rowdy men shouting at us, wolf-whistling and getting in the way… it explains why we’re doing the march in the first place.”
Reclaim the Night demonstrations take place anually in cities across the UK to protest against sexual harassment and gender-based violence.
Around sixty people joined the march which set off from outside Sheffield Cathedral. It then moved through the Fargate shopping area and along West Street before reaching the University of Sheffield Student Union building.
When protestors were in Fargate, I watched one man stand in the way of protesters and ask why they were marching, before calling them sexist. I heard other onlookers make comments asking women for their social media accounts soon after.
A non-binary person said offensive and misgendering remarks were made towards them during the event.
“At the start, there were people who shouted ‘that’s a man’ at me and some of my other non-binary friends,” they said.
Reclaim the Night protests began in Leeds in 1977 after women were told to stay inside at night whilst the Yorkshire Ripper was at large. He was finally arrested in Sheffield.
One woman said she had been attending Reclaim the Night marches for over 40 years.
“It’s depressing to think that we still have to protest about exactly the same thing,” she said.
“I thought the women handled the harassment from members of the public really well – they used humour, and were careful not to get drawn into any argy-bargy.
“What men fear most is that women will laugh at them, but what women fear most is that men will rape and kill them.”
This year’s march marks the start of the University of Sheffield Student Union’s series of events commemorating the UN’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gendered Violence campaign
The union says that Saturday’s event aims to commemorate the history of the march, resist violence against women, and reclaim the streets of Sheffield.
