Women’s rights: everyone talks about them. Every year for International Women’s Day, the same obligatory statements pop up. Conferences are held, and thick reports are written about quotas, representation, inclusion, and glass ceilings. But what about the most fundamental women’s rights of all? The right to walk safely on the streets. The right not to be threatened, intimidated, robbed, abused, or raped.

By Anke Van dermeersch
The situation everywhere in Europe is appalling. Western women have become like running wild. The recently released Antwerp police figures for 2025 are shocking in this regard and similar across almost all European cities. In just one year, 4,140 women in Antwerp became victims of intentional assault and injury, manslaughter, or murder.

In addition, the police recorded 988 female victims of threats, 275 reports of indecent assault, 223 cases of theft with violence, dozens of handbag robberies and necklace thefts, and 260 reports of rape.

These are not isolated incidents. It is a structural safety problem, because in 10 years, 1 in 5 women becomes the victim of some crime.

European figures are equally worrying. According to the most recent large-scale European survey, about one in three women in the European Union has ever experienced physical and/or sexual violence or serious threats. The question arises why a continent that constantly presents itself as a moral leader fails to guarantee women's safety.

Islam: women as whores and objects of desire
The reason is obvious. The import, through mass immigration, of non-European women-unfriendly cultures and religions has led to women increasingly becoming the target of intimidation and violence.

Islam is a religion that considers women as inferior beings. Women who do not submit to the rules of this desert religion are seen as objects of lust and whores.

Violence against women is the next step. The increase in the number of (group) rapes, assaults, and threats against women is therefore largely the logical result of the Islamization of our European society.

Multicultural = multicriminal
The reason is obvious. The import, through mass immigration, of non-European women-unfriendly cultures and religions has led to women increasingly becoming the target of intimidation and violence.

Islam is a religion that considers women as inferior beings. Women who do not submit to the rules of this desert religion are seen as objects of lust and whores.

Violence against women is the next step. The increase in the number of (group) rapes, assaults, and threats against women is therefore largely the logical result of the Islamization of our European society.

Tough Approach
Anyone who pointed out rising feelings of insecurity was branded a populist and racist. Anyone who called for stricter enforcement was accused of being simplistic. Anyone who asked why women avoided certain neighbourhoods, metro, or train stations often got a moralising lecture instead of a solution or an honest answer.

But women don’t need some lofty theory when they clutch their keys nervously on the way home. They need safety.

That first and foremost requires a government that understands again what its priority task is, namely guaranteeing the safety of every citizen.

More police and cameras where crime is concentrated. Faster prosecution. Higher chance of getting caught. Harsher measures against repeat offenders. Less procedural leniency. Less obsession with the rights of offenders and more attention to the rights of women and victims.

These aren't radical proposals but obvious principles of decent governance.

Free women in a free Europe
Europe has been convincing itself for years that progress was automatic. That economic growth, education, and awareness campaigns would naturally lead to a safer society.

The numbers tell a different story. When thousands of women in a single European city like Antwerp fall victim to violence in just one year, when hundreds of thousands of women in Europe report having been victims of serious crimes, complacency is no longer an option.

A civilisation is not judged by its intentions. A civilisation is judged by whether its daughters, mothers, sisters, and grandmothers are safe.

That is the standard.

Anke Van dermeersch is a Flemish nationalist politician and former tax lawyer who was crowned Miss Belgium in 1991. She served as a member of the Belgian Senate and the Flemish Parliament representing the right-wing party Vlaams Belang. She is also known for her controversial views and activist work against the Islamization of Europe.