A year ago, shortly after the murder of seventeen-year-old Lisa in Duivendrecht, the campaign ‘We reclaim the night’ was launched. Within days, the initiative grew into the largest Dutch crowdfunding campaign of 2025, raising more than 500,000 euros in donations and putting blue-and-yellow posters up across the country. Now, in August 2026, it’s time to look back. What has changed, and what hasn’t?
More attention
The figures show a clear pattern. In the second half of 2025, the number of media publications about women’s safety shot up: from around a thousand to well over ten thousand. A National Coordinator for Violence against Women and Domestic Violence was appointed, municipalities launched initiatives, and the subject became open for discussion in schools, workplaces, and sports clubs.
Maar in 2026 zakte die aandacht weer terug. Initiatiefnemer Danique de Jong lanceert daarom deze maand een vervolg: samen met Global Media & Entertainment komen de bekende posters structureel terug in het straatbeeld, niet meer gekoppeld aan een specifiek incident, maar als blijvend signaal. Ook fietsten de Dolle Mina’s in verschillende steden weer de nacht in om aandacht te vragen voor de veiligheid van vrouwen.
What research shows
Research by the EenVandaag Opinion Panel, conducted a year after the movement began, confirms how low young women’s sense of safety still is. Eight out of ten young women surveyed experienced some form of street harassment in the past year: staring, catcalling, comments, unwanted touching. In more than half of the incidents where bystanders were present, no one intervened. Because of this low sense of safety after dark, nearly all young women now take precautionary measures, from taking a different route to texting that they’ve arrived home safely.
Wat wel blijkt is dat er meer bewustzijn is over het thema onder jonge vrouwen én mannen. Uit het panel blijkt dat 68% van de jongeren meer bezig is met de veiligheid van vrouwen op straat dan voorheen. Maar bewustzijn alleen verandert het straatbeeld nog niet.
From incident to pattern
A recurring point in De Jong’s reflections is that the conversation and attention too often jump from incident to incident. After every shocking news report, outrage flares up, only to fade away again as soon as the news moves on. But violence and harassment is a structural problem that occurs everywhere. It happens behind closed doors, in the gym, on the dance floor, and on the street. Public space, unfortunately, is still marked by street harassment, and doesn’t feel safe to many people.
Street harassment goes unreported more often than not. Individual incidents quickly feel “too small” to report. Our reporting platform makes it possible to bring those separate experiences together: not as isolated news items, but as a pattern that becomes visible. Every report, however small, contributes to that bigger picture.
What ”We Reclaim The Night’ teaches us
A year after ‘We reclaim the night,’ the mission remains the same as it was then: not waiting for the next incident to make the news, but continuing to build structural change. At Intimideer Mij Niet, we do this by making the threshold for reporting as low as possible. We offer aftercare to people who have experienced street harassment, offering recognition, acknowledgment, and support. In doing so, we help people rebuild resilience and trust. We also bring individual experiences together into a collective picture, which can help municipalities implement structural measures. And we keep taking to the streets: to have the conversation right where the harassment itself takes place.
Do you experience street harassment, or do you see it happening? You can report it on our street harassment reporting platform, www.intimideermijniet.nl. Thanks to this platform, we’re able to map out what happens, where, by whom, when, and how street harassment occurs.
Want to help make the streets safe for everyone? Become an IMN volunteer! Sign up via imn@bo-diversity.com
Street harassment is a problem that occurs worldwide. Anyone can experience it. Unfortunately, women, girls, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community are regularly harassed in public. They are, for example, verbally abused, subjected to sexually explicit comments, or followed on the street.
Street harassment isn’t limited to the streets or to nightlife. It also happens in shopping centers, supermarkets, and other public spaces. You might be stared at during a walk in the park, or receive an inappropriate comment while cycling.
Forms of street harassment
Street harassment comes in different forms: non-verbal, verbal, and physical. Sometimes it starts small. Someone whistles as you walk by, hisses at you, or stares at your body for minutes as if you’re an object. Or you suddenly notice someone deliberately following you, on foot or driving slowly behind you in a car. This is non-verbal behavior that doesn’t need words to make you feel unsafe.
The second form is verbal: explicit comments about your body, sexual innuendos, or unsolicited questions like, “Can I have your number?”, “Are you going home, can I come with you?”, or if you’re queer: “Do you want a threesome?” If you don’t play along, the comments can suddenly turn into insults like: “Whore,” “Slut,” “Bitch.”
Finally, there is physical street harassment: a hand suddenly on your butt during a night out. Someone touching you without your consent or suddenly pushing you against a wall. Sometimes even someone trying to drag you into an alley. That’s not just intimidating, it comes dangerously close to assault.
What all these forms have in common is that they are not compliments. They’re meant to control, dominate, or make you feel like you don’t belong in public spaces. And that feeling that you have to be careful, that you have to think about your clothes or your route lingers and leaves its mark.
Who are the victims and perpetrators of street harassment?
Although anyone can experience it, it is primarily women, girls, and LGBTQIA+ individuals who are frequently targeted by street harassment. The reason these groups are targeted more often is not a coincidence. Street harassment is rooted in social power dynamics and gender norms. It’s a way of putting people who “deviate from the norm” in their place. For LGBTQIA+ people, it is often a punishment for breaking gender expectations or sexual norms, such as holding hands with your partner.
In theory, anyone can commit street harassment, but in practice, the perpetrators are almost always men. In fact, in 70% of cases, the harasser is a man (Plan International). This is related to deeply ingrained gender roles about how men are supposed to behave in society. In our society, power is still often exercised over women and queer people.
The media plays a role in this. Think, for example, of music, porn, or advertisements that portray women as sex objects. Peer pressure among boys also reinforces this behavior: in groups, some feel the need to prove their masculinity. If young people don’t receive proper sex education at home or school, they learn about boundaries mostly from each other or from the streets. This sustains a culture in which harassment is excused or even encouraged. Often, the impact of behavior isn’t considered.
Impact on daily life
Street harassment limits people’s freedom — literally. It affects where you walk, what time you go somewhere, what you wear, and who you walk with. Sometimes you avoid certain neighborhoods or public transport. In the worst case, you miss school, skip work, or quit sports.
According to Plan International (2023), 83% of Dutch girls between 16 and 27 years old have experienced street harassment. 63% of them say it affects their freedom of movement.
What’s often underestimated is the effect of repeated “small” incidents. Even without physical violence, street harassment leaves mental traces — such as hypervigilance, anxiety, or avoidance of public spaces.
This is known as “accumulative trauma” or chronic microtrauma. It’s a form of somatic trauma, where the body remains constantly “on” due to repeated stress stimuli. Your body remembers what happened, even if your mind tries to push it away (The Body Keeps the Score, Bessel Van Der Kolk).
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