This afternoon in Le Soir and De Standaard, Brussels Mayor Philippe Close and Etterbeek Mayor Vincent de Wolf publicly responded to this petition and asked police to reinforce security around the Cinquantenaire Park.

Thank you for making this possible. Without your signature, this incident would have gone unnoticed and nothing would have changed.

Although this is undoubtedly a good step in the right direction, I want to be clear…this is only the beginning. There is still a lot more action that needs to be taken, and I don’t want this pervasive issue of women's safety to be conveniently swept under the rug with simple short-term action that doesn’t address the root of the problem.

Soon I will send an update on the important discussions I am having this week to address exactly that, the petition being potentially void, and the free online self-defence class that will be held Sun 7 Feb @ 14:00-16:00 and open to 100 women. Save the date!

Until then…