WE are six days into the annual 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, and sadly this period of awareness-raising feels no less relevant today than it did when it began over three decades ago.

Nearly 65,000 incidents of domestic abuse were recorded by police in Scotland over the past year, and women were the victims and men the accused in four in five of those cases.There were 2498 rapes and attempted rapes recorded in the same period, but just a fraction of such cases make it to court and only around half of those lead to a conviction.

Although public understanding of these issues has come on leaps and bounds, efforts to turn back the clock only seem to have intensified. Globally, the far right are making electoral gains with promises to reverse hard-won progress on women’s rights.

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Here in the UK, our Tory government has a minister for women and equalities who is more interested in echoing reactionary talking points on the “culture wars” than advancing equality, and the rights of migrant women are under sustained attack.

As Scotland and the UK take step towards better protecting reproductive healthcare settings, this is only made necessary by increasingly vocal groups who believe it is their right to harass women accessing abortions, defended by politicians like Jacob Rees-Mogg.

And while important work is being done to ensure that young people understand consent and respect in relationships, the proliferation of misogynistic ideologies online means there is a real risk of young boys being influenced by regressive world views.

All of these, and so many more, are issues that we – as women, as feminists, as people who care about equality and wellbeing in our society – should be uniting around during this 16 days and beyond.

Indeed, some of these are the very issues that were the focus of an event held by the charity Zero Tolerance in Edinburgh on Tuesday, where First Minister Nicola Sturgeon spoke about the group’s 30-year legacy of working to end violence against women. Other speakers highlighted research the organisation recently undertook with marginalised groups who have often been overlooked, including Black and Minority Ethnic women, migrants, and trans women.

Unfortunately, in the coverage of the event, and in my own experience of attending it online, all of these important and urgent points have been overshadowed by the fact that an attendee heckled the First Minister regarding her support for the Gender Recognition Reform Bill. Even before the event began, Zero Tolerance’s plea to attendees to not discuss that particular issue became the story.

This, it seems, is a perfect snapshot of where we are when it comes to discussions of gender equality in Scotland today, and it’s a pretty depressing picture. Feminist campaigners, and even frontline workers supporting women affected by violence, have been forced into a perpetual state of firefighting over an issue which has been wildly misrepresented and misunderstood.

Amongst the most grating responses to this particular debacle, in my view, was a critique from a journalist who described the event as being too “mild-mannered”. Is it asking for too much basic human empathy to suggest that one’s manner might be affected by witnessing someone shout down your opening speaker by accusing them of causing violence against women, after you’ve spent your life and career trying to end violence against women?

The sad truth is that it’s entirely unsurprising if women’s organisations hosting an event in 2022 enter into the proceedings with more than a little trepidation given that they have been continually subject to harassment and abuse online for a period of years – and from people who claim to be doing so in the name of feminism.

Well, I refuse to accept that claim. Women and feminists can disagree on the finer points of this issue among many others, but the small minority of people who would consider derailing an event on violence against women in this way were never going to be dissuaded by Zero Tolerance’s polite request to leave that for another day. Those who choose to repeatedly undermine the vital work of women’s charities and feminist activists are doing the patriarchy’s work for it, whether they want to accept that or not.

Nicola Sturgeon takes part in numerous speaking engagements where protesters could choose to interrupt her in this way – yet this took place at an event where the focus should have been squarely on challenging misogynistic violence by men. Just another day when women’s opportunity to speak on these issues is cut short by this unending and blatant distraction.

This situation presents a genuine and serious challenge to women’s organisations over how to continue to speak as loudly and as passionately and as often as they should be, while continuing to keep themselves and the women they represent safe. That should be of concern to all feminists.

For a glimmer of hope, I would call upon the memory of all that has been achieved since the Zero Tolerance campaign first launched in 1992. When organisations like this, and Scottish Women’s Aid, and Rape Crisis Scotland, first began their work, public attitudes were nowhere near where they are today. Feminist activism has a long history of being challenging, of breaking ground, and of changing minds. Changing the world for the better isn’t easy, but it’s been done before, and it will be done again.