Recently in the UK, a woman named Zara Aleena was attacked in the street by a man. She was raped by a man who afterwards kicked her in the head. She later died from her injuries. The entire country has been rightly outraged by another woman killed by on the streets.

The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has spoken out about this incident, questioning how safe the streets are for women in the UK, and asking what more we can do to protect women. In turn, this has led to many online to call for better policies to protect women, as the very real dangers of strangers attacking women in the street has been brought to the forefront.

I personally feel this is a conversation that needs to take place as many women I have spoke to have explained how what happens to this woman is there ultimate fear, often expressing anger when a incident like this occurs. My issue with these conversations about how to make the streets safer, it’s that male victims are often excluded.

In 2021 in the UK, 121 males were killed in the streets compared to 8 women. This indicates that men are 15x more likely to be killed on the streets than women.

I initially thought that we could put this discrepancy down to males being more susceptible to violence from gangs and organised crime (although that wouldn’t dismiss the deaths), and women’s fears stem from being attacked by strangers. But even in this respect, in 2021 9 women were killed by strangers compared with 68 men being killed by strangers. This indicates that men are over 7x more likely to be killed by a stranger.

Now I understand that women make up the overwhelming majority of domestic violence victims being killed by a partner of spouse, but even men are more likely to be killed in the home (196 men killed at home compared to 143 women).

While I fully support any initiatives to reduce violence against women, I feel this often comes at the expense of men. Any attempt to point out these discrepancies is often shouted down as “misogyny” when more often it’s a genuine attempt to frame men in the conversation.

My questions are, is it fair to expect policy makers to take male victims as seriously as female victims? And can this be done without it being seen as men taking up women’s spaces?