Reclaim the Night Belfast: 'I personally don't feel safe'

Elaine Crory says attitudes must change

"The stop-start nature of government means it's hard to get momentum going - and it's putting women's lives at risk."

So says Elaine Crory, a lobbyist at The Women's Resource and Development Agency.

She attended the 10th Reclaim the Night march in Belfast on Saturday.

Similar marches are taking place across the UK - women-only events aimed at raising awareness of violence against women and girls.

The events are also about expressing solidarity with survivors, Ms Crory said.

She told BBC News NI people are talking more about violence against women and girls and about what we can do to change the culture in Northern Ireland.

"In terms of progress, we've moved quite a distance in the last number of years - and we are starting to notice a shift in the public conversation," she added.

A large part of the strategy to end violence against women and girls involves changing attitudes, she believes.

"It's what we've been calling for - for a long time. This march is part of a bigger movement," she added.

However, she said there was a frustration with the lack of government in Northern Ireland.

"A lack of Stormont is holding us back," she said.

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"It took a huge amount of work to get the 'violence against women and girls strategy' to consultation and now we don't have any ministers to sign it off - and no money to put in behind it to do some of the work."

"There are also lots of pieces of legislation from the Gillen Review, going back years, that we are still waiting on.

"Fewer than half of those have been implemented."

The Gillen review, which was published in 2019, assessed the handling of serious sexual offence cases in Northern Ireland but fewer than half of its 250 recommendations have been fully implemented.

The Department of Justice (DoJ) has said it is "an ongoing process".

Dr Ghada Al-Bukhaiti says the process for seeking asylum is traumatising for many women

Saturday's march began at Writers' Square and featured a number of speakers - including Ghada Al-Bukhaiti - a doctor and activist, originally from Yemen.

She said she attended the rally for women who do not have the voice to express what they have to go through.

"A lot of women of colour experience different types of discrimination - which is another subtle form of violence," she said.

"The asylum process for many women is traumatising - they experience a lot of harassment. If we don't talk about the problems how can we solve them? We need to listen."

Martina Pozniack: 'I'm quite scared to walk from my bus stop to my house'

Martina Pozniack is 18 and travelled from Newry to attend the event.

She says she feels politicians could be doing more to help young women.

"This is my first Reclaim the Night march. I felt it was important to attend - so that there is change and women feel safe.

"I personally don't feel safe. I'm quite scared to walk from my bus stop to my house. I feel more needs to be done for young women and older women to feel safe."