A civic group from Cluj-Napoca launched the “Safety Map”, a project through which women indicated the areas where they feel safe or, on the contrary, vulnerable, with the results to be transmitted to the authorities. The initiative brought to light issues related to street lighting, certain urban areas and public transport, but also generated controversy online after a participant spoke out about the differences in perception of women’s and men’s safety.
Small Civic Initiative Group invited women from Cluj-Napoca to participate in a unique project: making a map of the places where they feel safe. The “Safety Map” clearly indicates critical areas, but also safe spaces, from the perspective of women. The group informed that it will provide the authorities with the results of the project in the form of a questionnaire.
In general, the problems were reported after dusk, and one of the “reddest” areas is that of Cluj Train Station, where street lighting is missing.
Another street is marked by the large number of casinos, which increases feelings of insecurity. Even public transport is not considered safe by women. The questionnaire indicates several public transport lines where the participants indicated that they did not feel safe.
Heated debates on the Internet
The initiative started heated debates. A discussion on the Reddit platform points to different points of view:
“I asked my friend to fill it in. She also lived in Moldova, and in Bucharest, and a little near Petroșani. No spoilers, but Cluj is excellent from this point of view” stated one of the netizens.
“As a man who is 1.85 cm tall and 95 kg, it seems to me that this approach is very good because I feel safe in any place in this city, but a woman 1.60 cm tall and 45-50 kg most likely not”, another netizen said.
Another man, however, makes an observation that causes controversy among the panelists.
“Did you know that men die and are killed on average tens of times more often than women? Or did you know that when it comes to domestic violence, there are far more cases of such violence in relationships between two women compared to all other types of relationships between two people?”
“After you find out the number of women killed annually by men in Romania and compare it to the number of men killed by women in the same period of time, we can talk”, another panelist replies.
Opinions on the initiative varied: “Congratulations for the initiative, after all something like this is needed in Cluj. It is useful, healthy and can make the city better for everyone, not just for women (children, elderly)” / “(The exclusion of certain parameters is the strong point of the questionnaire)”.
Others pointed to several problems with the questionnaire, including the possibility that the results were skewed by non-female responses and the lack of inclusion of the metropolitan area.
