When I moved to Germany back in 2016, I didn't know much about the city I was moving to. Due to life circumstances, we ended up where we are now, it’s a very nice city though, but a completely new environment to me. In the beginning, I didn’t even know where to go to exercise for example. I saw a lot of people running outdoors, so I decided I had to go run too, we had a park right next to our apartment, perfect for that purpose.

One day, I met a neighbor in the elevator, she was wearing a sports outfit, and she was moving her body like warming up, probably she was going to run, so I thought that was the ideal moment to get some information from a local:

_Hi. Are you going to run in the park?

_Hello. Yes, it’s quite nice the weather today, right?

_Yes. Can I ask you something?

_Sure!

_I’m new here, do you know if is it safe to run in that park?

_Oh, I know what you are thinking, yeah, I had some problems in the beginning when I decided to start running, what I’ve learned is that you must be careful to pick the right shoes, some areas have a lot of leaves and it can be very muddy and slippery, these shoes, for example, are perfect for that.

And she pointed to her feet, showing me the soles of her sneakers.

The woman left the elevator, wished me a good day, and ran away.

I was speechless, I know I made a weird face, but I couldn’t help myself. Many thoughts came through my mind, I was at the same time happy for her, to see that a woman can actually live without fear, I know the neighborhood is quiet and she lived her whole life in this bubble of safety and privilege, lucky her. But also, I thought about how deeply traumatized I am, how I am always trying to figure out how places “work” and how should I protect myself, physically, in a new environment. I told my husband what happened, he is German, and he explained to me that here is ok, it’s safe, something maybe could happen in a bigger city, like Berlin, but here (a middle-range city) I don’t have to worry anymore. “Anymore”, I repeated out loud, “anymore”. There is no “anymore” to me, I grew up in a place where I knew I wasn’t safe anywhere only for the fact that I am a woman, this idea is ingrained in my mind, and in my body, I just cannot NOT think about safety. How many women close to me were victims of some kind of “urban violence”? Catcalling, assault, inappropriate talks or touches, even rxpe and murder... No, no, I could never be that free.

I was born and raised in Brazil, and there we also have some cities that are considered safer than others, but we all can agree that violence is on some level, always present. I live now in a much safer place, but even here we cannot be 100% sure about women’s safety, from time to time I see some bad news circulating. Why is that? What should we do to improve women’s lives? I ask myself that question often when I’m working as an urban planner, although creating urban spaces that are safe for women is a bigger issue than only a design subject, it’s a social, cultural, and economic problem.

Where do you live, are you safe?