Keep Your Hands Off Me

Many women’s collectives originated in women’s shelters. Almost every major city in the Netherlands had one in the 1970s. Various collectives emerged from these shelters, each with its own goal or theme.
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Information was disseminated via women’s newspapers, “hand-stenciled for 35 cents.” The Amsterdam Women’s House was home to the publishing house De Bonte Was. It published ‘En ze leefden nog lang en gelukkig’ (And they lived happily ever after), which appeared in 1974 and is about marriage and ‘the expectations before and the disappointments after’.
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Angry at patriarchy and determined to combat violence, Noor van Crevel and five other women founded the Blijf van mijn Lijf (Keep Your Hands Off Me) foundation in 1974. Almost ten years after its establishment, Blijf van mijn Lijf brought attention to sexual violence in both the private and public spheres. This eventually led to the government recognizing the social inequality of women.

Women’s newspapers in the printing house, © photographer Sjan Bijman

The image in the overview: The three ladies of Purple September, © photographer: Chris Voets