Violence against women in Vienna, Austria is still common
While Vienna, Austria is one of the world’s safest cities, it is not always safe for women. Not when violence against women in Austria is still a common occurrence.
That violence includes actual physical violence, but can also include stalking, sexual harassment and sexual violence.
According to official stats around 25 percent of women living in Austria have experienced at least one of these in their lifetimes.
Some of that violence even includes murder.
So much so, in 2021, Austria was one of the few countries in the EU where more women were killed than men. All of them by current or former partners.
42-year-old woman living in Vienna stalked by ex-partner for weeks
All of this leads to the latest news about violence against women in Austria this week, as a woman living in Vienna was reportedly stalked by her ex-partner for several weeks.
The stalking eventually became so severe, the 53-year-old man climbed over a neighbor’s fence in Florisdorf on Saturday in an attempt to climb up to the woman’s balcony and break into her apartment.
Friends of the 42-year-old woman managed to subdue him, while the frightened woman called emergency services.
The man was arrested but, as often seems to happen in Austria, little was done.
Instead, he was simply given an entry and approach ban and released from police custody. Meaning little more than a slap on the wrist, and a ban from being anywhere near his former girlfriend.
Considering that kind of restraining order has little or no effect in just about any country it has ever been tried in, time will only tell if the woman is no longer at risk, or if the man will continue to stalk her.