The murder of a 17-year-old schoolgirl as she made her way home from a party has sent shockwaves through the Netherlands, triggering a national debate about the safety of women and girls on the country's streets.
The girl, who has been named as Lisa, was killed in the early hours of Wednesday morning in a district of Amsterdam.
After saying goodbye to her friends in the city’s Leidseplein district at 03:30, she got on her electric bike to make the 16km journey to her home in the village of Abcoude, Utrecht.
As she passed through the district of Weesperzijde, the girl placed a call to police, saying she was being followed and was about to be attacked.
By the time officers arrived, she was already dead. At 04:15, they found her body at the side of a road connecting Weesperzijde and Abcoude. She had been stabbed several times.
A 22-year-old asylum seeker is being held in custody in connection with the girl’s murder. The suspect was reportedly arrested on Friday for a separate incident – a rape carried out on 15 August, close to where Lisa’s body was found. He is alleged to have carried out a third assault on a woman earlier this month.
Lisa was seen on CCTV moments before her death. Credit: Netherlands Police/Supplied.
‘She had dreams’
The girl’s family have described their loss as “incomprehensible”. The murder has sparked national outrage in the Netherlands, triggering a “reclaim the night” campaign by feminists demanding that women be able to move freely through public spaces after dark.
Around 500 people took part in a March Against Femicide in Rotterdam on Sunday. Demonstrators carried signs which read: "She had dreams, no grave needed" and "Not all men, but always men".
Dutch actress Nienke ’s Gravemade’s poem about Lisa’s murder went viral on social media, highlighting the red handbag that hung from the girl’s handlebars as she cycled home.
She wrote: “I claim the night. I claim the streets. I demand that the fear be lifted. The red bag. I keep thinking about that red bag. How it dangled from her handlebars as she drove through the night. A night that belonged to her too.”
On Sunday, Ajax supporters paid silent tribute to Lisa, who was an Ajax fan, during the team’s match against Heracles.
The Dutch far-right Freedom Party has seized on the murder to call for asylum seekers to be prevented from entering the country.
