If the Sydney attacker did target women we should be calling it a terrorist attack

This societal blindspot to male violence against women is nothing new (Picture: DAVID GRAY/AFP via Getty Images)

‘It’s not a terrorism incident,’ assured New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb.

Her remark came after the terrible news broke of 40-year-old Joel Cauchi’s stabbing spree in a Sydney shopping centre over the weekend.

Five of his victims were women, with the only man being a security guard who had reportedly tried to intervene. Police, too, have stated that Cauchi may have ‘targeted women’. 

I’m left with two burning questions. One, why are his actions being widely blamed on ‘mental illness’. And how could this not be classified as a ‘terrorism incident’?

This societal blind spot to male violence against women is nothing new.

In 2021, police in Plymouth were quick to reassure the public that misogynistic incel Jake Davison’s killing spree wasn’t terror-related. He too was painted as mentally unwell.

Then the inquest into his murder of five women, men and children – including his own mother – revealed he had previously been referred to an anti-terror scheme for his ‘fixation’ on guns.

This recent attack in Australia seems to be another case of us refusing to accept that deliberate, targeted attacks on women by men are entrenched in hatred towards one half of the population.

The victims of the Bondi killer (Picture: Bondi victims families)

40 year old Joel Cauchi went on a stabbing spree at the Westfield shopping centre in Bondi (Picture: Facebook)

While hate crime laws in the UK protect marginalised groups based on race, religion, disability, sexual orientation and transgender identity, the category of ‘woman’ is not afforded the same protection.

This is despite repeated government and police strategies to tackle violence against women and girls, as well as His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) describing it as an ‘epidemic’ that required a ‘swift’ and ‘effective’ response in 2021.

So how do we start tackling an issue that we don’t even address when it happens?

To the layperson on the street, ‘terrorism’ often invokes an image of a ‘foreign other’ waging violence in the name of an organised group – identifiable by affiliation with specific political objectives.

However, the ideology of hatred towards women and the murky depths of the ‘manosphere’ online have encouraged a new swathe of angry men to perceive women as the oppressors.

It sounds like this may have been a factor in Joel Cauchi’s case.

When a reporter asked the 40-year-old killer’s father, Andrew Cauchi, for a rationale behind why his son might’ve targeted women, his response was immediate.

‘Because he wanted a girlfriend and he’s got no social skills. He was frustrated out of his brain,’ Andrew replied, resolutely. 

In my view, this is a clear alignment with incel ideology – where individuals are ‘involuntarily celibate’ due to factors outside of their control.

It’s essentially male entitlement to women’s bodies, to sexual relationships with them and to their natural place in society. 

This pervades in online dialogues, where men are creating and upholding a new belief system about the world – they are victims of feminism, progressive politics and the demonising of traditional masculinity.

And Prevent – a counter-terrorism programme in the UK – is seeing a rising number of men referred over their incel ideology. 

Yet, we resist labelling attacks against women as ‘terror’, seemingly preferring instead to portray them as lone-wolf acts of violence caused by poor mental health. 

While doing so, we do a huge disservice – not just to the countless individuals who experience mental health illness who do not inflict violence on others – but to the innocent victims of male violence.

Victims just like those of Cauchi: Yixuan Cheng, a Chinese student studying in Sydney; new mother Ashlee Good who died protecting her nine-month old baby who was also stabbed; Dawn Singleton, 25; Jade Young, 47; 55-year-old artist Pikria Darchia; and security guard Faraz Tahir. 

While the police still seek to determine Cauchi’s exact motivations, police have said he may have ‘targeted women’ specifically. 

Police Commissioner Karen Webb has since confirmed: It’s obvious to me, it’s obvious to detectives… that the offender focused on women and avoided the men.

‘We don’t know what was operating in the mind of the offender and that’s why it’s important now that detectives spend so much time interviewing those who know him.’

Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, the scale and threat of a formulated, widespread, and very real worldview of hatred towards women presents a danger we ignore at our peril.

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk. 

Share your views in the comments below.