Dutch sexism outcry after woman fined for peeing in public

A major debate about sexism has emerged in Holland after a Dutch woman was fined €90 (£80) for relieving herself in an alleyway in Amsterdam.

The Dutch capital currently boasts 35 public urinals for men, but just three toilets designed for women.

Geerte Piening, 23, was caught urinating in 2015 after she opted to relieve herself in a quiet street because the nearest public toilet was a couple of a kilometres away.

‘At the time I really didn’t want to get involved in a discussion’, she told BBC News.

‘But the next day I thought, just a minute, I’m going to fight this.’

During her court hearing for the offence, the male judge told her she should have used one of the men’s facilities – a suggestion that led to widespread mockery and prompted some women to demonstrate the obvious difficulties of this.

‘Isn’t it embarrassing for a tourist city like Amsterdam that women have nowhere to go?’, Piening told Dutch media.

MOST POPULAR STORIES FROM YAHOO UK:

Pensioner, 81, says he’s ‘outraged’ because his slippers soles are ‘covered in swastikas’
Criminology student, 22, who falsely cried rape at taxi driver is jailed for 16 months
German submarine from WW1 containing 23 bodies found off coast of Belgium
Theresa May warns Facebook and Google they face fines if they don’t block terrorism propaganda
One in five GMP police computers still runs on outdated Microsoft Windows XP

‘It wasn’t my intention that this would become an enormous feminist thing. On the other hand, it’s good it’s being addressed.’

Amsterdam’s city council have also revealed that had never been policy on public toilets, despite the huge gender disparity.

‘There are more men’s than women’s just because that’s how its gone,’ Peter Paul Ekker, a spokesman for the deputy mayor, told the BBC.

‘Obviously it should be equal and everyone will agree it can be done better, but what are the costs, is there space, and is it worth it?’

Now, more than 5,000 women are set to show solidarity by descending on Amsterdam to show the difficulty of using urinals.

More than 5,000 people have so far expressed an interest in attending the event.