Zara Aleena: hundreds dressed in white gather in east London for silent vigil

Anjum Mouj, co-chair of the London Black Women’s Project, speaks during a vigil for Zara Aleena in Ilford, east London. Photograph: Sophia Evans/The Observer

Hundreds of people dressed in white gathered for a silent vigil for Zara Aleena, the 35-year-old law graduate who was killed as she walked home from a night out.

A deep solidarity and loss was palpable among the tearful crowd in Ilford, east London, on Saturday – a community still gripped in shock and fear by Aleena’s death, and the growing insecurity women face in public spaces.