News
RCMP under review over native women after scathing report
May 16, 2013 - Globe and Mail
The civilian watchdog that oversees the RCMP is launching a public-interest investigation into the force’s treatment of aboriginal women and girls this week in response to a scathing report from a New York-based human-rights group.
The Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP will examine policing issues in northern British Columbia, including officers’ use of force, police handling of missing-persons reports, and the treatment of young people. The investigation comes after a Human Rights Watch report detailed allegations of abuse and mistreatment by police and suggested the RCMP has failed to properly investigate a series of disappearances and suspected murders of aboriginal women.
We are integral to sustainable peace, recovery and development, say Malian women
15 May 2013, Brussels – At the international donors’ conference for Mali, taking place in Brussels today, co-chaired by the European Union and France, Malian women will present recommendations calling for greater participation by women in the conflict resolution and rebuilding of the economy.
“We are placing huge importance on this donors’ conference. All our hopes are centred on its deliberations on 15 May. We want attention to be given to our recommendations from the last Brussels meeting, when over 40 women from the Sahel came together at the initiative of Ms. Ashton, Mr. Prodi and Ms. Puri,” said Aziza Mint Mohamed, Deputy Mayor of the city of Timbuktu in Mali.
It's 2013, and They're Burning 'Witches'
By Jo Chandler
February 15, 2013
Belief in black magic persists in Papua New Guinea, where communities are warping under the pressure of the mining boom’s unfulfilled expectations. Women are blamed, accused of sorcery and branded as witches — with horrific consequences.
http://www.theglobalmail.org/feature/its-2013-and-theyre-burning-witches/558/
Little support, no justice for Mali rape survivors
6 May 2013 (IRIN) - During the rebel takeover of northern Mali in April 2012, many women said they were subjected to rape or sexual assault. Since then, little or no support has come through for these women, say aid workers.
Aminata Touré* was on her way to her uncle’s house in the city of Gao in June 2012 when she was stopped by two men on a motorbike. “I had no choice. They were armed and threatened to kill me,” she said. While one of the men held her baby, the other took her to a nearby bush. “They took me and they did everything they could do, they raped me. Afterwards, they left me in the bush,” she told IRIN. ...
http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97983/Little-support-no-justice-for-Mali-rape-victims
Children of alleged Pickton victims launch civil lawsuit
Named in suit are Robert Pickton, his brother and sister, the province and City of Vancouver
CBC News, May 9, 2013
The children of four women whose remains were found on the Port Coquitlam farm of serial killer Robert Pickton have filed a civil suit in B.C. Supreme Court.
Lawyer Jason Gratl filed the suit on behalf of the children of Dianne Rock, Sarah de Vries, Cynthia Feliks and Yvonne Boen against Pickton, his brother Dave, sister Lynda, the provincial government and the City of Vancouver ...
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/05/09/bc-pickton-lawsuit.html
N.S. announces $900,000 in funding to help victims of sexual violence
CTV Atlantic, May 3, 2013
The Nova Scotia government is providing $900,000 to organizations that deal with sexual violence. As police, politicians, and those who work with sexual assault organizations gathered to mark the day, thoughts quickly turned to 17-year-old Rehtaeh Parsons. ...
Rehtaeh’s family says she took her own life after an alleged sexual assault and the bullying that followed. Her story sparked a firestorm of anger and prompted calls for action. ...
http://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/n-s-announces-900-000-in-funding-to-help-victims-of-sexual-violence-1.1266151#ixzz2SSkeEmjp
Symbolic protest shows support for Rehtaeh Parsons
CTV Atlantic, Saturday, May 4, 2013
A small but symbolic protest was held in Halifax on Saturday that showed support for Rehtaeh Parsons and her family. ...
"This is serious. It’s not kids, it’s not a bullying thing in high school. This is violent sexual assault that destroyed her life and destroyed our family,” explains Canning. “I want someone in the government to acknowledge that and I want someone in the government to say we did everything we could and to show we did everything we could, or to show you we did everything we could, or come out and say we made a big mistake on this and we are not going to make this mistake again.” ...
Read more: http://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/symbolic-protest-shows-support-for-rehtaeh-parsons-1.1267307#ixzz2SN9yEJFe
‘Opportunity lost’ as new anti-rape laws in India fail to address root causes – UN expert
Special Rapporteur on violence against women, Rashida Manjoo. UN News Centre
3 May 2013 – Laws recently passed in India to prevent and prosecute rape and other sex crimes “do not go far enough,” a United Nations independent expert said today, lamenting that the legislation failed to address systemic gender inequalities in Indian society.
“The opportunity to establish a substantive and specific equality and non-discrimination rights legislative framework for women, to address de facto inequality and discrimination, and to protect and prevent against all forms of violence against women, was lost,” said Rashida Manjoo, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women....
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=44818&Cr=sexual+violence&Cr1=#.UYSkmGewWSq
Anonymous is targeting every pedophile hub on the Web
by Cooper Fleishman on April 24, 2013
In corners of the Internet that will make you ill, pedophiles wait to receive an onslaught of attacks.
It's Alice Day, a public "pedophile pride" day inspired by the relationship between the author Lewis Carroll and his young muse, Alice Liddell, for whom Alice in Wonderland was written. April 25 is supposedly the day in 1856 that Carroll met 4-year-old Alice, sparking a lifelong infatuation.
In one pedophile's own words, republished on a predator watchdog site, April 25 is a day to "rejoice in the gift of girllove and affirm the ideal so aptly typified by this special relationship." In 2013, it's also the day the hacker group Anonymous plans to bombard a long list of online targets with DDoS attacks, leaking suspects' personal information and defacing their websites.
...
http://www.dailydot.com/society/alice-day-anonymous-pedo-attack/
What Rehteah knew
Girls in Canada experience violence every day, sometimes with dire consequences.
by Saman Ahsan, Straight Good News, April 2013
The news of Rehtaeh Parsons' alleged rape and eventual death has been called tragic, shameful and sickening. The truth is that Parson’s story is yet another example of violence against girls, an ongoing crisis we too often ignore. Sadly, for those of us working in the field of violence prevention, Rehtaeh’s story only reinforces a fact we have known for years: girls-next-door experience violence on a daily basis.
The teenage years of a girl like Rehtaeh should be about learning, growing and developing interests. Instead, growing up a girl in Canada is often overshadowed by dealing with sexual gestures, comments and a bombardment of pressures to look sexy and have sex. This pressure is so common that most of us, even girls, fail to realize it is violence. ...
http://sgnews.ca/2013/04/22/what-rehteah-knew/
Ottawa homes in on cyberbullying laws
by Kim Mackrael, The Globe and Mail, Monday, Apr. 22 2013
Ottawa wants officials to speed up their search for possible gaps in the laws governing the circulation of intimate images, as calls grow for the federal government to introduce new legislation targeting those who distribute sexually explicit images for malicious reasons. ...
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-homes-in-on-cyberbullying-laws/article11488998/
No means no – but does yes mean yes?
by Erin Anderssen, The Globe and Mail, Apr. 14 2013
‘Is it okay to bring younger girls alcohol and have them back to my place?” a male student recently asked educator Blake Spence, during a workshop he was leading for the Calgary Sexual Health Centre. And when Caiti Barendregt-Brown, another sex educator in London, Ont., finishes her high-school session, it’s mostly the boys who line up with questions: “I’m really confused,” one told her, “if a girl wears a short skirt and a low-cut top to a party, it looks like she wants sex.” In Atlanta, teacher Abby Norman blogged about a conversation she had with students following the sexual-assault convictions in Steubenville, Ohio. “Some of my kids were genuinely confused,” she wrote. “‘How can she be raped?’ they asked, ‘She wasn’t awake to say no.’” ...
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/no-means-no-but-does-yes-mean-yes/article11175304/
Rehtaeh Parsons shows how Facebook's connectedness has driven us apart
by Elizabeth Renzetti, The Globe and Mail, Apr. 12 2013
There’s an 18-year-old on trial in London accused of raping an 11-year-old girl. The girl was repeatedly assaulted after she got off a bus; she needed surgery after the attack. According to her testimony, as her assailant pushed her to the ground, “he said he would film me and send it into my school.” ...
The psychologists write: “It is the responsibility of people who raise boys to train them specifically to be good, empathic partners to girls and women. It can be done, by fathers who model respect for women in the family and in the wider world, by mothers who help sons understand a girl’s point of view, and by anyone in a boy’s life who helps him see his connectedness to others as a positive thing.”...
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/rehtaeh-parsons-shows-how-facebooks-connectedness-has-driven-us-apart/article11181229/
Reebok drops Rick Ross following heavily criticized pro-rape lyrics in song ‘U.O.E.N.O.’
by Associated Press, April 11, 2013
NEW YORK — Reebok has ended its relationship with Rick Ross following heavy criticism of lyrics by the rapper considered by some to be pro-rape.
The sneaker brand said in a statement Thursday that “Reebok holds our partners to a high standard and we expect them to live up to the values of our brand. Unfortunately, Rick Ross has failed to do so.”
Ross formally apologized for his lyrics on Rocko’s song “U.O.E.N.O.” in a tweet last week. It came the same day a women’s group, UltraViolet, protested outside of one Reebok’s stores in Manhattan.
In Rocko’s song, Ross raps about giving a woman the drug MDMA, known as Molly, and having his way with her. ...
The song was released in January, but just recently began getting widespread notice. Women’s groups and rape victims have issued petitions. ...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/reebok-drops-rick-ross-following-heavily-criticized-pro-rape-lyrics-in-song-uoeno/2013/04/11/4c8bb2ce-a2e8-11e2-bd52-614156372695_story.html
Rehtaeh Parsons Rape Case Solved By Anonymous in Less Than 2 Hours Despite "No Evidence"
by Daniel Waugh, policymic.com, April 12, 2013
...
No, you didn't read that wrong. It only took two hours for the vigilante hacker group to show the world just how useless the RCMP (Who led the investigation) are. Rehtaeh's story stirred the so-called "Internet Hate Machine" into action, but it didn't take any kind of hacking to get down to the bones of the case and build the prosecution that the RCMP bungled in a show of failure and incompetence that would make the Three Stooges shake their heads in embarrassment. Once Anonymous made their rage and intent clear, they were flooded with witness testimony, and from there built the case of the RCMP’s incompetence on three points: that dozens of teens and adults had heard the rapists brag about taking part in the gang rape, that the photo taken of the rape was reportedly so widely circulated it's unlikely the authorities ever bothered to try and find it so they might look at the EXIF data, and that Parsons's school did nothing, despite the fact that child pornography was going viral in their hallways. ...
http://www.policymic.com/articles/34491/rehtaeh-parsons-rape-case-solved-by-anonymous-in-less-than-2-hours-despite-no-evidence
Anonymous threaten to avenge death of bullied teen
The bullying death of Rehtaeh Parsons has prompted an outpouring of grief and anger.
Melanie Nagy, CTV News, April 11, 2013
The cyber-activist group Anonymous is once again wading into the tragic suicide death of Halifax teen Rehtaeh Parsons, slamming those involved in the investigation of her alleged rape and bullying and reiterating that it knows the names of the teens responsible.
In a public statement released online Thursday morning, the group took aim at not just the teens responsible, but the school administrators, police and politicians who the group says failed Rehtaeh. ...
Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/anonymous-threaten-to-avenge-death-of-bullied-teen-1.1233273#ixzz2QAsbbamU
Gaslighting: a new term for manipulation
Constant sexist putdowns and one-upping can make a person question her own sanity.
by Jody Dallaire, Straight Good News, April 5, 2013
Have you ever been told that you are “irrational,” “over-reacting,” “such a drama queen,” “have an overactive imagination,” or “can simply not take a joke” in response to your expressing your opinion or feelings to someone about a situation? If you have, then you are not alone. Chances are that you have experienced the phenomenon known as gaslighting. ...
http://sgnews.ca/2013/04/04/gaslighting-a-new-term-for-manipulation/
American Woman Gang-Raped and Beaten on Brazilian Transit Van
By SIMON ROMERO and TAYLOR BARNES, April 1, 2013
RIO DE JANEIRO — An American woman was raped by three men aboard a public van in a six-hour abduction over the weekend that began in the seaside district of Copacabana, the police said.
The attackers pummeled the woman’s face and tied up her male companion, a French citizen, then beat him with a metal bar as he witnessed the harrowing assault. The couple were forced to use bank cards to withdraw money from their accounts before the assailants finally freed them at a bus station on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.
The assault stunned many in Brazil, especially as Rio tries to promote itself as a city on the mend and prepares to host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games. ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/02/world/americas/american-woman-gang-raped-on-brazilian-transit-van.html?_r=2&
Syrian women who fled to Jordan tell of horrific rapes back home
by Hamida Ghafour / Toronto Star / April 6, 2013
Note: Contains graphic content
AMMAN, JORDAN—The cell was small with iron bars across the door. Three women, all naked, were chained to each corner. Nour was stripped, taken to the fourth, and handcuffed to the wall.
Every day, for more than 60 days, Nour says she and the other prisoners were raped in one of Syria’s most notorious detention centres. Some of her attackers at the Palestine Branch of Military Intelligence in Damascus were in uniform, others in civilian clothes. ...
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/04/06/syrian_women_who_fled_to_jordan_tell_of_horrific_rapes_back_home.html
Sally Armstrong on the Ascent of Women
The Current | Mar 5, 2013 |
Few journalists have tracked the stories of girls and women in peril ... in conflict ... in threatening traditional cultures as tirelessly as Sally Armstrong. She was the first to report the plight of women under the Taliban to Canadians, there was initial disinterest in her discovery of Serbian rape camps. But for all the horror and heartache she has documented, Sally Armstrong now sees nothing short of revolutionary change as those once victimized insist on equality, empowerment and freedom.
Listen to CBC Radio: http://www.cbc.ca/player/Radio/ID/2340427936/
Precocious Fifth Grade Psychopaths Conspire to Rape And Murder Female Classmate
by Callie Beusman, Apr 2, 2013, Jezebel
Two fifth grade boys, aged 10 and 11, have been ruled competent to stand trial in juvenile court for conspiring to rape and kill their female classmate, and possibly murder other students as well. They were arrested after a classmate saw them playing with a knife on the school bus and reported it to a teacher.
Normally, state law specifies that children between the ages of 8 and 12 do not have the mental capacity to commit crimes; however, the pair exhibited an absolutely horrifying and soul-crushing awareness of both the nature and consequences of what they had planned to do. ...
http://jezebel.com/5993282/precocious-fifth-graders-conspire-to-rape-and-murder-female-classmate
National Coalition of Equality Seeking Women’s Groups WANTS MORE FOR WOMEN
(OTTAWA) March 8, 2013 – On International Women’s Day and every day, women across Canada and around the world should be free from slavery, violence, inequality, and exploitation. The Women’s Coalition for the Abolition of Prostitution [“the Coalition”], a pan-Canadian coalition of equality-seeking women’s groups speaks out against women’s continued exploitation through prostitution and urges Canada to denounce the exploitation and sale of women’s bodies. ...
http://www.nwac.ca/media/release/08-03-13
A Letter To My Son About Consent
by Finn Wightman, March 25, 2013
Finn Wightman writes to her son about consent because, as she says, “I love you too much to leave these things unsaid.”
Dear D,
I’m writing this letter after watching the parents in the Steubenville Rape Trial crying over their son as he was found guilty of rape. I’ll be completely honest with you; I can’t say that I found much pity in my heart for their pain. Instead I found myself thinking, ‘yes, you should be crying. Your son treated that girl like a toy, a rag, a nothing. You raised a boy that lacked even the most basic compassion for that girl as a fellow human being.’ I’m imagining your face right now, thinking ‘okay mom, not quite sure why you’re telling me this…’ Yep, brace yourself; mom’s got a bee in her bonnet. Just bear with me and carry on reading. ...
http://goodmenproject.com/ethics-values/a-letter-to-my-son-about-consent/
Victim blaming, media narratives, and the Steubenville rape case: She’s an honour student too
by Hayley Tantau, The Theatrical Journalist
Following the recent coverage of the rape case in Steubenville, Ohio – a “football-obsessed town” – there is an apparent media narrative overriding the severity of a rape case regarding a 16 year old girl. The perpetrators, two young men, Ma’lik Richmond and Trent Mays (16 and 17 years old respectively) are “star football players” as described by CNN, “whose lives are going to be haunted by the guilty verdict” cast by the judge.
People who glaze over the media coverage of the case will be quickly aware of the boys’ skills and status as god-like high school football players because it has been repeated countless times – that these young men have had their football dreams dashed, their hopes and aspirations now marred by their public status as a “Registered Sex Offender”. A lot of people – including the news-media – are ignoring the point that they actually raped someone – an unconscious female (who was also an honour student at her school, but no one is shining light on that little fact). They took advantage of a 16 year old person who was unconscious, unresponsive, and they dragged her around by the wrists and feet, topless, filming her and posting pictures on Instagram. Mays, Richmond, and their friends – including the star of the video commentary, Cody Salts, who said “She is so raped right now!” – treated Jane Doe* like she was an inflatable sex-doll made for penetration and… being urinated on. Doe woke up the next morning topless with semen on her, unable to recall what had happened the night before, and could only recollect what happened once she saw posts on Instagram, Twitter on Facebook with images of her being dragged around and the 12 minute video depicting the exploits....
http://hayleytantau.wordpress.com/2013/03/20/victim-blaming-media-narratives-and-the-steubenville-rape-case-shes-an-honour-student-too/
Bill on Crime Against Women Passes in India
by Heather Timmons, March 21, 2013
NEW DELHI — India’s Parliament passed a comprehensive bill on Thursday to impose stronger penalties on men who attack women and to criminalize offenses like stalking and voyeurism.
The bill passed quickly in the upper house of Parliament on Thursday; the debate in the lower house on Tuesday was longer, lasting seven hours. President Pranab Mukherjee is expected to sign it into law shortly. ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/22/world/asia/india-bill-toughens-penalties-for-attacks-on-women.html?_r=0
UN Holds Line: Women's Rights are Human Rights
by Evelyn Leopold, Huffington Post, 03/18/2013
With seven out of 10 women a target of sexual abuse, one would think it would be simple to adopt a program to combat violence. In the end a U.N. conference did that despite incendiary objections from the Muslim Brotherhood.
"Yes, we did it," said Michelle Bachelet, the executive director of the U.N woman's agency, to cheers and applause. "There can be no peace, no progress as long as there is discrimination against women." ...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/evelyn-leopold/united-nations-womens-rights_b_2898184.html?utm_hp_ref=tw
A Letter To My Sons About Stopping Rape
Dear Boys,
Some really horrible things happened to someone who could be one of your friends, and it was done by some people who could be your friends. You're 11 and almost-8 now, so the incident that made me write this letter isn't something you've heard about, but this stuff keeps happening, unfortunately. So I need to talk to you about it. ...
http://www.askmoxie.org/2013/03/a-letter-to-my-sons-about-stopping-rape.html
Steubenville rape case: Teen football players found guilty; more charges could come
Two players from a storied Ohio high school football team raped a vulnerable, drunken 16-year-old girl during a series of alcohol-laced parties last August, an Ohio judge ruled Sunday. Ohio Attorney General says rape is a “nationwide problem” that America must address.
By: Bill Schiller Foreign Affairs Reporter, The Star, Toronto, Mar 17 2013
Guilty on all counts.
Two players from a storied Ohio high school football team raped a vulnerable, drunken 16-year-old girl during a series of alcohol-laced parties last August, an Ohio judge ruled Sunday. ...
Trent Mays, 17, and Ma’Lik Richmond, 16, appeared stunned by the ruling, weeping openly and uncontrollably. ...
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/03/17/steubenville_rape_case_teen_football_players_guilty.html
UN welcomes new Bolivian law broadening protection of women from violence
UN News Centre, 12 March 2013
The United Nations human rights office today welcomed a new law in Bolivia which broadens the protection of women against various forms of violence.
“We welcome the promulgation, on 9 March 2013, of the Comprehensive Law to guarantee women a life free from violence in Bolivia (Law 348), which broadens protection of women against various forms of violence and establishes the eradication of violence against women as a priority of the State,” the spokesperson for the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Rupert Colville, told journalists in Geneva. ...
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=44351#.UUP-K2fk0r0
The 6 biggest myths about bullying that parents and teachers should know
by ZOSIA BIELSKI, The Globe and Mail, Mar. 10 2013
When Emily Bazelon’s friends exiled her in Grade 8, the 13-year-old found solace in another bully victim, Allie. The girls had long phone-therapy sessions and sleepovers. Still, on the day when a boy divulged to their packed cafeteria that Allie had stained her jeans with menstrual blood, Bazelon stood silently by as her best friend fled to the bathroom ashamed. “My own 8th-grade cowardice makes me want to figure out how to help other kids do better,” writes Bazelon, a senior editor at Slate and author of the forthcoming book Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy. ...
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/parenting/the-6-biggest-myths-about-bullying-that-parents-and-teachers-should-know/article9524380/?cmpid=rss1&google_editors_picks=true
UN official calls for global action to end brutality against women
by Stephanie Parker, English.news.cn 2013-03-07
UNITED NATIONS, March 6 (Xinhua) -- A top UN official told Xinhua that she has placed a dire appeal to the international community to acknowledge brutality against women as "a social disease," and called for more effective governmental steps to promote progress of women in all necessary fields.
The brutality against women is "a social disease, not a biological disease that no one knows what to do about. On the contrary, we know what to do to prevent it," Michelle Bachelet, the executive director of UN Women said in a recent exclusive interview with Xinhua in the midst of the 57th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which opened here Monday....
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/indepth/2013-03/07/c_132214290.htm
Making cities safe for women and girls
The World Alliance of Cities Against Poverty is focusing on how to tackle violence against women and girls in public spaces
There is no city or country in the world where women and girls live free of the fear of violence. No leader can claim: this is not happening in my backyard.
In 2012, two high-profile cases ignited public outrage in their nations, which spread around the world: the shooting of Pakistani schoolgirl and girls' education activist Malala Yousafzai, and the gang-rape on a bus and tragic death of a 23-year-old student in New Delhi. In every region around the world, countless other cases occurred that did not make global headlines.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2013/feb/21/making-cities-safe-women-girls
Terrorism against women: The war that never ends
by Matthew Behrens, February 21, 2013
In September 2005, Emory University Professor Erica Frank came to a none-too-startling conclusion: that investments in basics like disease prevention and research would save far more lives than the hundreds of billions spent in the "war on terror." Citing one example, Dr. Frank noted that in September 2002, New York State spent $1.3 million to reduce heart disease (the leading cause of death in the state) while the state budgeted $34 million for bio-terrorism preparedness (the latter an issue rooted largely in the netherworld of speculation). ...
http://rabble.ca/columnists/2013/02/terrorism-against-women-war-never-ends
Does Facebook have a problem with women?
Laura Bates, The Guardian, 19 February 2013
Facebook insists there's no place on its site for hate speech or content that is threatening or incites violence. So why do images that seem to glorify rape and domestic violence keep appearing? ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2013/feb/19/facebook-images-rape-domestic-violence
Canada's crime rates: Assaults on women fell 5% between 2009 and 2011
The Canadian Press, Feb. 25, 2013
OTTAWA - Statistics Canada says police reports show that just over 173,600 women aged 15 and older were victims of violent crime in 2011, a rate of 1,207 victims for every 100,000 women in the population.
However, the agency says rates of police-reported physical assaults against women, including common assaults and serious physical assaults, fell five per cent to 705 victims per 100,000 women between 2009 and 2011....
Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/canada-s-crime-rates-assaults-on-women-fell-5-between-2009-and-2011-1.1170570#ixzz2LvfCmop8
“One Woman” song to be released on International Women’s Day – the Countdown begins today!
by Press Release, February 23, 2013
New York, 22 February – On International Women’s Day, 8 March 2013 UN Women will launch “One Woman: A song for UN Women”, a musical celebration of women worldwide, featuring more than 20 artists from across the globe. As of today, behind-the-scenes videos chronicling the song’s year-long production will be available at http://song.unwomen.org to count down toward the launch. On March 8, the site will feature the full song video and make the track available for download.
“One Woman” calls for change and celebrates acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who daily make extraordinary contributions to their countries and communities. The lyrics are inspired by stories of women whom UN Women has supported, UN Women is the UN organization charged with advancing women’s empowerment and gender equality worldwide. It began its work in 2011, the first new UN organization in decades. “One Woman” is the first theme song for a UN organization. ...
http://www.paramuspost.com/article.php/20130223104806247
Quebec, in clear and unanimous voice, prepares to set up its own gun registry
by Rhéal Séguin, The Globe and Mail, Feb. 19 2013
QUEBEC CITY — Quebec has set itself apart from the rest of Canada with the tabling of gun control legislation that will establish a provincial firearms registry similar to the one Stephen Harper’s Conservative government voted to destroy last spring.
All opposition parties in the National Assembly joined the Parti Québécois government to support the bill, backed by a widespread consensus throughout Quebec society spearheaded by the families and friends of the victims of gun violence, chiefs of police, community groups, police associations and gun control advocates. ...
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/quebec-in-clear-and-unanimous-voice-prepares-to-set-up-its-own-gun-registry/article8853011/
Thousands of untested rape kits lying in storage in Detroit
The Current | Feb 18, 2013
A disturbing story about law and order today. In the city of Detroit, the woman who holds the job of Chief Prosecutor discovered that thousands of sexual assault cases have been in limbo for decades because evidence from so-called rape kits is languishing on forgotten shelves. It is not a problem unique to Detroit, but it is one that has seen serial rapists, and even murderers, exist undetected for years.
Please listen online:
http://www.cbc.ca/player/Radio/The+Current/ID/2336300819/
Can Iceland lead the way towards a ban on violent online pornography?
by Tracy McVeigh, The Observer, 16 February 2013
The country prides itself on its progressive attitudes, but anti-censorship campaigners say move is a backward step
Small, volcanic, with a proud Viking heritage and run by an openly gay prime minister, Iceland is now considering becoming the first democracy in the western world to try to ban online pornography.
A nationwide consultation has found wide support for the move from police and lawyers working in the field of sexual violence, along with health and education professionals, according to Halla Gunnarsdóttir, adviser to the interior minister Ögmundur Jónasson. Ministers are now looking at the results....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/16/iceland-online-pornography
Indian gang-rape trial brings fractional change
by Stephanie Nolen
NEW DELHI — The Globe and Mail, Feb. 08 2013
When a big white bus was driven into the parking lot of a Delhi high court this week, a collective shudder seemed to run through the city.
The vehicle is a sort of Exhibit A in the trial of five of the six men accused in the December gang rape of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student who died of injuries inflicted on her in that bus. Her companion, a 28-year-old software engineer who was badly beaten in that attack, had come to the pink cement courthouse in a wheelchair to testify as the main witness for the prosecution. His first task was to identify the bus; the judges and lawyers accompanied him out to the parking lot. Later in the courtroom, he also identified the five accused....
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/indian-gang-rape-trial-brings-fractional-change/article8419848/?cmpid=rss1&google_editors_picks=true
Our violent economy is hurting women
Although violence against women is as old as patriarchy, neoliberalism makes matters worse.
by Vandana Shiva, Feb. 2013
Traditional patriarchy has structured our worldviews and mindsets, our social and cultural worlds, on the basis of domination over women and the denial of their full humanity and right to equality. But it has intensified and become more pervasive in the recent past, taking on more brutal forms, like the murder of the Delhi gang rape victim and the recent suicide of a 17-year-old rape victim in Chandigarh. ...
http://sgnews.ca/2013/02/04/our-violent-economy-is-hurting-women-vandana-shiva/
America Has an Incest Problem
By Mia Fontaine, The Atlantic, Jan 24 2013
People are rightly horrified by abuse scandals at Penn State and in the Catholic church. But what about children who are molested by their own family members?
Last year offered plenty of moments to have a sustained national conversation about child sexual abuse: the Jerry Sandusky verdict, the BBC's Jimmy Savile, Horace Mann's faculty members, and a slew of slightly less publicized incidents. President Obama missed the opportunity to put this issue on his second-term agenda in his inaugural speech.
Child sexual abuse impacts more Americans annually than cancer, AIDS, gun violence, LGBT inequality, and the mortgage crisis combined—subjects that Obama did cover. ...
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/01/america-has-an-incest-problem/272459/
Hundreds of students march in Indian capital to demand strict laws to protect women
by Associated Press, January 25 2013
NEW DELHI — Hundreds of people, mostly students, marched through the streets of the Indian capital on Saturday demanding prompt implementation of a government panel’s recommendation that India strictly enforce sexual assault laws, commit to holding speedy rape trials and change the antiquated penal code to protect women. ...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/fighting-lawyers-fast-trial-raise-doubts-about-the-fairness-of-delhi-rape-trial/2013/01/25/4bb25bac-6763-11e2-889b-f23c246aa446_story.html
Catholic Church incapable of child abuse reform, says ex-priest Phil O'Donnell
by Annika Smethurst, Herald Sun, January 23, 2013
THE Catholic Church is incapable of the radical reforms necessary to resolve child abuse by clergy, a parliamentary inquiry has heard.
Former priest Phil O'Donnell said the Archdiocese of Melbourne had known about allegations of sexual abuse by clergy since the 1950s but failed to protect children in its care.
"How do we understand an adult male and particularly a priest, having sex with kids," Mr O'Donnell said. ...
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/catholic-church-incapable-of-child-abuse-reform-says-ex-priest-phil-odonnell/story-e6frf7kx-1226560267348
A Rape a Minute, a Thousand Corpses a Year
by Rebecca Solnit, The Huffington Post, 01/24/2013
Here in the United States, where there is a reported rape every 6.2 minutes, and one in five women will be raped in her lifetime, the rape and gruesome murder of a young woman on a bus in New Delhi on December 16th was treated as an exceptional incident. The story of the alleged rape of an unconscious teenager by members of the Steubenville High School football team was still unfolding, and gang rapes aren’t that unusual here either. Take your pick: some of the 20 men who gang-raped an 11-year-old in Cleveland, Texas, were sentenced in November, while the instigator of the gang rape of a 16-year-old in Richmond, California, was sentenced in October, and four men who gang-raped a 15-year-old near New Orleans were sentenced in April, though the six men who gang-raped a 14-year-old in Chicago last fall are still at large. Not that I actually went out looking for incidents: they’re everywhere in the news, though no one adds them up and indicates that there might actually be a pattern.
There is, however, a pattern of violence against women that’s broad and deep and horrific and incessantly overlooked....
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rebecca-solnit/violence-against-women_b_2541940.html
Report: DC police treatment of sexual assault victims “traumatizing”
By Natasha Lennard, The Salon, Jan 24, 2013
A report released Thursday by Human Rights Watch sheds light on the “callous, traumatizing treatment” D.C. police give victims of sexual assault.
The 197-page investigation, “Capitol Offense: Police Mishandling of Sexual Assault Cases in the District of Columbia,” is based on the testimony of 150 sexual assault survivors, community groups, victims’ advocates, hospital staff, and university counselors, among others. ...
http://www.salon.com/2013/01/24/report_dc_police_treatment_of_sexual_assault_victims_traumatizing/
BWSS Guide to the New Family Law Act – Implications for Battered Women
by Rosa Elena Arteaga, Manager of Direct Services and Clinical Practice
At Battered Women’s Support Services (BWSS), we have been preparing ourselves around the New Family Law Act. Through our Legal Advocacy Program funded by the Law Foundation of BC, we have been offering legal support and information to battered women who are dealing with the Canadian legal system for over twenty years. As part of our commitment to eradicate violence against girls and women we are continually working on law reform and supporting women in our community legal education through our publications. It is impossible to only talk about Family Law in isolation from the other laws as the majority of women who access our services are interfacing with several areas of the law concurrently....
http://www.bwss.org/2013/01/bwss-guide-to-the-new-family-law-act-implications-for-battered-women/
Guns, gun culture, and madness in the United States
by Peter Blaikie, Special to The Gazette January 3, 2013
How have the mighty fallen. For some time now it has been a common belief that, in a great many ways, the United States is a dysfunctional country. But in one area — in its attitude toward guns and gun culture — a large part of America can only be described as deranged.
In the wake of the horrifying Newtown massacre, and in addition to genuine grief and mourning, there has been great deal of hopeful rhetoric and the beginnings of action. But only time will tell whether the rhetoric will lead to serious action and direct confrontation with the National Rifle Association and its hordes of supporters. ...
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Peter+Blaikie+Guns+culture+madness+United+States/7771607/story.html#ixzz2IO7vhjxS
The Second Amendment was Ratified to Preserve Slavery
By Thom Hartmann, 15 January 2013, Truthout | News Analysis
The real reason the Second Amendment was ratified, and why it says "State" instead of "Country" (the Framers knew the difference - see the 10th Amendment), was to preserve the slave patrol militias in the southern states, which was necessary to get Virginia's vote. Founders Patrick Henry, George Mason, and James Madison were totally clear on that . . . and we all should be too. ...
http://truth-out.org/news/item/13890-the-second-amendment-was-ratified-to-preserve-slavery
Woman Raped by Uber Cabdriver: From New Delhi to DC, We Need Solutions to End #VAW
Posted on January 17, 2013, By Renee Davidson
In December, a Yahoo! Group for DC’s Cleveland Park neighborhood, posted a message detailing a rape allegedly committed by an Uber cab driver a few days prior. According to the post a 20-year-old woman who used Uber, an “on-demand” cab service accessed via a smartphone app, was attacked, knocked unconscious, and raped by her driver after receiving a ride to her home in Cleveland Park. The incident, which has received only limited coverage, occurred the same week as the devastating gang-rape of a 23-year-old woman on board a bus in New Delhi, India. The woman, who was raped by six men over the course of an hour, died two weeks later as result of her injuries. Many have been quick to attribute the New Delhi rape to India’s rape culture. Yet the Uber incident is just one of an estimated 200,000 cases of rape and sexual assault that take place each year in the U.S., a shocking statistic that exposes the scale of our own rape culture. ...
http://www.collectiveactiondc.org/2013/01/17/rape-committed-by-uber-cab-driver-reminds-us-why-we-need-rightrides-dc/
Rape horror: Social deterrent needed
The Tribune, Dec 20, 2012,Letter to the Editor, Chandigarh, India
Another black day, another rape, another life destroyed. If this is what humanity has come down to, the world might as well end. What is the future of a country that treats its women like this?
There is a need for social deterrent. Publicly humiliating the culprits like our very old mode of social punishment of blackening their faces with grease and parading them on donkeys should work. The word ‘rapist’ should be painted on their houses in bold letters. Why just houses, ink a tattoo ‘rapist’ on their foreheads. There should be a list of sexual offenders with their photos which should be made public.
The victim carries the stigma of being raped all her life, whereas in reality, it is the criminals who should be treated as outcastes. The need of the hour is vigilance, both on the part of the police and the people. All the vehicles should be checked after 6 pm. Suspiciously moving vehicles and persons should be detained immediately. We the people, not VIPs, need more police force to protect ourselves.
NIDHI KAITH, Shimla
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20121220/letters.htm
Obama unveils plan to cut gun violence
United States has highest rate of gun ownership in the world
The Associated Press, Jan 16, 2013
Braced for a fight, U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday unveiled the most sweeping proposals for curbing gun violence in two decades, pressing a reluctant Congress to pass universal background checks and bans on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines like the ones used in the Newtown, Conn., school shooting. ...
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/01/16/gun-control-obama-biden-congress.html
Indo-Canadians Hold Candle-Light Vigils and Protests Across Canada
By Loveen Kaur Gill, South Asian Observer, Jan 11 2013
Hundreds of people gathered in front of Brampton Rose Theatre for a Candle light vigil in memory of Jyoti Singh Pandey between 5 to 8pm on Sunday evening organized by Punjabi Press Club of Canada. ...
Present among many politicians Ontario Liberal leadership candidate Kathleen Wayne said, "It is our responsibility as human beings, this is not about a particular country, not about a particular race or background, it is about humanity taking responsibility to make sure that we do everything to protect women against violence"
"As father of daughters and a brother, I feel what happened is totally unacceptable, the violence against women is a human rights issue. What happened to the girl in Delhi is unimaginable, even animals don't do this," said Harinder Takhar, Minister in the race for Provincial Leadership.
Harjot Ghuman, radio host said," we have to change our mind sets and listen to what our daughters and wives have to say. Change begins from home." ...
http://www.southasianobserver.com/topstories.php?cid=833
Ending the demand: Ex-prostitute escapes pimp and reclaims her life
By ANDY HOBBS, Federal Way Mirror Editor, January 15, 2013
A local woman's life took a turn for the worse when she encountered an escort service.
The couple who ran the escort service took her in, and the man became her pimp. ...
"Sex is the most powerful stimulant and bonding agent on the planet," he said at the Federal Way forum. "We need to teach men to respect, honor and understand women and build wholesome relationships." ...
http://www.federalwaymirror.com/news/187019821.html
New York passes strictest gun law ahead of Obama announcement
The Associated Press, Jan. 15 2013
WASHINGTON
President Barack Obama will reveal the details of how the United States will address gun violence on Wednesday, the White House said Tuesday, while New York passed the toughest gun-control law in the country and dared other states to do the same.
The Obama administration has been moving quickly on the issue before the shock fades over last month’s school shooting in Connecticut, which Mr. Obama has called the worst day of his presidency. ...
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/new-york-passes-strictest-gun-law-ahead-of-obama-announcement/article7373411/
‘SpareOne’ emergency phone boasts 15 years of battery charge
By Tori Floyd | The Right Click, 9 Jan, 2012
If you ask my mother why she carries a cell phone around, even though she never answers it, she'll give you the same reasoning that many others will: "I keep it just for emergencies." Whether you begrudgingly carry a phone like her, or you're afraid that when you really need your smartphone, the battery might be dead, the SpareOne could be your answer.
Xpal Power has designed a cell phone that only uses a single AA battery, but what really makes it stand out is the promise that it will keep its charge for up to 15 years. To put things into perspective, that's the equivalent of about 76 Kim Kardashian marriages....
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/right-click/smartone-emergency-phone-boasts-15-years-battery-charge-202155574.html
Indian women vandalise Mumbai bar over 'rapist' cocktail - video
A group of women vandalise a bar in Mumbai because it has been selling a cocktail called the 'rapist'. The women, who are part of the Nationalist Congress Party, tore up menus and attacked a bartender. They are demanding police arrest the bar's owners who have reportedly been publicising the new drink
Please watch the inspiring video:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2013/jan/02/indian-women-bar-rapist-cocktail-video?intcmp=239
Family of murdered teen proposes young offender reform
by Dirk Meissner
SAANICH — The Canadian Press, Jan. 10 2013
The family of a Victoria-area teenager lured to her death by two teen killers described by a judge as beyond rehabilitation is calling on the federal and British Columbia governments to reform the young offender system.
Seven members of Kimberly Proctor’s family, including her parents, grandparents and brother, said on Thursday at a news conference that they have written to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Premier Christy Clark outlining their reform proposals, which they call Kimberly’s Law. ...
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/family-of-murdered-teen-proposes-young-offender-reform/article7191399/
The Soapbox: On Steubenville High School & Teaching Boys Not To Rape
Avital Norman Nathman, January 3, 2013
My son turns six next week, and among all the other wishes I have for him, I have a silent hope that won’t be shared at his birthday party. It’s one that swims in the depths of my mind, surfacing occasionally when awful things happen that force me to think about it: I wish and hope and pray that my son won’t grow up to be a rapist.
I know that sounds horrible and not a wish a mother of a six year old should even have in the back of her mind, let alone flashing loud and red and painful throughout it. But I can’t help it. We live in a society that is steeped in rape culture, no matter how many people refuse to acknowledge that reality. My worry was driven home more forcefully after watching a video that Anonymous posted online of Steubenville High School students talking about the rape of a 16-year-old fellow student. ...
http://www.thefrisky.com/2013-01-03/the-soapbox-on-steubenville-high-school-teaching-boys-not-to-rape/
Nothing but silence on child rape in Liberia, but minister attempts change
by Ethan Baron, December 27, 2012
It's difficult to know the scope of the problem, but children younger than 13 are regularly raped in Liberia. Olivia Zinneh was one of four adolescent girls who died of rape-related injuries this year, despite care provided by the Liberian Gender Ministry.
MONROVIA, Liberia — While protesters were battling police over a student's gang rape in India and the world was expressing outrage at the crime, 14-year-old Olivia Zinnah was buried here Dec. 22 with far less fanfare, after suffering years of pain and surgeries following a rape when she was 7....
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/rights/nothing-silence-child-rape-liberia
India rape victim's friend recounts attack in TV interview; recalls apathy of police, public
by Ashok Sharma, The Associated Press, January 5, 2013
NEW DELHI - Passers-by refused to stop to help a naked, bleeding gang-rape victim after she was dumped from a bus onto a New Delhi street, and police delayed taking her to a hospital for 30 minutes, the woman's male companion said in an interview. It was his first public account of the gruesome attack that killed the 23-year-old student and prompted demands for reform of a law enforcement culture seen as lax in crimes against women. ...
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/India+rape+victims+friend+recounts+attack+interview+recalls/7779917/story.html#ixzz2H7hfpCM5
America's Real Criminal Element: Lead
New research finds Pb is the hidden villain behind violent crime, lower IQs, and even the ADHD epidemic. And fixing the problem is a lot cheaper than doing nothing.
By Kevin Drum, Nov. 28, 2012
When Rudy Giuliani ran for mayor of New York City in 1993, he campaigned on a platform of bringing down crime and making the city safe again. It was a comfortable position for a former federal prosecutor with a tough-guy image, but it was more than mere posturing. Since 1960, rape rates had nearly quadrupled, murder had quintupled, and robbery had grown fourteenfold. New Yorkers felt like they lived in a city under siege. ...
http://m.motherjones.com/environment/2013/01/lead-crime-link-gasoline
India gang rape: Thousands of women march in Delhi
2 January 2013
The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder, at the rally: ''The government has been under tremendous pressure since the attack''
Thousands of women have taken part in a rally in the Indian capital, Delhi, to protest against the recent gang rape of a 23-year-old medical student. ...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-20886253
Vancouver police seek men who stopped sex assault
The Canadian Press, Jan. 3, 2013
Vancouver police are looking for two Good Samaritans who helped stop a sexual assault early New Year's Day.
Police say a woman was attacked by a man after she got out of a taxi on the west side of the city about 4 a.m.
Two other men waiting at a bus stop rushed to defend the woman and the suspect ran off. ...
Read more: http://bc.ctvnews.ca/vancouver-police-seek-men-who-stopped-sex-assault-1.1100423#ixzz2GxyMZlyo
Canada quietly loosens limits on assault-weapon exports to Colombia
MIKE BLANCHFIELD, OTTAWA — The Canadian Press - Jan. 02 2013
Just one day before last month’s elementary-school killings in Newtown, Conn., Canada offered its gun merchants “new market opportunities” to export banned assault weapons to Colombia, one of the world’s most violent countries. ...
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/canada-quietly-loosens-limits-on-assault-weapon-exports-to-colombia/article6861525/
What Do Men Have To Do With It?: Rahul Roy
December 28, 2012, Guest post by RAHUL ROY
I have been sitting quietly trying to finish my new film and had promised myself that I would not get side tracked and concentrate on the task at hand. But enough is enough. I am shocked and disappointed at the way men high jacked a protest that could have been and probably still is the most significant pouring out of women who may never have thought in their wildest dreams that they would be facing water cannons and cops giving them a chase with iron tipped sticks. I am sure it is a coming of age moment for many young women of the city of Delhi.
I am aware that there has been a fair bit of cynicism about middle class women running up and down Raisina Hill and whether it adds up to anything. It damn well does. The next time they see adivasis being chased down by the police in Chattisgarh or in Orissa a penny will drop. It already is, today there is an article by a 19 year old student form Lady Sri Ram College narrating her brush with Delhi Police at the Parlaiment Street Police station and quite significantly she adds that if they are capable of behaving the way they did with a group of ‘well connected’ college students in Delhi then what must be happening in the more remote areas of non metropolitan India. Thousands of young women spontaneously gathering at India Gate and joined by their mothers is a big deal. The battle against patriarchy somehow has never been as kosher as the one against class and capitalism and quite conveniently what is forgotten is the direct and rather comfortable link between patriarchy and capitalism. The fact is that men decide what is kosher and what isn’t. The fact is also that the gender question has been largely ignored by the proponents of class struggle and this has haunted the socialist movement from its very inception across the globe. ...
http://kafila.org/2012/12/28/what-do-men-have-to-do-with-it/
Gang-raped Punjab girl commits suicide after police 'pressure'
by Indo Asian News Service | IANS India Private, 27 Dec, 2012
Patiala (Punjab), Dec 27 (IANS) A teenaged girl in this Punjab district, who alleged that she was gang-raped last month, has committed suicide, police said Thursday.
The victim committed suicide Wednesday night at her house in Badshahpur village near here, 100 km from Chandigarh, after police failed to register a case for over a month after she complained that she was gang-raped by three youth.
In her suicide note, recovered by police, the victim alleged that the local police officers had failed to register a case of rape despite her complaint. She accused them of trying to pressurize her for a compromise, humiliating her and asking her uncomfortable questions by calling her to the police station repeatedly. ...
http://in.news.yahoo.com/gang-raped-punjab-girl-commits-suicide-police-pressure-154010278.html
Where are the feminists to defend Indian women?
by Swati Parashar, 27 December 2012
It's time more western feminists spoke up against the violence women in countries like India face repeatedly and every day, writes Swati Parashar.
The brutal sexual assault of a 23-year-old physiotherapist in one of the posh areas of Delhi has left many of us traumatised and speechless.
Social media is rife with comments and updates. For a change, even some Indian men have come forward to reflect on their upbringing and the roots of patriarchy while media has been relentlessly pursuing this case, reporting all the protests and anger in Delhi and the latest developments.
From my Australian home, I have seen ABC and SBS cover this horrific news and yet have noted with disappointment, the silence of my Western feminist* colleagues and friends on this issue. ...
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4444810.html
Delhi constable had injuries, says post mortem report as row rages over his death
hindustantimes, north india, 26/12/2012
New Delhi: A controversy raged on Wednesday over the cause of death of Constable Subhash Tomar during violent demonstrations last Sunday with eyewitnesses and a government hospital claiming there were no injuries on his person while the post mortem report contradicted these versions.
Police late in the evening released excerpts of report of the post mortem done by a Board of Doctors in the the government Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) hospital, where he died yesterday. ...
http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/Delhi-constable-had-injuries-says-post-mortem-report-as-row-rages-over-his-death/Article1-981029.aspx
Israel revisits ban on female prayer at holy site
The Miami Herald, The Associated Press, 12.25.12
JERUSALEM -- Israel's prime minister has instructed a quasi-governmental Jewish organization to find a solution for non-Orthodox Jewish female groups wishing to pray at one of Judaism's holiest sites.
An official said Tuesday Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked Natan Sharansky, chairman of the Jewish Agency, to look into the matter. The official spoke anonymously according to government regulations. ...
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/12/25/3156430/israel-revisits-ban-on-female.html#morer#storylink=cpy
Gang-rape: Spat between Delhi CM, police; victim critical
zeenews.com, December 25, 2012
New Delhi: A constable brutally attacked during gang-rape protests here succumbed to his injuries Tuesday, shattering his family and colleagues, even as the young rape victim battled for life for the ninth straight day.
Policeman Subhash Chand Tomar's death was also marred by an unprecedented public spat between Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Delhi Police over the rape victim's statement given to a magistrate. ...
http://zeenews.india.com/news/delhi/gang-rape-spat-between-delhi-cm-police-victim-critical_818906.html
Gang rape of Indian woman sparks mass protests
The gang rape of a 23-year-old woman on a Delhi bus has sparked mass protests in India, with thousands demanding drastic action be taken.
by Dean Nelson, New Delhi, The Telegraph, 19 Dec 2012
The woman, a physiotherapy student, was last night fighting for her life in hospital. She had been travelling home from watching a film at a shopping mall in the south of Delhi when she and a male friend were attacked by a group of drunk men on a largely empty bus. ...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/9755913/Gang-rape-of-Indian-woman-sparks-mass-protests.html
A mother's crusade rescues hundreds of women from the rape trade
by Avaaz Team - posted 19 December 2012
It has been more than 10 years since Susana Trimarco's daughter Marita Veron went missing, and the pain is still raw.
"3 April 2002 was the saddest day of my life," says Trimarco. "I will never forget that day, as it was when my daughter's life was destroyed."
Last week, a court acquitted 13 people accused of kidnapping Marita Veron and forcing her into prostitution. Angry demonstrations erupted in Buenos Aires, Argentina, after the ruling. But there's a powerful story of hope behind this setback. Veron's name, and the names of hundreds of other victims, would never have been known to the court or the country without the brave actions of one woman – her mother. ...
http://en.avaaz.org/1250/a-mothers-crusade-rescues-hundreds-of-women-from-the-rape-trade?utm_source=facebook_avaaz&utm_medium=social_media&utm_campaign=rape-trade
Mass Murder and the Culture of Madness
By Laurie Essig, July 31, 2012
...
It is this culture that must be addressed first. Without talking about the dangers of fetishizing a heavily armed and dangerous manhood, we will never get gun control passed. And without passing gun control, we are never ever going to stop deranged young men from shooting up public spaces. It is a culture of madness that allows killer after killer to haunt our cultural waterways. They are not single events of bad luck, like shark attacks, but the obvious result of a world gone crazy.ir randomly attaching to certain bodies while swimming by others.
http://chronicle.com/blogs/brainstorm/mass-murder-and-the-culture-of-madness/50597
US law shields gun makers from liability
Repeal would let victims sue gun makers out of business.
by Penney Kome
On December 14, a man armed with several guns smashed a window and entered an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut — where he promptly started shooting. By the time he finished, six adults were dead and 20 young children were dead or dying.
On the very same day, another man entered an elementary school in China, armed with a knife, and attacked young children there. By the time he was restrained, 23 children had been wounded – two severely – but none died.
The contrast couldn't be clearer. Contrary to what gun advocates often say – that “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people” – guns do kill people. A desperate person with a gun – usually several guns – is a thousand times more dangerous than a desperate person with almost any other kind of weapon. And these incidents may provide proof to shut down the weapons dealers that profit from Americans’ addiction to guns. ...
http://sgnews.ca/blog/2012/12/18/us-law-shields-gun-makers-from-liability/
The growing power of the Canadian gun lobby
By Linda McQuaig, December 18, 2012
"Your shopping cart is currently empty." This little notice popped onto my screen as I browsed the website of one of Canada's biggest gun retailers, surveying the wide assortment of assault weapons it offers for sale online -- including one virtually identical to the semi-automatic rifle used in last week's horrific school slaughter in Connecticut. ...
http://rabble.ca/columnists/2012/12/growing-power-canadian-gun-lobby#.UNCbpvnB2ug.facebook
5 Lies The Gun Lobby Tells You
Sadly, it's time for another refresher.
Think Progress, by Zack Beauchamp, December 14, 2012
America’s seems to be in for another debate over gun regulation after the slaughter at Sandy Hook Elementary School left 27 (mostly children) dead. So it’s worth reviewing five made against regulating gun ownership in the United States:
MYTH #1: More guns don’t lead to more murders. A survey by researchers at the Harvard University School of Public Health found strong statistical support for the idea that, even if you control for poverty levels, more people die from gun homicides in areas with higher rates of gun ownership. And despite what gun advocates say, countries like Israel and Switzerland don’t disprove the point ...
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/5-lies-gun-lobby-tells-you
Connecticut shooting, white males, and mass murder: Connecticut School Shooting
by William Hamby, December 14, 2012
Why is this happening? The answer might hinge on who's doing it.
It's a tragedy. One of the worst in American history. Twenty-six people dead, including twenty children. Dozens more children who will live their lives with the terrible memory. Tens of thousands of parents who will wonder quietly whether it might one day happen to their child. A community in utter shock and disbelief. For the family and community members directly affected by this tragedy, it is their day to grieve. For the millions of Americans that have been affected by gun death, today may be a day to relive grief and loss. For the rest of us, we can take today to think critically about the problem of mass shootings to try to come up with a solution. This is how we who are not directly affected can honor the dead. In this spirit, I will offer one perspective which may help explain why these things are happening.
Through history, there have been a lot of suggestions as to the cause of mass shootings. In the 60s, it was the permissive culture. In subsequent decades, it's been the teaching of evolution, working mothers, birth control pills, and "evangelical jockocracies." The interesting thing about all of these suggestions is that they may point indirectly at a much more plausible explanation. To begin with, we must ask who is offering these explanations in the first place. Overwhelmingly, the answer is white males. Most likely not coincidental is the fact that since 1982, one very specific type of mass shootings has been almost entirely perpetrated by white males. ...
http://www.examiner.com/article/connecticut-shooting-white-males-and-mass-murder
Do We Have the Courage to Stop This?
By Nicholas D. Kristof, Op-Ed Columnist New York Times, December 15, 2012
IN the harrowing aftermath of the school shooting in Connecticut, one thought wells in my mind: Why can’t we regulate guns as seriously as we do cars?
The fundamental reason kids are dying in massacres like this one is not that we have lunatics or criminals — all countries have them — but that we suffer from a political failure to regulate guns.
Children ages 5 to 14 in America are 13 times as likely to be murdered with guns as children in other industrialized countries, according to David Hemenway, a public health specialist at Harvard who has written an excellent book on gun violence. ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/16/opinion/sunday/kristof-do-we-have-the-courage-to-stop-this.html?_r=0
After teen death, calls for national inquiry into missing and murdered women
By David P. Ball December 13, 2012 04:30 pm
"The violence all has to stop," Matilda Fowler says, glancing at her daughter's framed photograph. "For all families -- no matter where we're from, who we're with -- we're all family. I just want to take her home; but right now, I just want to know who took her, and why."
From the photograph, 16-year-old CJ Morningstar Fowler smirks out at reporters, her head tilted in an almost questioning expression. On Dec. 6, the Gitanmaax First Nation youth was found murdered in Kamloops.
"All I want is justice for my daughter," the mother says, never fumbling her words despite tears. "I don't want any more young girls going missing or murdered. Nobody deserves to lose a daughter." ...
http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/Rights-Justice/2012/12/13/Missing-Women-Nationally/print.html
African Americans Turn Headlights on Sex-Traffic
By Margaret Summers, WeNews correspondent, April 29, 2012
Brook Bello had all the trappings of a successful career. But the actress-poet-filmmaker also had a horrible childhood secret. Now she's teaming up with the International Black Women's Public Policy Institute to talk about sex traffic....
Documentary: "Survivor: Living Above the Noise"
http://www.abovethenoise.info/SURVIVOR_FILM.html
Proposed Ireland Canada monument criticized for being phallic, male-centric
Women’s group objects to phallic design, paucity of women’s names among those honoured
by Kevin Griffin, Vancouver Sun, December 7, 2012
A battle of monuments is brewing in Thornton Park in Vancouver. A women’s group has criticized several parts of a proposed design for a monument recognizing the contributions of immigrants from Ireland in building the country. ...
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Proposed+Ireland+Canada+monument+criticized+being+phallic+male+centric/7664326/story.html#ixzz2ETkaIWAT
50m missing women of South Asia remembered
Our correspondent, December 01, 2012
Islamabad
‘We Can’ end all violence against women global campaign marked the symbolic representation of shoe memorial ceremony in remembrance of 50 million missing women of South Asia.
The shoe memorial ceremony, held here on Friday, also initiated the series of events across 32 districts of Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Balochistan, marking the Global Movement of 16 Days of Activism for elimination of Violence against Women. These events include change maker (persons who pledge not to commit any violence against women) rallies, walks, mobile vans and press conferences....
http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-6-145910-50m-missing-women-of-South-Asia-remembered
Womens' groups launch conjugal violence awareness campaign
CBC News, Nov 25, 2012
According to a spokeswoman for the Quebec Association of Women's Shelters, more than 19,000 calls to police were placed by victims of conjugal violence last year.
Various Quebec women's rights groups are launching a 12-day campaign to address the issue of violence against women to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Louise Riendeau, spokeswoman for the Quebec Association of Women's Shelters, said the issue of domestic violence continues to be a pressing one.
"In the last year, we had more than 19,000 complaints to the police. Those numbers are rising year [after] year," she said....
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/11/25/conjugal-violence-awareness-montreal.html
Abortion debate erupts in Ireland after death of critically ill woman denied quick termination of fetus
Associated Press, National Post, Nov 14, 2012
DUBLIN, Ireland — The debate over legalizing abortion in Ireland flared Wednesday after the government confirmed a miscarrying woman suffering from blood poisoning was refused a quick termination of her pregnancy and died in an Irish hospital.
Prime Minister Enda Kenny said he was awaiting findings from three investigations into the death of Savita Halappanavar, an Indian living in Galway since 2008 who was 17 weeks along in her pregnancy. The 31-year-old’s case highlights the bizarre legal limbo in which pregnant women facing severe health problems in predominantly Catholic Ireland can find themselves.
Ireland’s constitution officially bans abortion, but a 1992 Supreme Court ruling found it should be legalized for situations when the woman’s life is at risk from continuing the pregnancy. Five governments since have refused to pass a law resolving the confusion, leaving Irish hospitals reluctant to terminate pregnancies except in the most obviously life-threatening circumstances. ...
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/11/14/abortion-debate-erupts-in-ireland-after-death-of-critically-ill-woman-denied-quick-termination-of-fetus/
Pornography: A Habit That Can Destroy Lives
by Gail Dines and Robert Jensen, ...
November 11, 2012
Assessing the effects of mass media is never simple, but the important questions about pornography are obvious: What happens when a culture is saturated with sexually explicit images eroticizing male domination and female subordination? When those images become increasingly cruel and degrading to women and increasingly racist? When pornography becomes the de facto sex education for most boys and an increasing number of girls?
These disturbing trends do not apply to all pornography. There are many varieties made by hundreds of small producers, but the porn industry around Los Angeles dominates, shaping cultural ideas about sexuality, relationships and intimacy. Just as the food industry shapes how we eat and the fashion industry shapes how we dress, the sex industry shapes the way we think about sex.
This dominant source of pornography has some consistent themes. The most extensive peer-reviewed study in the past decade found that a majority of scenes from 50 top-rented porn movies contained physical and verbal abuse of female performers. Physical aggression – including spanking, open-hand slapping and gagging – occurred in 88 percent of scenes, with expressions of verbal aggression – usually a man calling a woman derogatory names – in 48 percent.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/11/11/does-pornography-deserve-its-bad-rap/a-pornography-habit-destroys-relationships
Team Rape Lost Big Last Night
by Erin Gloria Ryan, jezebel.com
Well, well, well, America. You're so much less awful than I thought. With horror stories of suppression and fuckery being whispered from Ohio to Florida, many nervous Obama voters braced for the worst yesterday, only to be rewarded with what basically amounts to the election equivalent of the pony they thought Santa would never bring them. And while the President, marriage equality and marijuana legalization fared well, no one fared worse than the group of nutty candidates we've affectionately come to know as Team Rape. Let's take a look at just how badly the rape cookie crumbled. ...
Please read: http://jezebel.com/5958480/team-rape-lost-big-last-night
Pakistan parents killed daughter with acid for eyeing boy
'I won't look again,' mother recalls 15-year-old saying
The Associated Press, Nov 5, 2012
A Pakistani couple accused of killing their 15-year-old daughter by pouring acid on her carried out the attack because she sullied the family's honour by looking at a boy, the couple said in an interview broadcast Monday by the BBC.
The girl's death underlines the problem of so-called "honour killings" in Pakistan where women are often killed for marrying or having relationships not approved by their families or because they are perceived to have somehow dishonoured their family....
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/11/05/parents-kill-pakistan-girl-acid.html
Essay: Why the Annihilation of Women Doesn’t Anger The World
by Rita Banerji (posted May 26, 2012)
THE LYON REVIEW, The Literary Magazine for MHC Alumnae and Faculty
In another two decades, India will have annihilated 20 percent of its female population. To get an estimate of how many women that would be, add up the entire populations of Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and Portugal. In less than a century, more than 50 million women have been targeted simply for being female and wiped out from India. Millions have been killed before birth. Millions killed as infants. Millions killed as little girls. Thousands killed as new brides.
Thousands killed as they are forced through repeated, back-to-back, unsafe abortions to get rid of girls. Thousands more killed for so-called “honor” or branded as “witches” and mob lynched. And many burnt alive as widows on the pyres of their husbands. Killed at every stage of life–simply for being female! There is no other human group in history that has been persecuted and annihilated on this scale. So, how did the world close its eyes to this? ...
http://thelyonreview.com/2012/05/26/why-the-annihilation-of-women-2/?goback=.gde_43780_member_127014260
What Can I Do To Help My Friend?
When our friend, family member, loved one is living with abuse by an intimate partner, we have a key role in supporting their journey.
You may be the only person that they can trust. Please read on for tips and tools and become an empowered bystander with the knowledge to help a friend.
Violence in an intimate relationship is a systematic pattern of domination, where the abuser uses abusive tactics designed to maintain power and control over the woman. The Power and Control Wheel was developed by Domestic Violence Intervention Program based in Duluth, Minnesota. The P and C Wheel provides a good illustration of the tactics used by an abuser. ...
http://www.bwss.org/2012/10/what-can-i-do-to-help-my-friend/
Amanda’s tormentors were far worse than mere bullies
By Daphne Bramham, Vancouver Sun columnist October 13, 2012
Amanda Todd was in Grade 7 when she made a mistake that turned out to have fatal consequences.
With an adolescent’s fierce and false sense of independence and invincibility, she turned a webcam on and went into Internet chat rooms. In what she believed was the anonymity of a virtual world, she fell prey to praise.
“Got called stunning, beautiful, perfect, etc. Then wanted me to flash,” Amanda later wrote on a slip of paper, which became part of her nine-minute video that documents some of what followed. ...
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Amanda+tormentors+were+worse+than+mere+bullies+
Why didn’t she just leave?
by Kit-Bacon Gressitt
Picture a sere summer night in Phoenix, Arizona, circa 1982.1
I lay on a crinkly table in a cluttered ER, joking with the doc, bribing him with a promise of homemade shortbread if he could fix my face without leaving scars, looking anywhere but in his eyes, and I noticed a police officer nearby.
When I was all stitched and tidied up, I went to the cop and heard a quavering voice tell him that I wanted to press charges against my husband for assault.
The cop looked across the waiting room at him, sitting with his face buried behind his bloodied hands, his tiny mother, herself a victim, standing next to his chair, her arm around him while she stroked his head and kissed his fevered brow.
The cop looked back at me and said, “You don’t want to do that. You’ll just make him angry all over again, and it’ll be worse the next time.”
I did eventually leave my husband, taking my battered self and VW bus and just enough money for gas from Phoenix back to LA, where I lived in a friend’s basement until I recovered....
http://www.excusemeimwriting.com/2012/10/07/domesticviolence/why-didnt-she-just-leave/
Tomgram: Rebecca Solnit, We Could Be Heroes
Posted by Rebecca Solnit, September 27, 2012.
...
The Rain on Our Parade, A Letter to My Dismal Allies, By Rebecca Solnit
Dear Allies,
Forgive me if I briefly take my eyes off the prize to brush away some flies, but the buzzing has gone on for some time. I have a grand goal, and that is to counter the Republican right with its deep desire to annihilate everything I love and to move toward far more radical goals than the Democrats ever truly support. In the course of pursuing that, however, I’ve come up against the habits of my presumed allies again and again.
O rancid sector of the far left, please stop your grousing! Compared to you, Eeyore sounds like a Teletubby. If I gave you a pony, you would not only be furious that not everyone has a pony, but you would pick on the pony for not being radical enough until it wept big, sad, hot pony tears. Because what we’re talking about here is not an analysis, a strategy, or a cosmology, but an attitude, and one that is poisoning us. Not just me, but you, us, and our possibilities. ...
There are really only two questions for activists: What do you want to achieve? And who do you want to be? And those two questions are deeply entwined. Every minute of every hour of every day you are making the world, just as you are making yourself, and you might as well do it with generosity and kindness and style. ...
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175598/tomgram:_rebecca_solnit,_we_could_be_heroes/
Richard Fourtin Case: Connecticut Court Sets Accused Rapist Free, Says Handicapped Victim Did Not Resist
Huffington Post 10/04/2012
A Connecticut court has set an accused rapist free, saying there wasn't sufficient evidence to prove that his severely disabled victim resisted the attack, reports say.
According to NBC, Richard Fourtin Jr. was found guilty in 2008 of sexually assaulting a woman who has severe cerebral palsy.
His victim, who was 26 at the time of the assault, reportedly cannot speak and has little body movement. The Connecticut Post notes the woman, known in court by her initials L.K., "is so physically restricted that she is able to make motions only with her right index finger." ...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/04/richard-fourtin-case-supreme-court-accused-rapist-sexual-assault-handicapped-victim_n_1937528.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009
And justice for all
by Anne Jarvis, September 27, 2012, Windsor Star
Last year, at Hiatus House, an emergency shelter and counselling program for domestic violence, there were 32 women convicted of assaulting men. There were 346 men — 10 times the number of women — convicted of assaulting women.
Every single one of the 32 women had been abused by their husbands or boyfriends. And in every single case, it didn’t happen just once. There was a long history of abuse. Sometimes it went on for years.
“We rarely find a situation where she has not been suffering abuse for years,” executive director Tom Rolfe told me.
When it comes to women convicted of assaulting men, they’re almost all first-time offenders....
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/2012/09/27/and-justice-for-all/
In Plain View - How child molesters get away with it.
by Malcolm Gladwell September 24, 2012
Jerry Sandusky built a sophisticated grooming operation, outsourcing to child-care professionals the task of locating vulnerable children
Jerry Sandusky built a sophisticated grooming operation, outsourcing to child-care professionals the task of locating vulnerable children—all the while playing the role of lovable goofball.
In a 2001 book, “Identifying Child Molesters,” the psychologist Carla van Dam tells the story of a young Canadian elementary-school teacher she calls Jeffrey Clay. Clay taught physical education. He was well liked by his students, and often he asked boys in his class to stay after school, to do homework and help him with chores. One day, just before winter break, three of the boys made a confession to their parents. Mr. Clay had touched them under their pants. ...
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/09/24/120924crat_atlarge_gladwell#ixzz26lM9ZfYy
Judge sides with Quebec in long-gun registry battle
by Tu Thanh Ha, The Globe and Mail, Sep. 10 2012
The federal government’s plan to destroy data from its long-gun registry is unconstitutional, a judge has ruled, siding with the Quebec government’s bid to keep information for its own firearms registry.
The decision released Monday morning by Mr. Justice Marc-André Blanchard of the Quebec Superior Court suspends the application of the article of the federal law that would have led to the destruction of the firearms registry data.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/judge-sides-with-quebec-in-long-gun-registry-battle/article4532739/
"Trampire:" Why the Public Slut Shaming of Kristen Stewart Matters for Young Women
by Nico Lang, 09/04/2012
... But for young women, the culture of slut shaming that the Kristen Stewart scandal represents won't go away. I might not be concerned for K-Stew, but I am concerned for all the young women today who are tuned into this scandal, ones who are learning that it's not okay to screw up, ever. Chris Brown can publicly beat the hell out of his girlfriend but still be played on the radio and win Grammys. However, if you ever cheat on your boyfriend, your life is over and no one will ever want to be associated with you. Almost no one will blame the much-older guy you cheated with, and it might actually make him more famous and help his career. Few will care that he was your boss and in a position of authority or that he may have have taken advantage of your youth and relative inexperience. Everything is your fault, and your life will be threatened over it. If you are a trampire, you will be publicly staked for it, even though cheater Ashton Kutcher recently emerged relatively unscathed by the media. No one asked for him to be fired from Two and a Half Men.
I might not be concerned for K-Stew, but I am concerned for my younger stepsister who has pictures of Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson on her walls, who idolizes and worships them, and who might grow up to hate Kristen Stewart for reasons she doesn't understand. I'm worried she will be taught that it's not okay to mess up, learn from it and apologize, because no one wants your apology, just your suffering on camera. I'm worried that she'll think its okay to harass and threaten women for their indiscretions, even if men get off scot-free. I'm worried she will think this culture of bullying, slut-shaming and rhetorical violence against women is the norm, because you get a t-shirt for it. I'm worried she will learn to internalize the shame brought on far too many women today, for having sexualities, for not being perfect, for not fitting into a box. I'm worried she'll believe men like Todd Akin, Paul Ryan and Mike Huckabee are right. ...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nico-lang/trampires-why-the-slut-sh_b_1850940.html
Where is the feminist voice in the porn debate?
The evidence of the harm of porn, either to children or to adults, has been absent from discussions. Photograph: Medioimages/Photodisc/Getty Images The evidence of the harm of porn, either to children or to adults, has been absent from discussions.
The Guardian, September 6, 2012
Government policy must understand and address the role of pornography in perpetuating women's inequality
For some time now, a row has been brewing over the government's proposals to restrict children's access to online porn and other material. In one corner is Tory MP Claire Perry and the Christian organisation Safer Media calling for a block on pornographic sites. In the other are libertarian groups such as Big Brother Watch who believe that tighter restrictions risk "lulling parents into a false sense of security" and that there is a serious freedom of speech issue (although you get the strong impression that the latter is of far more concern than child protection). ...
https://apps.facebook.com/theguardian/lifeandstyle/the-womens-blog-with-jane-martinson/2012/sep/06/feminist-voice-in-porn-debate
The “Price” of Counter-Hegemonic Pedagogy: The Case of Dr. Jammie Price and The Price of Pleasure
Posted by admin | Under Gail Dines' Blog Saturday Sep 1, 2012 (Pre-publication version)
by Gail Dines and Dana Bialer
(Transformations, Vol XX111, Number 1, Spring/Summer 2012)
...
By showing POP, Dr. Price gave her students an opportunity to think critically about the multi-billion-dollar porn industry that is the major vehicle of sex education in the western world today. Since students of traditional college age–especially male students–are the most prized demographic for pornographers, and given that students, both male and female, increasingly develop their sexual identity in a world dominated by mass media saturated with the pornographic gaze, what could possibly be wrong with showing a film that harnesses the powerful concepts of sociology to an analysis of the porn industry?...
http://gaildines.com/2012/09/jammie-price/
One million sign to end violence against women in Pakistan
Say No, Unite to end violence against women
14 August 2012
A high profile campaign to end violence against women in Pakistan has culminated ceremonially with the signature of its one millionth supporter – the country’s President.
UN Women launched the One Million Signatures Campaign during the annual 16 Days of Activism in Pakistan in 2011, in partnership with a country-wide network of women’s organizations, the End Violence against Women and Girls (EVAWG) Alliance.
Working to raise awareness of violence against women and girls and the stereotypes at its root, the campaign has seen more than 450,000 community members and social media users mobilized, along with at least 1,500 Pakistani women leaders. Pakistanis from all walks of life, including a host of celebrities and politicians, have publicly signed postcards in support of EVAWG goals, while Charters of Demand have been gathered from 57 districts, many with a focus on reforming laws, policies and services to serve women as well as men.
http://saynotoviolence.org/around-world/news/one-million-sign-end-violence-against-women-pakistan
Pussy Riot: whose freedom, whose riot?
by HUB Newsfeed
Please reblog this radical feminist analysis of the Pussy Riot controversy.
Recently there has been lots of noise around the arrest of three members of Pussy Riot, a Russian anarchist female punk band. The media almost unequivocally represented them as the modern heroines of our time, fighting for freedom, democracy, sexual liberation and peace against a dark and ruthless dictatorship (articles are to be found in the NYT, Le Monde. The Guardian, etc.) Feminist groups all over the Western world are sending links and petitions to “free pussy riot”, and demonstrations have even been organised in support of the group by big institutionalised organisations such as “Osez le féminisme” (dare to be a feminist).
Now while I support without ambiguity the liberation of Pussy Riot’s members, it’s worth pausing for a minute to ask ourselves, as radical feminists, what the political dynamics are here. Why would Western media denounce so passionately the repression of feminists in Russia, when it usually only diffuses information that supports male supremacy and patriarchy? Feminism has long disappeared from any malestream media, except when journalists can turn it into male masturbation material, that is pornify either our suffering or our resistance to it. What’s going on here? ...
http://radicalhub.com/2012/08/20/pussy-riot-whose-freedom-whose-riot/
New constitution heralds progress for women’s rights in Somalia
Rachel Meehan, WVoN co-editor, 09 August 2012
Somalia’s Constituent Assembly last week overwhelmingly agreed a new constitution which recognises the empowerment of women. It represents a key step in establishing an effective central government by providing a legal framework, based on Islamic law, to govern Somalia.
A new parliament will be formed this week, ending a transitional period that has lasted for nine years.
The constitution states that all Somali citizens shall have equal rights and duties before the law, “regardless of sex, religion, social or economic status, political opinion, clan, disability, occupation, birth or dialect.”
Specifically it prohibits female genital mutilation (FGM), a widespread practice in Somalia....
http://www.womensviewsonnews.org/2012/08/new-constitution-heralds-progress-for-womens-rights-in-somalia/
RCMP officer Jim Brown is a sexual sadist-so what’s the big deal?
by Cameron Ward, July 6, 2012 in Opinion
News that Coquitlam RCMP Cpl. Jim Brown (aka the “Kilted Knight”) posted graphic photos of himself holding a knife to a woman’s throat on a website devoted to sadomachism has prompted significant public concern. Although this appears to be just another black eye for the nation’s police force, there is potentially a much bigger issue here.
Cpl. Jim Brown isn’t just a police officer who is a sexual deviant on his own time and who likes to connect with other like-minded individuals to share their twisted experiences. He is the RCMP member who produced informant Ross Caldwell in mid-July, 1999, almost three years before the RCMP accidentally discovered evidence that Robert Willy Pickton had been disposing of women’s bodies on the Port Coquitlam property he shared with his brother David. Caldwell was an acquaintance of the Picktons who reported that Willy Pickton had been seen skinning a woman in the barn, that he kept handcuffs under his bed and that he owned night-vision equipment, a semi-automatic rifle and wigs that he wore when he went trolling downtown. ...
http://www.cameronward.com/2012/07/rcmp-officer-jim-brown-is-a-sexual-sadist-so-whats-the-big-deal/
Don't allow partisan bickering to stall Violence Against Women Act
Time for House Republicans to set aside partisan differences and join the Senate, which voted to renew the Violence Against Women Act, writes U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.
By Patty Murray, Special to The Times, Originally published Thursday, August 2, 2012
SINCE it was passed into law in 1994, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) has provided lifesaving assistance to thousands of women and families across Washington state. For battered women, the law has been a refuge, providing shelter, justice and so often an escape from a life stunted by abuse.
One reason the law has worked so well in protecting a wide range of women is that, since its initial passage, every time Congress has reauthorized it, we have done so in a bipartisan way that extends its web of protections to new groups of women.
Today, however, the law's bipartisan history and new protections for 30 million women are at risk.
It has now been more than 300 days since VAWA expired, a timeline that has also seen the deaths of more than 1,100 women due to domestic violence. The reason for inaction, as is too often the case in this Congress, has been partisan gridlock where for decades there has been agreement....
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2018836428_guest03pattymurray.html
Republicans Are Blocking the Violence Against Women Act
Here's why.
By Adam Serwer, Mar. 20, 2012
There are three reasons some Republicans are trying to block the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act: Gays, immigrants, and Native Americans.
The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which first passed in 1994 and has been reauthorized twice since then, increased federal penalties for domestic violence and provided funding for groups and services that aid victims of domestic abuse. The bill hit the bipartisan sweet spot of being both tough on crime and oriented toward women's rights. Usually it's reauthorized without much fanfare. This time around, however, several Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), are putting up a fight. Despite the fact that the bill has several Republican sponsors, all eight GOP senators on the Judiciary Committee voted against the bill when the committee considered it last month...
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/03/republicans-violence-against-women-act
Violent Beauty: Stop Glamorous Images of Violence Against Women
by GoodTherapy.org, June 22, 2012
It seems that every few months, an advertiser comes out with a new and “edgy” marketing campaign involving depictions of violence against women.
Over the years, these depictions have ranged from images of men hitting women as the women express sexual ecstasy to images of beautiful women covered in bruises.
These images present violence as glamorous, even portraying the wounds of victims as beautiful. These images are universally damaging, and viewing them can have dramatically harmful effects both on individuals and on society as a whole. ...
http://www.empowher.com/mental-health/content/violent-beauty-stop-glamorous-images-violence-against-women
MELINDA GATES RESPONDS TO CONTRACEPTION PROGRAM CONTROVERSY
by Stephanie Smith, CNN, July 6, 2012
Responding to simmering controversy among Catholic bloggers about her new birth control program, Melinda Gates -- a practicing Catholic -- said she will not shrink from her role as an advocate for poor women. "Part of what I do with the (Gates) Foundation comes from that incredible social justice I had growing up and belief that all lives, all lives are of equal value," said Gates during a recent interview with CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. About the flak over her Catholicism she said: "We're not going to agree about everything, but that's OK." Gates is promoting an ambitious family planning program -- which includes raising billions of dollars to provide contraceptives to 120 million women worldwide -- at the London Summit on Family Planning July 11. ...
Full article and good short video at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/07/06/health/melinda-gates-contraception/index.html
Nikki Haley Calls Battered And Raped Women ‘Distractions,’ Vetoes Legislation
By Stephen D. Foster Jr., July 10, 2012
Raped and battered women “are distractions” that only represent a “small portion” of South Carolina’s population. That’s how Governor Nikki Haley explained her decision to veto critical funding that goes to programs that work to prevent domestic abuse and rape.
Last week, Haley threw women across the state under a bus by abandoning funding that prevents domestic abuse and sexual assault and then added insult to injury by explaining that battered and assaulted women are a “small portion” of society and are mere “distractions” who don’t matter.
“Each of these lines attempts to serve a portion of our population for which we extend our sympathy and encouragement,” Haley said. “But nevertheless, it is only a small portion of South Carolina’s chronically ill or abused. Overall, these special add-on lines distract from the agency’s broader mission of protecting South Carolina’s public health.”
As a woman, you would think Governor Haley would make preventing rape and domestic abuse a major legislative and executive initiative. It’s bad enough that women already have to deal with male politicians who don’t care about women’s issues, but for a female politician to demonstrate how little she cares about curbing violence against women is even more detestable. The only real reason I can think of why she would veto this important funding is because she wants to prove how hardcore conservative she is. For many months now, Republicans have made it their mission to belittle women’s issues and reverse women’s rights. ...
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/07/10/nikki-haley-calls-battered-and-raped-women-distractions-vetoes-legislation/
'Highway of Tears'
The Unsolved Murders of Indigenous Women in Canada
By Sebastian Moll 07/05/2012
Highway 16 in Canada has become known as the "Highway of Tears" because dozens of women have disappeared along its route. Many of them have been killed, most of them First Nation indigenous peoples. The police have shown little interest in solving the crimes.
The view from our van could be straight out of a tourism brochure. There are snow-covered peaks, forests painted in fall colors, and next to the road flows a mountain stream where fishermen are catching salmon. ...
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/highway-of-tears-the-unsolved-murders-of-indigenous-women-in-canada-a-842410.html
Afghan woman executed by Taliban on 'trumped up' adultery charge
July 9, 2012
Husband caught on camera shooting her nine times while cheering villagers looked on, then said 'take my video'.
MATTHEW ROSENBERG and SANGAR RAHIMI
The scene that Afghan officials say was caught on video last month near Kabul was as horrific as it was once common in Afghanistan: a Taliban fighter executing a woman with repeated shots to the back of her head as his compatriots and scores of villagers watched and then cheered.
The crime the woman was accused of: adultery. ...
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/afghan-woman-executed-by-taliban-on-trumped-up-adultery-charge-20120709-21qza.html#ixzz2065M40K9
Vancouver Police to hold first-ever women’s safety event
by Staff Reporter, The Province July 5, 2012
Vancouver Police will be holding its first ever community fair on women’s safety at Trout Lake Community Centre Saturday.
The Women’s Safety Fair will feature information booths by community agencies and a women-only demo that’ll teach women street smarts and basic physical manoeuvres they can use to get out of risky situations.
“At the heart of the presentation, we’re going to be teaching awareness of environment, mindset and ... some physical skills that are simple on how to get out of questionable or dangerous situations,” said Sgt. Colleen Yee of the sex crimes unit.
The fair builds on the VPD’s “Don’t be that guy” campaign last year. It will be held at the community centre at 3360 Victoria Drive from 1 to 4 p.m.
There were 143 incidents of sexual assaults in Vancouver in the first three months of 2012.
© Copyright (c) The Province
http://www.theprovince.com/news/Vancouver+Police+hold+first+ever+women+safety+event/6889284/story.html#ixzz205wWMz9A
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE PSA URGES WOMEN TO SPEAK UP, NOT COVER UP
by Katie Moisse, July 3, 2012
Lauren Luke is famous for her YouTube makeup tutorials. But her latest clip, "How to look your best the morning after," is a plea for victims of domestic violence to speak up rather than cover up. The video shows a battered-looking Luke working makeup magic to conceal the signs of abuse. "If you apply a color that is just gently off-tone with your own skin tone, you can cover up any fresh bruising," she says, gently brushing foundation around a black eye. "It might hurt, just try your best." The scene is part of Refuge.org's "Don't cover it up campaign" – a call for abused women to reach out for help ( . . . ) Luke's bruises were fake. But for some women, the morning after routine is all too real.
See the Lauren Luke video at this YouTube address (warning: the end is scary):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-XHPHRlWZk&feature=sharehttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F
JOAN MARIE DUNLOP, WOMEN'S RIGHTS ADVOCATE
20-5-1934 — 29-6-2012
JOAN Dunlop, a global leader in addressing women's issues who helped prod the United Nations to define a woman's right to say no to sex as an essential human right, has died of breast cancer at her home in Lakeville, Connecticut in the US, aged 78.
Dunlop devoted herself to expanding women's rights to control their own bodies. The right to say no to a request for sex was endorsed as a universal guideline by more than 180 nations at a conference in Beijing in 1995. She had lobbied the delegates as president (1984-98) of the International Women's Health Coalition (IWHC), an advocacy group that supports 50 health projects in eight countries. Her leadership in women's issues grew from her involvement in organisations dedicated to controlling population....
http://m.watoday.com.au/national/obituaries/campaigner-who-won-un-backing-for-womens-right-to-say-no-20120704-21htx.html
A CELLPHONE FOR EVERY WOMAN
By James D. Wolfensohn, June 15, 2012
AS world leaders gather next week in Brazil for the Rio+20 summit meeting on sustainable development, poverty fighting will
be high on the agenda. Gender inequity should be, as well. In a world where women hold less than 20 percent of all legislative seats, 70 percent of the poorest people — those who live on less than $1.25 a day — are women, and 4 million more women die each year than men, a result of poor families’ preferences for male infants and underinvestment in women’s and girls’ health.
These numbers are unconscionable. And while we know that investments in women’s education, health and economic participation are necessary to bridging the gender gap, it can take a long time for those changes to happen. What can be done for all the women who struggle with inequalities right now? ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/16/opinion/a-cellphone-for-every-woman.html?_r=4
Police abuse: vulnerable women and girls were targeted by sexual predators
UK news, Friday 29 June 2012
Officers were able to access police databases to find potential victims amid a shocking lack of supervision
When police officers who rape, sexually assault or harass vulnerable victims do reach the court system, phrases such as abuse of power and breach of trust ring out from the judicial benches.
Judges and prosecutors have pronounced over the past four years upon the "rarity and exceptional nature" of these crimes by police officers. A senior crown prosecutor expressed that view, for instance, last year in connection with Mark Wilkie, a Bedfordshire constable who was jailed for 40 months last August for trawling the police computer system to access details of victims of domestic violence and teenage runaways.
The then 51-year-old officer sent the women and young girls hundreds of menacing and sexually explicit messages – adding a threat that he would be watching them.
Wilkie pleaded guilty at Cambridge crown court to 12 counts of misconduct in public office and one count of theft....
http://apps.facebook.com/theguardian/uk/2012/jun/29/police-abuse-vulnerable-women-girls
Federal NDP critics say Harper government gun control stance is failing Toronto
BY MELINDA MALDONADO, THE CANADIAN PRESS JUNE 28, 2012 7:10 PM
TORONTO - The recent spate of shootings in Toronto shows the Harper government's stance on gun control has failed the city, federal New Democrat critics said Thursday.
Cuts to border services and youth programs could be disastrous for community safety, members of parliament Olivia Chow and Andrew Cash said as they stood outside a neighbourhood YMCA.
"The Conservatives have been weak on gun control," said Cash. "They failed the city of Toronto."
The government should reverse planned cuts to border services, provide stable funding for youth programs and come up with a strategy to deal with gun smuggling, the pair said. ...
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Federal+critics+Harper+government+control+stance+failing+Toronto/6855700/story.html#ixzz1z9M8vcuZ
ONE MILLION TEENAGE GIRLS DIE EACH YEAR DUE TO PREGNANCY OR CHILDBIRTH
by Press Association, June 26, 2012
( . . . ) Every year one million teenage girls die or are injured because of pregnancy or childbirth, according to Save the Children. In a new report, the children's charity warns that girls under 15 are five times more likely to die in pregnancy than women in their 20s. More than 25,000 girls under 18 are married every day, according to the report. Many quickly fall pregnant before their bodies have sufficiently developed. "The issue of children having children - and dying because their bodies are too immature to deliver the baby - is a global scandal," said Save the Children's chief executive Justin Forsyth. "This is a tragedy not just for those girls but also for their children - babies are 60% more likely to die if their mother is under 18. "In the developing world, family planning isn't just a lifestyle choice. Children's lives depend on it." ( . . . ) (A)round the world, one in five girls are teenage mothers - having given birth to a child by the time they are 18. Next month a family planning summit is to be held in London to discuss increasing the global availability of contraceptives and to empower women so they have more choices about sex.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/06/26/pregnancy-biggest-killer-girls-world-wide_n_1627971.html
Lesbian Teen Couple Found Shot In Texas Park, 1 Survives
by Alyssa Newcomb, ABC News, June 26, 2012
Police in Texas are searching for an assailant who targeted a lesbian couple in a close-range shooting that left one woman dead and the other in the hospital, however authorities said it is not being investigated as a hate crime.
Detectives are constructing a timeline of events, processing bullet casings found at the scene and are interviewing witnesses to understand what led up to the shootings of Mollie Olgin, 19, and Mary Kristene Chapa, 18, in the small town of Portland, Texas, which is located a few miles from Corpus Christi.
"The families are devastated, obviously, but there's really no information that we've been able to determine yet that would indicate there was anyone who would want to do this to either of those girls," Police Chief Randy Wright told ABC News' Corpus Christi affiliate. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/lesbian-teen-couple-shot-texas-park/story?id=16652447&fb_ref=.T-p05PceWwY.like&fb_source=home_oneline
Victory in Nicaragua! National Assembly passes Violence against Women Law
Posted on March 1, 2012 by Kyla
CoDev’s Nicaraguan partner, MEC (Maria Elena Cuadra Movement of Employed and Unemployed Women) and the wider women’s movement in Nicaragua achieved a significant victory in January 2012 when the National Assembly voted to bring into legislation a Law Against Violence Against Women.
In 1994 MEC began by educating women maquila workers about their rights as both workers and women. They quickly realized, however, that without a legislative framework and accompanying legal mechanisms, women’s rights would never be fully protected and so began their efforts to bring change to Nicaragua’s laws. The legal reforms that they have developed are borne out of women’s experience and reflect women’s aspirations for equality. ...
http://www.codev.org/2012/03/victory-in-nicaragua-national-assembly-passes-violence-against-women-law/?utm_source=CoDevelopment+Canada+List&utm_campaign=07cf63665b-E_bulletin_June_20126_25_2012&utm_medium=email
French minister for women seeks abolition of prostitution in Europe
Najat Vallaud-Belkacem to organise conference of experts on how to contain sex-trade and human-trafficking
Angelique Chrisafis in Paris, guardian.co.uk, Friday 22 June 2012
Najat Vallaud-Belkacem who is seeking talks with Theresa May on tackling prostitution and human trafficking.
France's minister for women is to organise a consultation on ways to abolish prostitution in France and Europe, she has told the Guardian.
Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, the high profile women's rights minister and government spokeswoman, said in an interview that she would be organising a conference of experts on how to contain the sex-trade and human-trafficking and was seeking to meet the home secretary Theresa May for input from the UK.
"Since the 19th century and the role of [the Victorian feminist] Josephine Butler, Britain and France have been the core countries in the international mobilisation against prostitution. I really hope that these common roots are still alive," she said. She wanted a meeting with May on how Britain and France approach prostitution and human-trafficking. In France prostitution is not illegal, but activities around it are. Brothels were outlawed in 1946 and pimping is illegal. ...>
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jun/22/french-minister-abolition-prostitution-europe
Where Arranged Marriages Are Customary, Suicides Grow More Common
Some deaths are not suicides but honor killings. Abdella Hassan said his daughter, recently married to a cousin, had stabbed herself, but his sons are accused of her murder.
by Tim Arango, June 6, 2012
SINJAR, Iraq — With her father sitting nearby, 16-year-old Jenan Merza struggled to explain why she was lying in bed recovering from a gunshot wound.
“I didn’t know the gun was loaded,” she said, resting under a red-and-gold blanket in a stark room with a bare concrete floor.
A couple of moments later, after her father left the room to fix tea and coffee, she cried softly and admitted what really happened, how she had shot herself in the abdomen with her brother’s Glock pistol after first trying with a Kalashnikov rifle — a weapon too long to point at herself and pull the trigger. ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/07/world/middleeast/more-suicides-in-iraq-region-where-arranged-marriage-is-common.html
What Sex Means for World Peace
The evidence is clear: The best predictor of a state's stability is how its women are treated.
BY VALERIE M. HUDSON, APRIL 24, 2012
In the academic field of security studies, realpolitik dominates. Those who adhere to this worldview are committed to accepting empirical evidence when it is placed before their eyes, to see the world as it "really" is and not as it ideally should be. As Walter Lippmann wrote, "We must not substitute for the world as it is an imaginary world."
Well, here is some robust empirical evidence that we cannot ignore: Using the largest extant database on the status of women in the world today, which I created with three colleagues, we found that there is a strong and highly significant link between state security and women's security. In fact, the very best predictor of a state's peacefulness is not its level of wealth, its level of democracy, or its ethno-religious identity; the best predictor of a state's peacefulness is how well its women are treated. What's more, democracies with higher levels of violence against women are as insecure and unstable as nondemocracies...
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/04/24/what_sex_means_for_world_peace?page=0,0
THOUSANDS TAKE PART IN 'SLUT WALKS' IN BRAZIL
Agence France Presse, Sao Paulo, May 26, 2012
SAO PAULO — Several thousand scantily clad women staged boisterous "Slut Walks" in several Brazilian cities Saturday to protest sexual violence against women. With horns, drums, chants and placards denouncing sexism, nearly 3,000 took to the streets in Brasilia, the nation's capital, according to organizers and police. "This march is to call for an end to physical, sexual and psychological violence against women," 29-year-old anthropologist Julia Zamboni told the official Agencia Brasil.
In Rio de Janeiro, organizers said nearly 1,000 women and men brandishing placards calling for the decriminalization of abortion and an end to machismo took part in the walk, although police put the figure at 400. Abortion in Brazil can only be legally performed if the woman's life is in danger or if the pregnancy is the result of rape. In Sao Paulo, police said the "Slut Walk" drew at least 700 women, many wearing lingerie, mini-skirts and blouses with revealing necklines. They included representatives of various feminist, lesbian and transgender groups. Similar marches were also held in Belo Horizonte, Vitoria and other cities ( . . . )
Moore’s Minutes Tip of the Week: How to Stop a Cyberstalker
by Alexis • May 29, 2012
Web counters are a great way to prevent cyberstalking. I say this knowing that many readers ask me often, "how they can stop cyberstalking" one way is by using a web counter.
As a survivor of cyberstalking and traditional stalking, I know far too well how easy it is to become prey for a cyberstalker on-line, however today there are tools that make it a bit easier. You can read about my story and get amazing information regarding cyberstalking in the 9 piece segment on the topic in About.com women's issues. The series I wrote for About.com has been utilized and cited cited in training and legislative measures to combat cyberstalking around the globe...
http://digg.com/newsbar/topnews/moore_s_minutes_tip_of_the_week_how_to_stop_a_cyberstalker_alexis_moore
WHEN FEMINISTS FACE DOMESTIC ABUSE
A guest post by Lila, May 14, 2012
... “I want to make you happy”. That’s what he used to tell me sometimes after another rage fit of his. And for almost two years I believed that. I believed that even after he slapped me for the first time, taking a swing at my upper arm. I stopped believing it after the second slap, the one that landed on my back (luckily, not with full force). The one which allowed to me finally break free from the hell he put me through and see him for what he really is. The one that finally gave me the strength to leave him, some 3 months later...
... they don’t warn you about the “Feminist abuser” ... They tell you it would be the guy who cuts you off from your friends; they never tell you it can be the one who would actively ask to meet them. They tell you it would be a conservative who wants to chain the woman to the sink; they never tell you it can be the recycling, left-wing supporter of women’s rights. They tell you it would be the guy who tells you not to wear that certain type of clothes; they never tell you it can be the one who would help you make the sign for the SlutWalk ...
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/929205/when_feminists_face_domestic_abuse/#paragraph4
'Three Weeks' of rapes, 35 years later Suzanne Lacy updates her 1977 artwork tracing the incidence of attacks in L.A.
By Jori Finkel, Los Angeles Times, January 14, 2012
Standing outside the Los Angeles Police Department's headquarters earlier this week, Suzanne Lacy had a camera around her neck and a red marker in hand. The artist had taped two printouts of the word "rape" onto one section of a 28-foot-long map of Los Angeles and was puzzling over the question. How big should the letters in "rape" be? ...
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-suzanne-lacy-20120114,0,942877.story
The importance of dealing with Occupy's misogyny problem
by Sasha Wiley, May 9, 2012
Back in the days of our encampment, I remember reading and hearing discussion about Occupy's "asshole problem."
I remember my mother, after one of many General Assemblies she attended, talking about the libertarian derailers, intent on hijacking, who tried to block any collective action unless it fit within their narrow pro-pot agenda (which is not actually an agenda I oppose, mine's just longer and broader, such as, how can we get a government system that will be reflective of the will of the people on issues like pot? But I digress)...
http://rabble.ca/news/2012/05/importance-dealing-occupys-misogyny-problem
Prostitution - The Facts
The oldest profession - or the oldest oppression?
The facts on prostitution speak for themselves: ...
http://www.object.org.uk/the-prostitution-facts
Of Little Girls, Fruit Trees and Three Lessons in the Fight to End Violence Against Women
by Regina Yau, Founder and President – The Pixel Project
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller
When I read BBC News’ story about Dharhara village in rural Bihar in India has an unusual tradition that saves girls’ lives, I could not help but echo what Nandani Singh, one of The Pixel Project’s supporters, remarked: “Now THAT is what I call innovation at its best!” ...
http://www.thepixelproject.net/2010/12/22/of-little-girls-and-fruit-trees-a-case-study-about-the-importance-of-prevention/
"The men who had explained to me that “we” didn’t need cops because “we” lived in a progressive community wherein “we” took care of one another turned out to be either the abusers or the ones who protected the abusers. It was a greater crime to go to the police than it was to abuse women."
Being anti-state does not equal being pro-freedom: Misogyny and the imagined “Circle of Protection” in progressive communities
by Meghan Murphy, May 4, 2012
This post is not intended to be a blind celebration of the police. Let’s not pretend as though the police are not largely representative of white male power and authority. But that does not mean I am anti-criminalization or anti-state. As feminists and as women, we need the state on our side...
http://www.feminisms.org/4983/being-anti-state-does-not-equal-being-pro-freedom-misogyny-in-progressive-communities/
Florida Judge denies ‘Stand Your Ground’ retrial to female black defendant
by David Ferguson, May 5, 2012
31-year-old Marissa Alexander was cornered by her abusive husband when she fired a warning shot into the ceiling of their home, using a gun she was licensed to carry. The August, 2010 incident led to the Jacksonville, Florida resident’s conviction of three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to newspaper The Florida Times-Union...
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/05/05/florida-judge-denies-stand-your-ground-retrial-to-female-black-defendant/
Employers, co-workers urged to spot signs of domestic abuse
by Linda Givetash, May 02 2012
WATERLOO REGION — If a co-worker keeps missing days at work, appears depressed or keeps receiving upsetting emails or calls, asking them questions can change their life.
Even though 85 per cent of domestic homicide cases are preventable, those closest to the victims — co-workers and friends — fail to act because they don’t know how...
http://www.therecord.com/news/local/article/716769--employers-co-workers-urged-to-spot-signs-of-domestic-abuse
A prosecution in peril
by Nicole O'Reilly, April 28, 2012
Death threats, a lack of co-operation and a complicated web of lies and paper trails nearly jeopardized the case against a local gang of modern-day slave traders. But a team of dedicated people pulled together to put a stop to the largest human trafficking ring in Canadian history. As a result, 15 people were convicted and 19 victims have been set free.
They were beaten, fed scraps and forced to work as slaves. And their captors came close to escaping justice.
The biggest human trafficking case in Canadian history began in Hamilton basements and construction sites, and might have ended there were it not for a handful of people who put their lives on hold to prosecute the criminals...
http://www.thespec.com/news/local/article/714201--a-prosecution-in-peril
Such Oppression Can Never Be Safe
by Norma Ramos, executive director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, April 19, 2012
At its core, prostitution is violence against women. Safe prostitution is an oxymoron. Prostitution creates a class of human beings who are not supposed to feel when they are most supposed to feel, who are not allowed to say no to unwanted sex. It is the world’s oldest oppression.
The way to address oppression is to end it -- not legalize, regulate or make it more tolerable. The most effective way to address this commercial sexual exploitation is to penalize the buyers and offer those caught up in the sex trafficking industry a way out. This is the model in Sweden, Norway and Iceland -- known as the Nordic model. This approach has discouraged sex trafficking. It is premised on the idea that women and girls have the right not to be bought and sold for sexual exploitation.
For argument’s sake, say 1 percent of the prostituted women in the United States freely chose to be in prostitution. But the vast majority of prostitution results from conditions like childhood sexual abuse, gender inequality, poverty, racism etc. ...
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/04/19/is-legalized-prostitution-safer/legal-prostitution-can-never-be-safe
Stella Marr's letter the New York Times:
"Women who worked in Nevada's legal brothels said they were like prisons where you have to turn tricks. Rimmed with high-security fencing and an electronic gate, they can look like a detention camp. The women live in lockdown conditions and can't leave the premises unless they're accompanied by a male pimp. Living and working in cramped, dark rooms, they're on call 24 hours a day. This is what happens when the law protects people who profit from commercial sexual exploitation. It's the ideal business model. It's the best way to get a woman to turn as many tricks as possible."
The complete letter can be found at:
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/04/19/is-legalized-prostitution-safer/nevadas-legal-brothels-are-coercive-too
Legality Leads to More Trafficking
by Rachel Lloyd, April 19, 2012
As a teenager, I worked in Germany’s legal sex industry. I was, like many girls in the club, underage; most of us were immigrants, nearly all of us had histories of trauma and abuse prior to our entry into commercial sex. Several of us had pimps despite working in a legal establishment; all of us used copious amounts of drugs and alcohol to get through each night.
Violence is inherent in the sex industry. Numerous studies show that between 70 percent and 90 percent of children and women who end up in commercial sex were sexually abused prior to entry. No other industry is dependent upon a regular supply of victims of trauma and abuse.
The presence of an adult sex industry increases both the rates of child sexual exploitation and trafficking...
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/04/19/is-legalized-prostitution-safer/legalizing-prostitution-leads-to-more-trafficking?src=ISMR_AP_LI_LST_FB
AFGHAN SCHOOLGIRLS POISONED IN ANTI-EDUCATION ATTACK
by Mohammad Hamid, Reuters, April 17, 2012
About 150 Afghan schoolgirls were poisoned on Tuesday after drinking contaminated water at a high school in the country's north, officials said ( . . . ) "We are 100 percent sure that the water they drunk inside their classes was poisoned. This is either the work of those who are against girls' education or irresponsible armed individuals," said Jan Mohammad Nabizada, a spokesman for education department in northern Takhar province.
Some of the 150 girls, who suffered from headaches and vomiting, were in critical condition, while others were able to go home after treatment in hospital, the officials said. They said they knew the water had been poisoned because a larger tank used to fill the affected water jugs was not contaminated. "This is not a natural illness. It's an intentional act to poison schoolgirls," said Haffizullah Safi, head of Takhar's public health department. None of the officials blamed any particular group for the attack, fearing retribution ( . . . )
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2012/04/17/19642266.html
GLOBE EDITORIAL: TRIAL JUDGE SHOULD HAVE VIEWED VIDEOTAPES OF RAPE CRIME
April 2, 2012
The absurd leniency shown a Canadian soldier who raped his daughter 10 times over several years and videotaped those rapes reveals, once again, a justice system incapable of grasping the enormity of the harm done to children. And how could it truly grasp that harm? The trial judge refused to watch the videotapes, saying that he well understood such things, from his 15 years of experience as counsel to a children’s aid society, and from his 20 years on the bench . . .
Amazingly, the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld, by a count of 2-1, this evasion of duty by Judge Stephen Hunter of the Ontario Court of Justice, saying trial judges are owed a good deal of deference ( . . . ) For the crime of making such videotapes, for possessing a vast trove of child pornography, and for the rapes, the father received a total of six years. (The dissenting judge would have given nine years in total.) Why so little? Because he pleaded guilty, had post-traumatic stress disorder and no previous criminal record and because it might help reconciliation.>
The evidence was overwhelming, so why give credit for a guilty plea? His PTSD did not cause the crimes, a psychiatrist testified. (But the crimes would almost certainly cause PTSD.) ( . . . ) The leniency, following on the two years given to hockey coach Graham James in a Manitoba court for repeated sex assaults on two teenage players, shows the courts aren’t facing up to child sexual abuse. The Crown should ask the Supreme Court of Canada to look at toughening the protection of children from predators.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/editorials/trial-judge-should-have-viewed-videotapes-of-rape-crime/article2389774/
Body invasion is de-humanising
by Gloria Steinem
When I'm meeting with women and girls in prostitution in my own country as well as some countries of Europe, Africa and here in India, I've always asked what they would like for their daughter. So far, the answers have not included prostitution.
That's especially striking given the profound differences in their lives, from Manhattan call girls to women in the brothel line-ups of Sonagachi; from women in the counties around Las Vegas, the only places in the US where prostitution is legal, to bar girls from the villages of Ghana and the scheduled castes in Bihar where women are consigned to prostitution by birth. Indeed, the same seems to be true of prostituted males who serve male clients...
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3287212.ece
Native Women's Association of Canada Responds to Cuts to Health Projects
Press Release--For Immediate Release
Ottawa, ON (April 13, 2012)--The Health Department of the Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC) is extremely distressed and concerned over Health Canada's decision to cut all funding for projects aimed at improving the health of Aboriginal women in Canada. Few people in the world are in greater need of human rights protection than Indigenous peoples. Although governments have a duty and responsibility to ensure the welfare and safety of all their citizens, Indigenous peoples are often the target of policies designed to erode or suppress their rights and distinct cultural identities. Canada is no exception!...
http://www.nwac.ca/sites/default/files/imce/April%2013%2C%202012%20%20Health%20post%20budget%20cuts%20to%20NWAC_Press_Release.pdf
MELINDA GATES FIGHTS TO PUT BIRTH CONTROL ON THE GLOBAL AGENDA - AND SAVE CHILDREN'S LIVES
by Matthew Herper, April 15, 2012
Melinda Gates, the co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, says that making sure all women have access to birth control must become “a total priority” for countries both rich and poor. The argument was made during a half-hour talk at TED Exchange in Berlin...
Gates, a practicing Catholic, made the argument that giving women the ability to choose when they have children has profound positive effects on societies, but that it has been denied to many people in parts of Africa and Southeast Asia. She argues that this is an “uncontroversial truth,” because birth control is used by a billion couples, but that it has become controversial because in public debates contraception is often linked to the desire to control population, to abortion, or to other issues that are ethically dicey. As a result, more than 200 million people don’t have access to contraceptives.
See the TED video at this address:
http://www.ted.com/talks/melinda_gates_let_s_put_birth_control_back_on_the_agenda.html
Women's society unveils new support tool for Downtown Eastside's invisible victims
By Suzanne Fournier, April 12, 2012
Janice Abbott and Angela Marie MacDougall helped lead a new $100,000 program to support Downtown Eastside women in Vancouver who are the victims of violence.
The 8,000 women who live or work in the Downtown Eastside face staggering levels of violence, yet 90 per cent of those violent incidents go unreported.
Now a new mobile van, staffed evenings and nights, will be there to help...
http://www.theprovince.com/news/Women+society+unveils+support+tool+Downtown+Eastside+invisible+victims/6450637/story.html#ixzz1s3Rqn2uM
Ashley Judd Slaps Media in the Face for Speculation Over Her ‘Puffy’ Appearance
by Ashley Judd Apr 9, 2012
Ashley Judd’s 'puffy' appearance sparked a viral media frenzy. But, the actress writes, the conversation is really a misogynistic assault on all women.
The Conversation about women’s bodies exists largely outside of us, while it is also directed at (and marketed to) us, and used to define and control us. The Conversation about women happens everywhere, publicly and privately. We are described and detailed, our faces and bodies analyzed and picked apart, our worth ascertained and ascribed based on the reduction of personhood to simple physical objectification. Our voices, our personhood, our potential, and our accomplishments are regularly minimized and muted...
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/04/09/ashley-judd-slaps-media-in-the-face-for-speculation-over-her-puffy-appearance.html
The Native Women's Association of Canada Opposes the Bedford Prostitution Decision
Ottawa, ON (March 29, 2012)
The Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC) is disappointed with the Ontario Court of Appeal Decision, which declared the Criminal Code provision restricting "common bawdy houses" unconstitutional. This means that johns cannot be criminalized if found purchasing sex in a brothel. The court also found that "living on the avails" of prostitution should apply only in "circumstances of exploitation" which, of course, is difficult to prove and may put Aboriginal women in prostitution at continued risk...
http://www.nwac.ca/media/release/29-03-12
Mallick: Why are we talking ourselves into Brothel City?
by Heather Mallick, Toronto Star Columnist, March 30, 2012
"All women should be shown a viable way out of the sex trade," said Angel Wolfe, whose mother Brenda was killed by Robert Pickton.
Prostitution is a rotten thing, dangerous, filthy and soul-destroying. And yet male customers keep it going, along with an endless PR campaign — in tandem with activist prostitutes — about catering to its inevitability.
But is it inevitable? Throughout history, people have taken dangerous drugs, committed suicide, raped their offspring and behaved appallingly and self-destructively in a huge expandable array of acts, but we don’t shrug and say, “Such is life.” We work with great passion to put a stop to it. As we should. ...
http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1154464--mallick-why-are-we-talking-ourselves-into-brothel-city
Spain prostitution ring tattooed women with bar codes
Romanians accused of forcing women into sex trade, branding them as signs of ownership
The Associated Press, March 25, 2012
Spanish police have arrested 22 people on suspicion of using violence to force women into prostitution and tattooing them with bar codes as a sign of ownership.
Police say the accused were tattooing women on their wrists as a sign of ownership.Police say the accused were tattooing women on their wrists as a sign of ownership.
Police are calling members of the gang the "bar code pimps."...
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/03/25/spain-bar-code-prostitution-ring.html
Topless Women Protest Rampant Sex Trade and Violence Against Women in Ukraine
The women's rights group Femen, who stage topless protests against prostitution and sex trafficking, organized a demonstration in front of the General Prosecutors Office of Ukraine in the capital, Kyiv.
OLIVIA KATRANDJIAN, March 18, 2012
A group of bare-breasted young women scaled the front of the General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine this week, carrying signs saying "Death to Rapists" and "The Country Wants Vengeance," protesting the handling of the case of a young woman who was raped, dumped in a ditch and set on fire.
The demonstration in support of Oksana Makar, whose case has horrified Ukraine, is just the latest for the topless activists from the women's group Femen, which protests against prostitution, sex trafficking and violence against women...
http://abcnews.go.com/International/topless-women-protest-rampant-sex-trade-ukraine/story?id=15468367#.T25CO2vF-So
CUBA'S LADIES IN WHITE WARNED PUBLIC PROTESTS NO LONGER ALLOWED
Juan O. Tamayo, McClatchy Newspapers, March 20, 2012
MIAMI — Cuba's Ladies in White say the secret police have told them that they will shut down the only public protests allowed by the government anywhere on the island - the marches staged by the women after Sunday Masses in Havana's Santa Rita church. The threat came as police arrested more than 70 group members over the weekend ( . . . ) The Ladies in White generally have been allowed to protest outside the Santa Rita church since mid-2010, when Cardinal Jaime Ortega interceded with the government after the women were accosted, sometimes lewdly, several times by mobs of government supporters...
Excerpted from McClatchy, see:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/03/19/142458/cubas-ladies-in-white-warned-public.html
Israel passes law banning use of underweight models
The global fashion industry is accused of idealising extreme thinness
20 March 2012
The Israeli government has passed a law banning the use of underweight models in advertising and on the catwalk.
The new law requires models to provide medical proof of their weight, and for adverts to state if an image has been altered to make a model appear thinner.
Supporters of the bill believe images of extreme thinness are to blame for eating disorders in young girls...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17450275
Starbucks' hero motivates violence prevention toolkit
Slain manager's partner works with WorkSafeBC to develop free online kit
March 22, 2012
The WorkSafeBC domestic violence in the workplace toolkit includes animations depicting employer and employee responsibilities.
The murder of a Vancouver Starbucks manager who died defending an employee during an attack has helped motivate the launch of a new WorkSafeBC program to help people address domestic violence in the workplace...
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/03/22/bc-workplace-violence-toolkit.html
#Ididnotreport, but #webelieveyou
by Meg Kissack, Co-editor and campaigns co-ordinator, March 16, 2012.
It says something about the society we live in when rape and sexual assault survivors feel more confident in sharing their stories via Twitter, than reporting it to the police.
The hashtag #Ididnotreport has been trending on Twitter for three days, with people using 160 characters to share their assaults and the reason why they did not report the crime...
http://www.womensviewsonnews.org/2012/03/ididnotreport-but-webelieveyou/
That's Enough Politeness – Women Need to Rise Up in Anger
by Laurie Penny, March 8, 2012, The Independent/UK
To get into the UN Commission on the Status of Women, you have to get past several ranks of large armed men. In the foyer, you can buy UN women-themed hats and tote bags, and pick up glossy pamphlets about this year's International Women's Day, but what you can't pick up is the slightest sense of urgency. In the 101 years since the first International Women's Day, all the passionate politics seems to have been leached out of the women's movement...
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/03/08-0
Women In The World 2012: Violence Against Women Sweeps Central America
03/11/2012
On Thursday, March 8, in coincidence with International Women's Day, hundreds of influential women from over a dozen countries flocked to New York's Lincoln Center for Newsweek and The Daily Beast's third annual Women in the World conference.
The three-day event featured panels with a host of remarkable individuals, including Madeleine Albright, Hillary Clinton, and Janet Napolitano, among others. The summit largely focused on women's empowerment and how activists are working to address issues facing women around the world today.
While many of the discussions highlighted women's achievements and advancements, a sobering panel on violence against women in Central America served as a stark reminder of how far gender equality has to go in many parts of the world.
The panel opened with the spotlight on a young woman sitting with her back to the audience. The panel host, Paris Bureau Chief for Newsweek Magazine Christopher Dickey, informed the audience that the girl could not show her face because she was the victim of forced prostitution. The girl, referred to only as 'Esther,' could not reveal her identity because her captors remained at large...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/11/women-in-the-world-2012_n_1335572.html
(U.S.) STATES SLASH BIRTH CONTROL SUBSIDIES AS FEDERAL DEBATE RAGES
By Stephanie Simon, Reuters, March 5, 2012
Even as a national debate rages over contraception insurance, tens of thousands of low-income women and teenagers across the United States have lost access to subsidized birth control as states slash and restructure family planning funds. Montana and New Jersey have eliminated altogether their state family planning programs. New Hampshire cut its funding by 57 percent and five other states made more modest program trims.
But the biggest impact, by far, has been in Texas. State lawmakers last fall cut family-planning funds by two-thirds, or nearly $74 million over two years. Within months, half the state-supported family planning clinics in Texas had closed. The state network, which once provided 220,000 women a year free and low-cost birth control, cervical cancer tests and diabetes screenings, will now serve just 40,000 to 60,000, officials said ( . . . )
Texas legislators who backed the 66-percent family planning cuts say they had no choice - the state budget was in crisis and many worthy programs suffered. But a budget board analysis concluded the cut would actually cost Texas taxpayers more than it saved. The board projected that women unable to get low-cost birth control would deliver 20,500 additional babies - costing state and federal taxpayers $231 million in prenatal, maternity and infant care ( . . . )
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/05/us-states-slash-birth-control-idUSTRE8240ZM20120305
AUSTRALIAN MUSLIM WOMEN MUST SHOW FACES FOR IDENTITY CHECKS UNDER NEW LAW
by Alison Rourke, Guardian, 5 March 2012
Muslim women in the Australian state of New South Wales will be required to show their faces when they have documents witnessed under new identity check laws. The laws – due to come into force on 30 April – will apply to statutory declarations and affidavits and cover anything that conceals a person's face, including motorcycle helmets, masks, veils, burqas or niqabs.
It follows a court case in which a woman wearing a burqa had a six-month jail sentence overturned on appeal last year because of doubts about her identity. Carnita Matthews, 47, was originally convicted of falsely accusing a police officer of trying to remove her burqa during a random breath test. The conviction was overturned on appeal because the woman who made the complaint was wearing a burqa, making it impossible to tell whether it was Matthews. Traffic laws were subsequently changed, and drivers who refuse to show their faces face being jailed for up to a year and fined $5,000 (£3,400) ( . . . )
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/05/australian-muslim-women-identity-checks
AFGHAN WOMEN SPEAK OUT AGAINST PROTESTS OVER U.S. QURAN BURNING
by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, Mar 1, 2012
The bloodshed and the images of street protests coming out of Afghanistan have horrified Americans who wonder why in the world their men and women are giving their lives to a country that would so wantonly kill them. Their anger is heartfelt and understandable. But what the video of men in the streets misses is the quiet majority that deplores the burning of the Holy Quran but refuses to take part in violence. And the women who are trying to calm the uproar while getting on with their work....
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/03/01/afghan-women-speak-out-against-protests-over-u-s-quran-burning.html
Who is the real enemy in the prostitution debate?
A response to one argument against abolition
By Meghan Murphy, February 22, 2012
Please read:
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/f-word-collective/2012/02/who-real-enemy-prostitution-debate-response-one-argument-ag
Does Legalized Prostitution Increase Human Trafficking?This paper investigates the impact of legalized prostitution on human trafficking inflows. According to economic theory, there are two opposing effects of unknown magnitude. The scale effect of legalizing prostitution leads to an expansion of the prostitution market, increasing human trafficking, while the substitution effect reduces demand for trafficked women as legal prostitutes are favored over trafficked ones. Our empirical analysis for a cross-section of up to 150 countries shows that the scale effect dominates the substitution effect. On average, the legalization of prostitution increases human trafficking inflows.
http://ideas.repec.org/p/got/gotcrc/096.html
Long-gun registry battle will go on even after vote in Parliament
Liberals in Senate say they have no intention of 'rubber stamping' the Tory bill
By Jeff Davis, Postmedia News February 15, 2012
MPs vote on the highly contentious bill to end the long-gun registry Wednesday evening, and while it is sure to pass the majority Conservative parliament, the battle will continue for months before the registry is dealt its final coup de grace...
Read more:
http://www.canada.com/Long+registry+battle+will+even+after+vote+Parliament/6155364/story.html#ixzz1mZxTyNpA
HONOUR KILLINGS ‘UN-ISLAMIC,’ FATWA DECLARES IN WAKE OF SHAFIA TRIAL
Canadian Press, February 4, 2012
Controversy surrounding the Shafia murder trial prompted imams from across Canada and the United States to issue a moral ruling Saturday officially condemning honour killings, domestic violence and misogyny as “un-Islamic.” Thirty-four imams belonging to the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, including a handful of American members, signed the fatwa in an effort to counter misinterpretations of the Koran, they said. While it has no legal teeth, the fatwa is “morally binding” for all Muslims, said Syed Soharwardy, a Calgary-based imam who founded the council. “So if anybody is thinking that honour killing is allowed in Islam, or domestic violence is okay or misogyny is okay, we are saying no, you are dead wrong,” he said Saturday in announcing the measure...
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/honour-killings-un-islamic-fatwa-declares-in-wake-of-shafia-trial/article2326829/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=feedburner&utm_content=Google+Reader&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheGlobeAndMail-National+%28The+Globe+and+Mail+-+National+News%29
Should we call it ‘honour killing’? No!
It's a false distancing of ourselves from a too-common crime: the murder of females
by Yasmin Jiwani and Homa Hoodfar, January 30, 2012, Montreal Gazette
The extensive media coverage of the Shafia trial and convictions raises important questions about how violence against women is framed in the media. Just as a photograph is framed by the photographer, so is the media’s framing of a particular issue; the focus of our attention is on what is in the picture only. Out of sight is the background we will never know. In the case of the Shafia murders, the media frame the story as an honour killing....
http://www.montrealgazette.com/story_print.html?id=6074266&sponsor
Pankh: Campaign against female foeticide
31.01.2012
Pankh Organises Signature Campaign Against Female Foeticide: Huge Turnout makes the event a Huge Success.
Pankh, a women rights organisation based in India, did a commendable job once again to uphold its stance of opposing all forms of Violence against women. This time it was in the form of a signature campaign, that was held at the Avadh Girls' Degree College, an Institution of higher education at Lucknow.
It was here that the girls were sensitised to the importance of womanhood and the need for controlling the growing menace of female foeticide that is creating lot of trouble in a country like India which is otherwise known for its veneration towards the Female forms of divinity. Dr. Sheba Rakesh, the Executive Director of Pankh stressed the need to awaken the masses towards such heinous atrocities which have large scale social ramifications in the form of human trafficking, prostitution, dowry and domestic violence and other forms of harassment, both emotional and sexual against womenfolk...
http://english.pravda.ru/society/sex/31-01-2012/120382-female_foeticide-0/
Understanding the dynamics of a 'crime of honour'
Dakshana Bascaramurty and Colin Freeze
Globe and Mail, Monday, Jan. 30, 2012
The murders of four women at the hands of their closest relatives may serve as a wakeup call for wider Canadian society to the social ills that those closer to traditionalist communities have long grappled with.
The convictions of Mohammad Shafia, his wife, Tooba Yahya, and his eldest son, Hamed, on Sunday followed a long trial in which evidence showed that teachers, police and social services saw repeated warning signs that the teenaged daughters of the family were at risk of life-threatening violence....
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/understanding-the-dynamics-of-a-crime-of-honour/article2319090/
THERE'S NO HONOUR IN 'SHAMELESS MURDERS'
by Christie Blatchford, The Montreal Gazette, January 30, 2012
. . . It was, as the shy prosecutor Gerard Laarhuis said outside the lovely old Frontenac County courthouse, "a good day for Canadian justice. ( . . . ) This verdict sends a very clear message about our Canadian values and the core principles in a free and democratic society that all Canadians enjoy, and even visitors to Canada enjoy." The "visitors" reference was a kind and graceful nod to Rona Amir Mohammad, Shafia's unacknowledged other wife. Unlike the rest of the sprawling clan, she was brought to Canada as a domestic servant and was on a visitor's visa, its renewal held over her head like an axe ready to fall by her co-wife Yahya and Shafia . . .
At (the heart of this case), as prosecutors argued, were not only the three lost teens and Rona, but also the very notion of what is a girl. As Shafia once howled to Yahya, in what they imagined was the privacy of their minivan just days after their household had been almost halved: "Every night I used to think of myself as a cuckold. Every day I used to go and gather (her) from the arms of boys." If the question was downright creepy - why on Earth would any father ever feel like a cuckold? - the answer was far worse: Because, of course, that father believed he was the one who had absolute control of his daughters' sexuality . . .
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/There+honour+shameless+murders/6070834/story.html
'STOLEN BABIES' TRIAL AWAITS U.S. DOCUMENTS
By Kelly Hearn, Women's ENews, January 23, 2012
Buenos Aires, Argentina -- In a major trial here, the government is accusing 11 former leaders of the military junta of systematically appropriating infants belonging to some of the 30,000 citizens who were killed for being deemed "leftist subversives" during the so-called Dirty War from 1976 to 1983.
The trial, expected to close this year, is being closely watched by a group of women now in their 80s or 90s, known as the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo. For 30 years they have driven a very public effort to find stolen grandchildren and to bring their children's killers to justice. Now they are finding an ally in a (U.S.) Democratic Congressman named Maurice Hinchey, who (. . .) is seeking the declassification and release of CIA and Pentagon records that could help identify some of the missing grandchildren. "We know that many people at the time went to the U.S. embassy and gave testimony about what happened to them," said Estela Carlotto, president of the Grandmothers. "Thirty years have passed and we think it is time to release them" . . .
http://www.womensenews.org/story/the-world/120122/stolen-babies-trial-awaits-us-documents
HOPE FOR HAITI'S WOMEN
by Amanda Klasing, Human Rights Watch, January 17, 2012
It is easy to give up on Haiti reading through the litany of articles about where the country stands after two difficult years since the January 12, 2010 earthquake . . . Women's rights is one example of huge problems and work ahead, and yet it also shows why no one should give up on Haiti. Groundbreaking work is being done to promote the rights of women and girls -- who have suffered immeasurably in Haiti's disasters and instability -- through new legislation. Haiti's current criminal justice system does little to protect women and girls from rape and gender-based violence . . . Rape survivors described brutal attacks and poor state health and justice system responses . . . Medical and judicial communities cannot agree on the necessary forms to record forensic medical evidence of rape. The penal code fails to encompass most forms of violence against women, and provides virtually no victim protection measures.
But this under-developed and unwieldy system is capable of change, and in fact, it's under way...
Excerpted from Huffington Post, see:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amanda-klasing/haiti-women_b_1210382.html
THE NEW MUSLIM SUFFRAGETTES OF THE UNITED KINGDOM
By Charlotte Rachael Proudman, The Independent, 18 January 2012
An increasing number of Muslim women activists are receiving death threats, fatwas and even hate-mail from extremist male and female Muslims. Their crime: Rescuing fellow Muslim women from violent and life threatening situations. With heightened media sensitivity surrounding forced marriage, honour based violence and domestic violence we are all too aware of the suffering experienced by vulnerable and marginalised Muslim women. But we know little about the Muslim women activists who risk their lives to fight for the rights of oppressed Muslim women. These women are the New Muslim Suffragettes (NMS) of The United Kingdom...
Excerpted from The Independent, see:
http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/01/18/the-new-muslim-suffragettes-of-the-united-kingdom/
FORCE-FED AND BEATEN – LIFE FOR WOMEN IN JAIL
New UN guidelines are being flouted worldwide
by Molly Guinness, The Independent, 18 December 2011
Female prisoners around the world are being subjected to body cavity searches, beatings and force-feeding, are held in padded cells, shackled during childbirth, and made to work in chain gangs. Some of the worst conditions are in developing countries, but there are also serious abuses and overcrowding in Europe and North America. These are the major findings of a survey by The Independent on Sunday to mark the first anniversary of United Nations rules governing the treatment of women in prison. The "Bangkok Rules" make stipulations about contact with families, gender-specific healthcare, psychological treatment and hygiene, and they forbid strip searches in most circumstances. The guidelines were adopted on 21 December 2010, but reports from around the world show they are being widely flouted...
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/forcefed-and-beaten--life-for-women-in-jail-6278849.html
Call for change in law to protect prostitutes from violent crime
Brothel attacks prompt debate whether police priority should be prosecuting sex workers or catching dangerous criminals
by Owen Bowcott, guardian.co.uk, January 16, 2012
Decriminalising prostitution could mean better safety and improved relations with police for sex workers. A series of gang attacks on brothels in east London has triggered calls for changes to the prostitution laws after victims who reported knifepoint robberies said they ended up being threatened with prosecution.
A police investigation has been launched as senior Labour and Conservative members of the London assembly and the English Collective of Prostitutes allege that violent crime is being given a lower priority than less serious sex offences.
The attacks highlight the growing debate over calls for New Zealand's pioneering decriminalisation of sex work to be considered – an approach recently supported by the Association of Chief Police Officers...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jan/16/change-law-prostitutes-crime-violent?fb_action_ids=10151156344015123&fb_action_types=news.reads&fb_source=other_multiline
IN JERUSALEM, WOMEN ARE VOICELESS AT A DECIDEDLY WOMANLY EVENT
Patrick Martin, Jerusalem, Globe and Mail, January 10, 2012
The controversial exclusion of women from various settings in Israel because of pressure from ultra-Orthodox Jewish leaders reached a new level this week with a major conference on gynecological advances that is permitting only males to address the audience. The conference on “Innovations in Gynecology/Obstetrics and Halacha [Jewish law]” is being held by the Puah Institute this Wednesday in Jerusalem. It will include such topics as “ovary implants,” “how to choose a suitable contraceptive pill” and “intimacy during rocket attacks,” in which there are many qualified female professionals, but none will be permitted to speak, at least not from the podium. Women are allowed in the audience, in a section separate from men...
Excerpted from The Globe and Mail, see:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/worldview/in-jerusalem-women-are-voiceless-at-a-decidedly-womanly-event/article2297159/?utm_medium=Feeds%3A%20RSS%2FAtom&utm_source=World&utm_content=2297159
In US more women were raped last year than smoke cigarettes
http://www.care2.com/causes/in-us-more-women-were-raped-last-year-than-smoke-cigarettes.html
***Abolitionists of the prostitution system: who we are, what we want!***
The following manifesto was published January 5 on the Le MONDE.FR website: http://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2012/01/05/abolitionnistes-du-systeme-prostitueur-ce-que-nous-sommes-ce-que-nous-voulons_1625629_3232.html
By Mouvement du nid, Collectif féministe contre le viol, Fédération nationale solidarité femmes, Centre national d'information sur les droits des femmes, and many other feminist organizations
On facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/notes/trisha-baptie/fantastic-abolitionist-manifest-by-french-feminists/10150567574038933
The Penn State Scandal:
Connect the Dots Between Child Abuse and The Sexual Assault of Women on Campus
By Claire Potter, November 10, 2011
As you absorb the news about the key people at Penn State who ought to have reported what they knew of coach Jerry Sandusky’s alleged assaults on little boys, please keep one thing in mind. Penn State’s cover-up is embedded in the interest it, and all universities, have in keeping many forms of sexual violence and sexual harassment a private, internal matter. The mistake Penn State made was, in many ways, a simple category error: they mistook these pubescent boys for women. They forgot that children occupy a very different status in the law than do the female students, faculty and staff who are most frequently the object of unwanted sexual attention and/or violence. If a college woman doesn’t file a rape charge, usually very quickly, the crime doesn’t exist. Delay the report by as little as 24 hours and the chances of even an internal judicial proceeding (much less an arrest and a trial) diminish dramatically. Universities substitute private hearings, counseling and mediation for legal proceedings: while women often choose this route, rather than filing felony charges against their assailants, it doesn’t always serve their interest to do so. But it always serves the interests of the institution not to have such cases go to court....
http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/tenuredradical/2011/11/1401/
Israelis protest ultra-Orthodox treatment of women
The Associated Press, Dec 27, 2011
Thousands of people in Israel rallied against religious extremism on Tuesday, protesting against the way some ultra-Orthodox Jews treat girls and women.
Protesters held signs reading, "Free Israel from religious coercion," and "Stop Israel from becoming Iran."
Ultra-Orthodox extremists want to impose a number of restrictions, which include not allowing women to be interviewed on radio stations, not accepting pictures of women in newspapers or billboards, and demanding women sit at the back of the bus....
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/12/27/ultar-orthodox-jews-israel-protest.html
Native Women's Association of Canada: Press Release – For Immediate Release
UN Will Conduct Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women in Canada
Ottawa, ON, December 13, 2011
The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has decided to conduct an inquiry into the murders and disappearances of Aboriginal women and girls across Canada. The Committee, composed of 23 independent experts from around the world, is the UN’s main authority on women’s human rights. The Committee’s decision was announced today by Jeannette Corbiere Lavell, President of the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC), and Sharon McIvor of the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA)...
http://www.nwac.ca/media/release/13-12-11
15 tips for protecting your privacy online
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/12/06/f-online-privacy-tips.html
Juárez: Protocol for missing women scrutinized
by Alejandro Martínez-Cabrera, El Paso Times, 11/28/2011
JUAREZ -- The banners plastered through the streets of the city's downtown show empty quinceañera dresses and fitted clothes floating in the air: the forms are there but not the women.
The posters are part of a new campaign by the state of Chihuahua to prevent and report missing women in Juárez, a problem that has tormented the city for two decades and continued behind the veil of generalized violence in the last four years...
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_19423144
New website for families with missing persons
by Jordan Maxwell, Portage la Prairie News, November 29, 2011
A new tool has been devised to assist families in the search for their loved ones.
The Coalition of Families of Missing and Murdered Women in Manitoba and Ka Ni Kanichihk Inc., an Aboriginal non-profit corporation, have partnered to launch the Manitoba Toolkit to Assist Families of Missing Persons and Persons at Risk, a website which offers critical information to help families in the first 24 to 48 hours when a person's gone missing...
Manitoba Toolkit to Assist Families of Missing Persons and Persons at Risk:
www.kanikanichihk.ca/?page_id=761
Female RCMP officers’ accounts of sexual harassment in force prompt new hotline
by Suzanne Fournier, The Province, November 25, 2011
A national hotline for female RCMP officers and others affected by sexual harassment or violence at the hands of police will be up and running by Monday.
One phone call from a female officer, anywhere in Canada, will connect her to “confidential emotional support,” ensure she is safe and refer her to “legal remedies including class action lawyers,” Angela Marie MacDougall of Battered Women’s Support Services said Thursday.
MacDougall said BWSS, which will staff the service, has had numerous calls since “courageous” RCMP officers like Catherine Galliford and Krista Carle spoke out....
MacDougall said the hotline will be available for women RCMP members during business hours at 1-855-687-1868.
http://www.theprovince.com/news/Female+RCMP+officers+accounts+sexual+harassment+force+prompt+hotline/5763916/story.html#ixzz1eq1TDYnB
TOPLESS UKRAINIAN ACTIVIST DETAINED IN VATICAN AFTER PROTESTING UNDER POPE'S BALCONY
By Brian Whitmore, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. November 10, 2011
A member of the Ukrainian women's rights group Femen was detained in the Vatican on November 6 after holding a topless protest against the Roman Catholic Church's "misogynist policies" under the balcony of Pope Benedict XVI. Wearing tight black jeans and a see-through black top, Oleksandra Shevchenko managed to slip into St. Peter's Square in the heart of the Vatican. She held up a placard demanding "Freedom For Women," struck provocative poses, chanted "Freedom! Freedom! We Are Free!" in Italian, and removed her shirt before being surrounded and detained by police. Two other Femen members were detained before they could reach the square, Interfax reported.
Shevchenko's protest took place just moments after the pontiff had delivered his traditional Sunday blessing to pilgrims in the square. A statement on the group's website said the stunt was a "protest against papal patriarchal propaganda," which "imposes medieval ideas about women on the world."
...
http://www.alternet.org/reproductivejustice/153039/topless_ukrainian_activist_detained_in_vatican_after_protesting_under_pope%27s_balcony?page=entire
Second prostitute-support group running out of money
Robert Matas, VANCOUVER— Nov. 15, 2011
A support group for prostitutes that has been a fixture of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside for 17 years will run out of money in three weeks.
Providing Alternatives Counselling and Education Society, also known as PACE, is the second well-established organization led by former prostitutes to reveal this week that programs for some of the most vulnerable people in the city’s poorest neighbourhood may be discontinued this spring...
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/bc-politics/second-prostitute-support-group-running-out-of-money/article2237563/
Vancouver prostitutes to lose agency that helps them leave trade
Robert Matas
VANCOUVER— Globe and Mail Nov. 14, 2011
The only agency in Vancouver dedicated to helping women leave prostitution will be forced to close its doors this spring as a result of the “Wal-Martization” of the B.C. government’s employment programs, says the executive director of PEERS Vancouver.
The provincial government is in the process of revamping its employment programs to provide accessible one-stop centres to move people from training to jobs as quickly as possible. The new centres are expected to replace numerous non-profit groups in communities across the province...
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/bc-politics/for-prostitutes-seeking-to-leave-the-trade-a-little-less-help/article2236223/
Over It
by Eve Ensler, Huffington Post, 11/11/11
I am over rape.
I am over rape culture, rape mentality, rape pages on Facebook.
I am over the thousands of people who signed those pages with their real names without shame.
I am over people demanding their right to rape pages, and calling it freedom of speech or justifying it as a joke...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eve-ensler/over-it_b_1089013.html
'YOU ARE THE NOW OF NOW!' THE FUTURE OF (ONLINE) FEMINISM
by Courtney E. Martin, The Nation, November 2, 2011
In late February of this year, Lamar Outdoor Advertising unveiled a billboard on Sixth Ave and Watts in SoHo, not coincidentally right around the corner from a Planned Parenthood, featuring the picture of a young black girl and the words, “The most dangerous place for African Americans is in the Womb.”
The ad was sponsored by the Texas anti-choice group Life Always. An editor at Feministing posted about the billboard on February 24, featuring an excerpt from an inspired statement by SisterSong and the Trust Black Women Partnership, along with the contact information for Lamar. Readers expressed their outrage, and the billboard was taken down the very same day...
http://www.thenation.com/signupad/164338?destination=article/164338/you-are-now-now-future-online-feminism
Women bloggers call for a stop to 'hateful' trolling by misogynist men
Anonymous trolls regularly threaten female writers with rape
The Observer, Sunday 6 November 2011
Crude insults, aggressive threats and unstinting ridicule: it's business as usual in the world of website news commentary – at least for the women who regularly contribute to the national debate.
The frequency of the violent online invective – or "trolling" – levelled at female commentators and columnists is now causing some of the best known names in journalism to hesitate before publishing their opinions. As a result, women writers across the political spectrum are joining to call for a stop to the largely anonymous name-calling...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/05/women-bloggers-hateful-trolling?newsfeed=true
The Scars of Prostitution
The Star October 31, 2011
The challenges to prostitution and its harms have entailed claims of abuse and exploitation on behalf of some, victimization and subordination by others. As with other sweeping claims, such as alleging that capitalism is inherently exploitative or that many people in industrialized countries benefited from colonialism, this one is highly contested.
The Swedish parliament in 1998 recognized prostitution to be a form of sex inequality related to gender-based violence, which typically exploited and harmed the prostituted person, and thus decided to criminalize purchasers while decriminalizing prostituted persons. The harms were understood to be intrinsic to prostitution. In taking this action, Sweden rejected the route taken by nations that legalized certain forms of prostitution on the grounds that the harms could be controlled and alleviated...
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/1079125--the-scars-of-prostitution?bn=1
COMMONWEALTH TACKLES FORCED MARRIAGE
(October 30, 2011, Agence France Presse, PERTH, Australia) — Commonwealth leaders Sunday placed renewed emphasis on tackling forced marriage as they wrapped up a three-day summit at which they committed to empowering girls and women. In a communique pitched towards overhauling the 54-nation bloc to make it more relevant, the grouping said it would "promote the implementation of measures to tackle early and forced marriage"...
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jTyErMKygvcp0o6Tti27MWjP8DCg?docId=CNG.5f90b5d1553ad0aa1cc0c370085cac75.a1
GIRLS EQUAL IN BRITISH THRONE SUCCESSION
28 October 2011
Sons and daughters of any future UK monarch will have equal right to the throne, after Commonwealth leaders agreed to change succession laws.The leaders of the 16 Commonwealth countries where the Queen is head of state unanimously approved the changes at a summit in Perth, Australia. It means a first-born daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge would take precedence over younger brothers. The ban on the monarch being married to a Roman Catholic was also lifted...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15492607
New GPS Device To Help Warn Domestic Violence Victims About Abusers
If Attacker Enters Area He Or She Shouldn't Be, The Cavalry Will Be Notified
November 1, 2011
Staten Island will begin using the devices to keep track of abusers starting next year
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — It’s a tragedy that happens all too often. The victim of domestic violence gets a restraining order against her abuser, only to be beaten or killed when that order is ignored...
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/11/01/new-gps-device-to-help-warn-domestic-violence-victims-about-abusers/
Free Violence Response Hotline Launches in Haiti to Support Victims of Sexual Assault
by Ximena Ramirez, October 30, 2011
It’s incredible how far technology has come and how many innovative ways we can use it for good. Take for example the “Fight Back” phone app that was recently launched in New Delhi to help women fend off potential attackers with their phone. Now in Haiti an organization called Digital Democracy, a New York-based non-profit working globally to empower marginalized communities to use technology to fight for their human rights, is launching the only phone-based emergency response system dedicated to rape and sexual assault.
With KOFAVIV, the Commission for Women Victims for Victims, the two have designed, tested, and launched the Call Center which will serve like the American 911 system for reporting emergencies. The Call Center, the first of its kind in Haiti, can be reached by dialing 572...
http://www.care2.com/causes/free-violence-response-hotline-launches-in-haiti-to-support-victims-of-sexual-assault.html#ixzz1cNU1ZllN
Experts urge Quebec-led registry
By Max Harrold, THE GAZETTE October 27, 2011
MONTREAL - A Quebec long-gun registry could be an effective tool for police, and might even start a trend of other provinces setting up co-operative long-gun registries, experts say...
http://www.montrealgazette.com/Experts+urge+Quebec+registry/5619397/story.html
Yemen women burn veils to protest violence by government supporters
by Hamoud Mouanassar, Agence France-Presse, Oct 26, 2011
SANAA – More than 20 Yemeni civilians, government troops and dissident soldiers were killed in overnight violence after President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s latest pledge to step down, medics said on Wednesday...
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/10/26/yemen-women-burn-veils-to-protest-violence-by-government-supporters/
Women May Get Right To Know If a Boyfriend Has History of Violence
Police can already reveal a man's violent past, but only if there is an urgent need to prevent crime
United Kingdom, Paul Cahalan, 26 October 2011
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/women-may-get-right-to-know-if-a-boyfriend-has-history-of-violence-2376009.html
There’s An App For That: Fight Back App Protects Women in New Delhi
by Ximena Ramirez, October 22, 2011
It seems that these days there’s an app for just about anything. With just the click of a button, women in New Delhi will soon be able to fend off potential attackers with their phones...
Read more:
http://www.care2.com/causes/theres-an-app-for-that-fight-back-app-protects-women-in-new-delhi.html#ixzz1bchoioKD
Monumentos 'se pintan' de rosa contra el Cáncer de Mama
miércoles
19 de octubre de 2011
Edificios emblemáticos y monumentos de Hidalgo y Jalisco se iluminaron de rosa para recordar a las mujeres que deben realizarse estudios de mastografía o autoexploración a fin de prevenir el cáncer de mama, enfermedad por la que cada día mueren 12 mujeres en el país...
http://defendiendoalasmujeres.blogspot.com/2011/10/monumentos-se-pintan-de-rosa-contra-el.html
THE DEATH ROW WIDOWS OF KABUL
The Independent, 20 October 2011
For years, Gul Guncha had put up with her violent and abusive husband. He raped his seven-year-old daughter, then married her off to an old man, who also raped her. He sold their two-and-a-half-year-old daughter for 200,000 afghanis (£2,600) and was attempting to find a buyer for their other baby girl. He started beating Gul Guncha and the children when she asked the community for help. But their help was no use – and, one day, she snapped. As he beat them yet again, she grabbed a metal pole used to extract hot bread from the kiln, and clubbed him to death ( . . . )
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/the-death-row-widows-of-kabul-2372975.html
SOMALIA – DEATH THREATS FAIL TO STOP WOMEN`S BASKETBALL
BY Shafi’i Mohyaddin Abokar
MOGADISHU, Oct 18 (IPS) - When Al-Shabaab militants called the Somali national women’s basketball team captain, Suweys Ali Jama, and told her she had two options: to be killed or to stop playing basketball, she decided that neither was really an option at all. "I will only die when my life runs out – no one can kill me but Allah … I will never stop my profession while I am still alive," Jama told IPS. "Now, I am a player, but even if I retire I hope to be a coach - I will stop basketball only when I perish," Jama said. The Al-Qaeda-linked military group controls large parts of Somalia and occupied almost half of the country’s capital, Mogadishu, until its surprise withdrawal on Aug. 6. However, the group’s presence in the city remains as Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for an attack on the capital on Oct. 4, which killed at least 70 people...
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=105501
CAMILA VALLEJO – LATIN AMERICA'S 23-YEAR-OLD NEW REVOLUTIONARY FOLK HERO
Chile has been engulfed by student protests – and their young leader has huge public support in her fight against the elite - by Jonathan Franklin in Santiago, guardian.co.uk, 8 October 2011
As the Friday afternoon sun dipped towards the horizon, some students at the University of Chile played ping pong or football and couples lounged and kissed in the last warmth of the day. But others had more serious matters on their minds: the wildly popular student uprising that has transformed the nation's political agenda...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/08/camila-vallejo-latin-america-revolutionary?fb=optOut
HELPING ABUSED CANADIAN WOMEN COSTS $7 BILLION
UPI, Oct. 11, 2011 at 5:51 PM VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 11 (UPI)
It costs Canadian taxpayers and charities about $7 billion a year to help women who leave their abusive partners, researchers calculated. Professor of nursing Colleen Varcoe of the University of British Columbia colleagues and comprehensively identified the economic costs for services used by women who leave a violent partner...
http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2011/10/11/Helping-abused-Canadian-women-costs-7B/UPI-58331318369893/?spt=hs&or=hn
YEMEN: THOUSANDS OF WOMEN DEMONSTRATE, DOZENS INJURED
by Mohammed Jamjoom and Hakim Almasmari, CNN, October 10, 2011
Sanaa, Yemen (CNN) -- Days after a prominent Yemeni human rights activist became the first Arab woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, dozens of women were injured after gangs attacked during a march in her honor, witnesses in the city of Taiz said Monday. Thousands of women gathered in the southern Yemeni city to celebrate Tawakkol Karman's honor Sunday. Demonstrators also called on the international community to support a revolution in Yemen, witnesses said...
http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/10/world/meast/yemen-women-injured/index.html?eref=rss_mostpopular&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_mostpopular+%28RSS%3A+Most+Popular%29
Why the B.C. Missing Women's Commission of Inquiry fails
By Harsha Walia, October 11, 2011, rabble.ca
Over 200 women blocked traffic and called for a 'new fair, just, and inclusive inquiry that centres the voices and experiences and leadership of women, particularly Indigenous women, in the DTES.
The very same grassroots community of women who have been advocating for a public inquiry into the deaths and disappearances of women in the Downtown Eastside for over two decades are now denouncing the B.C. Missing Women's Commission of Inquiry as an insult to the women of this Vancouver community...
http://rabble.ca/news/2011/10/why-missing-womens-commission-inquiry-fails
Changes in California Domestic Violence Laws
As of September 14th, a new lawin California allows victims of domestic violence to require landlords to change their locks within 24 hours of receiving a written request and a copy of a restraining order or a police report that is no more than 180 days old...
FACEBOOK IS FINE WITH HATE SPEECH, AS LONG AS IT'S DIRECTED AT WOMEN:
The social network's 'jokes in the pub' analogy, defending its decision not to take down pro-rape pages, is offensive
by Cath Elliott, guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 4 October 2011 ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/04/facebook-hate-speech-women-rape
Petawawa agrees to host the women's monument
By SEAN CHASE SCHASE@THDAILYOBSERVER.CA
PETAWAWA - The town has agreed to host the site of a monument to remember area women abused or killed as a result of domestic violence...
http://www.thedailyobserver.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3310413
An Open Letter from Black Women to SlutWalk Organizers
We, the undersigned women of African descent and anti-violence advocates, activists, scholars, organizational and spiritual leaders wish to address the SlutWalk. First, we commend the organizers on their bold and vast mobilization to end the shaming and blaming of sexual assault victims for violence committed against them by other members of society. We are proud to be living in this moment in time where girls and boys have the opportunity to witness the acts of extraordinary women resisting oppression and challenging the myths that feed rape culture everywhere...
Read full text:
http://sisyphe.org/spip.php?article3992
D.C.’s violent crime down in 2010, but rapes increased by 25 percent
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dcs-violent-crime-down-in-2010-but-rapes-increased-by-25-percent/2011/09/19/gIQABPnXgK_story.html
World Development Report on Gender Equality and Development
The World Bank has just issued this year`s report. This link is to a full copy of the report in English as well as to shorter versions in French and other languages:
http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/EXTWDRS/EXTWDR2012/0,,contentMDK:22999750~pagePK:64167689~piPK:64167673~theSitePK:7778063,00.html
NEW FACTS ON THE GENDER GAP FROM THE WORLD BANK
The Wall Street Journal has the following summary, September 18, 2011
The World Bank’s latest World Development Report, which focuses on gender equality around the world, offers some stark facts about how women and girls fare in developing countries despite decades of progress...
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/09/18/new-facts-on-the-gender-gap-from-the-world-bank/
Walk 4 Justice concludes cross-Canada journey on Parliament Hill
rabble staff, September 19, 2011
Hundreds gathered on Parliament Hill today to remember and demand justice for murdered and missing Indigenous women at the conclusion of the 4th annual cross-country Walk 4 Justice...
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/rabble-staff/2011/09/walk-4-justice-concludes-cross-canada-journey-demand-justice-mis
WOMEN'S 'SEX STRIKE' ENDS FIGHTING IN MINDANAO VILLAGES - UNHCR
From ABS-CBN News, September 16, 2011
MANILA, Philippines - Women ended armed clashes in 2 Mindanao villages by not having sex with their husbands unless the men laid down their weapons, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The success of the "sex strike" allowed families to start rebuilding their communities, the UN's refugee agency said.
Watch the UNHCR's video report on YouTube
:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFR-7OuUPKs
Trafficking, Prostitution, and Inequality
Discussion in the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review by Catharine A. McKinnon of the ideology behind current "sex work" discourse:
http://harvardcrcl.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/MacKinnon.pdf
Dawson shooting victim wants stronger gun laws:
Semi-automatic rifles still legal 5 years after Dawson College shooting
CBC News Posted: Sep 12, 2011
Hayder Khadim, with the parents of Dawson shooting victim Anastasia De Sousa in the background, speaks at a news conference in 2006, calling on the government to keep Canada's gun registry. Hayder Khadim, with the parents of Dawson shooting victim Anastasia De Sousa in the background, speaks at a news conference in 2006, calling on the government to keep Canada's gun registry. (Tom Hanson/Canadian Press)...
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2011/09/12/quebec-dawson-anniversary-gun-laws.html
Opinion: Denial of justice at the Missing Women Commission more than a shame to the country
By Catherine Morris and Gail Davidson, for the Vancouver Sun September 12, 2011
The refusal of the BC government to provide representation to groups granted standing at the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry is more than a national shame. It’s part of Canada’s internationally known pattern of international human rights violations against women and indigenous people...
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Opinion+Denial+justice+Missing+Women+Commission+more+than+shame+country/5389332/story.html#ixzz1XncIiVjR
Women seek to 'take back' trail at Westwood Lake in weekend event
By Walter Cordery, Daily News, Nanaimo BC, September 12, 2011
... Angry at the ongoing incidents of groping, accosting of women and men exposing themselves to women who walk around the trail at Westwood Lake, Haven organized its first 'Take Back the Track' event...
http://www.canada.com/Women+seek+take+back+trail+Westwood+Lake+weekend+event/5387385/story.html
Good News: It Pays to Speak Up About Sexist Remarks
by Annie U., Care2, September 9, 2011
...The good news, however, is that confronting men about their sexist comments actually makes them treat you better. According to a study from Loyola University Chicago that was mentioned in the Forbes Woman article, men who are confronted for sexism are actually nicer to and report liking the woman who confronted them more than those who are not confronted. The men who were confronted also reduced their use of sexist language...
http://www.care2.com/causes/good-news-it-pays-to-speak-up-about-sexist-remarks.html
Indian women now reporting more violent crime, study shows
Stephanie Nolen, DELHI— Globe and Mail, September 5, 2011
There has been a huge spike in the level of violent crime reported against women in India in the past 18 years – and that’s good news, according to new research...
ARE MEN CRAZY?
by Leslie Bennetts for Daily Beast, September 1, 2011
... In an essay called “Supremacy Crimes,” Gloria Steinem noted that “hate crimes, violent and otherwise, are overwhelmingly committed by white men who are apparently straight. ... White males—usually intelligent, middle class, and heterosexual or trying desperately to appear so—also account for virtually all the serial, sexually motivated, sadistic killings, those characterized by stalking, imprisoning, torturing, and ‘owning’ victims in death.” In trying to understand such depredations, Steinem added, “Our national self-examination is ignoring something fundamental, precisely because it’s like the air we breathe: the white male factor, the middle-class and heterosexual one, and the promise of superiority it carries... We will never reduce the number of violent Americans, from bullies to killers, without challenging the assumptions on which masculinity is based: that males are superior to females, that they must find a place in a male hierarchy, and that the ability to dominate someone is so important that even a mere insult can justify lethal revenge.”...
see full text at:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/09/01/the-dsk-medical-defense.html
Woman Left Tied Up For 5 Hours After Police Show Up
by Shannon M., August 26, 2011
The Russell Williams case shocked and horrified Canadians, both in the grisly nature of the crimes — rape, humiliation and murder — as well as the identity of the perpetrator: a well-respected Colonel in the Canadian military, who at the time of the offenses was in charge of thousands at a military base and who had piloted planes carrying such dignitaries as the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defence.
It turns out, however, that it was shocking in other ways: namely, the actions of the very police officers called to help Williams’ victims...
http://www.care2.com/causes/woman-left-tied-up-for-5-hours-after-police-show-up.html#ixzz1WSf75UqJ
Gun control groups slam Canada's stance at UN arms talks
Vancouver Sun (July 14, 2011)
Canada has thrown a wrench into negotiations toward a United Nations arms trade treaty by proposing hunting rifles be exempted from the draft accord, gun control groups say.
But firearms advocates are praising the move, calling it evidence that the Harper government is on their side when it comes to gun control...
http://www.canada.com/news/control+groups+slam+Canada+stance+arms+talks/5105128/story.html#ixzz1Vs9Nzavs
JAILHOUSE PHONE CALLS REVEAL WHY DOMESTIC VIOLENCE VICTIMS RECANT
ScienceDaily (Aug. 16, 2011)
A new study uses -- for the first time -- recorded jailhouse telephone conversations between men charged with felony domestic violence and their victims to help reveal why some victims decide not to follow through on the charges. Researchers listened to telephone conversations between 17 accused male abusers in a Washington state detention facility and their female victims, all of whom decided to withdraw their accusations of abuse. For each of the couples, the researchers analyzed up to about three hours of phone conversations...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110815101535.htm
Saudi beheading fuels backlash in Indonesia
The acrimonious rift between the birthplace of the prophet Muhammad and Indonesia, home to the largest community of his followers, even led to calls for a boycott of Mecca by hajj pilgrims.
The mood became so testy that when Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa announced that he had received an apology over the beheading from the Saudi ambassador in Jakarta, the kingdom’s usually mute embassy promptly issued a statement that accused the minister of lying...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia-pacific/saudi-beheading-fuels-backlash-in-indonesia/2011/07/17/gIQAc7OU3I_story_1.html
Horror on Hell Island
UK & World News, Jul 24 2011 by Dean Rousewell, The People
THIS is the moment a survivor of the Norwegian massacre begged a crazed gunman not to kill him and was miraculously spared. Adrian Pracon, 21, told how he fell to his knees in front of Anders Breivik and screamed: Please, no, please...
http://www.people.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/2011/07/24/survivors-of-the-norway-atrocity-their-stories-102039-23292399/
Israeli scientists develop date-rape drug detector
The days of having to cart your cocktail to the ladies room may be over: two Israeli scientists say they have developed a sensor that can accurately detect date-rape drugs in drinks 100 percent of the time...
http://news.yahoo.com/israeli-scientists-develop-date-rape-drug-detector-173003431.html
The John Next Door
Newsweek, July 18, 2011 by Leslie Bennetts
The men who buy sex are your neighbors and colleagues. A new study reveals how the burgeoning demand for porn and prostitutes is warping personal relationships and endangering women and girls...
http://www.newsweek.com/2011/07/17/the-growing-demand-for-prostitution.html
Syrians protest violence with a vow to marry rape victims
by Sophia Jones, June 21, 2011
As the international community watches the Syrian crackdown in horror, Syrian security forces employ even more deadly means of intimidation and interrogation. Over ten thousand Syrian refugees are believed to be seeking refuge in Turkish refugee camps and border towns such as Jisr al-Shughur have become epicenters of mass graves, torture and now, rape. Four teenage sisters from the Syrian-Turkish border town of Sumeriya are now among the growing number of rape victims in Syria. Though reportedly recovering in a Turkish hospital, the women could face a lifetime of shame in a country where honor killings have been reported to restore a family's honor…
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/06/20/syrians_protest_violence_with_a_vow_to_marry_rape_victims
Factbox: The most dangerous countries for women
by Sigourney Weaver, June 2, 2011
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sigourney-weaver/women-climate-change_b_870401.html
by Amy Fine Collins, Vanity Fair, May 24, 2011
Even as celebrity activists such as Emma Thompson, Demi Moore, and Mira Sorvino raise awareness about commercial sex trafficking, survivor Rachel Lloyd publishes her memoir Girls Like Us, and the Senate introduces a new bipartisan bill for victim support, the problem proliferates across continents, in casinos, on streets, and directly into your mobile device. And, as Amy Fine Collins shows, human trafficking is much closer to home than you think; victims, younger than ever, are just as likely to be the homegrown American girl next door as illegally imported foreigners…
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2011/05/sex-trafficking-201105?printable=true#ixzz1NbS1g1MR
SAUDIS ARREST WOMAN LEADING RIGHT-TO-DRIVE CAMPAIGN
By Neil MacFarquhar, New York Times, May 23, 2011
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The government of Saudi Arabia moved swiftly to extinguish a budding protest movement of women claiming the right to drive, a campaign inspired by uprisings across the Arab world demanding new freedoms but at risk Monday of foundering.
Manal al-Sharif, 32, one of the campaign organizers, was detained Sunday in the eastern city of Dammam for up to five days on charges of disturbing public order and inciting public opinion by twice driving in a bid to press her cause, said her lawyer, Adnan al-Saleh ( . . . )
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/24/world/middleeast/24saudi.html
Battle over condoms enters Philippine Congress
May 18, 2011, by HRVOJE HRANJSKI
Associated Press MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- The president says he is ready to face excommunication from the Roman Catholic Church for advocating free access to condoms... The issue pits the powerful and conservative Catholic establishment, which says contraceptives are as sinful as abortions, against reformers who want more openness about condoms and other birth control in the impoverished Southeast Asian nation to slow population growth and help prevent disease.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_PHILIPPINES_CONTRACEPTIVESSITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-05-18-01-51-42
Missing In India - Six Million Females
Posted by Judy Molland, May 24, 2011, Care2
Women in India are increasingly aborting their second child if they know it to be a girl and they already have a daughter, according to a study published today in the Lancet. ...
Mexico City, Inter Press Service, Thursday, April 14, 2011
For the first time, Mexico has a female attorney general - the highest post ever reached by a woman in this country. But elation at this achievement is overshadowed by grief over the brutal murders of women police chiefs and activists, and the persecution endured by the family of another woman who was killed in 2010...
http://www.globalissues.org/news/2011/04/14/9275
Murder rates affect IQ tests scores: study
A murder in the neighborhood can significantly knock down a child’s score on an IQ test, even if the child did not directly witness the killing or know the victim, U.S. researchers reported on Monday...
HARPER PLANS TO WIN MAJORITY USING WOMEN VOTERS
A Brief Chronological Account of the Erosion of Women’s Rights Under the Tories
http://clearpolitics.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/harper-majority-using-women.pdf
Women in India: The long road from purdah to power
Stephanie Nolen Mogara Kala, Rajasthan— From the Globe and Mail, Mar. 21, 2011
The first time Mumal Barupal went to a meeting of her village council, she sat on the floor, off to the side of the benches occupied by the other members, in purdah – her face completely veiled by the end of her sari.
Then she ran the meeting: She was the newly elected mayor....
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/asia-pacific/women-in-india-the-long-road-from-purdah-to-power/article1950957/
The Impact of Sex Selection and Abortion in China, India and South Korea
ScienceDaily (Mar. 15, 2011)
In the next 20 years in large parts of China and India, there will be a 10% to 20% excess of young men because of sex selection and this imbalance will have societal repercussions
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110314132244.htm
Mexican women protest against ‘femicide’ and militarization
QUERETARO, MEXICO (BNO NEWS)
Mexican women took to the streets Tuesday to mark the 100th International Women’s Day and protest against ‘femicide,’ and the militarization of the country, La Jornada reported. Some 100 members of various organizations defending women’s rights marched through the main streets of Querétaro in central Mexico to demand “not one more death in the country.” They remembered slain activist Marisela Escobedo with pink crosses and called on Mexican authorities to criminalize female homicides, also called ‘femicides’. ...
http://news.rickey.org/mexican-women-protest-against-femicide-and-militarization/2599
Sara Ruddick Dies at 76; Pondered the Nature of Mothering
Sara Ruddick, whose 1989 book, “Maternal Thinking: Toward a Politics of Peace,”laid the groundwork for a feminist approach to understanding and analyzing the practices and intellectual disciplines involved in rearing children, died on Sunday at her home in Manhattan. She was 76...
Read more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/us/23ruddick.html
Changing the Long-Form Census –
Its Impact on Women’s Equality in Canada
https://communitydata-donneescommunautaires.ca/node/7034
International Anti-Street Harassment Day - March 20, 2011
Street harassment is something most women deal with year-round, but, without fail, each spring the warmer weather and longer daylight hours bring an increase in street harassment...
http://stopstreetharassment.com/ending/NationalAntiStreetHarassmentDay.htm
BOTSWANA PARLIAMENT'S SPEAKER A WELL-LOVED WOMAN
by Ziggy Mogopodi, IPS News
GABORONE, Mar 11, 2011 - It would have been hard for a teenaged Margaret Nnananyana Nasha to imagine that she would grow up to become one of the most powerful figures in Botswana's government. In the early 1960s, as the country made the transition to independence, there were no women in Botswana's government. Today, Nasha is the first female Speaker of the National Assembly and is among the three most powerful citizens of the country ( . . . )
Excerpted from InterPress Service, see full text at:
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54814
Feminist lawyer outlines Swedish prostitution success
Public meeting in Vancouver coincides with International Women’s Day
By Mark Hasiuk, Vancouver Courier
Read more:
http://www.vancourier.com/Feminist+lawyer+outlines+Swedish+prostitution+success/4398890/story.html#ixzz1GLXnchG5
Canadian courts overriding immigration officials on deportation of fearful women
OTTAWA — The parallels in the five refugee cases are striking. All feature women seeking to remain in Canada because of well-founded fears for their safety in their home countries.
All had their applications rejected by the Immigration and Refugee Board or officers of Citizenship and Immigration Canada even though, in 1993, Canada became the first country in the world to establish formal guidelines for refugee claims by women facing gender-related persecution...
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/sports/Canadian+courts+overriding+immigration+officials+deportation+fearful+women/4358976/story.html
Human Rights Report Confirms Rapes by Security Guards at Barrick Mine in Papua New Guinea
(Ottawa - February 1, 2011) A report released today by Human Rights Watch confirms allegations of gang rapes and other human rights abuses by security guards of Barrick Gold's Porgera Joint Venture (PJV) mine in Papua New Guinea (PNG). This important report represents but the latest attempt to raise public awareness about these long standing abuses at the mine. Until now, Barrick and the personnel of the PJV mine have responded to numerous credible attempts to alert the company to the abuses of its security personnel with denial and, frequently, by attempting to discredit those who raised the issues...
http://www.miningwatch.ca/en/human-rights-report-confirms-rapes-security-guards-barrick-mine-papua-new-guinea
Italian women march against Berlusconi
Feb. 14, 2011: More than 100,000 Italian women and their supporters turned out across the country to protest against Premier Silvio Berlusconi, saying his dalliances with young women humiliate degrade female dignity.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/video/italian-women-march-against-berlusconi/article1906116/
New UN Women’s head lays out 100-day action plan
24 January 2011 – The head of the new United Nations agency promoting women’s rights and full participation in global affairs laid out a 100-day action plan today, embracing a full spectrum of issues from supporting national partners to promoting coherence within the UN system.
“Women’s strength, women’s industry, women’s wisdom are humankind’s greatest untapped resource,” the Executive Director oof UN Women Michelle Bachelet, a former president of Chile, told the first regular session of the agency’s executive board. “The challenge then for UN Women is to show our diverse constituencies how this resource can be effectively tapped in ways that benefit us all.” ...
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=37364&Cr=women&Crl
SOUTH SUDAN, Women Dream of Independence
by Rosebell Kagumire
KAMPALA, Jan 13, 2011 (IPS) - John Garang, the revered late leader of the Sudan Peoples' Liberation Movement, once said that women are the "the poorest of the poor and the marginalised of the marginalised". As the reality of an independent South Sudan approaches, the region's women have vowed they will not remain second class citizens.
Margaret Michael Modi, the head of women’s affairs in Central Equatoria State, cast her vote on the first day.
"The first day (of the vote) we did not sleep. I went to the polling station and women were crying as they cast their vote," she told IPS over the phone from the southern capital, Juba.
"For us the separation will be liberation. For so long, we were subjected to Islamic laws which limited our freedom in most ways, and coupled with the traditional values of the south, [women] remained at the bottom of society." ...
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54116
Advocates doubtful of B.C. missing women’s inquiry
The Canadian Press, Thursday Jan. 20, 2011
VANCOUVER — Women in the sex trade have died around Bernie Williams as long as she can remember.
Her mother was murdered in 1977, her two older sisters were slain in the early 1980s. She remembers a close female relative vanishing as far back as the 1960s. Only nights ago, two more women she knew died.
With a strong, yet pained voice, Williams relayed her losses one after another Wednesday night to Wally Oppal, a former British Columbia attorney general and judge. Oppal is heading a public inquiry into the scores of women who were murdered and went missing in the province over the years around the turn of the millennium...
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20110120/missing-women-inquiry-110120/
With grateful thanks for her summary, a quote from a Canadian feminist:
"One of the phony reasons the U.S. invoked to invade Iraq was to install a democratic government. The result: Christians who had lived there peacefully for millenia are being massacred and women's rights have regressed to a past century. Don't expect anything better in Afghanistan."
2011 LOOKS GRIM FOR PROGRESS ON WOMEN'S RIGHTS IN IRAQ
Shashank Bengali and Sahar Issa, McClatchy Newspapers, December 31, 2010
BAGHDAD— When Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki introduced what he called a national partnership government two weeks ago, he included allies and adversaries, Arabs and Kurds, Shiite Muslims and Sunnis. One group, however, was woefully under represented. Only one woman was named toMaliki's 42-member cabinet, sparking an outcry in a country that once was a beacon for women's rights in the Arab world and adding to an ongoing struggle over the identity of the new Iraq.
Whether this fledgling nation becomes a liberal democracy or an Islamist-led patriarchy might well be judged by the place it affords its women...
Full story:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/12/31/106043/new-iraqi-government-seen-as-setback.html
IRELAND: Group favours new prostitution law
The Irish Times, January 3, 2011
The Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI) has welcomed a report in today's Irish Times that the Government is considering reforming its approach to combating sex trafficking and the exploitation of women in Ireland's sex industry.
The Government is considering radical new criminal legislation that would shift the Garda's approach to prostitution by making it illegal for a man to buy sex but not for a woman to sell it. The legislation would put the Garda's emphasis on prosecuting male clients rather than targeting women working as prostitutes...
Full story at
http://3.ly/KWzk
Under Siege in War-Torn Somalia, a Doctor Holds Her Ground
The New York Times, January 7, 2011, by MOHAMMED IBRAHIM and JEFFREYGETTLEMAN
MOGADISHU, Somalia - On May 5, just after sunup, 750 militants surrounded Dr. Hawa Abdi’s hospital. Mama Hawa, as she is known, heard gunshots, looked out the window and saw she was vastly outnumbered. “Why are you running this hospital?” the gunmen demanded. “You are old. And you are a woman!”...
Equality, a True Soul Food
The New York Times, January 1, 2011, by Nicholas Kristof
John Steinbeck observed that “a sad soul can kill you quicker, far quicker, than a germ.”
That insight, now confirmed by epidemiological studies, is worth bearing in mind at a time of such polarizing inequality that the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans possess a greater collective net worth than the bottom 90 percent.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/02/opinion/02kristof.html?_r=2&emc=tnt&tntemail0=y?src=ISMR_AP_LI_LST_FB
Saudi women fight back
Saudi women distribute pamphlets and flyers as part of an environmental campaign to clean up the streets of the Red Seaport of Jeddah.
October 4, 2010
RIYADH - WOMEN in Saudi Arabia are fighting back against tribal traditions that make them hostage to the whims of their fathers and male guardians who alone can decide who their future husbands will be.
Faced with a lifetime of being forced to remain single, an increasing number of Saudi women, many of them university graduates with good jobs, are going to court to dispute their fathers' refusal to sign off on their marriages.
http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/World/Story/STIStory_586497.html
Imagining Urban Life Without Catcalls or Rape
Kanya D'Almeida interviews INESALBERDI, Executive Director of UNIFEM UNITED NATIONS,Nov 22, 2010 (IPS) - The U.N. Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) launched an ambitious new initiative to improve the safety and well being of women in five major cities Monday - New Delhi, India; Cairo, Egypt; Quito,E cuador; Kigali, Rwanda; and Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=53631
Vancouver police launch program to combat violence against women
Globe and Mail, December 6, 2010
"... publicly acknowledged, and apologized for, their failure to act faster in missing women's cases filed in connection with serial killer Robert Pickton ..."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/vancouver-police-launch-program-to-combat-violence-against-women/article1827515/
With more than 500 aboriginal women missing, action is overdue
Andre Picard, Globe and Mail, Sep. 03, 2009
http://goo.gl/rsB1h
UK Muslim Group Condemns UN Vote Removing Sexual Orientation from Executions Resolution
http://www.care2.com/causes/human-rights/blog/association-of-british-muslims-calls-on-un-to-reverse-decision-to-remove-sexual-orientaiton-protections/
Life on the Street Deadly for Women Says YWCA
Canada's Rose Campaign Historic Association calls for a National Housing Strategy for Women
OTTAWA, Nov. 25 /CNW/ - Citing violence as the leading cause of women's homelessness, YWCA Canada, the country's single largest provider of shelter services for women, launched its annual Rose Campaign to end violence against women and girls today, saying living on the street kills women and calling for a National Housing Strategy for women that brings an end to women's homelessness...
http://www.ottawasun.com/news/canada/2010/11/25/16314026.html
Antonia Zerbisias has written an article in The Toronto Star on Marilyn Waring:
“For me, the patriarchal economic paradigm is the theory and practice of economics that says that women’s unpaid work is not worth anything at all,’’ For example, according to the UN, in some parts of rura lAfrica, women have to use up to 85 percent of their daily caloric intake to fetch water. They suffer from anemia, water-borne diseases, as well as spinal and pelvic deformities from walking miles carrying heavy pots well before their families rise in the morning...
“If you’re not visible as a worker, then you’re not visible in the distribution of benefits.”...
“I see this mirrored in so many conservative governments in the post-recession period,’’ says Waring.“They want to rule according to ideology not according to evidence. So one of the most important things they can do is to obliterate evidences so they can operate on the basis of propaganda.’’ ...
http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/article/882500--feminomics-calculating-the-value-of-women-s-work
CHINA'S CRACKDOWN ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING FREES 16,517 ABDUCTED WOMEN, CHILDREN
English.news.cn 2010-09-2001 BEIJING, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -
Chinese police freed 10,621 women and 5,896 children who had been abducted for human trafficking as of September 6, since the Ministry of Public Security launched a crackdown on trafficking the crime in April last year.
Excerpted from Xinhua News, see full article at this address:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-09/20/c_13520175.htm
Sweden's fix: Jail the johns
September 30, 2010
Rather than punish those who are sold for sex, hold the purchasers of sex acts liable.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/swedens-fix-jail-the-johns/article1735817/
The honour killing files:
One woman's nightmare, and a crime against humanity
Forced to marry her own rapist, Hanan now lives in terror of losing her son – and of being murdered by her family. Her case-history introduces a four-day series investigating a global scandal that destroys many thousands of lives every year.
By Robert Fisk in Amman
September 7, 2010
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/one-http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/swedens-fix-jail-the-johns/article1735817/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/swedens-fix-jail-the-johns/article1735817/womans-nightmare-and-a-crime-against-humanity-2072200.html
LEAF Launches a New Website to Monitor Equality Rights
www.equalityrightscentral.com
Sex trafficking: a national disgrace
A review of Invisible Chains: Canada's Underground World of Human Trafficking, by Benjamin Perrin
REVIEWED BY JULIAN SHER From Saturday's Globe and Mail Published Friday, Oct. 15, 2010 4:30PM EDT
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/invisible-chains-canadas-underground-world-of-human-trafficking-by-benjamin-perrin/article1758620/
Events
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Reclaim the Streets, Toronto
May 24, 2013 from 6pm to 7pm – 465 Dundas E
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WOMEN DELIVER 2013
May 28, 2013 to May 30, 2013 – Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre
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San Francisco: Making Women's Rights a Reality
May 29, 2013 all day – Global Fund for Women
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Engaging Women, Transforming Cities
May 30, 2013 from 8:30am to 5pm – Simon Fraser University
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CEDAW For Change -1 Week Intensive Institute
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HIGHWAY OF BROKEN DREAMS
June 3, 2013 at 8am to June 21, 2013 at 5pm – Starts at THE PAS - Ends at WINNIPEG @ POLO PARK
© 2013 Created by ROSE.
