Thursday, March 22, 2012

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

‘Overly sexualised’ doll angers parents

Posted: 21 Mar 2012 12:30 PM PDT

Lucy Miller
WVoN co-editor 

An 'overly sexualised' and 'inappropriate' rock-chic Barbie doll is being blasted by parents.

Tokidoki Barbie has prominent tattoos, dyed pink hair, skin-tight leopard print leggings – and a cactus-suited dog called Bastardino.

Professor Joel Bakan, author of 'Childhood Under Siege', has called the release of the doll 'a cynical exercise', 'a calculated attempt to play on young girls' mutual desire to look older' and 'something to be resisted'.

Despite concerns, Tokidoki Barbie has already sold out in the US for the next month.

Manufacturers Mattel say she is a 'funky fashionista' who is 'ready for fun in fashion-forward form', and defend her controversial attire by pointing out that Barbie has undergone a number of different transformations since her launch 52 years ago.

This is not the first time Barbie's worth as a role-model has been questioned – she is regularly lambasted for her physically impossible figure, ditzy personality and reliance on all things pink.

Tokidoki is an Italian-Japanese fashion brand and the fact that Barbie carries its logo on her bag also causes 'girls to become walking billboards', adds Bakan.

Two thirds of young British Asians think families should live by ‘honour’ code

Posted: 21 Mar 2012 10:30 AM PDT

Lucy Miller
WVoN co-editor 

A poll carried out for the BBC programme, Panorama, shows that two thirds of young British Asians believe that families should live according to a concept of 'honour'.

It also found that 18 per cent believed that a woman’s behaviour could justify physical punishment. This included disobeying her father, as well as wanting to leave an existing or prearranged marriage.

The survey, carried out for the BBC by ComRes, spoke to 500 young Asians between the ages of 16 and 34.

When asked if families should live by a code of 'honour', 69 per cent said that they should – 75 per cent of men and 63 per cent of women.

Campaigner Jasvinder Sanghera, head of the honour crime charity Karma Nirvana, told Panorama that the root cause of honour violence lay in forced marriage and that Asian community leaders should speak out against the 'honour' code.

She said that many do not want to appear unpopular, but that to avoid confronting the situation was 'morally blind'.

Honour violence can take the form of beating, acid attacks, abduction, mutilation or murder.

The number of women killed every year for disobeying the 'honour' code is unknown, but Sanghera told the BBC that her hotline receives 500 calls every month, which is likely to be just the tip of the iceberg.

Three per cent of those surveyed, broken down to six per cent of men and one per cent of women, said that honour killing could be justified.

Protest group Femen demand justice for gang-rape victim in Ukraine

Posted: 21 Mar 2012 08:30 AM PDT

Julie Tomlin
WVoN co-editor

The topless protest group Femen is demanding justice after two men accused of raping and burning alive an 18-year-old girl were released without bail.

Oksana Makar, who is reported to be a member of Femen, was allegedly raped and strangled by three men in an apartment in Nikolaev, Ukraine.

The men then took her to a construction site where they set her on fire and left her for dead. The young woman survived despite suffering terrible burns that have since resulted in both her feet and right arm being amputated.

Protests were held when it emerged that two of the men, believed to be from wealthy Ukrainian families, had been released while the third man remained in jail.

The public outcry reached Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who ordered General Prosecutor Viktor Pshonka to take charge of the case.

On March 13, the two men were arrested, and all three suspects are charged with attempted murder.

Femen members have previously staged protests against Russian president Vladimir Putin, the Russian gas industry and prostitution, sex trafficking and violence against women. Groups have begun operating in the US and in Turkey.

Last week Femen members in the Ukraine scaled the front of the General Prosecutor’s Office carrying signs saying “Death to Sadists” and “The Country Wants Vengeance”.

“We want to scare men who think they can treat women like animals. We want to bring attention to this problem – to let the world know what is happening in this country and to stop it,” said Inna Shevchenko, a Femen protester.

“Every day Ukrainian women are raped. Women are too scared to talk about it because no one will protect them.

“They’re too shy to tell the police they’re the victims of rape, because they know that the police won’t help. And even if women report rape cases to the police, no one helps them because people are not surprised by rape here.”

An online petition has been launched calling for justice for Oksana Makar.

Calls for end of law forcing Moroccan girls to marry their rapists

Posted: 21 Mar 2012 06:00 AM PDT

Julie Tomlin
WVoN co-editor

A Facebook campaign "We are all Amina Filali" is calling for a change in Moroccan law amid anger over the suicide of a teenager who was forced to marry her rapist.

Hundreds of people joined a protest outside Morocco's parliament on Saturday and  held signs saying “The law has killed Amina” following the death of the 16-year-old on 10 March.

She swallowed rat poison after five months of marriage to a man 10 years older than her who had agreed to marry her to avoid punishment after raping her.

The Facebook page has over 2,400 members and an online petition launched by campaign group Avaaz calling for an end of the law forcing underage victims to marry their rapists has been signed by thousands of people.

Avaaz is also encouraging supporters to "welcome" Moroccan Prime Minister Benkirane to Twitter by sending him a "flood" of tweets saying:

“I just signed a petition urging @benkiraneabdel to stop violence against women and repeal Article 475 #RIPAmina #Morocco”

Although the legal age of marriage in Morocco is 18, younger girls can be married under "special circumstances" such as those set out in Article 475 of the country's penal code, which allows the "kidnapper" of a minor to marry her to restore honour to her family.

Such an arrangement is supposed to go ahead only if the victim gives her consent.

Activists have been campaigning for years for the end of the code, which they argue puts pressure on young girls to agree to marriage to protect the family from social stigma.

Amina’s case shows that “consent” is neither adequate protection for a minor nor a remedy for the crime of rape, they claim:

"In Morocco, the law protects public morality but not the individual," said Fouzia Assouli, president of the Democratic League for Women’s Rights.

“What we have witnessed is scandalous. We have had enough. We must change this law, we must change the penal code.”

The situation of many women in Morocco has improved since reform of the family code in 2004, but in cases of rape, the burden of proof often remains on the victim who can be prosecuted for immorality if she fails to prove she was attacked.

In Filali's case, her father who lives in the small northern town of Larache, near Tangiers, claimed in a local newspaper interview that the prosecutor advised her to marry the man who raped her when she was 15.

Her attacker had initially refused to marry Filali, but consented when faced with prosecution and between 10 to 20 years in prison for raping a minor. Filali's father went on to say his daughter had complained that her husband was physically abusing her.

A 2011 study carried out by the UN found that nearly 63 per cent of women in Morocco aged 18-64 had been victims of violence during the previous year.

Legislative proposals to provide safety for women who face violence, including marital rape, have been "stuck" in government review since 2006, said Assouli.

Charities call for a feminist budget in the UK

Posted: 21 Mar 2012 03:00 AM PDT

Polly Trenow
WVoN co-editor

UK women's groups are calling on the Chancellor for a feminist budget in advance of the 2012 budget announcement later today.

The Women's Budget Group said in their briefing released last week that Plan A has failed and it's time for 'Plan F', a feminist plan for economic recovery.

The charity campaigning for equality between women and men, the Fawcett Society, also released a briefing on Monday condemning the impact of the Chancellor's austerity measure on women and calling for greater equality.

The Chancellor George Osborne is making his 2012 budget announcement today amid speculation that he will seek to cut child benefit for those who pay the 40p tax rate and reduce the 50% rate of income tax for the highest earners.

The Women's Budget Group budget briefing argues the Chancellor must maintain the 50% tax rate and tighten tax loopholes. This will provide billion-pound savings, and introduce a financial transactions tax that can help subsidise social and child care.

Professor Sue Himmelweit, who coordinates the WBG's Policy Advisory Group, said: "At a time when the poorest in society are having their incomes and the public services cut, it is unfair to award a tax cut the highest earners."

The Fawcett Society report, The Impact of Austerity on Women: reversing equality? outlines the damaging impact the coalition's previous budgets have had on women's equality.

The report concludes that the coalition's austerity package will result in a society in which women's voice and choices are diminished. They argue the coalition's economic policies so far are making women more, rather than less, dependent on the state or their families for support.

Anna Bird, Acting Chief Executive of the Fawcett Society said:

"Ahead of the Coalition's third budget, this report looks at the effect of these different measures one by one and as a whole.

“Many of the specific changes we've looked at are making life more difficult for women across the UK. But it is when the policies of austerity are stitched together that the true impact on women emerges.

"The combined effect is devastating for women and their rights. The research is consistent in highlighting that women are bearing the brunt of the cuts to public spending, with record numbers of women out of work, the majority of welfare cuts coming from women’s pockets and essential services under threat, with women expected to plug the gaps."

Egyptian women take up the spray can in battle to be heard

Posted: 21 Mar 2012 01:30 AM PDT

Julie Tomlin
WVoN co-editor

Growing numbers of women are using graffiti as a means of making their voices heard in Egypt today.

The subjection of women activists to virginity tests was a signal that even that private space can be violated in Egypt, where women are finding themselves increasingly squeezed out of public life, said Merna Thomas, co-founder of Graffiti Harimi (Female Graffiti).

"Every day the space for women shrinks on the streets and then we saw the parliament after the revolution and the representation of women was one per cent,” she said in an interview with the Associated Press.

“There's no one in the government, so basically we have no space left in Egypt."

The graffiti, with its challenging messages, is a way of encouraging women to think that the street belongs to them, the activists say.

"Women on even a subconscious level will get that we do have a voice, we do have a role to play," said Thomas.

Shady Khalil, who co-founded Graffiti Harimi with Thomas, said other men insulted him for helping women and supporting a women's cause.

"But I found that normal because it's a social taboo and that's what we want to break, actually."

Men are also part of another group, Nooneswa, which has been stenciling images of powerful Egyptian women with thought-provoking quotes around the capital.

Graffiti is illegal in Egypt, but Thomas, who says she has been sexually harassed by police in the streets and in Tahrir Square, says it's not about asking permission.

"We're not here to ask for our rights, we're here to take them ourselves and this is part of it," she said.

"Feminist graffiti is in the street and we're saying 'I exist, I'm not asking to exist, I am existing despite everything you try."