Women's Views on News |
- Men walk a mile in high heels to raise awareness of sexual violence
- It’s okay to be gay in Israel – unless you’re Muslim
- Salford woman is victim of racist acid attack
- Iraqi woman killed in US in suspected hate crime
- Brides of March against the commercialisation of marriage
- Anita Steckel, feminist erotic artist, dies age 82
- British theatre group asks: “Can We Talk About This?”
- I never said yes: Sarah’s story
| Men walk a mile in high heels to raise awareness of sexual violence Posted: 27 Mar 2012 01:00 PM PDT
Men of Western Kentucky University's 'Chi Omega' fraternity house recently hosted a 'Walk a Mile in Her Shoes' event to raise awareness of violence against women. Walking in red high heels, the men raised $1,000 for Hope Harbor, an organization that provides services for victims of sexual assault. But they weren't only interested in raising awareness of violence against women. The goal was also to achieve better communication about sexualized violence, a topic that men find hard to discuss. They also want to help men understand and sympathise with women's experiences, so they can change perspectives, improve gender relationships and decrease the potential for violence. Statistics from the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network show that, in the US, a woman is raped every two minutes. The 'Walk a Mile in Her Shoes' campaign is an international men’s march to stop rape, sexual assault and gender violence, described as “a playful opportunity for men to raise awareness in their community about the serious causes, effects and remediations to sexualized violence”. The walks are billed as political and performance art with public, personal and existential messages, with no distinction between performer and audience. The mission of Walk a Mile is to create a unique and powerful public experience that educates individuals and communities about the causes of sexual violence, and provides prevention and remediation strategies.  |
| It’s okay to be gay in Israel – unless you’re Muslim Posted: 27 Mar 2012 11:00 AM PDT
Last month, a Muslim lesbian couple who have lived in Canada since 2007 were granted a hearing by an Immigration and Refugee board in their fight against repatriation to Israel. Iman Musa and Majida Mugrabi, who live in Toronto, said they would be murdered if forced to return to their native country for being in a same-sex relationship. The couple said in a letter to the Federal court that, "as Muslim women, we don't have any rights in our families. The fact that we are lesbians does not help." They said that Mugrabi's Muslim sheikh grandfather had repeatedly threatened to kill her. And that Musa's brother had threatened to kill his sister if she did not leave her lesbian partner and marry a man, threats which she had reported to the police. The court was also given information purporting to show that a cousin of Mugrabi had confessed to the so-called 'honour killing' of his sister 12 years ago. Yet last year, Tel Aviv was named the Best Gay City of 2011 in an international American Airlines competition that selected the most popular destinations among LGTB tourists. According to Israeli news site Ynet, this was the result of a $90 million campaign by the Tel Aviv tourism board to brand the city 'an international gay vacation destination.' Anti-occupation activists say the tactics are 'pinkwashing' because they conceal continued violations of Palestinians' human rights behind an image of modernity signified by Israeli gay life. Aeyal Gross, professor of law at Tel Aviv University, agreed, saying: "while gay rights have become a PR tool; conservative and religious politicians remain fiercely homophobic." Professor of Humanities at City University, New York, Sarah Schulman says it "manipulates the hard-won gains of Israel's gay community and ignores the existence of Palestinian gay-rights organizations, such as Aswat, Al Qaws and Palestinian Queers for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. She maintains that the Israeli government's pro-gay message blurs human rights issues and "should not blind us to or to the Palestinians' insistence on a land to call home." The same is true for religious freedom. As Musa and Mugrabi point out: "Same sex relationships are not permitted or accepted in all Arabic countries. There are many stories about honour killings and we are victims of this."  |
| Salford woman is victim of racist acid attack Posted: 27 Mar 2012 09:30 AM PDT Heather Kennedy A woman who was walking through an underpass with her six month old baby in north west England last week had acid thrown at her. A man allegedly shouted racist and sexist abuse at the woman, who is black, before throwing acid over her chest and back. The baby was unharmed but the woman, 29, is in hospital recovering from burns. Her condition is stable. The woman did not know her attacker and the incident is being treated as a racist hate crime. Greater Manchester police have released an e-fit of the attacker and they are appealing to the public for witnesses. Detective constable Jim Harris, of Greater Manchester Police, said it was “an appalling attack on a lady who was walking with her very young baby. “Thankfully none of the corrosive liquid hit the baby or went on the victim’s face as the incident could have been a lot worse than it already is". Residents of Pendleton in Salford, where the attack took place, are particularly concerned because the incident occurred in broad daylight, in a busy shopping area directly opposite the police station. Members of the community have called on police to do more to protect people, particularly ethnic minorities and women. Installing CCTV which runs directly to the police station and increasing police patrols of the area have been suggested as measures to improve safety. The vast majority (about 80 per cent) of victims of acid attacks are women. Often, attackers are motivated by a desire to subjugate the woman, robbing her of her identity, appearance and independence. Attacks are rarely fatal, but they can leave women disabled, isolated from society and coping with serious psychological consequences. Acid is strong enough to dissolve bone and often causes blindness and extreme disfigurement.  |
| Iraqi woman killed in US in suspected hate crime Posted: 27 Mar 2012 08:00 AM PDT Sarah MacShane Shaima Alawadi, an Iraqi immigrant living in California, was found last week in a pool of blood next to a note saying "Go back to your own country, you terrorist". Beaten on the head repeatedly with a tyre lever, she was found by her 17-year old daughter, Fatima Al Himidi. Along with other members of her family, Alawadi wore a hijab but had reportedly never felt threatened until, about a month ago, when she received a note similar to the one found next to her body. Alawadi brushed it off as a child's prank and did not report it to the authorities. Her death has provoked international uproar, particularly on social media sites such as twitter, the hashtag #RIPShaima was trending with tweets such as:
In the wake of 9/11, Islamophobic incidents have been reported in several US cities, with attacks on people and mosques. This is just one horrific example of the continued Islamophobia that persists in western countries, particularly those involved in Iraq and/or Afghanistan and those with a high numbers of Muslim immigrants. This crime should be punished but the US also needs to promote better integration programs. It's about teaching people to respect one another, irrespective of their differences.  |
| Brides of March against the commercialisation of marriage Posted: 27 Mar 2012 06:30 AM PDT
Ever felt nauseated by the myth that all woman of child bearing age are would-be bridezillas, itching to get down the aisle and squandering the GDP of a small African nation in the process? Brides of March gathered last week, fully kitted out in bridal garb, in a yearly event to protest against the commercialisation of marriage. The founder of the movement, Michele Michele says she got the idea in a San Franciscan thrift shop: "I saw a rack of used wedding dresses and realised how often the dreams of an ideal marriage had failed and how so much of this dream had been fabricated in order to fuel the ever increasing consumption of new products.” Men and women take to the streets en masse for the march, dressed in elaborate wedding garb, to mock the sugary extravagance that has become entwined with western ideas of marriage. The movement has gone trans-global and this year, revellers brought Brides of March events to London, Japan, Seattle, Austin and Reno. The only rule is that your wedding dress must be bought second hand. Online instructions on how to adapt your second hand dress read:
It is a truth (supposedly) universally acknowledged that all women spend their childhood prancing, tea towel on head, rehearsing for their future nuptials. For those of us who feel alienated by this so-called truism, the sight of a six foot transvestite bride with a moustache and home-customized frothy gown, is a refreshing one. As the 2012 Budget in the UK spells another year of rising unemployment, homelessness and welfare cuts, it seems an opportune moment to question the reckless opulence which has become the status quo as far as marriage celebrations go.  |
| Anita Steckel, feminist erotic artist, dies age 82 Posted: 27 Mar 2012 04:30 AM PDT
Anita Steckel, founder of the feminist art movement, has died at the age of 82. Little known until the 1970s, she appropriated eroticism in her art in order to establish the right of women to make art from the male figure, just as men were doing with the female figure. In 1973 she set off a tabloid furore with explicit pieces of arts which showed men and women engaged in suggestive sexual acts. Her response was to form an organization of female artists called the Fight Censorship Group, with this mission statement: 'if the erect penis is not wholesome enough to go into museums, it should not be considered wholesome enough to go into women.' Richard Meyer, an art historian and professor at the University of South California described Steckel as "fearless", an artist who wasn't scared to push the boundaries and address issues of gender, pleasure and sexual politics. She had always felt a tension between being a woman who liked men and being an artist who chafed at the limits that men had historically placed on women. As a pioneer of the feminist art movement, Steckel gave other female artists the courage to stand up to the patriarchy by using erotic and sexual art.  |
| British theatre group asks: “Can We Talk About This?” Posted: 27 Mar 2012 03:00 AM PDT Laura Bridgestock Acceptance. Tolerance. Fairness. These are the qualities we in the west like to think we possess. But in what context should they be embraced, and in what context rejected? Theatre group DV8‘s latest performance piece, Can We Talk About This? is being hailed as a brave exploration of Islamic religious attitude meets western cultural thinking. Described as “verbatim theatre”, the performance is a regurgitation of interviews and reports, set to dance. But this description does not do the work justice. It is a wonderfully intelligent, artistic and creative delivery of personal stories from a wide range of individuals, mostly about their experience of Islam. The performance portrays landmark incidents in the west, such as Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses, the murder of Dutch film director, Theo van Gogh, and the Danish newspaper which published the Mohammed cartoons. What strikes most is how the work cuts across the western concept of multiculturalism (the right of people to retain their indigenous culture), and how this relates to issues of tolerance and freedom of speech, challenging the audience to define what they really mean when they use these terms. For example, one story is about a Muslim woman who applies for a divorce whilst living in the UK, on the grounds that her husband violently beat her. The judge said he couldn’t grant the woman a divorce because Islam says it’s permissable to beat a woman. And he had to respect her religion. As one performer quoted, “why are you making something that is disgusting, acceptable?” Instead of condoning multiculturalism, the play points out that: “You need to integrate people and beliefs; multiculturalism [at present] does not do this but it allows culture to exist separately.” Another act recalled an interview with Ann Cryer, the former Member of Parliament, who campaigned against forced marriage. “It was 1999 that the issue of forced marriage was first ever raised in Parliament. I don’t think we even called it forced marriage then [it was so unpopular]. I think we had to call it ‘community relations’.” The character of Ann perches on a fellow dancer whilst she elegantly sips tea from a china cup, recounting her story. She spoke about how she was called a racist for years, labeled as an Islamaphobe. Other politicians, she said, would not speak out even though some had admitted it was going on in their own constituencies, because it was seen as too ‘sensitive’. “If you are a few hundred votes out… then to bring up the issue of forced marriage is political suicide.” Brilliantly choreographed, the performers’ movements are adeptly composed to the tension of their conversations; with dance serving as a wonderful metaphor for freedom. The force of the play mirrors the relentlessness fervour of the religious extremists it discusses; from act to act it reels off victim after victim, murder after murder, during its entire 80 minutes. Can We Talk About This? is showing at the National Theatre until 28th March 2012.  |
| I never said yes: Sarah’s story Posted: 27 Mar 2012 01:00 AM PDT  Nicole Campbell, Pips Taylor and Sarah Lauren Scott Four hundred and sixty days ago my life was changed forever. Four hundred and sixty days ago I was raped. I was 19 years old, carefree and trying to figure out the balance between education, being a mother to my beautiful son, Jacob, and going out with my friends. Wednesday, December 15 2010 was one of these days. My son was with his father and I went out with my twin sister for a fun, girly night. It all started off well, we sat in the 'VIP' section and began to drink and dance. The vodka mixers turned into double vodka mixers which then turned into straight shots of vodka until eventually we were just drinking straight out of the bottle. It was approaching 1.30am when I noticed my sister outside the nightclub with a broken heel. Minutes later she jumped into a taxi with a person I did not know too well. I was staying at her flat that night so it was imperative that I find her. I also wanted to make sure she was safe, that she wasn't attacked. Back in the nightclub I grabbed my things and started to worry until I saw a man, Tony, who I didn't know very well but who had always been nice to me in the past. I knew that he was friends with the person my sister had vanished with so I asked him if he knew where they might be. He casually told me that they were at his flat just up the road and that I should leave with him. I didn't doubt him. Maybe I should have. Was I naïve? Probably… You just don't expect these things to happen. They always happen to someone else. When we arrived at his flat the lights were out, there was no music, no people. I said to Tony that I needed to find my sister, and at that moment he grabbed me by both arms and dragged me in to a bedroom, throwing me on a mattress on the floor. He raped me. Twice. I struggled, screamed and tried my hardest to fight back. The more I struggled the angrier he became – he ended up beating me. There came a point when a neighbour complained about the noise. He told me not to leave otherwise he would kill me. He closed the bedroom door and I lay there in the foetal position weeping quietly, trying to plan my next move. My escape. I lay for what seemed like hours but in reality was probably around 30 minutes. I tiptoed out of the room and saw him sleeping on the living room couch, so I darted back, grabbing a bathrobe and bag of clothes by the bedroom door, and ran out in to the snowy December night. I ran as fast as I could and even when I couldn't breathe I kept running. I don't know where I got the strength as my foot had been severely torn open during the assault. I recall seeing two men smoking outside a B&B and thinking that I was finally saved but I wasn't – they completely ignored my pleas for help and walked back indoors. I screamed, "Help me, I've been raped, please help me." Eventually I collapsed by a graveyard as I couldn't run any more. I was running towards my sister's flat, not towards a police station. I did not want to report my assault. I was drunk, wearing a short skirt; I'd willingly gone with him – who would believe me? By some bizarre, amazing coincidence a shiny black car parked beside me, two suited men exited the vehicle identifying themselves as CID officers and asked if I was okay. I was safe. Four-hundred and sixty days. In that time I have attempted suicide twice, stayed in a psychiatric hospital for three weeks and given evidence against Tony – who I would later discover is really Adrian Ruddock, 38 years old and a convicted drug dealer with a list of prior convictions, one for carrying a firearm. Luckily the jury believed me despite the fact I wasn't quite a 'perfect victim'. He was sentenced to eight years, and three years on license, in May 2011. What happened to me was horrific. It has badly impacted my life in every aspect – I dropped out of college, I was severely depressed, it destroyed my faith in my ability as a mother and it made me hate myself. Even now, after all this time, I think about what happened to me every day – I always see and hear him. He lives in my thoughts and plagues my nightmares. Although I have learned to stop blaming myself, the pain doesn't go away. I am going to think about my rape for the rest of my life. I have finally accepted this. However, what I refuse to accept is sitting at home being bitter. I'm not going to accept being ashamed. I'm not going to accept the low rape conviction rates. I'm not going to accept the fact that 27 per cent of people believe that I was responsible for my rape because I was drunk. I'm not going to accept the fact that my mental health history from the age of 13 was exposed in court. I'm not going to accept that one in four women will be raped in their lives. I'm not going to accept rape. Just after my attacker was sentenced I made a decision that what he did was not going to ruin my life and I decided that if I have to think about what happened to me then I am going to put those thoughts, opinions and ideas to good use. I was going to turn this negative experience in to positive activism. Who says one person cannot make a difference? On Wednesday, March 28 at 9pm a documentary called 'I Never Said Yes' will air on BBC Three. It forms part of their Criminal Britain season. It features a number of women, including myself, talking about what we have experienced – not just our ordeal but how the police treated us, how society treated us and how we were treated in court. The programme also talks to young boys, police officers and lawyers to get to the truth about rape in the UK. I talk about what I am doing to change a system that lets so many women down. I am telling my story because I believe the number of women who have been in my position is appallingly under-reported and under prosecuted. If my words can change the views of one person who may one day be on the jury for an alcohol facilitated rape, then I will have done my job. If my story can make one survivor no longer believe that she was to blame for what happened to her then it is all worth it. One of the things I am most proud of that will feature on ‘I Never Said Yes’ are the seminars I have given to police officers. I have spoken with prospective Sexual Offences Liaison Officers with Grampian Police to tell them my story and share with them my advice. An amazing part of this is that even some of the older, higher-ranking officers have sat down and listened to me. I have taught them to treat victims with respect, compassion and always, always believe what they say. I hope to do more of this in the future – the Crown Prosecution have asked me to talk for them, too. Grampian Police took up one of my suggestions and now provide sexual assault victims with a mobile phone and clean, new clothing as these are things that are stripped from you as evidence and can lay in storage for months, even years. It's the little things that can add up to ease the trauma of someone suffering like I did. During filming I had the pleasure to meet another Scottish survivor called Nicole Campbell (Cosmopolitan's Survivor of the Year 2011) who set up the charity SAVI (Sexual Assault Victims Initiative) to help young victims of sexual assault. It was truly inspirational to meet another woman who was not letting what happened to her destroy her life. Things are not perfect – I still have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and I worry about the day that the man who raped me will be released, but for now I'm trying to help other women who are or will be in my position. I'm still on my journey towards recovery. I have plans for the future that include speaking in schools about rape and consent. I don't want sympathy – I want to make people think, change their attitudes about rape and help those who have fallen victim to this heinous crime. You can read more about Sarah’s story here.  |
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