Thursday, March 29, 2012

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

Ivory Coast women break the silence surrounding violence

Posted: 28 Mar 2012 01:28 PM PDT

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has launched a multi-media social marketing campaign aimed at stamping out violence against women in Ivory Coast. The campaign, called Breaking the Silence, aims to challenge the widespread attitudes and social norms surrounding violence against women and girls that allows it to continue, and to encourage greater reporting of violence.

A decade of political instability and on-and-off civil war has taken a toll on Ivorians.

The over-throwing of former president of Ivory Coast Laurent Gbagbo in April 2011 after he lost the November 2010 election to Alasanne Outtara threw the country into chaos.

Military groups backed by both men saw 3000 Invorians killed and one million displaced.

Sexual violence was used as a weapon of war. The IRC relayed horrific reports of gang rapes and sexual slavery of women and girls.

Almost a year on from the uprisings the political situation in Ivory Coast has become more stable. Luarent Gbago has been charged with crimes against humanity and awaits verdict in the Hague. Outtara's newly formed government has called for an investigation into the violence surrounded the elections and has acknowledged the improvement of women's rights as an important issue.

However the women who have survived terrible violence and abuse are struggling to move on.

Social attitudes normalising violence against women remain, making it difficult for victims to come forward. By some, violence against women has been accepted as a way of life.

Social norms discouraging people from reporting domestic violence have kept it a hidden issue.

IRC has recognised the importance of social attitudes and the need for a cultural change.

"Shifting deeply ingrained attitudes is never easy, but we want to tell people that there's something simple they can do today to stand up for themselves and help others do so" said Virginia Williams, media consultant for the Breaking the Silence initiative.

The IRC is using a wide range of media to challenge deep-rooted ideas about men and women's roles in relation to violence.

Thought-provoking and catchy messages targeted at men and women are being spread using radio and TV programmes, Facebook, Twitter, billboards and mobile phone SMS messages in an attempt to reach as many people as possible.

"In a country with…almost 15 million mobile phone subscriptions, mobiles can be an incredibly effective campaign tool" explained Williams.

The messages targeted at men include "protect women, it is your business" while those aimed at women are "there is no place for violence in our home" and "brave woman, stand up against violence!".

Challenging cultural attitudes is important to changing behaviour. However, it is not a quick process. "I don't think we'll have a huge impact on social norms after six months, but it's a seed we are planting" said Bakayoko-Topolska, Gender-Based Violence Coordinator for the IRC.

Charity calls on schools and medical service to give “EARS” to deaf women

Posted: 28 Mar 2012 12:30 PM PDT

Alison Clarke
WVoN co-editor 

The deaf charity, Deafax, launched a campaign today calling on schools, teachers and medical service providers to supply adequate sex education and sexual health care for deaf people.

Research into deafness and sexual health is extremely rare and almost completely overlooked.

Out of a sample of profoundly and pre-lingually deaf mothers, 87% of whom were British Sign Language users, Deafax found that only 17% received sex education in a 'deaf-friendly' way at school.

Just over a third got information from friends and family, but a similar percentage had received no information at all. The remaining 17% received non deaf-friendly sex education at school.

A third of young women interviewed were under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of conception and many were unaware of walk-in clinics or heard of bad experiences when staff couldn't understand the deaf person.

Medical service providers mistakenly assume that written material (leaflets, booklets, websites) are suitable to relay health information to the deaf community.

It is a legal requirement of the Equality Act 2010 for all service providers to make provision for the needs of deaf and hard of hearing people.

Yet research reveals that deaf mothers-to-be are generally unable to access antenatal classes and their midwives are not 'deaf aware' or trained on the best ways to communicate with a deaf person.

Information on maternity leave and benefits are not passed on and deaf mothers say they feel isolated and have no communication with health visitors.

Out of all the health trusts Deafax spoke to, just one had a midwife who could sign – and she had funded her own training. All of those who took part in the study believed that deaf expectant mothers do not receive the same level of service as hearing mothers.

As a result, Deafax is launching a sexual health package, tailored for deaf students and teachers to deliver invaluable information on safe sex and sexually transmitted infections to deaf students, using communication methods to suit individual needs.

The charity has also developed training packages for teachers of the deaf in the field of sex education and deaf awareness workshops for mainstream organisations.

It is asking all those in the deaf community to contribute to this under-researched area – so that service providers and schools can no longer overlook the needs of deaf people.

Please ensure that deaf people get Education and Advice on Relationships and Sex (EARS).

Hijab and hoodies protests sparked by Iraqi woman’s murder

Posted: 28 Mar 2012 10:30 AM PDT

Julie Tomlin
WVoN co-editor

Black hijabs and hoodies will be worn at a protest on Thursday, one of a number taking place following the deaths of an Iraqi woman in California and a black teenager in Florida.

The protests follow the murder last week of Shaima Alawadi, a 32-year-old living in California who died on Saturday. Her body was discovered in a pool of blood in her San Diego home (see WVoN story).

Her murder is being treated as a possible hate crime after her daughter said that a letter found next to her repeated the same threat made in a previous note that said: "Go back to your country, terrorist."

Twitter users who discussed the crime and their response using the hashtags #MillionHijabMarch and #RIPShaima quickly drew parallels with the shooting of Trayvon Martin by neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman in the town of Sanford last month.

One twitter user @markgonzalesIS wrote:

In a supremacist world, hijabs and hoodies affect your life expectancy. #ShaimaAlawadi #TrayvonMartin

The students at the University of North Carolina in Asheville are organising a 'hoodies and hijab' rally on March 29 to "stand up against hatred and racism".

"These are just two cases out of thousands, we are a part of the generation that needs to make a difference," the organisers wrote.

The Facebook page called One Million Hijabs for Shaima Alawadi was created to raise awareness of the incident has over 5,800 'likes'.

Creators of the site, which is also coordinating protests across the country, wrote:

“This is #ShaimaAlwadi. Now look at her smile. She could be your daughter, your sister, your friend.

“We cannot let the children in this country grow up in a world so full of hatred that a woman wearing a head scarf is afraid for her life, that a black kid wearing a hoodie is afraid for his life, a world where a victim of sexual violence gets the blame for the actions of the perpetrator because of what she was wearing. Enough.

“The color of your skin, your gender or your outfit cannot be used an excuse or an invitation for violence. We are all Shaima. We need a Million Hijab March.”

Afghan women refuse to be sidelined in peace talks

Posted: 28 Mar 2012 08:30 AM PDT

Julie Tomlin
WVoN co-editor

A special committee has been set up in Afghanistan in a bid to ensure women's views are represented in future peace talks.

Nine women have set up the committee claiming they are being sidelined in the peace council set up by President Hamid Karzai two years ago to try to negotiate with the Taliban to end the war.

The women's committee members will travel around the country to gather women's views and present to the council, said one of the members Gulali Noor Safi, who is also a member of parliament from the northern province of Balkh.

“Our mission is to figure out how to keep the role of women active in the High Peace Council and not have our presence serve only as a statistic,” said Safi, who claimed that until now women had only taken part in workshops and had not been involved in making major decisions.

The launch of the new committee coincided with a speech given by secretary of state Hillary Clinton pledging that Afghan women's rights will be protected under a new peace deal.

Speaking at a lunch to mark the 10th anniversary of the US Afghan Women’s Council, Clinton said any peace deal with insurgents must abide by the Afghan constitution, which enshrines women's rights.

"We will not waver on this point," said Clinton, who added that a peace agreement "excluding more than half the population is no peace at all. It's a figment that will not last."

Clinton acknowledged that "many" Afghan women are worried that "their rights, their roles, their concerns" will be sacrificed and the old days will return.

But she promised that "the United States cannot and will not let that happen", adding that even as the US role in Afghanistan changes during the next few years of transition it was "absolutely critical" women's gains are protected.

"We will continue to stand with and work closely with Afghan women," she said.

But the failure of the US to speak out after the the Ulema council recently issued a statement about women's "secondary" status (see WVoN story) has reinforced concerns that leaders on all sides are willing to sacrifice women's rights in the search for a peace deal.

A recent incident also raised concerns that US influence is already on the wane. After the New York Times reported recently that female guards have been carrying out internal searches of women visitors to Pol-i-Charki prison, complaints by the US government and withdrawal of assistance to the prison failed to bring about any change.

The issue has been interpreted as a battle for control of the prison system – reinforcing concerns among women that their rights will be sacrificed as leaders jostle for power.

It's not just the Taliban and other insurgents that women are concerned about – the Karzai administration itself may give up some of the gains made in recent years.

Karzai provoked outrage last month when he backed the recommendations from clerics that called for segregation of the sexes in the workplace and allowed husbands to beat wives under certain circumstances.

“What is worrying is the government backing the recommendations of the Ulema council,” said Safi.

“It is the government’s responsibility to protect women’s rights and not have them compromised. So long as they do so, then the Taliban will have to as well.”

Egyptian women demand voice in drafting constitution

Posted: 28 Mar 2012 06:30 AM PDT

Julie Tomlin
WVoN co-editor

Women's groups in Egypt are joining 14 other political groups calling for greater involvement of the people in drawing up the country's constitution.

The setting up of the “Constitution for All Egyptians Front" was announced on Monday amid growing opposition to the constituent assembly chosen at the weekend charged with drawing up Egypt's constitution.

The Egyptian Women with the Revolution group has joined forces with the other organisations to protest against Islamist domination of the assembly.

The prominent women's rights activist Mona Makram Ebeid also pulled out of a 100 member panel on Monday, claiming it does not represent the people.

Ebeid, a former lawmaker, was one of only six women on the panel that includes nearly 60 Islamists and just six Christians.

“The religious nature and the absence of women are behind my withdrawal from the constituent assembly," she said.

Egypt’s women won less than two per cent of the seats in recent parliamentary elections but campaigners had demanded that at least 30 per cent of the new constituent assembly be women.

This demand was ignored by the Islamist-dominated parliament, which recently voted that the it should be comprised of 50 lawmakers from parliament and 50 people from outside parliament, including members of civil society groups and public figures.

Egypt’s National Charter, which the Assembly will write, will of great importance to women as it will set out the place of Islamic law in the constitution, the role of the military and the status of Egypt’s women and minorities.

Campaigners argue that it is vital that the group drafting the document reflect the diversity of Egypt’s political, social, cultural and gender views.

The groups are considering lodging an appeal with Egypt’s State Council to declare unconstitutional the policy of drawing half of the constituent assembly’s members from among parliamentarians.

Changes in policing needed to halt rise of “honour” crimes in Pakistan

Posted: 28 Mar 2012 04:30 AM PDT

Julie Tomlin
WVoN co-editor

A women's rights activist has said changes are needed at police level after a new report revealed that close to 1000 Pakistani women and girls were victims of so-called "honour" killings in 2011.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) welcomed new laws protecting women in its annual report published this month but added that many cases are still covered up by relatives and sympathetic police officers.

At least 850 women and 93 girls were killed in 2011 because they were considered to have damaged their family name – more than 100 compared to 2010.

The majority of the women were married and were killed by their husbands or brothers, the report says.

Around 595 were accused of having “illicit relations” and 219 of marrying without permission.

The murders form part of a large catalogue of violence against women in Pakistan: 2,900 women were subjected to sexual assault and rape in the same year and over 4400 experienced domestic violence.

Of those, 38 women suffered acid attacks, 47 were set on fire and 10 women reportedly had their heads shaved as part of public humiliation and nine had their noses or other parts of the body amputated as punishment.

Suicide rates are also high among Pakistani women. The majority of these were not due to poverty or hopelessness but "more a result of being denied the right to express themselves as human beings and a denial of bodily rights".

The picture was further confused by the fact that many suicides were never reported and, in the case of so-called honour killings, the police frequently failed to follow up deaths that local newspapers reported as suicides as a result of the girls rowing with their families. Too often incidents involving women were dismissed as private, family affairs, the report said.

HRCP recommended the stricter enforcement of laws protecting women and new laws on domestic abuse.

Sana Saleem of the Bolo Bhi – Speak Up – rights group said, however, that changes in the laws would not have impact so long as relatives were able to pardon killers, and attitudes were stuck in the past.

“It’s great that we have new legislation but without the police and the courts reforming, changing their attitude to women, then nothing can change,” she said.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn facing new sex charges

Posted: 28 Mar 2012 03:30 AM PDT

Mariam Zaidi
WVoN co-editor

The disgraced former chief of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Dominique Strauss-Kahn is facing up to 20 years in jail if found guilty of being involved in a French prostitution ring.

Strauss-Kahn was questioned in Lille on Monday but was later released on bail after being preliminarily charged with "aggravated pimping."

Eight others are also believed to have been charged on similar counts.

French authorities will now investigate whether Strauss-Kahn was involved in regularly hiring or paying prostitutes for sex in orgies in hotels in Lille, Paris and Washington.

Strauss-Kahn’s lawyer, Henri Leclerc who has admitted in the past that his client attended sex parties, denies that Strauss-Kahn knew that the women at these parties were prostitutes.

Defending his client, Leclerc told the media that Strauss-Kahn was being attacked for his "libertine" behaviour and added that prostitution is not a crime in France.

This is not the first time the former IMF chief has faced sex allegations.  He had to step down from his post at the IMF after a Manhattan maid accused him of attempted rape in May 2011 (see WVoN coverage).  That case later fell apart.

French journalist Tristane Banon also accused Strauss-Kahn of attempted rape in 2011 an encounter that occurred eight years prior. Her case was not pursued due to the statute of limitations.

Before his fall from grace last year, Mr Strauss-Kahn was the favourite to stand as the French Socialist Party’s candidate in next month’s presidential election.

Helmut Newton: Big Nudes, big fallacy

Posted: 28 Mar 2012 02:25 AM PDT

Karen Whiteley
WVoN co-editor 

Helmut Newton is big news in Paris right now. The illustrious Grand Palais is holding a retrospective of the photographer’s work.

For those not familiar with  Newton, who died in 2004, his status as an iconic fashion photographer is seldom questioned.

Starting out in the 1960s, Newton’s work regularly featured in magazines such as Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar for almost five decades.

However, he is probably most famous, outside the fashion world at least, for his 1980/90s series ‘Big Nudes’, a selection of photographs of tall, slim, large-breasted women, naked.

It is these photographs that form the centrepiece of the exhibition, with each photograph standing two metres tall and dominating the exhibit’s main room.

So he’s most famous for taking pictures of women, with body shapes considered the most attractive by prevailing cultural mores, with no clothes on.  This is where I start to yawn.

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this sort of thing before, somewhere.  Oh, yes, that’s right: everywhere. In art since the beginning of recorded time, in advertising, in my daily paper. Everywhere.

What distinguishes Newton’s work from adverts for Spearmint Rhino seems to be a sliver of lingerie.

Yet talking of Newton, the curator of the Grand Palais exhibition Jérôme Neutres, says ”Helmut always said, “I want to do everything forbidden, everything you don't do."’

Because unlike Spearmint Rhino adverts, Newton is art. His work – especially his Big Nudes – is routinely gushed over by the art establishment, despite the fact that they’re about as forbidden as Page 3.

Newton, far from being derivative, was ‘avant garde‘ according to Neutres. For the curator, the exhibit’s aim is ”to show Newton as a great classical artist, with a full, complex place in the history of art.”

If this adulation of a man who photographed women naked stopped there, we could just shrug our shoulders. It’s not as if he’s the first man to represent his vision of a woman’s naked body as some kind of objective truth and get a round of applause for it.

But Newton is not only regarded as an innovator, but as a feminist. Newton’s status as a one-man female empowerment machine is as firmly established as the depiction of female nudes is old and tired.

His Big Nudes models are ‘powerful‘, posed in ”traditionally male or dominating positions’, the images are ‘full of erotic power’.  With so much empowering going on it’s a wonder these women aren’t now running most of the G8 countries.

In this frenzy of female empowerment, however, one portrait really sticks out.  You can’t help but notice that in her Newton portrait Margaret Thatcher, the one female with any experience of actual power, is fully clothed, resolutely so.

Newton’s photograph of Thatcher  was taken the year after she was forced from office, yet she still didn’t apparently feel the need to ‘empower’ herself by showing off her fleshy bits.

Can anybody imagine Margaret Thatcher posing nude?  Can anybody imagine anybody even asking her if she would?  Now that would have been avant garde.

But as they are, Newton’s Big Nudes leave me cold and, more importantly, no less powerless than I felt before.

In his 1972 book ‘Ways of Seeing’, John Berger, after noting that women were almost inevitably the principal subject in European paintings of nudes, said, ‘To be nude is to be seen naked by others and yet not recognised for oneself.  A naked body has to be seen as an object in order to become a nude.’

Women as people can be empowered, though they aren’t by Newton.  It is, however, impossible to empower an object no matter how you dress it.

Whether Newton saw himself as a feminist seems unrecorded, but on the evidence offered by his wife, June Newton, he certainly didn’t apply feminism’s principles to his home life:

‘When [Newton] came home he’d ring a little bell saying: “Junie, I’m here.” And that, of course, meant I had to make the dinner.’

The exhibition, ’Helmut Newton 1920-2004′ runs until June 17.