Women's Views on News |
- The many faces of violence against Somali women
- Opinion: equal rights for women or business as usual?
- European Women’s Lobby calls on MEPs to take stand against prostitution
- US high school team forfeits baseball game rather than play against a girl
- Has rape become a ‘national sport’ in South Africa?
| The many faces of violence against Somali women Posted: 16 May 2012 09:00 AM PDT
As Somali refugees continue to pour out of their native country, the incidence of violence against women grows. It comes in the form of rape, abuse and the harsh living conditions present in refugee camps. Some even face violent deaths as they try to reach safer ground. On May 8, seven Somali refugees were reported dead on the coast of Malta, according to the UNHCR. The victims included five men and two women. Last year, an estimated 1500 people were reported missing or dead as they attempted to reach Europe. The refugee camps in Kenya, set up for Somalis hoping to escape violence and famine, are minimal at best. There is still not enough food, and women have been known to bind their stomachs with rope in order to stave off hunger. In Dahaab, the largest refugee encampment in Kenya, there are over 450,000 people, a number that is five times as many as it was designed for. Nearly a third of Somalis have fled their homes. In Kenya, Somalis are beginning to be seen as a "dangerous element" and "extremist," according to Women News Network reporter Gitonga Njeru. Women are at the receiving end of this discrimination. Not only do they face violence at the hands of their hosts or death as they travel to safer destinations, but domestic abuse is rapidly growing worse. Somali native Nalisha Hussein recounts her experience in the camps. "I moved to Kenya a few months ago from Somalia with my husband, nine children and other relatives, [and] problems worsened," she said. "I have been getting beaten up by my husband because he once caught me taking contraceptive inoculations. I used to take them without his knowledge. “When I decided to tell him and talk of limiting the number of children we have, he began beating me and calling me a prostitute. "I stopped taking them recently and I suspect that I am pregnant…," she added. This is of concern as western nations offer family planning aid to Kenya. Education is key to changing the attitudes of Somali refugees when it comes to family planning. One Somali man interviewed said that birth control is “too Western,” and that he would be “very angry” if one of his wives were using contraception.  |
| Opinion: equal rights for women or business as usual? Posted: 16 May 2012 08:00 AM PDT
You can say what you like about the UK coalition government, but they do not believe in slow news weeks. And what an exciting week for the systematic reduction of equalities and human rights it's already shaping up to be. First up, the government yesterday announced plans to bring forward its review of the public sector equality duty. Introduced in April 2011 and barely a year old, the duty outlines the responsibility of public authorities to assess the impact of policies on vulnerable groups, including women. This decision oddly coincides with recent findings from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) that the coalition failed to meet its responsibility under the Equality Duty in 2010 – namely, its responsibility to properly evaluate the 2010 spending review, including with regard to gender. The Commission found that various measures have been pushed through government with "no evidence of any gender analysis or equality screening,” including plans to impose a £26,000 cap on household benefits and cutting the Educational Maintenance Allowance. A Treasury spokesman reported to the Telegraph that "the government has made these decisions in the fairest way possible." However, Fawcett Society Chief Executive, Ceri Goddard begged to differ. "The report finds that the government could have done much more to comply with the letter and the spirit of the law, and that they could have better used the analysis they did undertake to inform policy – leading to fairer outcomes for women and other groups. "More than a year and a half after the 2010 budget…we are now seeing the impact that was entirely predictable – women's unemployment is at a 25 year high, women are being worse hit by cuts to benefits and women are also acting as shock absorbers for cuts to public services." The Fawcett society recently joined with over 20 academics, organisations and trade unions to make a series of recommendations aimed at addressing the disproportionate impact of the cuts on women. Meanwhile, back at the Home Office, as a reward for the EHRC's vigilance in acting as the government's critical friend on equal rights, plans are afoot to reform the Commission, including scrapping “some unnecessary powers and duties.” I suspect that one of the powers the government would particularly like to scrap is EHRC’s annoying habit of pointing out that the government isn’t very good at supporting equality. Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone explained, "Since its creation, the EHRC has struggled to deliver across its remit and has not demonstrated good value for money." Of course, the EHRC's 'struggle to deliver' might also be a result of struggling to keep up with the government's relentless attack on equalities. Clearly on an 'equalities roll', the Home Office also announced plans yesterday to simplify the Equality Act as part of its Red Tape Challenge — a bit like the Pepsi Taste Challenge, but more likely to decimate social justice. Theresa 'two jobs' May, Home Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities, said: "Bureaucracy and prescription are not routes to equality. Over-burdening business benefits no one, and real change doesn't come from telling people what to do." No, apparently real change comes about by letting huge power interests do what they want. Once again, Fawcett has been quick to sound the alarm on the government's plans. "Going forward,” Goddard said, “we are concerned that important equalities legislation is not seen as simply burdensome red tape – rather government should see it as a tool to help them deliver on their stated aims of fairness and transparency, especially in times of austerity." The government's decision to frame its reduction of the mechanisms that monitor and improve equality as a "boost to employers" is interesting. It seems to imply there is a choice to be made between business interests and the rights of workers. Judging by the Home Office’s headline of “Equality reforms cut burden on business,” it seems clear which side the government favours. So the moral of the story? Beware of governments offering to help 'reduce your burden', particularly if what they are offering to take off your hands are your own human rights.  |
| European Women’s Lobby calls on MEPs to take stand against prostitution Posted: 16 May 2012 06:09 AM PDT
The European Women’s Lobby (EWL) has today called on Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to take a stand against prostitution at sporting events in 2012 in Europe. The organisation estimates that thousands of young girls and women are at risk of trafficking and sexual exploitation on the sidelines of the Olympic Games in London and the UEFA Euro 2012 football championship in Poland and Ukraine. So it has invited 19 MEPs who support their campaign to gather for a group photo with the EWL red card 'Be a sport. Keep it fair… Say NO to prostitution' and watch an awareness-raising video clip called 'Sport, sex and fun' on 30 May. The EWL says that the number of human trafficking victims in Greece increased by 95 per cent during the 2004 Olympic Games. Ahead of the 2006 World Cup in Germany, predictions were for more than 40,000 women and children to be trafficked into the country to meet the prostitution demands of millions of football fans. During the 2011 World Cup, South African authorities noted a 'huge' increase in the sex trade, with the number of women and girls involved in prostitution, as well as the number of brothels, doubling. The EWL believes that, to create a world free from prostitution, we need to:
The event will be held on 30 May at 13.00 in the European Parliament. For more information, contact the EWL.  |
| US high school team forfeits baseball game rather than play against a girl Posted: 16 May 2012 05:00 AM PDT
A high school baseball team in Arizona forfeited the state championship final game because the opposing team included Paige Sultzbach, a 15-year-old girl. The team, from Our Lady of Sorrows high school, refused to play Mesa Preparatory Academy’s team on the grounds that they would not play against any team with female players. Our Lady of Sorrows is run by the Society of St. Pius X, a conservative, traditionalist organisation which broke away from the Catholic church in the 1980s. In a statement to FoxNews.com, the school said, "Teaching our boys to treat ladies with deference, we choose not to place them in an athletic competition where proper boundaries can only be respected with difficulty. Our school aims to instill in our boys a profound respect for women and girls.” Sultzbach had agreed to sit out two earlier games against Our Lady of Sorrows in acknowledgement of their single-sex policy. However, when her team reached the final, she and her teammates were determined she wouldn’t stay on the bench. Due to the decision to forfeit, though, she was unable to play at all. Her mother, Pamela Sultzbach, said to a local newspaper: “This is not a contact sport; it shouldn’t be an issue. It wasn’t that they were afraid they were going to hurt or injure her, it’s that (they believe) a girl’s place is not on a field.” This year celebrates the 40th anniversary of Title IX, a landmark piece of legislation which cleared the way for girls wishing to participate in sports and athletics in US schools. This states that ”no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance…” It is this legislation that is to thank for Sultzbach being allowed to participate in a mixed-sex team at all, and it is heartening to note that it was Our Lady of Sorrow’s team that was forced to withdraw, rather than Sultzbach – as may well have been the case in previous generations. “The very idea that such stereotypes are so strong, [that] they’d actually forfeit a game simply because a girl was on the field,” said Lisa Maatz of the American Association of University Women in an interview with ESPN. ”That’s ridiculous.” Whether their decision to forfeit the game due to the presence of a female player really teaches the boys of Our Lady of Sorrows the “profound respect for women and girls” they hope to instill is entirely questionable. As Hugo Schwyzer puts it in his thoughtful feature on the story: “To respect women means to see their aspirations, their abilities, and their potential. Real respect means listening to what real women say. Paige Sulzbach [sic] says she can play with the boys; anyone who watches her can see she's got the ability to do so. “In forfeiting the game, Our Lady of Sorrows refused to look at Paige for who she is. And the disrespect was entirely theirs.”  |
| Has rape become a ‘national sport’ in South Africa? Posted: 16 May 2012 02:00 AM PDT
With recent high profile cases involving gang-rape and serial rapists hitting the headlines, South African newspaper The Southern Times has asked whether rape has become a ‘national sport’ in South Africa? Last month there was the horrific story of a 17-year-old girl with the mental age of five, who was gang-raped by seven men. The crime was recorded on one of the men’s mobile phones and quickly spread throughout the community. It provoked widespread outrage, even in a country where rape and sexual violence has become commonplace. This story followed just days after the news that in just one day last month, the Johannesburg High Court heard 62 rape cases – shockingly committed by just nine men, including one father and son team. South Africa holds the dubious distinction of having some of the worst rape statistics in the world. Indeed, some sources claim that women there are more likely to be raped than to learn how to read. The most recent figures show more than 66,000 sexual offences are reported to the police annually. But as Tiny Moloko, a social worker at People Opposing Women Abuse (Powa) says, “Those numbers aren't even a true reflection, as many rape victims don't even come forward to tell their story.” The Medical Research Council (MRA) estimate it could be as many as four times this number. A survey carried out in 2010 revealed truly disturbing attitudes towards rape, with 37.4% of men freely admitting to have committed at least one rape. Nearly 7% said they had participated in a gang rape. Appallingly, the survey also found that 32% of men and women agreed that “in any rape case, one would have to question whether the victim is promiscuous,” while 20.1% of men and 15.6% of women said that “in some rape cases, women want it to happen.” Other news reports reflect the increasing occurrence of ‘corrective rape’ (in which lesbians are raped by men who believe it will change their sexual orientation), and very high incidences of child and baby rape, often fueled by the myth that sex with a virgin will cure a man of HIV or AIDS. Clearly South Africa has a massive problem, and it is no wonder that in a letter to The Star, a South African newspaper, rape was described as ‘a national sport.‘ The causes of the problem are multi-faceted, from changes in the policing of crimes against women and girls, to deeply seated attitudes towards women and a culture of violence in which such crimes are tolerated. Executive Director of the Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Centre Lisa Vetten, says that the position of women has not improved despite South Africa’s post-apartheid laws. “When you have a society that’s been as unequal as ours along gender lines as well as race and class,” she said, “it takes a long time to change that." The National Congress Women’s League (NCWL) called for South Africans to work together to address this endemic problem. “South Africans need to come together as we did during the struggle for freedom and restore the morality in our society,” Troy Martens, spokeswoman for the NCWL said in a press release. “We need to find the cause of this scourge in our society and talk openly about the problem that clearly exists so we can root it out. Communities need to work with Government and police to identify out all criminal elements in our society.”  |
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