Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

UK government’s human rights record on gender up for review

Posted: 22 May 2012 11:08 AM PDT

Harri Sutherland-Kay
WVoN co-editor 

This week the United Kingdom will undergo its second Universal Periodic Review (UPR) examination at the United Nations.

Introduced in 2006, this is a process under which the UN scrutinises the human rights record of each of the 192 member states every four years.

There are two main issues of concern with regard to gender equality that are essential to address in the upcoming review, especially as the UK will go on to be examined by the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Violence Against Women (CEDAW) in July.

The first concern relates to recommendation 28 from the 2008 review which asked the UK to fully integrate a gendered perspective into its human rights record.

The government responded to this by setting up the Women's Business Council and providing £2 million of support for women setting up and expanding businesses in rural areas.

This is woefully inadequate considering that women's unemployment is at its highest for 25 years and that £13.2 billion has already been taken from the incomes of women in the UK through cuts to benefits and tax credits.

Providing £2 million for women to run their own business is a far cry from demonstrating any kind of effort, let alone commitment, to promoting gender equality.

With the cuts to women's frontline services and over 3 million women and girls experiencing gender based violence each year in the UK, serious doubts are being raised by activists in the women’s sector and statutory services about the sustainability of the support that is currently provided.

Under new proposals, at least 46% of victim-survivors of domestic violence will be ineligible for Legal Aid and with domestic violence being the sole focus of strategies of prevention, victim-survivors of all other forms of gender-based violence, including harmful cultural practices, are left with little access to protection.

On top of this, the government is still refusing to sign the EU Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence.

Although it accepted the recommendation to 'set up a strategic oversight body, such as a Commission on Violence Against Women to ensure greater coherence and more effective protection for women', the UK government has done little but reverse coherent and effective protection for women since coming into power.

The hope is that with this week's UPR being sharply followed by a CEDAW examination, the UK government will be held to account on its current policies and the impact they are having on women and children.

The chances are that this will, yet again, fall under the radar. With the Queen's Jubilee and the Olympic Games around the corner, it'll be easy to brush these stories to the back of the news. Let's make sure they are at the forefront.

Failing that, let's fight.

Sexting: the latest threat facing young girls

Posted: 22 May 2012 07:00 AM PDT

Sarah Macshane
WVoN co-editor 

According to a report by the UK children’s charity, NSPCC, a new form of cyber harassment has emerged in the last year.

It says that girls as young as 12 are being peer pressured into performing sexual acts for the amusement of their male peers.

Known as 'sexting', it is then often filmed on the latest smart phone and shared with other students.

The research also highlights the proliferation of “daggering“, when boys forcibly thrust their penises at girls from behind.

The girls who are pressured to perform these acts report that they feel dirty, ashamed and unbelievably embarrassed.

The report makes clear that while girls are increasingly savvy at protecting themselves from so called ‘stranger danger’, the new danger they face lies in ‘peer to peer’ approaches with boys constantly demanding sexual images.

Jon Brown (head of the sexual abuse programme at the NSPCC) said: “girls should never be forced to carry out sex acts and boys must understand it’s not acceptable to put them under such duress that they have little choice but to agree."

Boys who were interviewed for the report confirmed the high incidence of 'sexting' but many believed it was more of a laugh and definitely "not like rape or anything."

The abuse does not stop at cyber harassment, however, with many girls reporting that they are groped and dry-humped by boys. Harassment which they view as an inevitable part of the school day.

Jessica Ringrose of the Institute of Education, University of London, which carried out the research, said there was a “deeply rooted notion that girls’ and young women’s bodies are somehow the property of boys and young men”.

In some cases the girls even write a name in black marker pen on a part of their body to show it’s the ‘property’ of a certain boy.

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) is so concerned that it has created a 10-minute film showing the problems of 'sexting'.

Ceop chief executive Peter Davies believes that boys are sharing these sexual pictures without truly understanding the consequences.

Bombay High Court judge tells woman to “Be like Sita”

Posted: 22 May 2012 04:30 AM PDT

Sharda Vishwanathan
WVoN co-editor 

A Bombay High Court judge has advised a woman to be more like Goddess Sita, who followed her husband Lord Ram into exile in the forest for 14 years.

The judge was hearing a divorce petition from the woman’s husband, following her refusal to relocate to his new place of work.

An employee of the Shipping Corporation of India, the man had been based on a ship for the first five years of their marriage, but was given a ground posting in 2005.

The woman, who comes from Mumbai and continued to live there during the first few years of marriage, refused to move to his new place of work and he filed for divorce.

The judge said: “A wife should be like goddess Sita who left everything and followed her husband Lord Ram to a forest and stayed there for 14 years".

The woman was not impressed and refused to consider a settlement for the sake of their nine-year-old daughter.

Feminist writer Nawal El Saadawi named patron of Women’s Views on News

Posted: 22 May 2012 02:30 AM PDT

Julie Tomlin
WVoN co-editor

The Egyptian feminist writer and activist Nawal El Saadawi, who has devoted her life to championing women's rights, has become the patron of Women's Views on News.

From her early years as a doctor and physician, El Saadawi's outspoken position and her writings have been unpalatable to the ruling elite of Egypt.

She has endured prison, exile and death threats as a result of her work.

As a doctor, she confronted the social, economic and cultural conditions that led to the mistreatment of women.

In 1972 she published Al-Mar’a wa Al-Jins (Woman and Sex), challenging female circumcision and other practices endured by women.

Now 80, El Saadawi joined the protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square and is still working to ensure the success of Egypt's revolution.

Known as the "godmother" of the Egyptian Women's Union, El Saadawi meets regularly with young women and men to discuss the revolution and women's rights, believing that democracy is not possible without equality.

Recently invited to meet former United States president Jimmy Carter to discuss women's rights, El Saadawi told him that Egyptian women could not be liberated while it is still colonised by the US.

"He didn't like the link between the liberation of women and the liberation of the country," she said.

A prolific writer who has written 11 novels, eight collections of short stories and a number of non-fiction books including her memoirs, El Saadawi is committed to the power of words and creativity to effect change.

Her support for the independent online news service dedicated to reporting stories about women demonstrates her conviction that alternative platforms are vital if the voices of "the independent, dignified people who cannot be dominated by the people who have power" are to be heard.

This conviction has grown with regard to Egypt since February 2011. The notion that the revolution was over when President Hosni Mubarak stepped down on 15 February 2011 is a narrative that has taken hold in Egypt's media and beyond.

From that time on the focus has shifted to questions about the extent to which the revolution has delivered, or if it has failed to live up to its promises.

But there are many Egyptians – El Saadawi among them – who understood then as she does now that what happened in February was only the beginning of the process.

"Our revolution succeeded in removing the head of the system – Mubarak – but the body of the regime is still there, including the media," says El Saadawi, adding that she remains excluded, apart from a column in an independent newspaper.

"My situation is exactly the same as it was under Mubarak. I still can't speak on TV or write for the big newspapers," she said.

"I think it's both because I am a woman and because of my ideas. I'm against patriarchy, against class oppression, against US intervention in our affairs, against corruption."

Only those who are "obedient servants" of the current military regime are given positions of power or access to the media, El Saadawi argues.

"If you are very independent and have your own views you don't have a place in the media," she said. "Dignity means I respect my opinions, and I'm not ready to give up my opinions to be a minister or have a position in the regime."

The counter revolution is "very strong" both inside and outside the country, said El Saadawi. There is a desperate need for media that will report the views of those who are supportive of the revolution and not operating within the current system.

"I am optimistic about the future, because hope is power but I am also worried about the future of the revolution," El Saadawi said.

"The counter revolution is gaining more and more. They have a lot of money and they have the media in Egypt and the international media too."

Female farmworkers defenceless against sexual harassment in US

Posted: 22 May 2012 01:30 AM PDT

Alice Rodgers
WVoN co-editor

Female farmworkers in the United States experience frequent sexual assault and violence, according to a report by Human Rights Watch.

Entitled "Cultivating Fear: The Vulnerability of Immigrant Farmworkers in the US to Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment", it describes incidences of rape, stalking, unwanted touching, exhibitionism, or vulgar and obscene language by employers.

Most of the women interviewed said they had not reported the workplace abuse, for fear of being fired or, because of their legal status, deported.

Of the three million migrant and seasonal farmworkers who work in the US, approximately 630,000 are female, and about 60 percent are illegal immigrants.

"I emigrated in search of a better future, but, upon arrival, I experienced great disappointment" said one female farmworker.

"Female workers don't have the same rights and benefits as men and, if they sexually harass you, neither the boss nor the police help you".

Victims of abuse face many hurdles in obtaining justice, such as lengthy and difficult legal processes.

Programmes like Secure Communities and tough, new immigration laws have fuelled fears of the police amongst many immigrant communities.

And when women do find the courage to report abuse, their complaints are often not taken seriously by law enforcement agencies.

The report by the international rights group calls on the Department of Homeland security to repeal rules that encourage local police to report federal immigration violations.

It also calls on Congress to pass laws that protect immigrant female workers, as well as on police officers and sheriffs to take all complaints of sexual assault seriously.

Grace Meng, the author of the report, said "Every day that it fails to enact immigration reform, Congress puts more farmworker women at risk for sexual abuse".