Saturday, October 20, 2012

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

Call for halt to sex advertising

Posted: 19 Oct 2012 05:35 AM PDT

Volunteers collect signatures for petition to stop advertising of sex for sale.

Anti-Slavery Day – October 18 – was created by an Act of Parliament in 2010 to raise awareness of modern slavery and to inspire people to eliminate it.

Modern-day slavery is defined as child trafficking, forced labour, domestic servitude and trafficking for sexual exploitation.

Fraud, deception and violence have trapped women and children in the sex trade. They have to endure appalling conditions and they earn huge tax-free profits for the people who control them.

And sex advertising increases the demand for prostitution and fuels human trafficking.

Human trafficking is now the second-biggest source of illicit profits after the drugs trade, the European Commission says, with traffickers making $32 billion in profits annually.

According to the Human Trafficking Foundation (HTF), "there are more people in slavery today than in the entire 350 year history of the slave trade and 1 in 8 of those is in Europe."

Some 800,000 people – children, men and women – are trafficked every year, the Foundation says.

Around 76 per cent of them are trafficked for sexual exploitation, and of these, 70 per cent are women, some 17 per cent are men, 11 per cent girls and two per cent boys.

The Nottingham branch of women’s volunteer organisation Soroptimist International, was at Nottingham's Speakers’ Corner on Anti-Slavery Day, collecting signatures for the Purple Teardrop petition.

The prime objective of the Purple Teardrop Campaign is to promote human rights with a focus on the infringement of human rights suffered by the victims of people trafficking – 80 per cent of whom are women and girls.

It is reckoned that some 12,000 women and girls are held against their will in sex trafficking locations in the United Kingdom.

The Purple Teardrop petition is to urge ministers in the UK government to ban advertising of sexual services. Many ‘sex for sale’ advertisements are placed by traffickers and so contribute to the demand for sexually exploited women and children, campaigners say.

To sign the petition, click here.

This petition signing is one of many events taking place across the country and over several days before and after Anti-Slavery Day, all of which aim to raise awareness of the modern day slave trade – that is, child trafficking, forced labour, domestic servitude and trafficking for sexual exploitation.

Films are being screened in Bristol, Gloucester, Loughborough and Leeds, while conferences and concerts are being held in cities including Nottingham, Croydon and Leicester.

The Purple Teardrop Campaign has four main aims: to raise awareness among the general public of the plight of women and children who are trafficked; to try to suppress the demand for trafficked women by making men who use prostitutes aware that they could be contributing to this trade; to support the safe houses which provide holistic care for victims who have been freed from trafficking and to promote awareness of the Crimestoppers number, 0800 555 111, so that members of the public can give confidential information on locations where they think trafficked women are being exploited.

Anthony Steen, the former MP behind the creation of Anti-Slavery Day, said informing the public about the modern day slave trade is vital if it is to be stamped out: "You need awareness," he said.

"People have to know there's a brothel around the corner, they have got to know there are men in the fields on debt bondage."

Jimmy Savile and getting away with it

Posted: 19 Oct 2012 02:30 AM PDT

Men like Jimmy Saville will get away with it until we listen to women and girls.

Trigger warning – discussion of rape and child abuse

Yesterday I caught a little bit of Newsnight talking about the Jimmy Savile horror, and they showed a clip of Nick Clegg, asking in disbelief how Saville was able to get away with abusing girls for so long, without it coming out. To quote:

"I just keep asking myself why did this remain buried for so long…There must have been just so many people who knew what was going on in hospitals, the BBC, maybe in the police. The only explanation I can come up with is what we are seeing is the dark side of the culture of celebrity, and actually in this case it wasn’t a culture of celebrity it was the cult of celebrity. I get the impression people felt that with all that glitter and shine there can’t be a dark side, there can’t be a seedy side"

It's a question many people have been asking over the last week and a half since the revelations came out. It's a question that has evolved from "why are the women only speaking out now" (answer, they weren't) to "why did the BBC/police/hospitals/government do nothing?"

Maybe, as Clegg seems to think, it was something to do with the cult of celebrity.

But I think it's a lot, lot simpler than that.

It's to do with the fact that when women and girls come forward with allegations of rape and abuse, the default position in a rape culture is to not believe them.

When the revelations first broke, it felt a little bit like screaming into an echo chamber, as commenters on CIF etc. demanded to know why the women were only speaking out now, when Saville was dead.

'They didn't!' we who had bothered to listen to the women shouted back. 'They told at the time and no-one believed them!' In fact, in some cases the then girls were punished for "telling lies" about Saville. And once you've been called a liar once, and seen the power and respect your abuser commands from everyone, then it would be hard to speak out again, I imagine. It would be hard to go against the huge tide of public opinion, when you know that speaking out again means more punishment, more disbelief. When you're a child, and no-one believes you, no-one listens, and everyone calls you a liar.

It's becoming increasingly clear since last week that it was the silence of his victims that Saville counted on. And in this, he is like every other abuser. But he was also counting on a rape culture that doesn't listen to women and girls. And again, in this way he is like every other abuser.

There's been a lot of comforting talk about how this culture was just something about the seventies, when we had a 'Life on Mars' attitudes towards sexual politics, and harassment and violence simply wasn't taken seriously. Thanks to our sisters in the Women's Liberation Movement, our society now at least pays lip service to the idea that violence against women and girls should be taken seriously. But we're kidding ourselves if we think we have moved on so much that sexual abuse on this scale could not happen today, that today we're more enlightened and would listen to girls, and would make sure the violence stopped.

Because a couple of weeks before the Saville story broke, the Guardian gave a comprehensive report on the failings of multiple services to protect girls in Rochdale, where girls as young as 13 were repeatedly raped and abused for profit by a vicious gang of men who hate women. The right wing press tried to push the notion that the gang remained unchallenged for so long because of 'political correctness gone mad'. But I find this hard to believe. I believe, and the Guardian report reveals, that this was nothing to do with ethnicity and everything to do with rape culture, where we simply don't believe girls who come forward to report violence. Suzi, the fifteen year old who was brave enough to tell the police what had happened to her, was deemed 'unreliable', and the rape and violence continued for four more years. 'Unreliable' is the 'liar' branded on Saville's victims by the authorities back then. Just as Saville was able to get away with it for so long because no one believed the accusations made against him, so the Rochdale gang, the Derby gang, and the hundreds and thousands of rapists that never get caught, were able to get away with it because as a society we simply fail to believe women and girls when they tell us that men are violent towards them.

Even when we do listen to the women, and a rapist is found guilty in a court of law and fails any appeal to have his rape conviction over turned, too many people still don't really believe the women. The case of Ched Evans earlier this year proves that. With a conviction rate of 6.5% (that rises to a higher number when the case reaches court), proving anyone guilty of rape still seems to be pretty hard, so when someone is found guilty I tend to believe that yes, they're guilty. But that guilty conviction wasn't enough for the thousands of men, and some women, that came out in support of Evans. Even when the evidence was there to convict, they still held strong to the idea that the woman was lying, that she was a liar, and he was a wronged hero. So hard it is for our society to accept that men rape, and women tell the truth, that even when there seems to realistically be no other conclusion to draw, the conclusion is still that she lies.

Across the channel, and again we see another case where women are simply not believed when they report the violence committed against them. In the tragic and horrifying case of Nina and Stephanie, who were repeatedly gang raped and terrorised in the Parisian banlieues, they have seen their attackers get away with it. In the case of Nina she was gang raped every day for six months by between 6 and 25 men, who would [queue] up to abuse her. Her rapists threatened to kill her family if she reported them. But she found the courage to, taking her abusers to court. Unfortunately the French Justice System did not share Nina's courage, they did not have the courage to believe what the two young women were telling them. They instead chose to believe the men who told the court that the girls wanted it, that they consented, that they were lying. The court acquitted six of the accused, four were given a suspended sentence and one went to jail for one year. One year between 11 men for terrorising and repeatedly raping a 16-year old girl.

Nina and Stephanie now have to live in the banlieues with the men who raped them. The men who threatened them with more and more violence if they ever told.

So when Nick Clegg and his fellow politicians and his fellow commentators wring their hands and ask how, how, HOW did Saville get away with it for SO long, he doesn't need to look into the past for his answers.

The answer is because in the seventies, eighties, nineties, noughties and today, our society didn’t and doesn't believe women and girls who report rape. The Met are launching their investigation into the Saville case, at the same time as they wrap up the investigation into an officer who repeatedly falsified rape reports because he chose not to believe the women who came to him. That's how ingrained this culture is.

Until we start believing women and girls, really, really believe them, then we'll still continue to ask the same question over the next Saville, the next Worboys, the next Huntley, the next gang.

Because to me, living in a rape culture means living in a culture where we find the reality that men rape and abuse women and girls so hard to cope with, so hard to accept, that we will do anything to make it not seem true. And that results in us refusing to listen to women and girls when they tell us that truth.

So, Clegg, and everyone else. Start listening. It's our refusal to listen that lets abusers get away with it. Stop hand wringing and start listening.

Rape Crisis Number: 0808 802 9999

Sian Norris is a Bristol-based writer and feminist activist. She co-ordinates the Bristol Feminist Network and runs a successful blog, sianandcrookedrib. She has written for a range of blogs, newspapers, magazines and websites, including the Guardian and the F Word, as well as presented at a variety of feminist academic conferences. She recently published an anthology of experiences of becoming a feminist ‘The Light Bulb Moment’ and her children’s book is due to be published in 2013. In her day job, she’s an advertising copywriter for a range of charity clients.

Misunderstanding of secondary breast cancer isolates women

Posted: 19 Oct 2012 01:30 AM PDT

Many people are confused about effects of secondary breast cancer according to Breast Cancer Care

There is widespread misunderstanding about what secondary breast cancer is and how it affects women, according to new research just published by the cancer organisation Breast Cancer Care.

Over half of the 2,000 adults polled did not know what secondary breast cancer was or that it is life threatening.

Around 36,000 people in the UK are living with secondary breast cancer, but in many cases they are not receiving the quality of care given to those with primary breast cancer.

A diagnosis of secondary breast cancer means that the cancer cells have spread from the primary cancer in the breast to other parts of the body. When this happens, the cancer can no longer be cured, although it can be treated and controlled, sometimes for years.

Samia al Qadhi, Breast Cancer Care's Chief Executive, said that many of the women with secondary breast cancer supported by her charity experience "a very real sense of isolation" in addition to gaps in care.

She believes that this situation will continue until there is greater public understanding of the condition.

In a significant number of cases, women with secondary breast cancer can continue to live full lives for many years, but only if they get the right support and clinical management.

Yet the research suggests the majority believe secondary breast cancer is much more debilitating. Over half, 54 per cent of those polled didn't know if someone with the condition would be able to work, while 43 per cent either didn't know or mistakenly thought that people with secondary breast cancer are unable to go on holiday.

Saturday 13 October was Secondary Breast Cancer Awareness Day. 'A Day in the Life,' Breast Cancer Care's annual campaign, this year presented the day to day experiences of women living with secondary breast cancer, as well as providing information about the condition and how to get support.

In the long term, Breast Cancer Care aims to ensure all women with secondary breast cancer get the best possible standard of care. Raising awareness is an important step in that campaign.

Take action to raise standards for those living with secondary breast cancer by visiting www.breastcancercare.org.uk/spotlight

Importance of rural women celebrated

Posted: 19 Oct 2012 01:09 AM PDT

Women around the world observed International Day of Rural Women on October 15. 

The United Nations (UN) established the day in 2007 to recognize "the critical role and contribution of rural women, including indigenous women, in enhancing agricultural and rural development, improving food security and eradicating rural poverty."

Rural women often are the primary providers of food and sustenance for their families, often working in situations of poverty and adapting to their environments with new agricultural techniques.

World Vision cites numerous examples of women starting up new agricultural practices and implementing new methods of production in order to sustain their families and communities.

For example, Northern Bangladeshi women have joined together to weave and sell saris, sarongs, bedsheets and towels using a new time-saving machine.

Women in western Afghanistan are beekeeping and producing the region's first honey. Yadha is one such woman. With the 12 pounds a kilo she earns, she can send her children to school.

To mark the achievements of rural women, nations around the world organized festivals, workshops and other events around the theme “the empowerment of rural women and their role in poverty and hunger eradication.”

In Islamabad, Pakistan, Lok Virsa, the National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage, collaborated with the Potohar Organisation for Development Advocacy (PODA) to arrange a 2-day workshop featuring female artisans at work, a seminar on women's issues, audio/visual displays and a folk music performance.

The Minister for Women's Development, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Begum Zakia Shahnawaz, advisor to the Punjab’s chief minister, were among those attending.

Lok Virsa’s executive director, Khalid Javaid, said: "We were the first cultural organisation in Pakistan that stood behind PODA and supported them in organising a number of cultural and promotional activities to mark the International Rural Women's Day."

"This joint strategy has resulted in highlighting achievements of rural women in the development of the country not only at national, but at international level, too."

In Rwanda, the vice-president of the National Women's Council, Marie Rose Ndejeje, challenged women to work towards improving their social status and avoid dependency on male family members for survival.

She said the country needed strong women who can contribute actively to the development of their families and the country.

ActionAid Rwanda donated six Friesian cows and 14 pigs to local families as a way to boost rural women's social conditions and economic security.

Josephine Uwamariya, ActionAid Rwanda representative, said: “We hope that these animals will help change the lives of the beneficiaries for the better.”

Ms Uwamariya added that poverty eradication is important for strengthening families and improving the position of women in society.

Women in the Philippines had three major activities scheduled: a forum on the land rights of marginalized women, a national search for outstanding rural women, and a women's market.

Fiji marked the day with a workshop for women market sellers, the aim of of which was to help them improve sales and marketing of their produce. About 300 women took part.

Ba Town Council Administrator Arun Kumar said the UNWomen-organized workshop “educates these market vendors on the importance of their crops — how they can improve their produce, how they can market it, and how they can manage it.”

“Essentially, they are being trained to become better at what they do. They are being taught basically how to maximise their resources as well as increase their awareness of agriculture and the role women play,” he explained.

Tevola Lewatabe, the president of Ba Women’s Rural Association, said that women played a major role in local agriculture.

“Reducing gender inequality and recognising the contribution women make to agriculture is critical to achieving global food security,” she added.

In London, the National Alliance of Women's Organizations (NAWO) in conjunction with Associated Country Women of the World (ACWW) held a summit at the House of Lords entitled "What universal rights do rural women share?"

Chaired by Baroness Verma, the event included speakers from the two hosting organizations and a representative from UNWomen.

The aim was to address the human rights of all rural women, consensus build without ignoring the different challenges rural women face, and the look at the feasibility of producing a draft charter of rural women's rights.

While these events addressed the specific situations of the rural women in each of the countries, they all acknowledged the value of rural women to economic and food security and the need to maximize their empowerment.