Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

Facebook mix-up forced lecturer to flee for life

Posted: 29 Oct 2012 06:54 AM PDT

 

A journalist’s careless mistake led to an Iranian woman fleeing for her life from state police.

Neda Soltani is now living in exile away from her family and the job she loved as an academic.

Her life changed forever when a picture of her was mistakenly lifted from Facebook and published as the face of a protester, with a similar name, who had been killed by a Government sniper.

The victim Neda Agha Soltan had joined thousands of others on the streets of Tehran in 2009 following the disputed election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Her death was captured on mobile phone footage (contains graphic content) which was beamed around the world.

Neda Agha Soltan became the symbol of the Iranian opposition and her face was shown across the media and used on posters and by protesters – but it was the wrong face.

A journalist had picked out Neda Soltani’s instead but she was alive and working as a lecturer in a university.

When the state police realised the confusion they tried to force Neda Soltani to pose as Neda Agha Soltan and say that the story had been made up by the western media, reports alarabiya.net 

Soltani refused and she became the living dead.

As she tells The Guardian: “They wanted to use me to say the whole thing was a fake made up by western media – ‘see, here is this Neda and she is alive’. They didn’t care that it was nothing to do with me, that it was a mistake; they wanted me to co-operate and when I wouldn’t, they hounded me."

She was charged with treason, which meant death, and was forced to flee to Germany where she lived in a refugee camp for nine months.

Her agony wasn’t over her as shes tells The Guardian: "Every day in such a place is torture, not just for me but for all those refugees … In my society I had achieved so much and now I had nothing – I was in a drawer, a folder labelled ‘refugee’.”

In her book just published entitled "My Stolen Face" she describes how cataclysmatically her life changed.

"In eleven days I had gone from that hardworking, fortunate individual who had everything in life under control to this apparition of a woman wondering what would happen in the next few minutes, having no idea, let alone control over the course of events. Why?”

“Because a Basiji had slain an innocent woman in the name of Islam, and some stupid, news-greedy blogger or journalist had wanted to be the first, the very first person to given the icon a face. A search on Facebook for a similar name, of the search results, one has a photo with a sweet smile, fit for a martyr; it’s good, it serves the purpose and now here I am."

She says her story shows how dangerous sloppy journalism can be.

Even when she emailed and rang news agencies to alert them of the error, it was only Wikipedia who corrected it, reports thestar.com

She eventually received an apology from a news agency who had distributed the wrong picture saying "We are sorry for the inconvenience caused."

Soltani now gives lectures and writes. When she spoke at Montclair University near New York earlier this year, she focussed on the increasing oppression of women in Iran since the 2009 uprising.

"Before 2009, women in Iran were relatively emancipated when compared to countries such as Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan. Women had achieved a lot. Now, they are being seriously oppressed," she said.

"The current regime knows just what a powerful force emancipated women can be when it comes to creating a free and open society." 

Women: choose your Police and Crime Commissioner

Posted: 29 Oct 2012 02:00 AM PDT

Women across England and Wales  urged to vote for their PCC on 15th November.

Naomi Wilcox, WVoN co-editor

Last Friday the Home Office published the names and statements of the confirmed candidates for the imminent Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) elections, which will be held on 15th November. All the candidates, along with their 300 word statements can be seen on the new Choose My PCC website.

President of the Association of Chief Police Officers, Sir Hugh Orde, has described the elections as “the biggest change to policing since 1829″. Yet despite this there are real fears that knowledge of the upcoming elections is limited, and expected turnout is low. The Electoral Reform Society has predicted a 18.5% turnout, making it the lowest turnout of any nationwide election in British history. This is despite a TV advertising campaign aimed at raising awareness of the elections.

The 37 new PCC’s in England (along with 4 in Wales) will have responsibility for appointing and holding accountable Chief Constables, setting local policing priorities and deciding the annual Police Force budget. They will hold a highly influential position that has the potential to affect our lives in a very real way. The candidates are from mixed backgrounds, the largest group of candidates are those picked by the main political parties, with a third of candidates already holding elected office. A quarter of the prospective PCCs have military or police backgrounds, while only 34 (17%) of the candidates are women.

Women’s groups across England and Wales are encouraging women to use their vote, and highlighting the influence the new PCCs will have on women’s safety within their communities. Many have written manifestos for the PCC candidates to sign up to. These include suggested priorities for the police with regard to domestic violence, rape, prostitution and sexual harrassment, amongst others.  Many women’s organisations are also hosting PCC hustings, where voters will have the opportunity to question candidates. One such event is being held by Coventry Women’s Voices (CWV) this Wednesday.

Mary-Ann Stephenson from CWV said:

“The Police and Crime Commissioners will have a potentially huge impact on the way the police treat crimes against women and the funding of women’s services for victims and survivors of violence. Coventry Women’s Voices wants to make sure that all the candidates are informed of the needs and priorities of women in Coventry.’

As well as inviting women to the question time event to grill their local candidates, CWV have published a 7-point plan for the West Midlands PCC candidates to sign up to

The people elected to the new PCC posts will affect all of us; their decisions will directly influence how our local communities are policed; they will decide where and how police money is spent. For those of us who are concerned about, or have been directly affected by, the policing of issues affecting women it is crucial that we inform ourselves, and make our voice heard in the elections next month.

I will be live-blogging for WVoN at the Question Time event this Wednesday evening between 7 – 9pm. Follow me and join in via the hashtag #covwomenpcc

UK trials sale of ‘five-day-after pill’

Posted: 29 Oct 2012 01:07 AM PDT

The Co-Operative Pharmacy chain is set to trial sales of  the 'five-day-after pill'.

Until now it has only been possible to get the pill, called ellaOne, with a prescription from a GP – or from a London-based website which also sells Viagra and weight-loss drugs.

It is now to be sold at pharmacies for the first time, enabling women to prevent unwanted pregnancies up to five days after sex, without any requirement for women to have had a doctor's consultation or get a prescription.

The contraceptive is thought to work by preventing ovulation and fertilisation, and by making the lining of the womb less receptive to a fertilised egg, The Telegraph reports.

According to the NetDoctor, ellaOne is significantly more effective than the most commonly-used morning-after pill, Levonelle, which can be taken up to three days after intercourse.

However, it is estimated that for every 100 women who take ellaOne up to five days after unprotected sex, approximately two women will become pregnant.

Studies have shown that 0.91 per cent of women who took ellaOne became pregnant, compared with 1.68 per cent of those who took the conventional morning-after pill.

The tablet is more effective at preventing pregnancy the earlier it is taken, so should be taken as soon as possible after unprotected sex, rather than leaving it to the fifth day.

Jane Devenish, clinical service pharmacist for the chain, said that this service will be an important step, offering women access to a wider choice of emergency contraception in a community pharmacy and enabling them to make an informed decision.

"It is not our place to make a judgement on people's motives or lifestyles, and there can be numerous reasons for seeking medical help," she said.

Healthcare Today reports that the Co-operative Pharmacy’s initial plan is to runs trials in 40 branches in Essex, London and Bristol and if the pilot proves a success, it will roll sales out across its 760 branches.

The product will only be available to people over the age of 18, and women asking for the emergency contraception will be offered a private consultation with a pharmacist.

Some 250,000 women use emergency contraception every year, overwhelmingly paid for by the NHS.

Women wanting ellaOne will be questioned by a pharmacist to check their age, and that they are not already pregnant or on any medication which could cause complications.

If pharmacists think someone is under 18 – and they cannot provide ID to prove otherwise – they will be refused the pill, as it has not been properly tested on younger women.

Side-effects include nausea, vomiting, headaches, mood swings and back pain, similar to the conventional morning-after pill.

UK women lobby UN for UK women’s rights

Posted: 29 Oct 2012 01:06 AM PDT

Working group shows UN how women's rights in the UK are being rolled back by coalition government.

A group of UK representatives from women's organisations went to Geneva on October 22 to lobby the United Nations Committee to End Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), ahead of its examination of the UK government next summer.

The representatives, who formed the UK CEDAW Working Group, hope to have ensured that when the committee inspects the UK government on their record on women they ask the right questions, in order to expose the true extent of the "roll back" of women's rights in the UK.

As well as lobbying the committee directly, the group are producing a shadow report which will highlight the breadth of women's discrimination and inequality issues in the UK.

The Women’s Resource Centre , who were represented in Geneva, have uploaded a series of videos which explain their lobbying process. For those who are unsure about what lobbying is or how it might affect them, the videos are a great example of such activism in action.

As one of the videos explains, CEDAW is a United Nations treaty which deals explicitly and only with the needs of women. It is very broad in that it deals with all issues that affect women.

The crucial thing about CEDAW is that the UK government is legally bound to enforce its principles under international law, and therefore provides a very useful tool in terms of pressuring the government to work to end discrimination and inequality for women.

More information about CEDAW can be found here.

The statement that the working group made to the committee is powerful in its message:  "Women's rights in the UK are being rolled back… the policies of the current government are leading to a regression in women's rights, rather than the progression demanded by the CEDAW convention.

"Across the UK we are seeing a disregard for women's equality and a threat to human rights in general. Women's hard fought for rights under every CEDAW article are being reduced."

The statement is in some senses as broad as the issues that CEDAW deals with, in that it touches upon much of the massive spectrum of problems facing women in the UK today.

It does, however, identify four main groups of concern: policy changes and austerity measures, women's health, violence against women and girls and communication structures on gender equality within government.

Their point about communication structures on gender equality within government is a very important one: the statement goes on to argue that the national women's machinery in the UK has been dismantled and not replaced.

There are several consequences of this, including the fact that there is inconsistency in how the government makes and delivers gender policies both nationally and internationally, and that advice to government on these issues can be, and has been, largely ignored.

It is for exactly these reasons that utilising the power of a body like CEDAW through lobbying, and indeed events such as UK Feminista's mass lobby of parliament on October 24, are absolutely critical in halting and reversing this "roll back" of women's rights.

Progress could be made, the statement suggests, if policies were made in partnership with women's NGO's and include a gendered perspective.

Initial reactions suggest that the session was a success, with committee members really listening to the issues put forward by the representatives, and one member praising the strong showing from UK NGO's.

The New Statesman has celebrated the power and nature of feminism following the success of the UK Feminista lobby this week, calling it "one of the most committed, outspoken and energising social justice movements of modern times".

The work of the UK CEDAW working group in Geneva which preceded that event also undoubtedly reflects this sentiment.

It is important that we recognise and use the tools available to us to bring about change.

With the CEDAW inspection of the government taking place next summer, it is essential that women are aware of the potential power of the committee and the international laws attached to it, and are thus able to mobilise around it.