Saturday, December 1, 2012

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

Chika Unigwe wins Nigerian Prize for Literature

Posted: 30 Nov 2012 06:30 AM PST

Nigerian writer Chika Unigwe is the 2012 recipient of the Nigerian Prize for Literature for her novel, On Black Sisters' Street.

A board of judges announced Unigwe as the winner of the $100,000 prize on November 1 on Victoria Island, Lagos.

Unigwe's novel beat two other novels in the shortlist— Only a Canvas by Olusola Olugbesan and Onaedo: The Blacksmith's Daughter by Ngozi Achebe, niece of Chinua Achebe.

The judges said of the shortlist: "By coincidence, the three novels deal with issues concerning the plight of women in the past and in the present.

“On Black Sisters' Street is focused specifically on the very precarious situation of women, particularly the issue of sexual slavery.

“In her depiction of the socio-economic conditions in Nigeria, Unigwe displays grasp of narrative techniques as well as excellent descriptive capabilities."

On Black Sisters' Street (Jonathan Cape, 2009), Unigwe's sixth novel, focuses upon the lives of four African women who are recruited into prostitution in Antwerp, Belgium.

When Sisi, one of the sex workers, is murdered, her death becomes a catalyst for the women to bond through their life stories, stories that define the women beyond their roles in the red-light district of Antwerp.

New York Times reviewer Fernanda Eberstadt says of the novel: "[Unigwe] insists that we regard her four central characters as cool-eyed gamblers, not passive victims, as women willing to play 'the trump card that God has wedged in between their legs' in exchange for the material goods they crave, the chance of coming home rich enough to buy their families cars, apartments and businesses."

When asked how she came to write On Black Sisters' Street, Unigwe has said in an interview: "I come from a very conservative, catholic home where 'sex' wasn't a word we could use. Then I moved to Belgium and to my shock, saw prostitutes behind display windows.

“When I was told that a majority of the black prostitutes in Antwerp were from Nigeria, my curiosity could no longer be contained. I had to find out why anyone would come so far to work as a prostitute , I had to find out their stories."

Other reviewers have also favourably commented on Unigwe’s fiction.

In a review of Unigwe’s latest novel, Night Dancer, Bernadine Evaristo describes Unigwe as "one of the most probing, thought-provoking writers of the recent renaissance in African fiction.

“Many of these are female, bringing hitherto submerged stories about African women to the fore."

Chika Unigwe has a PhD in Literature from the University of Leiden and is the author of  six novels, two poetry collections and numerous short stories published in journals and anthologies.

Her latest novel, Night Dancer (Jonathan Cape, 2012), focuses on the difficulties of living as a woman on her own terms in a rigidly patriarchal African culture.

With the Nigerian Prize for Literature, Chika Unigwe adds to her growing accolades.

In 2003, she was shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing.

She has also won the 2004 BBC Short story Competition and a Commonwealth Short Story Competition award. Her short story made the top 10 of the Million Writers Award for best online fiction.

In July 2012, On Black Sisters’ Street was longlisted for the 2012 Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa

Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas  (NLNG) instituted the Nigerian Prize for Literature in 2004 to promote excellence in writing and book production in Nigeria.

Each year the prize rotates among literary genres of prose fiction, poetry, drama and children's literature.

The Nigerian Prize for Literature is the largest prize for literature in Africa.

Study finds sexism in science jobs

Posted: 30 Nov 2012 03:30 AM PST

Enduring negative stereotypes of women in science causing barrier to their entry to scientific careers.

A study reported in the USA’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal, has found gender biases in the hiring of students by science faculties.

The number of women opting to undertake biological and physical science degrees has increased in recent years; this research aimed to uncover why there is still a disparity between the number of female students receiving PhDs and those entering positions as early career academics.

The research found that, given equally qualified male and female candidates, science faculties showed preferential evaluation and selection of male students to work in their laboratories.

Participants were issued identical applications, randomly assigned either a male or female name, and asked to rate it.

Not only were the perceived male students rated as more competent and hireable, but they were also offered higher starting salaries and greater opportunities for career mentoring.

Ironically, participants reported liking female students more than their male counterparts, a factor that researchers concluded was evidence that they were ‘affected by enduring cultural stereotypes about women’s lack of science competence’, rather than ‘overt hostility towards women’.

The research highlights the ongoing relevance of projects like the Athena SWAN Charter, which aims ‘to spread good practice on improving the representation of women in Science, Technology, Mathematics, Medicine (STEMM) in Higher Education’.

This charter issues academic institutions with Gold, Silver, and Bronze awards depending on various factors, including initiatives to increase female students and raise awareness about equality in STEMM to the wider community.

Beyond academic institutions, STEMinist (@STEMinist) is working to shift those deeply entrenched ‘cultural stereotypes’.

Weekly interviews with women working successfully in STEMM, not only raise visibility, but they also offer role models for younger women and girls interested in pursuing careers in STEMM.

Nonethess, this US research highlights the paradox that it is often those professions which demand the greatest objectivity and reflexivity which are subject to the greatest biases.

NUS-funded research into ‘lad culture’ begins

Posted: 30 Nov 2012 03:00 AM PST

The sickening phenomenon of ‘lad culture’ at universities is to be the subject of a research project.

Last month research into ‘lad culture’ at UK universities began, funded by the National Union of Students (NUS).

‘Lad culture’ is a widespread problem on university campuses, night clubs and the internet.

From “Pimps and Hoes” events, sexist banter and websites like Uni Lad, ‘lad culture’ is a growing phenomenon.

The NUS sought out researchers to look into this trend, and chose a bid from the University of Sussex.

Alison Phipps, head of Gender Studies at the University of Sussex, had worked with the NUS in previous years on their Hidden Marks project which focused on experiences of sexual assault at universities.

Speaking to Alison this week, she said that attacks on female students had been something that had concerned her for a while – and importantly – concerned her students.

A study into ‘lad culture’ seemed logical to Alison because “sexism and sexual harassment create the conditions in which sexual violence can occur.”

As a recent graduate, and a graduate from Sussex at that, I was extremely pleased to see this subject being tackled.

To most who have attended university in the last few years, the research seems a slightly overdue project.

Alison and researcher Isabel Young are completing a literature review, and have been holding focus groups across the country.

My guess is that many women have stories to tell – and may even gain a sense of relief from telling them.

“We have a fairly diverse group of participants, in terms of factors like ethnicity, sexual orientation, (dis)ability, and views on ‘lad culture’.” Alison said.

She added that they have also heard from women who have themselves been immersed in ‘lad culture.’

One of my own university friends, having played netball from a young age, was eager to be involved in sports while studying.

However, sports teams in some UK universities seem plagued by a macho-culture which degrades and disempowers women.

It means women struggle to enjoy the same freedom as men in this environment and any man who simply wants to play sport – uninterested in offensive ‘banter’ or even women at all – is left out in the cold.

“We were regularly shouted at in a sexist manner,” she said.

“One example would be ‘I’m going to put you in half’.” This roughly translates as a threat of violent, non-consensual, sex.

She added: “During an initiation ceremony, at least twenty members of the rugby team ran naked at a woman leaving the library late at night.

“The woman was terrified.”

These kind of incidents are particularly shocking when the context for this behaviour is explained.

This year at Sussex there were two reports of sexual assaults on the university campus.

Which left those living on campus – and other students who faced the walk through campus late at night – scared for their safety.

And it was not only Sussex.

Throughout the country, the NUS’s Hidden Marks study showed that 1 in 7 women had fallen victim to ‘serious sexual assault or serious physical violence’ while in higher education – and in 60 per cent of these cases of sexual assault or stalking, the perpetrator was also a student.

‘Lad culture’ often condones rape culture.

A prime example being a ‘joke’ which led to the temporary closure of the Uni Lad website last year - "85 per cent of rape cases go unreported. That seems to be fairly good odds".

This appears to be the tip of the iceberg – with other ‘lad culture’ websites suggesting recipes for rohypnol. Apparently another ‘joke’.

At Sussex, while positive groups organised rape alarms for frightened students, the sports teams took a different angle.

During a ‘bad taste’ dress-up theme night organised by the male sports teams, a student dressed as the ‘campus rapist’ – with a sign proclaiming “it’s not rape if you say ’surprise’.”

Alison is also worried about the perception of rape at universities.

She has noticed among some of her students “a sense that these things occur frequently and are almost inevitable.”

This view rings true – only 4 per cent of those who told the Hidden Marks survey they had been sexually assaulted reported it to the university.

‘Lad culture’ normalises sexual assault and this makes it less likely that the victims will report it.

It is also horrible reminder to those who have experienced sexual assault in the past.

So is ‘lad culture’ new, and where does it come from?

Alison Phipps believes it is certainly not a modern invention.

“‘Lad culture’ isn’t new – there have been discussions of it as far back as the 1950s, and in the 1990s it was quite a prominent idea in the media and academia.”

She connects the current problem to a ‘crisis of masculinity’ and more interestingly, to the recession: (some) women are achieving more than men in education and within the work place.

She said: “I see ‘laddish’ behaviours in educational environments as a way for men to reclaim their territory by making women feel uncomfortable.”

To add to this, in a time of recession and economic insecurity, the success of women appears more threatening to their male counterparts.

Women at universities across the country fight for change, but when they speak out they are often singled out as, God forbid, feminists.

My friend told me: “They [the rugby team] locked a girl from the netball team – a member of the Feminist Society – in a toilet on a coach and threw porn magazines at her.”

We can only hope the research will begin the fightback against this kind of culture on our campuses.

NUS women’s officer Kelley Temple said: ”Although I know there's a possibility that the findings of the research could reveal a dismal picture, I am a strong believer in identifying the real issues and taking an evidence led approach is the first step to empower student officers in tackling problems on campuses.”

The NUS report into ‘lad culture’ will be completed in February 2013 and its findings shared at the NUS Women’s Conference.

To follow the research visit the website here.

New partnership to help widows

Posted: 30 Nov 2012 02:00 AM PST

For many women the loss of a husband is only the first trauma in a long-term ordeal.

A new partnership set up between UN Women and the Loomba Foundation, aiming to help widows in Guatemala, Malawi and India, has been announced.

Speaking at the launch of this project in London UN Women Deputy Executive Director Lakshmi Puri pointed out that: “Once widowed, women in many countries often confront a denial of inheritance and land rights, degrading and life-threatening mourning and burial rites and other forms of widow abuse.

“For many, the loss of a husband is only the first trauma in a long-term ordeal,” she continued.

“In many cases, they are also victims of multiple and compounding discriminations, prejudice, exclusion, exploitation, disempowerment, violence and stigmatization on account of widowhood in conjunction with poverty, living in remote or rural areas, bearing the brunt of conflict or post-conflict and post natural disaster displacement and HIV-AIDS pandemic.

“They suffer from poverty which can be made worse by little or no access to credit or other economic resources, and by illiteracy or lack of education.

“Without education and training, widows cannot support themselves or their families.”

In many countries, she continued: 'Widows find themselves the victims of physical and mental violence – including sexual abuse – related to inheritance, land and property disputes.”

There are an estimated 250 million widows globally.

War-torn Iraq has an estimated 1.5 million.

Widows are not a new social problem in Iraq, of course: the war with Iran in the 1980s left tens of thousands of women widowed.

Since then each new calamity that followed has created more: the 1991 war with the United States, the failed Shiite uprising that followed, the repressions of the Kurds.

And the numbers of widows in Iraq, or as American aid programs prefer to call them, "female heads of households," increased substantially after the invasion in 2003 and in the years of violence that have followed.

Mayan women widowed as a result of the political violence in Guatemala are not only among the most vulnerable, economically and socially, they are also suspect as far as the military authorities are concerned.

As Linda Green reported in 2011, more than a decade after the “scorched earth campaign” women “continued to recount their stories of the events surrounding the deaths or disappearances of their husbands, fathers, sons, uncles, and cousins.”

“Their quiet, dignified manner,” she wrote.

“Belies their experiences of fear and repression and the chronic state of physical, emotional, and social trauma in which they live.

“Many of these women were forced to evacuate their villages in the early 1980s, as they themselves were beaten, raped and humiliated by the soldiers.”

And even in countries without war, widows suffer far too often being victims of familial abuse, discrimination and exclusion.

Malawi is one of the world's poorest countries with an average per capita income of USD170. Life expectancy is age 47, and malaria, AIDS and malnutrition the leading causes of death.

To become a widow in Malawi may well mean falling into extreme poverty, and the treatment of widows has been noted as a particularly serious problem in Malawi.

As in other areas of Africa, the family of the deceased husband may well forcibly, and sometimes violently, take all her possessions from the widow, leaving her with the children and - if she is lucky – only a roof over her head.

In 2011, the Malawi parliament passed the Deceased Estates (Wills, Inheritance and Protection Act) Act No. 14, to provide widows and daughters equal inheritance rights and address the problem of widows being denied their inheritance upon the death of a spouse.

In India there are estimated to be about 42 million widows, and in much of Indian society – regardless of caste or religion – a widow, whether 18 or 80, is often perceived by either her family members or her in-laws to be a burden.

"Widowhood is a state of social death, even among the higher castes," Mohini Giri, a veteran activist in the fight for women's rights who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005, said.

"Widows are still accused of being responsible for their husband's death, and they are expected to have a spiritual life with many restrictions which affects them both physically and psychologically."

And according to Meera Khanna, a trustee of the New Delhi-based Women's Initiative for Peace in South Asia, and a contributor to of a book called Living Death: Trauma of Widowhood in India: "The widow is 'uglified' to deprive her of the core of her femininity."

"It is an act symbolic of castration.

“She is deprived of the red dot between her eyebrows that proclaims her sexual energy."

Lord Raj Loomba, founder and chairman trustee of the Loomba Foundation, has been a strong advocate for the plight of widows and at the forefront of campaigning for the creation of International Widows Day, the first of which was on 23 June 2011.

His mother, Shrimata Pushpa Wati Loomba, was widowed at the age of 37 in India and Loomba experienced firsthand the social and economic discrimination that widows in that country faced.

When the Loomba Foundation was founded in 1997, its initial focus was on relieving the desperate plight of poor widows and their children in India – and this remains a very important objective, but it is now dedicated to assisting and empowering widows around the world.

The foundation will be contributing US$ 1 million over three years to this new partnership with UN Women.

Chris Brown: Still Unrepentant

Posted: 30 Nov 2012 01:30 AM PST

Chris Brown, Trolling and Forgiveness.

From all that Chas.

Anyone who has a passing association with social media will probably be aware that singer Chris Brown has suspended his Twitter account after hurling misogynistic and sexualised insults at comedian Jenny Johnson. To see the full transcript of Brown’s NSFW tweets, you can go here, and it’s likely you will be pretty disgusted. A few brave commentators have pointed out that Johnson has been aiming derogatory comments at Brown ever since his 2009 conviction for his vicious assault against then-partner Rihanna, and that she started this particular exchange by calling him a ‘worthless piece of shit’. Others have added that this is mere publicity-seeking on the part of Johnson. But even if it is, Brown’s reponse – where he threatens to defecate in Johnson’s eye/mouth, calls her a ‘worthless bitch’ ‘a bushpig’ and tells her to ‘suck my dick YOU HOE’ (sic) – has proven exactly what Johnson and countless other appalled women and men have been saying for years. Namely that, far from being a ‘reformed character’ just because he ‘served his sentence’ (and more on why that’s SUCH an inadequate defence, later), Brown remains a total misogynist, and one with a frightening lack of self-awareness to boot.

Twitter trolls are at best annoying, and at worst severely disruptive to one’s life and sanity. However, the solution to them remains in our hands – ignore and block. Brown could have blocked Johnson long ago, but egotist that he is, he chose to engage and show his true colours instead. He could have responded with some dignity or at least attempted to defend himself in a reasoned way. But I guess a man who bites, punches and throttles a woman while screaming “I’m going to kill you!” perhaps isn’t particularly schooled in the nuances of having a mature debate with another person, and not using any excuse to rise to the bait. While I don’t believe in ‘trial by social media’, I do believe in winding your bloody neck in when the thing you’re most renowned for is a vile, violent, inexcusable assault on the person you’re supposed to love, rather than repeatedly behaving like an obnoxious twat and then making out you’re just soooo bafflingly oppressed by ‘haterz’. And don’t even get me started on Brown’s use of social media to label his legion of followers ‘Team Breezy’, as if to somehow imply that his crimes are something that we should all be ‘super casual’ and ‘mellow’ about.

To those then, who will inevitably come back with the ‘He served his sentence and said he was sorry’ defence, sorry but no dice. That defence will only stand when we live in a world where violence against women is adequately punished, and all the evidence at hand shows that this is far from the case. I remember over a decade ago, how Mike Tyson’s supporters clamoured to defend him when he was barred from entering Britain on grounds of his rape conviction. Women and men were vox-popped on the evening news bleating ‘But he’s done his time, forget it, move on’. Oh sure, Tyson did his time for raping Desiree Washington. He was sentenced to 6 years, but served 3. If you were an average sized woman forced into sex by someone with the physical strength, power and capacity for violence of Mike Tyson, would you think that an adequate sentence? Not to mention if you had to go through the media circus and complete annihilation of your character that would follow the (extremely brave) action of accusing one of the world’s most famous and admired men, as Tyson was at the time? It’s pitiful, that out of the very few rape cases that actually reach court, sentences remain so light, and it defies logic to think that a man who thinks he can use force to dominate a woman is going to be magically reformed by undergoing such a sentence.

This is illustrated perfectly by Chris Brown’s behaviour. His sentence was a joke, and whatever public ‘apology’ he was forced to issue for PR reasons, his behaviour since 2009 implies he is utterly unremorseful. He served no jail time, and got a mere 5 year’s probation with 6 months community labour. Reading the description of the frenzied, possibly murderous assault Brown unleashed on Rihanna, I think most of us would agree that this is in no way proportionate to the terror and pain his victim underwent and will probably continue to undergo in the aftermath. When someone punches you repeatedly in the head and then squeezes on your carotid artery while you scream for help, you don’t just get over that overnight, or in a year, or even five years. I’d wager it stays with you for life.

And whether Rihanna herself appears forgiving of Brown is irrelevant. We’ve all heard the term Stockholm Syndrome, and anyone who has done the slightest bit of research on domestic violence, or worse, experienced it themselves, will tell you that victims regularly defend and make excuses for their attacker. Even if Rihanna and Brown actually do start up a relationship again, this is in no way evidence that Brown is magically ‘reformed’, and could end up being quite the opposite – the average domestic abuse victim will leave their abuser only to return to them 7 times before managing to leave for good. It’s also worth bearing in mind that domestic abuse victims will usually endure repeated beatings before even calling the police. Had Brown’s attack on Rihanna not occurred in public, whereby worried bystanders overheard Rihanna’s screams and called the police, the story could have played out very differently. Brown’s victim deciding she wants to forgive him or still wants to be in a relationship with him does not negate what he did, or improve his character, or erase the surrounding culture of victim-blaming and apologism for violence against women.

Ah yes, that culture. That culture whereby a rich, powerful man who is looked up to by millions describes another man’s violence against a woman as a ‘mistake’ and demands that we give that man ‘a break’. That culture whereby Rihanna being punched, choked and bitten is merely a punchline in a primetime panel quiz show (which was also tastefully broadcast on International Stop Violence Against Women Day), and where complaints against such filth are dismissed on grounds of ‘varying tastes of humour’. In such a culture, there is no punishment harsh enough, no disgust deep enough, no grudge held long enough against the likes of Brown. Served his time, my backside. And if you think I’m being unfair, imagine what happened to Rihanna happening to your wife, girlfriend, sister, daughter, mother or friend, and tell me how forgiving you’d feel four years later, when the man who had beaten, strangled and bloodied the woman you care about is rich, successful and hurling vile abuse at another woman on social media. Somehow I doubt you’d be rushing to defend delusional misogynist Brown either.

Catherine Scott is a freelance feminist writer who has worked for Ms Magazine and the BBC. She has also written for Bitch magazine, the Independent and the Times Literary Supplement. Read her full bio at cathscott.co.uk.