Women's Views on News |
- A desperate need for change
- Women let down by justice system
- EVAW’s Schools Safe 4 Girls campaign
- Another dire anti-rape poster
| Posted: 01 Feb 2013 09:30 AM PST
Guest post by Anubha Gupta. As a woman from New Delhi, I know just how threatening our city buses can feel. And even auto-rickshaw drivers adjust their rear view mirror, to have one eye on the female passenger and the other on road. He might even at times entertain you, showing off his vocals with a sleazy Bollywood song. On 16 December 2012, a 23-year-old woman and her male friend watched a movie and boarded a bus. Five adults and one minor now stand accused of hitting the friend with an iron rod, raping the young woman, inserting the rod inside her, tearing her intestines, and throwing both of them half naked out of the bus onto the road. The woman, a para-medical student, died after two weeks. This case was met with revolutionary demonstrations in New Delhi, where people have decided they have had enough. Enough of the constant suggestions about how a woman should behave in order to not be raped – and rape is common in the city. And these views are not just held by those we would class as narrow-minded. There are many educated citizens who also think on similar lines, that women are in somehow responsible if they are raped or if they are faced with violence. Meanwhile, local bodies, acting as quasi-judicial bodies but without legal recognition are emerging in northern India, mostly in the Utter Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan regions. These bodies have proposed that a girl's marriage age be reduced from 18 to 16 years and that they should not be allowed to wear jeans or talk on cell phones. Women's Commissions have been established by all the Indian states and Union Territories to provide safety for and stop unfair practices towards women. But the chairperson of the Indian state of Chhattisgarh’s Women’s Commission, a leading member of India’s ‘socially conservative’ ‘Hindu nationalist’ BJP party, said: "Woman display their bodies and indulge in various obscene activities. “They are not aware of the kind of message their actions generate.” And in reference to this latest high profile rape, a female scientist at Rajmata Vijayaraje in Madhya Pradesh, said: “Had the girl simply surrendered [and not resisted] when surrounded by six men, she would not have lost her intestine[s].” And then asked: “Why was she out with her boyfriend at 10 pm?” We might blame these attitudes on a lack of education, but the truth is, for many people in India, this is the kind of education imparted. We are not teaching our men to behave and respect women; instead we are telling our girls to be more covered and more constrained. Indian society seems to make women's and girls' survival very difficult. When female sexual harassment on public transport increased, the government's response was to provide special ladies-only compartments on local trains. I believe the revolts that followed this high profile rape were not about just this rape but all rapes and violence against women in general. And there is a desperate need for change and education so people in our society can finally learn to respect women.  |
| Women let down by justice system Posted: 01 Feb 2013 09:20 AM PST
Two years ago, ministers signed up to the Bangkok Rules – new United Nations standards for the treatment of women offenders. Women in Prison (WIP), an organisation which supports and campaigns for women affected by the criminal justice system (CJS) recently reported on the first analysis of the UK’s performance in relation to this agreement. The report says the UK has wrongly imprisoned large numbers of women who pose no threat to society. It also shows the UK’s criminal justice system is failing to acknowledge the human rights of those children affected by their mothers’ custodial sentence. There is also some disparity between how women and men are treated in the criminal (justice) system. The number of women in prison in England and Wales stood at 4211 in December 2011 and dropped to 3912 in 2012. Between June 2010 and June 2011, 80 per cent of women entering custody under sentence had committed a non-violent offence, compared with 70 per cent of men. Women serve shorter prison sentences than men and for less serious offences; the most common offence for women receiving a custodial sentence is shoplifting. In the 12 months ending June 2011, 59 per cent of women receiving a custodial sentence served sentences of up to and including six months, compared with 48 per cent of men. Twenty-eight per cent of women receive a custodial sentence for first offences – more than double the figure for men, at 13 per cent. These figures from Women in Prison (WIP) show women are – disproportionately – sentenced to custodial sentences for less serious offences, serve longer sentences than men and receive custodial sentences more frequently than men. And 67 per cent of the judges in the UK are male. This proportion in the UK is only lower in Armenia, slightly fewer than 23 per cent, and Azerbaijan, where the figure is just 9 per cent. In Slovenia women constitute 78 per cent of judges, in Greece where they make up 65 per cent and France where they are 64 per cent. Baroness Jean Corston, in her 2007 report reviewing women with particular vulnerabilities in the criminal justice system said: ” Many of them [these women] suffer poor physical and mental health or substance abuse, or both. “Large numbers have endured violent or sexual abuse or had chaotic childhoods. Many have been in care. “I have concluded that we are rightly exercised about paedophiles, but seem to have little sympathy, understanding or interest in those [women] who have been their victims, many of whom end up in prison. “The tragic series of murders in Suffolk during December 2006 rightly focussed public attention on these women as women first and foremost – someone's daughter, mother, girlfriend, then as victims – exploited by men, damaged by abuse and drug addiction. “These are among the women whom society must support.” And prisons reformer Baroness Stern said in the Guardian recently, that the findings revealed that six years after this critical Corston report called for a “distinct, radically different, visibly led, strategic, proportionate, holistic, woman-centred, integrated approach”. But – in the Guardian recently – she said that in truth “little has fundamentally changed.” And as a series of articles in The Independent last year reported, children suffer too. According to the most recent figures, Paul Vallely wrote, around 200,000 children each year suffer from the loss of a parent in prison – far more than are separated through divorce. “When mothers are jailed only nine per cent have fathers who step forward to take care of them. Most others are cared for by the woman's mother or another female relative. “But 17,000 children a year are left effectively parentless. They are the hidden victims of a system in which the number of women jailed has doubled in the last 15 years.” As the figures above show, the affect prison has on women – and their children – can be devastating. And Nick Hardwick, chief inspector of prisons, warned last year that the way women are treated in prisons will leave England and Wales “aghast and ashamed” in years to come.  |
| EVAW’s Schools Safe 4 Girls campaign Posted: 01 Feb 2013 06:30 AM PST
The End Violence Against Women (EVAW) coalition’s new campaign aims to help make schools safer places for girls. Schools Safe 4 Girls hopes to address several key issues which affect and endanger girls throughout the UK, including sexual bullying, grooming, FGM and forced marriages. They hope that schools will be more involved in ensuring girls can protect themselves from violence and abuse. EVAW is calling for parents, carers, students and women’s groups to contact their school to determine what the staff are doing to address these issues and what could be improved upon. EVAW also wants the government to make it compulsory for schools to address these issues by making Sex and Relationships Education statutory. Holly Dustin, director of the EVAW coalition, told WVoN: “From Delhi to Steubenville Ohio there is global outrage about abuse and violence against women and girls. “Here in the UK the news is full of recent stories about the sexual exploitation and abuse of girls by groups of older men, as well as ongoing revelations about sexual abuse by Jimmy Savile and others in the past. “We cannot carry on burying our head in the sand and pretending that these are horrible but rare occurrences. “We must start tackling our sexist and sexualised culture which provides the context in which abuse occurs. “It is vital that we talk to young people in schools to shape healthier attitudes and behaviours to women and girls and we must also change the negative and prejucidial messages about women in the media.” Earlier this week shadow health minister Diane Abbot spoke about what she called the ‘increasingly pornified’ nature of the culture young people are growing up with, and the damage that this is causing. She highlighted ‘sexting’ and sexual bullying and added her voice to the call for a far more comprehensive, compulsory sex education in British schools to help combat damaging attitudes. EVAW highlight several shocking facts on their campaign postcards ‘Sexting – sending sexually explicit images via mobile phone – is often coercive and linked to harassment, bullying and even violence’, as the NSPCC reports. ‘Sexual bullying and harassment are routine in UK schools and according to YouGov almost one in three 16-18 year-old girls have experienced 'groping' or other unwanted sexual touching at school’. ‘In 2011 there were 1468 instances where the Forced Marriage Unit gave advice or support related to a possible forced marriage, the majority involving women and girls’. ‘One in three teenage girls has experienced sexual violence from a boyfriend’ – as reported by the NSPCC. ‘Over 20,000 girls under 15 are at high risk of FGM in England and Wales each year’, according to support charity Forward. EVAW is calling for sex and relationships education in schools to be made compulsory, a call that was echoed at last year’s Labour conference by shadow home secretary and shadow minister for women and equalities, Yvette Cooper. At present, only biological sex education is compulsory. Dustin is clear about the part that schools can play in ending violence against girls. “Schools,” she said, “have a critical role to play in keeping children safe by talking to them about issues such as sexual consent and how to hear it, what sexual coercion and exploitation is, helping shape healthy relationships and respect for one another. “It is also vital to ensure that young people know they can talk to a trusted adult about these issues, and know where they can get support if they are being abused.” And it is evident from the shocking statistics revealed by EVAW that something needs to be done. As well as working to educate girls about relationships and where to go for help, the organisation also hopes that teachers will undergo – better – training on how to spot signs of abuse. There are a number of ways that EVAW wants you to get involved. Students, parents and carers: talk to your school. You can use EVAW’s template letter and questionnaire to start the conversation. Find out what they are doing and what they could do and how they could do it. Write to your MP and ask what they are doing about these issues. Ask them to raise them in parliament and put pressure on the government to address them. Speak to your local authorities or local newspapers to raise awareness of the problems faced by girls and apply pressure for action to be taken. Tell them about your concerns. Get involved on Twitter on the hashtag #schoolssafe4girls You can find out more about the campaign on EVAW’s Campaign Briefing and there are a number of fact sheets available to download on the EVAW website.  |
| Posted: 01 Feb 2013 04:30 AM PST
Warwickshire police’s new posters, which have appeared over the past few weeks, list six precautions people should take to avoid being raped. And they include: ‘don’t drink to excess’, ‘don’t accept a drink from strangers’ and ‘on medication, be aware of what you drink’. The campaign has been highlighted for reinforcing a victim-blaming mythology. For, as Di Whitfield, from Coventry Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre (CRASAC), told WVoN: “The only person who can ever be held responsible for an incident of sexual violence is the person who commits the crime. And she continued: “This campaign avoids facing the reality that the cause of rape is not the circumstances in which it takes place but solely the actions and intent of perpetrators.” The campaign also reinforces the idea that rapists are strangers to the victim, when, statistically speaking, women are significantly more likely to be raped by someone already known to them. Sadly this is by no means the first time a local authority has got it wrong when it comes to ‘rape prevention’ campaigns. All too frequently advice is handed out to ‘potential victims’, telling them how they should change their behaviour to stay safe. Last year West Mercia was criticised for a poster which urged women not to ‘let a night full of promise turn into a morning full of regret', suggesting if they didn’t drink they could avoid rape. South Wales police had a similar campaign telling women ‘Don’t be a victim, drink sensibly’, and Thames Valley Police ran a series of posters where alcohol consumption by the victim was stressed as a key component in the incidence of rape. These messages sit neatly within broader societal messages, continually repeated – in the media, from police authorities, in court rooms and from perpetrators – that a victim of rape is somehow to blame for what has happened to them. Whether it is because she or he was too drunk, was wearing something determined to be ‘provocative’, or had already had sex with the perpetrator. Encouragingly, however, among these victim-centric messages we are beginning to see some organisations getting it right. Lothian and Borders Police’s new ‘We Can Stop It’ campaign is one brilliant example, which aims its messages at potential perpetrators, rather than potential victims. This campaign, and others like it, focus on stressing the meaning of – and need for – consent. Rape Crisis Scotland has been praised for the Stop Rape campaign, with its ’10 Top Tips to End Rape’, which eloquently turn several popular victim-blaming myths on their head and challenge potential perpetrators, telling the perpetrators what they should not do. For example: ‘Don’t put drugs in women’s drinks’; ‘Don’t forget it’s not sex with someone who’s asleep or unconscious – it’s rape!’ and ‘Don’t forget: honesty is the best policy’. This last one continues: ‘If you have every intention of having sex later on with the woman you’re dating regardless of how she feels about it, tell her directly that there is every chance you will rape her. “If you don’t communicate your intentions, she may take it as a sign that you do not plan to rape her and feel inadvertently safe.” In Warwickshire, in contrast to the police’s new ad, students from Warwick University’s Anti-Sexism Society (WASS) implemented a postcard campaign, with the focus on ‘enthusiastic consent’. The postcards featured the message ‘yes, yes, Oh YES… Always get enthusiastic consent’ and ‘Sex without consent is rape. Is the person you're going home with too drunk to consent? Make sure you're both into it before you get into it!’ Sophie Rees from WASS said: “We decided last year that we wanted to run a campaign that raised the issue of sexual consent in a way that might stick in the minds of young students and generate conversation about what consent is. “Raising the point that it is not always possible to consent to sex while heavily under the influence of alcohol or drugs is, we feel, relevant to the student population, particularly at this time of year when people are in a new environment, one often fuelled by alcohol. “It was really important to us to make sure the campaign stayed away from any form of victim-blaming and focused on the responsibility of the person with power, rather than on the victim. “We hope that our campaign will make people think twice about having sex with someone who is too drunk to consent.” CRASAC, who will be contacting Warwickshire Police about their campaign, said: “We hope Warwickshire Police engage with their local sexual violence specialist providers to ensure their future campaigns are more effective at targeting perpetrators of rape and do not fall into the trap of feeding the victim-blaming myths that are embedded in our society.”  |
We cannot carry on burying our head in the sand and pretend abuse is a rare occurrence.
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