Women's Views on News |
- The killer is in the home in Europe too
- Human Rights Watch film festival in London
- Highest ranked female judoka dies at 99
- Iceland considers online porn ban
- Northern Ireland starts abuse inquiry
| The killer is in the home in Europe too Posted: 21 Feb 2013 08:23 AM PST
Women worldwide are more likely to die or be maimed because of male violence than because of cancer, malaria, war and traffic accidents combined. Male violence is the primary cause of death of women aged 15-44. And according to the United Nations, 50 per cent of the women killed between 2008 and 2010 in Europe were killed by a member of their family. For men, that number was just 15 per cent. In other words, women are killed by those who supposedly love them. And we are talking Europe here. According to Paula McGovern, from Sonas Housing, of the women murdered in Ireland since 1996, half of the resolved cases were committed by a husband, ex-husband, partner or ex-partner. And 30 per cent of the women who experience domestic violence are physically assaulted for the first time during pregnancy. The issue of domestic violence is virtually invisible in Ireland, McGovern pointed out in Ireland’s Journal recently. It is not, she continued, listed as a cause of homelessness, which means that women struggle to get housing places even if their lives are severely at risk. It is not recorded in police protocols as a form of abuse. When a woman is murdered by her partner, domestic violence is rarely named in the reporting of a case even when there is a long history of violence, and the case is reported as a single event. In effect, victims are doubly victimised – by an abuser and by a system that does not want to acknowledge their experience. United Nations figures say that one third of all women in Italy are at some point victims of domestic abuse. Last year, 120 women in Italy were killed by their husbands, exes or boyfriends in so-called femicide attacks – a number that may sound small until you consider that, in Italy, one woman is slain every three days. Last year women were shot, stabbed, burned alive, pushed off balconies, suffocated with pillow cases, or strangled by the cords of electronic appliances. Only six weeks into this year, nine women in Italy have already been murdered by their husbands, exes, or boyfriends. Barbara Spinelli, an Italian lawyer, teaches seminars on the topic to other lawyers, social workers, police officers, teachers and those who work and counsel battered women across Europe. According to her, 70 per cent of women murdered in Italy are murdered by their partner or ex partner or relative and victims fall across the socioeconomic spectrum. "The problem is that men aren't able to accept the end of a love story," she said. "It's not only a problem of power in the society; it's a problem of self-determination: nowhere in the world do men accept the loss of control over the women's life choices." And Spinelli believes part of the problem is the distorted and stereotyped portrayal of women in the media as either mothers or sex objects. In Spain, another European country with high rates of femicide, so far, 13 women have been killed this year. Last year, 97 women were killed in Spain – 35 more than in 2011. According to a government study, 40 per cent of German women aged 16 or over – that’s more than 16 million people – have been the victims of physical or sexual violence or both. But experts believe the real figure is much higher. And Germany has dismal judicial procedures for dealing with sexual violence; only 12.7 per cent of attackers are ever brought to justice. At present non-consensual sex is only considered punishable if the accused used violence or threatened to do so or took advantage of the defenceless position of his victim. Unlike in Britain, it is insufficient if the victim simply says "no". Lawyer Sabine Kräuter-Stockton, who is fighting to have the law changed, said to the Guardian recently: “There are cases in which women have said ‘no’ and then cried throughout the whole event so that the man can have been in no doubt that the act is non-consensual, but in the eyes of the German law it is not viewed as a punishable rape. “This is a gaping hole in the German justice system, and one that is well known because it has been repeatedly raised as something that needs to be dealt with." And according to statistics, most attacks in Germany happen in the women’s own homes. And in the UK the recently released 2011/12 survey from the Office of National Statistics showed there were 536,000 victims of sexual assault in the last year and 2.0 million victims of domestic abuse. Although the estimated levels of domestic abuse experienced in the last year were lower than those in the 2004/05 report, the baseline for this measure, there has been no statistically significant change since 2008/09. No statistically significant change to sexual assault figures for the last year either. The survey also reported 51 per cent of homicides against women were committed by a partner or ex-partner. And so it goes on. Women who live in abusive relationships run a high risk of actually being killed, and, said Dr Anna Alvazzi del Frate, research director of the Small Arms Survey, the presence of a gun in the home is very likely to transform disputes into killings. "Violence against women is the most frequent and less punished crime in the world" was the first sentence of the documentary show at the beginning of the UN meeting where this issue was discussed last year, and it is horribly true. Angela Me, chief of the Statistics and Surveys Section, at UNODC, presented data on the killing of women in the context of global homicide, as presented in The Global Study of Homicide from October 2011. And while 80 per cent of homicide victims worldwide are men and most perpetrators are also men, there was a clear relation between the killing of women and the killing due to partner and family violence. One of the consequences is that statistically the killing of a woman may not ‘pop up’ as intentional, so it is not properly investigated, no one properly prosecuted. And it may well be classified as manslaughter or unintentional homicide because there is an – extraordinary – high level of tolerance of violence against women. And this in turn, of course, has consequences for the researchers as well, since the information is not coming from all possible sources – such as criminal justice or public health. According to an unprecedented global study in the American Political Science Review published by Cambridge University Press, research "found astonishingly high rates of sexual assault, stalking, trafficking, violence in intimate relationships, and other violations of women." The study's co-author, S. Laurel Weldon, reported that in Europe domestic violence 'is a bigger danger to women than cancer, with 45 per cent of European women experiencing some form of physical or sexual violence.' The most effective way of combatting femicide involves eradicating misogyny and discrimination against women. As Weldon says: "The problem with the criminal justice reaction is that you are just serving victims. "If you don't find a way to prevent the abuse by changing the mentality, you won't actually solve the problem."  |
| Human Rights Watch film festival in London Posted: 21 Feb 2013 05:57 AM PST
This year the programme is organised around four themes: traditional values and human rights – incorporating women's rights, disability rights and LGBT rights; crises and migration; a focus on Asia/South Asia; and occupation and the rule of law. Running from 13 – 22 March 2013, it includes 14 documentaries and 5 dramas and crosses the globe from Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, East Timor, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Israel, Jordon, Morocco, North Korea and Norway to Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia and Tanzania. Many of the films will be followed by question and answer sessions and discussions with filmmakers, experts and the films' subjects. Traditional values are often deployed as an excuse to stand in the way of human rights. Five films in this year's festival consider their impact on women. The UK premiere of Karima Zoubir's 'Camera/Woman' introduces viewers to Khadija, a Moroccan divorcee who works as a camerawoman at wedding parties in Casablanca. Khadija talks candidly about the issues and opposition she faces and the competing forces at play in the lives of women in Morocco and beyond. The Iranian filmmaker Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami's 'Going Up the Stairs' is both a portrait of an artist and a glimpse inside a traditional Iranian marriage. 'Tall as the Baobab Tree' is about a family in Senegal struggling to find its footing on the edge of a modern world fraught with tensions between tradition and modernity. 'The Patience Stone' focuses on the plight of women ruled by archaic laws and traditions, by religion and violence in a war-torn neighbourhood in Afghanistan. In 'Rafea: Solar Mama', Rafea, a Bedouin woman who lives with her daughters in one of Jordan's poorest desert villages on the Iraqi border is selected for the Barefoot College programme in India. There is also a chance to see 'Alias Ruby Blade: A Story of Love and Revolution' a love story about human rights activist Kirsty Sword and political prisoner Xanana Gusmão and the Timorese resistance to Indonesia. The festival will begin on 13 March at the Curzon Mayfair with a fundraising benefit and reception for Human Rights Watch, and a showing of Kim Nguyen's drama 'War Witch', an Academy Award nominee for best foreign language film. War Witch was shot in the Democratic Republic of Congo with a cast of non-professional actors, and Rachel Mwanza, the lead, won a Silver Bear for best actress at the Berlin Film Festival 2012. The screening will be followed by a discussion with the filmmaker Kim Nguyen and David Mepham, the Human Rights Watch UK director. For further information, click here.  |
| Highest ranked female judoka dies at 99 Posted: 21 Feb 2013 04:35 AM PST
Keiko Fukuda, the world's highest ranked female judoka and the last surviving student of judo's creator Jigoro Kano, died of natural causes at her home in San Francisco on 9 February. Fukuda, who was less than five feet tall, was the only woman ever to achieve the rank of 10th dan, and was considered a trailblazer for creating opportunities for women to practice judo. She was the founder of Soko Joshi Judo Club for women in San Francisco, where she has been teaching three times a week. Fukuda was born in Tokyo on 12 April, 1913. Her grandfather, a samurai master of jujitsu, taught the martial art to Kano, who went on the create judo in the 1880s. Kano invited Fukuda to join his judo institute, the Kodokan, when she was 21. She was one of just two dozen women learning at the institute. In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle in 2011, she described how different judo was from the typical expectations placed on women at the time. "At first, all I could think of was how aggressive the maneuvers were and how unusual it was to see women spreading their legs,” she said. She soon fell in love with the sport which would become her life's work. Female judo instructors were not allowed to marry, and when faced with the choice between her sport and an arranged marriage, she refused to be married. After Kano's death in 1938, Fukuda travelled widely, fulfilling her sensei's request to teach judo around the world. In the sixties, she moved to the US to teach at a judo school in California, and later took US citizenship. In 1953 Fukuda was awarded 5th dan, the highest rank available to women at the time. She was unable to progress further for 20 years, until a petition begun in 1972 by her friend and student Shelley Fernandez persuaded the Kodokan, now Japan's judo headquarters, to lift the ban on women being promoted past 5th dan. In 2006, the Kodokan granted her the rank of 9th dan, the first time it had ever done so for a woman. In 2011, she was awarded the highest rank of 10th dan by USA Judo, the first – and so far only – woman to achieve this level. However, it was never approved by the Kodokan. Fukuda set up the Soko Joshi club in 1970. She also taught in Australia, Canada, France, Norway and the Philippines. Ms Fernandez, who ran Soko Joshi alongside Fukuda, said: “She was totally centred – mind, body and spirit. “She was the last living student of the founder of judo. No one else can say that. It’s the end of an era now.”  |
| Iceland considers online porn ban Posted: 21 Feb 2013 03:50 AM PST
The Icelandic government has outlined plans to ban internet pornography, a move which could make it the first western democracy to censor the internet. According to the Telegraph, Icelandic officials are considering internet filters which would stop Icelanders accessing and downloading online porn. The government could also make it illegal to use Icelandic credit cards to access x-rated content on the internet. Laws prohibiting the printing and distribution of pornography are already in effect in Iceland, and the country has outlawed strip clubs and introduced prostitution laws which criminalise the customer, rather than the sex worker. The latest move, announced last week by Iceland's Interior Minister Ögmundur Jónasson, is designed to protect children from the damaging effects of viewing violent porn online, as well as protect the civil rights of women. Advisor to the interior minister, Halla Gunnarsdóttir, told the Observer: “We are a progressive, liberal society when it comes to nudity, to sexual relations, so our approach is not anti-sex but anti-violence. “This is about children and gender equality, not about limiting free speech. “Research shows that the average age of children who see online porn is 11 in Iceland and we are concerned about that and about the increasingly violent nature of what they are exposed to. “This is concern coming to us from professionals since mainstream porn has become very brutal." The move has been criticised by Icelandic MP Birgitta Jónsdóttir; in an article in the Guardian she called the proposals 'misguided' and suggested the bill was already deterring businesses from operating in the country, in fear of full-blown censorship as seen in countries such as China and Saudi Arabia. "The possibility that this bill will pass through the parliament is near zero," said Jónsdóttir. "The parliamentary committee tasked with discussing the censorship proposal, which I am part of, is looking into alternative ways to help parents to protect their children from online porn, mainly through free porn-filter software and educational means." "Introducing censorship without compromising freedom of expression and speech is like trying to mix oil and water: it is impossible." The logistical problems of blocking online content have also been touted as a barrier to the proposals. How do you determine which sites are banned, for example, and how will the government stay ahead of an industry which has been quick to adapt to emerging technology? The proposals do raise concerns over government censorship and freedom of expression, but many countries, including the UK, already have controls in place to limit access to extreme and child pornography. It seems the next logical step is to take a stance against sexually explicit material which normalises gender-based violence. In the Observer, Hildur Fjóla Antonsdóttir, gender specialist at Iceland University, said: “This initiative is about narrowing the definition of porn so it does not include all sexually explicit material but rather material that can be described as portraying sexual activity in a violent or hateful way." Iceland certainly seems to be doing something right; in 2012 it came top in the Global Gender Gap Index for the fourth year running, while the UK dropped two places – to eighteenth. Anti-porn campaigner Dr Gail Dines, author of ‘Pornland: How Porn has Hijacked our Sexuality’, claimed Britain would be next in line for a ban on the “increasingly brutal and hardcore imagery which is now the standard”. “Of course internet porn is damaging," she said. “We have years of empirical evidence. “It’s like global warming – you will always find some global warming deniers out there who can quote some little piece of research they have found somewhere, some science junk, but the consensus is there. “We are not saying you see porn and go out and rape, but we are saying it shifts the way people think about sexual relationships, about intimacy, about women." In December, however, plans to automatically block access to pornography sites were rejected by ministers. The proposed opt-in system would have required internet service providers (ISPs) to block adult content unless it was requested by customers. Revised proposals will require ISPs to introduce mandatory filters for any new computer in a household where a child is present, so parents can decide how strictly they would like content filtered. But the new measures don't go far enough, according to some. The NSPCC said it was disappointed: “The best option to protect children is for adult content to be automatically blocked by internet service providers,” according to head of corporate affairs Alan Wardle. “Hardcore pornographic videos are just a few clicks away and a quarter of children have been sent unsolicited sexual material online.” Iceland has proved itself to be a progressive country when it comes to championing gender equality. A similar ban in the UK may raise concerns over government censorship, but there is a lot we can learn from Europe's second largest island, which remains the best place to be a woman.  |
| Northern Ireland starts abuse inquiry Posted: 21 Feb 2013 01:10 AM PST
The Republic of Ireland’s Taoiseach, you will be pleased to hear, has apologised unreservedly on behalf of the Irish State to the survivors of the Magdalene Laundries. Speaking in the Dáil, Enda Kenny apologised to the women for the hurt they endured in the laundries and for any stigma they suffered as a result of the time they spent in the laundries. He said that after reflecting on the report the survivors deserved more than a formal apology and that he wanted to put a process in place to help and support the women in their remaining years. Micheál Martin leader of Fianna Fáil, now an opposition party, acknowledged the failures of all who participated in public life in the past, who did not act to intervene sooner to apologise to the survivors. He said the women deserved “earlier intervention” and added that, as a member of the former government, he was “sorry it didn’t happen over the past decade”. And Ireland’s Minister for Justice Alan Shatter said that people should now contact the Department of Justice to register their interest in being considered for benefits and funds coming from the Government fund. Payments will be made to women who were admitted and worked in the laundries, as well as those detained in similar institutions that were classed as 'training units'. Well, that’s Dublin. A bit of more general soul searching might not go amiss either. And in the North? Here too. Writing in the Huffington Post, Patrick Corrigan, from Amnesty International (AI), pointed out that in Belfast The Good Shepherd Sisters ran a laundry until 1977 and a home until 1990. Thousands of girls and women passed through its doors. The same order of nuns ran two other laundries, one in Newry which operated into the 1980s, and another in Derry. Another Magdalene Asylum, including a steam laundry, was operated by the Church of Ireland on Belfast’s Donegall Pass. The home was open in the 1960s. The Presbyterian Church ran the Ulster Female Penitentiary. Until now, he continues, Northern Ireland had no government investigation accessing public records and files from the responsible religious orders and taking evidence submitted by former inmates, so people in the North know very little about these Magdalene Laundry-type institutions, Corrigan writes. But, he said, there are many women in Northern Ireland, aging but very much alive, who were resident in these institutions, and many of them appear to have suffered arbitrary detention, forced labour and ill-treatment. The Northern Ireland Executive – read government – is now investigating abuse of children under 18 who were living in children's homes, borstals, training schools, juvenile justice centres, hospitals and orphanages in Northern Ireland between 1922 and 1995. This ‘inquiry and investigation into historical institutional abuse’ will examine if there were systemic failings by institutions or the state in their duties towards those children in their care between the years of 1922-1995. So for those who were resident in such institutions in Northern Ireland as minors, there is now an official mechanism for recording their experiences and seeking justice for any abuses which they may have suffered. However, according to AI, this inquiry currently has no mechanism to consider allegations of abuse perpetrated against inmates over the age of 17. And this, AI says, is a ‘justice gap’ which should be addressed by Northern Ireland’s first minister and deputy first minister, Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness, and AI has written to ask them to consider how best to address the plight of this group of victims. As it stands, however, and at least it does, The Historic Institutional Abuse Inquiry exists because courageous survivors of institutional abuse ran a campaign, supported by AI, to expose the truth of crimes committed behind closed doors. Now Northern Ireland’s ‘Magdalene women’ – and all the others – need to step forward and tell their stories. And the rest of us need to keep the pressure up in support of the over-18s.  |
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