Women's Views on News |
| Support women on Tahrir Sqaure Posted: 17 Apr 2013 08:36 AM PDT
International women's human rights organisation Equality Now, in partnership with Egyptian women's rights activists, is calling on the government of Egypt to take concrete steps to protect women's personal and political rights in Egypt. Specifically, they have issued a call to action to urge President Morsi to stop sexual violence and intimidation tactics against women advocating for their rights; investigate and prosecute sexual assaults reported by women; and develop processes for the comprehensive inclusion of women's voices in all governmental processes. According to a report of testimonies compiled by the Egypt-based New Woman Foundation, Nazra for Feminist Studies and the El-Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence and Torture, more than 20 women were attacked on 25 January 2013 alone in and around Tahrir Square. Hania Moheeb, an Egyptian journalist who was assaulted in Tahrir, told Equality Now: "In a few seconds the men who were all yelling with words that gave the impression they wanted to help me, started very quickly to use tens of hands over my body, stripping me from my clothes then violating the private parts of my body very aggressively." She explained that authorities tried to persuade her to file a police report "later" and it was only when her husband called human rights defenders to come and support her that the police took her statement. In an interview with Al-Jazeera, she said: "What happened to me was political, was organized, was systematic and definitely paid for by certain political groups who want to keep women away from the streets." Since the revolution of early 2011, women, including women's rights activists, continue to pay a steep price for demanding their rights. Seemingly organised mobs have been actively seeking out and attacking women campaigning in public spaces. Testimony from women and men who have gone to Tahrir Square to peacefully advocate for an inclusive and representative government exposes how women have been mauled by gangs, possibly coordinated by government officials, which they believe are aimed at discouraging women's participation and silencing their voices. Recent reports state that President Morsi has begun a new "Initiative to support the Rights and Freedoms of the Egyptian Women," which includes addressing sexual harassment. Many members of the National Council for Women and other Egyptian women's right activists, however, boycotted the inauguration of the initiative because they see it as a purely political move. Equality Now and partners will be following the Initiative’s development closely in the hope that it prioritises taking action on the fundamental issue of violence against women. But in the meantime, please write to the Egyptian authorities. Write and urge them to stop the sexual violence and intimidation tactics being perpetrated against women advocating for their rights; to properly investigate and fully prosecute any sexual assault whether occurring in public or in private and to develop processes for the comprehensive inclusion of women's voices in all governmental and administrative processes. To view a template letter and to see who to send it to, click here.  |
| Debenhams fights against size zero Posted: 17 Apr 2013 08:00 AM PDT
Debenhams has become the first high street retailer to abandon the industry-standard model body shape – or lack thereof. They are now celebrating a diverse variety of men and women with varying body types, ages and ethnicities. Ed Watson, Debenhams’ director of PR, said: "Our customers are not the same shape or size so our latest look book celebrates this diversity. “We would be delighted if others followed our lead. “Hopefully these shots will be a step, albeit a small one, towards more people feeling more comfortable about their bodies." The move follows a long line of measures taken by the retailer as part of their ongoing Inclusivity Campaign, the aim of which is to tackle the 'size-zero' culture in the fashion industry, by showing a broad spectrum of body and beauty ideals. The department store was among the first to introduce plus-size mannequins into its stores and it has also prohibited the use of air-brushing from its swimwear and lingerie campaign images. Three of the models in the High Summer Look Book are over forty years of age, including sixty-nine-year-old Valerie Pain who has been modeling professionally for nearly fifty years and became the oldest woman to model at London Fashion Week in 2009. There are women under five feet tall, who are over six feet tall, as well as shots which 'celebrate curves' by using models who are size 18. The Look Book also features Kelly Knox, who was born without her left forearm, as well as Paralympic silver medallist Stefanie Reid who, having lost her right leg in an accident when she was aged 16, wears a prosthetic blade. Although modelling was a first for Reid, her inclusion builds on the legacy of the Paralympics by keeping differently-abled individuals in the public consciousness. With Reid's images among the most striking in the collection, it is unsurprising that she spoke of the experience on Facebook as 'One of my favourite projects to date!' Minister for Women and Equalities, Jo Swinson, said: "Once again Debenhams is showing that beauty comes in all forms – different skin colours, ages, body shapes and sizes. “It was one of the first to introduce size 16 mannequins, and continues to send a clear message to the rest of the retail industry that many customers want to see more diverse and realistic images. "I have long been concerned that idealized, unrealistic media images play a significant part in lowering self-esteem and reducing women's confidence and contribution – at school, at work, and in society. “The government works with a range of industries, including retail and fashion, to promote more honest and varied images of women. “The models in the look book are truly diverse, each with their own unique style and personality, and I hope they inspire other to feel good about their bodies." This new move by Debenhams is reminiscent of the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty which began in 2004. It received international acclaim for celebrating the huge variety of healthy female body types in its advertising campaigns, so as to inspire all women to be body confident. Dove has, however, received recent scrutiny about the sincerity of the message it conveys with the Campaign for Real Beauty. Dove is owned by Unilever, the same parent company as Axe – a men's deodorant which regularly features scantily-clad young women in its advertisements – as well as Fair & Lovely – a moisturiser marketed to women in Asia and the Middle East as something which whitens their skin. You see the contradiction? Hardly a coherent message about celebrating the beauty of all female forms. Nonetheless, the success of Dove's campaign has led to establishment of the Dove Self-Esteem Programme, a social mission which aims to build body confidence by tackling the low self-esteem which plagues British women while they are still girls. Offering resources for mothers, youth leaders, and teachers, the self-esteem education which the Dove Self-Esteem Programme is facilitating, in partnership with eating disorder charity Beat, cannot be so simply dismissed as a commercial stunt. While similar accusations may be hurled at this new move by Debenhams, its decision to use a diverse collection of models which is more representative of their customer base should not be cynically written off – especially if it begins to set a precedent. You can see the images from the High Summer Look Book here.  |
| Female UK politicians on Thatcher Posted: 17 Apr 2013 01:09 AM PDT
A lot has been written since the death of Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first female prime minister, last week. We had a look at what other female politicians had to say about her and her affect on women in parliament. Former Conservative MP Edwina Currie criticised Thatcher’s preference for male cabinet members. ‘When she was elected leader in 1975′, said Currie in the London Evening Standard, ‘I made a point of going to the Conservative party conference. I thought she was the most amazing person. ‘It wasn't just inspiring, it was evidence that you could be a young woman with children, and an MP, and still aspire to high office. ‘She blazed a trail but it had a curious effect: within the Conservative Party it got harder to persuade women to stand for office because they thought, "Oh, I will never be as good as Mrs Thatcher". ‘It only slowly dawned on us that during her 11 years in office she did not have a single woman from the House of Commons in the Cabinet. ‘It was a prejudice that lost her friends in 1990 when she was looking for women to support her.’ Currie told the Derby Telegraph: “You would see MPs who came into politics after I had and who were no better than me being promoted over my head. “She had been offered the chance to get on and effectively she then refused to offer it to other people.” But, Currie added, this was a “relatively minor” point compared to Thatcher’s achievements. The Scottish National Party’s Deputy Leader Nicola Sturgeon said ‘the brutal deindustrialisation and soaring unemployment that she [Thatcher] presided over destroyed lives and communities’. ‘And it all too often seemed to be an ideological attempt to remould the country in her image, rather than a genuine attempt to modernise the economy and re-skill the workforce. ‘Individuals and communities were subordinated to a right-wing economic doctrine, and Scotland paid a heavy price.’ Thatcher, said Sturgeon, ‘was avowedly anti-feminist and did little during her premiership to encourage other women’. Mrs Thatcher’s biggest legacy to Scotland – even though it is not one she would want to be remembered for, Sturgeon pointed out – was the realisation of the need for self-government. Scottish Labour Leader Johann Lamont said her memory was of a leader, an ideology and a way of doing politics ‘which united everyone I knew against her’. ‘As a strong advocate of female representation, I regret that the first woman to reach Number 10 failed to use her position to advance the cause of women, and instead took decisions which had a damaging impact on their lives’. And ‘as a teacher during her time in office, I remember with frustration the hope and aspiration we tried to engender in our pupils being extinguished by the decisions she made’. Scottish Conservative leader and Glasgow MSP Ruth Davidson said that Baroness Thatcher’s premiership attracted equal levels of admiration and derision rarely seen in politics today. For many, she continued, Baroness Thatcher will be forever associated with images of demonstrations against the poll tax. But, it is worth stopping to reflect on the tremendous effort she put in away from the headlines to give Glasgow and its people a new, confident identity that has put the city on the world map. BBC Radio’s Women’s Hour presenter Jenni Murray discussed Thatcher’s life and legacy with Louise Mensch, Elizabeth Peacock, Jacqui Smith, Natasha Walter and Shirley Williams. They looked at her approach to politics and leadership, and how she operated politically as a woman in a predominately man's world; at her personal side – the grooming, the voice and the powerful political wardrobe, and her views on how she thought a wife and mother should behave and the impact on her family life; and what her legacy will be. You can listen to the programmes here. Shirley Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby, is a Liberal Democrat peer and one of the founders of the Social Democratic Party in 1981, said of Thatcher: ‘She was a woman at a time when there were statutory women – the indispensable sole female member of the Cabinet in governments pretending to be modern. ‘She was a Cabinet minister in a Cabinet – that of Ted Heath – where she was not encouraged and sometimes not even allowed to express her own viewpoint. ‘She was a fall guy for the Treasury's expenditure cuts, for it was Anthony Barber, not Margaret Thatcher, who abolished free milk for school children; yet it was Margaret Thatcher who took the blame for it and was nicknamed Thatcher the Milk-Snatcher’. Helen Goodman, Labour MP and shadow media minister, was a Treasury civil servant during the Thatcher years. She compares her own experiences with the tributes of Conservative MPs, and wonders what lies behind the last week’s impulse to rewrite history. Speaking in the House of Commons on ‘tribute day’ Labour MP Glenda Jackson declared that Thatcher had wreaked “the most heinous, social, economic and spiritual damage upon this country”. Jackson spoke about what she regarded as ‘the desperately wrong track down which Thatcherism took this country’. “We were told,” she said, “that everything I had been taught to regard as a vice—and I still regard them as vices—was, in fact, under Thatcherism, a virtue: greed, selfishness, no care for the weaker, sharp elbows, sharp knees, all these were the way forward.” “We have heard much, and will continue to hear over next week, about the barriers that were broken down by Thatcherism, the establishment that was destroyed. “What we have heard, with the words circling around like stars, is that Thatcher created an aspirational society. It aspired for things.” And, she continued, “I fear that we will see replicated yet again the extraordinary human damage from which we as a nation have suffered and the talent that has been totally wasted because of the inability genuinely to see the individual value of every single human being.” The video of her speech can be seen here. Afterwards, speaking to the Independent, Ms Jackson insisted: "I was meticulous in not being personally rude. ‘I didn't know the woman: I did know the policies. ‘I spoke up because history has been rewritten over the past week. ‘I lived through the Thatcher period. I know what it was like. I know what it was like for my constituents.’ The reality, she said, bore ‘no resemblance’ to what has been presented in the media recently or in the House of Commons last week. The texts of those speeches can be read here.  |
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