Women's Views on News |
- Rethinking prostitution and its victims
- Human DNA not to be patented
- Housing, bedroom tax, personal safety, lies
| Rethinking prostitution and its victims Posted: 18 Jun 2013 08:29 AM PDT
Fed up with 'Jack the Ripper' tours sensationalising the murder of innocent women, activists from London’s Tower Hamlets put on an alternative tour to celebrate the victims' lives and show how prostitution and violence blights women's lives today. Last year a group of women living and working in Tower Hamlets, East London were concerned about the high numbers of arrests of street-based prostitutes in the run-up to the Olympics. They set up the Living in Freedom Together (LIFT) campaign, to press for more services and support to enable women to leave prostitution. They are urging local residents to write to Tower Hamlets Council, asking them to ensure support is available to women who sell sex in brothels as well as street-based sex workers, given that the violence that takes place indoors is hidden. They also want the authorities to take action against perpetrators – those who buy sex, pimp or traffic women – rather than prosecuting the victims, the prostitutes. Tower Hamlets was home to the infamous Whitechapel murders. In the 1880s, five women were murdered, all of them prostitutes. The killer was never caught, but was nicknamed 'Jack the Ripper'. These days numerous 'Jack the Ripper' tours ply the streets of Tower Hamlets. The tours go to the different murder sites of the women and describe their deaths. Visitors are warned to prepare themselves for 'a terrifying experience'. "They sensationalise Jack the Ripper and the murders of the women," said LIFT member and Tower Hamlets resident Tessa Horvath, so LIFT decided to stage alternative Jack the Ripper tours. Charlotte Mallinson, who is researching the removal of self from the Whitechapel victims for a History MA at the University of Huddersfield, joined us on the LIFT tour I went on. She has been on some of these 'Jack the Ripper’ tours as part of her research. She said that on one tour the guide projected the image of one of the victims onto a wall. The guide described the victim as an 'eyesore' and remarked that 'he [the murderer] didn't go for lookers did he'. By contrast, she explained,"This [LIFT] tour is designed to remind us that the women he murdered were real people – we want to tell you a bit about their lives and to celebrate them and commemorate their deaths. “Rather than visiting the sites where they were murdered we will be visiting the places where they lived" said Horvath, as we set off. But LIFT does not just dwell on the past. Shannon Harvey, a Tower Hamlets resident who works for Against Violence and Abuse (AVA), a local charity working to end violence against women and girls, uses the historic stories to illustrate some of the concerns of women selling sex on the streets of Tower Hamlets today. Mary Anne Nichols, the first of the Whitechapel murder victims, had five children when her marriage broke down after her husband had an affair. At first, her husband gave her 5s a week, around £18 in today's money, for support. It was not enough, so she turned to prostitution and became alcohol dependent. But when her husband found she was earning her money through 'illicit means' he was no longer required to support her. Harvey explains that today, too, alcohol and drug addiction makes some women more vulnerable to prostitution. Or Elizabeth Stride, who was born in Gothenburg in 1843. By 1865 she was working as a prostitute. By 1869 Elizabeth was living in London and married John Thomas Stride, a ship's carpenter. They ran a coffee shop together in Poplar. By March 1877 she had been admitted into the workhouse, suggesting that their marriage had broken down. She told acquaintances that her husband had drowned in the sinking of the Princess Alice in the River Thames in 1878. She said she had been kicked in the mouth by another of the victims as they both swam to safety, which had caused her to stutter. In fact, John Stride died of tuberculosis in Poplar and Stepney Sick Asylum in 1884. From 1885 until her death she lived much of the time with a local dock labourer, Michael Kidney. She had laid an assault charge against him. “Today it is extremely common for a woman in prostitution to be involved in an abusive and controlling relationship, often the partner acts as a pimp and the woman is coerced to sell sex to provide and support their partners drug and alcohol dependencies,” said Harvey. We learned about the lives of Katherine Eddowes, born in Wolverhampton in 1842, who friends described as 'intelligent and scholarly, but possessed with a fierce temper'. Another said she was a 'very jolly woman, always singing.' Mary Jane Kelly, born in Limerick, Ireland, in 1863, who, in 1879, at the age of 16, married a collier. She turned to prostitution after he was killed in an explosion shortly afterwards. And Annie Chapman, who was born in 1841 in Paddington, and married her maternal relative, John. They had three children. One child died at the age of 12 and one was severely disabled. Both Annie and John developed alcohol addiction and they separated in 1884. Horvath and Harvey say while their tour highlights some of the circumstances that often surround involvement in prostitution such as poverty and drug use, focussing on these alone runs the risk of marginalising women who do not enter prostitution against this background. They said that vulnerability comes in many guises, and quote a supporter of the LIFT campaign who said: "I wasn't homeless, in poverty or on drugs. And I didn't need the money – he did! "But I was a vulnerable, trapped, traumatised person, frozen in time. I was 24. I had no family to turn to; traumatised from incest and other childhood sexual abuse. "The man who pimped me was someone I thought was a friend. I was pimped, and no one knew there was a pimp making me stay out. I just didn't have the words to explain what was happening to me. I was not a criminal, I was abused. "Again. Everyone deserves protection from exploitation and abuse and you can't necessarily tell when someone is being controlled. “Choice didn't come into it. What a stupid word! The only one with the choices was him."  |
| Posted: 18 Jun 2013 05:24 AM PDT
On 13 June the US Supreme Court ruled that human DNA cannot be patented. But what does this ruling made in courts halfway across the world have to do with women in the UK? Quite a lot, as it could have strong implications for all women who might be at risk of breast and ovarian cancer. The US Supreme Court struck down the patents Myriad Genetics, a Utah based company, held over genes BRCA1 and BRCA2. Mutations in these genes are linked to breast and ovarian cancer. Holding patents to these genes meant that Myriad Genetics had all control surrounding research or testing involving these genes. This effectively gave them a monopoly over testing for them, as other companies would not be allowed to create alternative tests for the same gene. As a result, women wanting to get tested for the genes had very few options. Before the ruling, the test for BRCA1 and BRCA2 cost US$4000. It was this same test Angelina Jolie took to find out if she had a predisposition to breast and ovarian cancer, as many of her female relatives had suffered from the diseases. She tested positive for the defective gene BRCA1. Doctors estimated she had an 87 per cent risk of developing breast cancer and 50 per cent risk of ovarian cancer. Although the risk varies among women, a woman carrying the faulty gene is on average 65 per cent more likely to develop breast cancer. Jolie's results, as she describes in her New York Times Op-ed, informed her decision to undergo a double mastectomy. She acknowledged that this genetic test was a luxury for most women, when she said: ‘'The cost of testing for BRCA1 and BRCA2, at more than US$3000 in the United States, remains an obstacle for many women'. Patents over genes restrict not only testing but further research, as scientists working on the genes could face being sued. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Public Patent Foundation had originally filed a lawsuit against the patents in 2009 and the case has been making its way through the US courts since. They did this on behalf of 'researchers, genetic counselors, patients, breast cancer and women's health groups and medical professionals'. The plaintiffs, ACLU, argued that as genes are natural they cannot be patented. Myriad Genetics in response argued that as they had isolated the genes they should be allowed to patent them. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Myriad Genetics should not be allowed to hold patents over these genes. In the ruling, Justice Thomas said, 'Myriad did not create anything. To be sure, it found an important and useful gene, but separating that gene from its surrounding genetic material is not an act of invention'. The Supreme Court did rule that synthetic DNA, however, could be patented. This decision could have ramifications for all genes currently under patent, which include those linked to other cancers and illnesses such as Alzheimer’s disease.  |
| Housing, bedroom tax, personal safety, lies Posted: 18 Jun 2013 01:09 AM PDT
It is not only disabled people who are launching a legal challenge against the Bedroom Tax on grounds of discrimination; a victim of rape, assault, harassment and stalking is taking the government to court as well. According to Inside Housing, the plaintiff instigated judicial review proceedings against Iain Duncan Smith and his Department of Work and Pensions in the High Court last Friday. Known only as 'A' to protect her identity, she has a specially adapted home with a panic room. The police adapted her property because her life was at risk from an ex-partner with a history of serious violence. The home has a 'panic space' and a specialist 'sanctuary system', which includes reinforced doors, electric alarms and alarms linked to the police station. But as her home is classed as a three bedroom property, the government deems her as having a 'spare room' and has cut 14 per cent of her Housing Benefit. Rebekah Carrier, a member of 'A's legal team said: "Our client's life is at risk and she is terrified. "She lives in a property which has been specially adapted by the police, at great expense, to protect her and her child. "It is ridiculous that she is now being told she must move to another property (where she will not have any of these protections) or else take in a lodger… "She is a vulnerable single parent who has been a victim of rape and assault. The secretary of state cannot seriously suggest that it is appropriate for her to take a stranger into her home." The secretary of state cannot seriously suggest that it is appropriate for people with children to take a stranger into their home. The secretary of state cannot seriously suggest that it is appropriate to make people take a stranger into their home. Apart from anything else, a lodger needs more than just one room; a lodger needs space in the kitchen, space in the bathroom, access to the room… and in a small house – because we are not talking suburban bliss here, not country mansion airiness – oh for goodness’ sake think about it… The DWP’s response was: 'We are confident that these [bedroom tax] measures are lawful and they do not discriminate against any groups.' Meanwhile, applications for the Discretionary Housing Payment fund (rent payment assistance) have risen almost five fold in the last month. Nottingham City Council, for example, has dealt with 223 applications for financial help, a fourfold increase on April last year. Derby has seen applications from 420 households this month, that's almost as many as the whole of last year. And Leicester has seen applications from 327 households – six times as many as April 2012. The government insists that there are one and a half million 'spare rooms' across England and Wales and that 250,000 families living in homes that are too small for their needs. But the government is not clear about what constitutes a spare room, it says nothing of where the available properties are, and it says nothing about how suitable they are for the families involved. And it says nothing of why we have the housing shortage – but simply leads people to the assumption that it is poor distribution, rather than supply. But, as the New Statesman said, it is decades of defunct housing policy that has left the UK with a housing shortage crisis; the UK is building 100,000 homes a year less than it needs to in order to meet requirements. The National Housing Federation issued a report last year which showed Housing Benefit has doubled in recent years as a direct result of an astronomical increase in housing costs. The report shows an 86 per cent rise in housing benefit claims by working families, with 10,000 new claims coming in per month. House prices are now 300 per cent higher (in real terms) than in 1959. If the price of a dozen eggs had risen as quickly, they would now cost £19. Rents across the UK have risen by an average of 37 per cent in the UK in just the last three years. None of this is addressed by the Bedroom Tax. It simply penalises the resulting victims. What you can do: Leeds Council has suggested residents tackle the Bedroom Tax by reclassifying their bedrooms as 'non-specific rooms'. Only the landlord can, and this is what Leeds council have done. Hopefully other Housing Associations and local councils will follow suit. The Local Govt Finance Act 2012, section 10 (1), 13A(1) states that the local authority can write off these debts if the debtor cannot reasonably be expected to pay. The Wednesbury principles say how such rules should be applied… Write to your council if you are affected and explain that you cannot pay, quoting Local Govt Finance Act 2012, section 10 (1), 13A(1). You may also be able to appeal on the same basis. Or you can join the 38 Degrees Campaign: sign the petition to Stop the Bedroom Tax.  |
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