Women's Views on News |
- Stop ignoring dead women
- But why isn’t there a Men’s Day?
- Events 10 – 16 March
- Report on Iraq today: no woman is safe
| Posted: 10 Mar 2014 09:15 AM PDT
Karen Ingala Smith is petitioning Theresa May to stop ignoring dead women. This is why: On New Year's Day, 2012, 20 year-old Kirsty Treloar got a text from her boyfriend Myles Williams: "Okay wer all gud now and my new yrs ressy is that I aint going to hit u again and I won’t hit u 4 this yr next yr the yr after that the next yr after that." The next day he broke into her family's home, stabbed her brother and sister as they tried to help, then he dragged Kirsty into the back of his mother’s car and drove her away. She was found dead 2 miles away, dumped behind a wheelie bin. Kirsty had been stabbed 29 times. Michael Atherton, 42, also sent a New Year text. Shortly before midnight, he sent a text to his partner, Susan McGoldrick, saying he was going out and would spend the night away because he didn't like her sister Alison Turnbull, 44, with whom she was spending the evening. But Susan and Alison came home before he had left. Atherton, who held a gun licence despite a history of arrests for domestic violence dating back 10 years, shot Susan, Alison and Alison's 24 year old daughter Tanya, before killing himself. On New Year's Day, Aaron Mann, 31 repeatedly hit Claire O'Connor, 38, with a blunt object before smothering her with a pillow. Her badly beaten body was found wrapped in her son's sleeping bag and covered in a sheet in the boot of her car on January 2. On 3 January John McGrory used a dog lead to strangle 39-year-old Marie McGrory. Garry Kane, 41, killed his 87 year-old grandmother Kathleen Milward, though 15 “blunt force trauma” injuries on her head and neck. So, by the end of the third day of January 2012, seven women in the UK had been murdered by men, three were shot, one was strangled, one was stabbed, one was beaten then smothered and one was killed through fifteen blunt force trauma injuries. Perhaps because it was the beginning of the year, I just started counting, and once I'd started, I couldn't stop. Since then, I've counted 199 women killed through suspected male violence. See my blog for more information. At first I counted women killed through domestic violence. Then, on 9 March 2012, Ahmad Otak stabbed and killed Samantha Sykes, 18, and Kimberley Frank, 17. Otak wasn't the boyfriend of either of them, but of Eliza Frank, Kimberley's sister. After killing Kimberly and Samantha in front of Eliza, he abducted Eliza and drove to Dover in an attempt to escape to France. The murders of Samantha and Kimberley don't fit the definition of domestic violence, but they're absolutely about a man trying to exert power, control and coercion in his relationship. Their deaths made it clear to me that concentrating on what we see as domestic violence isn't enough. It's wider than that. The murders of Kimberley and Samantha by were no less about male violence against women that they would have been if he had been the boyfriend of one of them. Then there's Andrew Flood, a taxi-driver who strangled and robbed Margaret Biddolph, 78, and Annie Leyland, 88. When I learned he'd also robbed a third woman it was clear to me that there was a pattern to his actions. In fact, last year, five older women, aged between 75 and 88 were killed by much younger men, aged between 15 and 43 as they were robbed or mugged, including Irene Lawless, 68, who was raped, beaten and strangled by 26 year-old Darren Martin. The murders of Margaret, Annie and Irene were not any less about misogyny, than those of women killed by someone they were related to. So my list doesn't just include women killed though domestic violence. We have to stop seeing the killings of women by men as isolated incidents. We have to put them together. We have to stop ignoring the connections and patterns. The Home Office currently records and publishes data on homicide victims and the relationship of the victim to the principal suspect and sex of the victim. This does not do enough to tell us about fatal male violence against women: 1. It doesn't tell us about the sex of the killer; 2. It doesn't connect the different forms of male violence against women; 3. It dehumanises women. The statistic 'on average two women a week are killed through domestic violence in England and Wales' is well known, but we don’t seem to feel horror in our response to this. The murders of some women barely cause a murmur; lots don't make it into the national media. And so the connections, the horror, the patterns, the deaths continue in silence. Unnoticed. Ignored. Ultimately, I want to see men stop killing women. I have launched this campaign, “Counting Dead Women” because I want to see a fit-for-purpose record of fatal male violence against women. I want to see the connections between the different forms of fatal male violence against women. I want Domestic Homicide Review reports to be accessible from a single central source. I want to see a homicide review for every sexist murder. I want the government to fund an independently run Femicide Observatory, where relationships between victim and perpetrator and social, cultural and psychological issues are analysed. I want to believe that the government is doing everything it can to end male violence against women and girls. And I think the government should be recording and commemorating women killed through male violence – not me, a lone woman in a bedroom in east London. Let's start counting dead women, not ignoring them. If you want us as a society, the press and the government to stop ignoring dead women, if you want us to find ways to stop women being killed, please join me, add your voice and sign this petition.  |
| But why isn’t there a Men’s Day? Posted: 10 Mar 2014 07:14 AM PDT
And there is what I want to say and what I actually say when I’m asked “"Why is there a Women's Day, why isn’t there a Men’s Day?” or “Why isn’t there a Men’s Studies?”. What I want to say: "That's every other day of the year." What I actually say: "That's every other day of the year. Actually, there is one. It's on Wednesday 14 November this year.” If you can read statistics like this – how one in three women report having been physically or sexually abused since the age of 15 – and still ask that question, I would also refer you to Emer O'Toole's excellent article from earlier this year, which argues that if you constantly have to ask "but what about men?", then you're probably not a feminist. You're absolutely entitled to ask "but what about men?", that's your prerogative, but you're probably not a feminist. All this reminds me of the questions I used to contend with as a Masters (Mistress) degree student of Women's Studies at university. Question: "But what actually is Women's Studies?" What I want to say (if the question is delivered in a scathing voice, which it usually is): "Oh, we mainly talk about periods, shoes and how we hate men. We also pick out which character from Sex and the City we're most like." What I actually say: "Women's Studies fills in the gaps in every other course in the university, identifying and valuing women's contributions over the ages to literature, philosophy, art, politics and well, just culture in general. “Unlike, say, Gender Studies, it is mainly a Humanities rather than a Social Sciences subject, although it does analyse why women's contributions have typically been excluded from mainstream culture and academia." Question: "Why isn't there a Men's Studies?" What I want to say: "That's every other subject in the university." What I really say: "That's every other subject in the university. In fact men aren't excluded from either taking the course or being the subject of study in it – indeed; I personally devoted two of my three dissertations to exploring the concept of masculinity, as clearly that has a part to play in defining women's relative position." Question: "No, but why's there a Women's Studies when there's not a Men's Studies?" What I say: "No one's asking you to study it, don't worry – although if it threatens your sense of masculinity that much, perhaps you should."  |
| Posted: 10 Mar 2014 05:10 AM PDT
Bath: 10 March: After Tiller plus Q&A at Screen 2, The Little Theatre Cinema, Bath, from 6pm. The film ‘After Tiller’ explores the highly controversial subject of late-term abortions in the wake of the 2009 murder of practitioner Dr George Tiller. This procedure is now performed by only four doctors in the United States, all former colleagues of Dr Tiller, who risk their lives every day in the name of their unwavering commitment toward their patients. Film directors Martha Shane and Lana Wilson have created a moving look at one of the most incendiary topics of our time, and they've done so in an informative, thought-provoking and compassionate way. After the film showing, A Q&A will be held via Skype with Dr Shelley Sella and Dr Susan Robinson, both of whom feature in the film. Brighton: 14 March: FemRock//Late: Launch Night at Sticky Mike's Frog Bar, 9-12 Middle Street, Brighton, from 11pm. A showcase of Brighton's best alternative female DJs for our queer and feminist friends Grrrls to the Front! FemRock Late is a new clubnight from the creators of FemRock. FemRock//Late brings you a night of fierce female DJs, playing the best in female-fronted music and a riot grrrl inspired dancefloor. You can expect to hear a concoction of Riot Grrrl, Punk, Hip Hop, R&B and even a bit of Pop thrown in for good measure. This month’s’ DJ line-up: resident DJ Jenny Ruin; Fannie Fierce; Hatchetface; MC Smash. Tickets £4/£2. Unfortunately this venue is not wheelchair accessible. Bristol: 14 March: What the Frock! Comedy at the Mauretania, Park Street, Bristol, from 7.30pm. Join us for What the Frock!'s regular Bristol comedy show. This popular night always sells out in advance, so book early to avoid disappointment. Joining resident MC Cerys Nelmes will be Jessica Fostekew (“intensely talented and very funny”, Time Out), Alice Frick (“exuberant and perfectly pitched”, Three Weeks), and Tash Bartlett (“confident, cute and crude”, Open Comedy). Tickets £10 advance, £12 door. 11 March: Translation/Transmission: Ein El Hilweh, Kingdom of Women + Intro + Discussion at The Watershed, 1 Canon's Road, Harbourside, Bristol, from 1pm. March is Women’s History Month and the Translation/Transmission season at the Watershed will celebrate the diverse ways women activists have communicated their struggle and resistance through film. The story of the women of Ein El Hilweh refugee camp between 1982 and 1984 is an important chapter in the history of Palestinian refugee women in Lebanon. After the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, the camp was destroyed and its men imprisoned. Kingdom of Women documents the organising spirit of women during this period – detailing how they were able to rebuild the camp and provide for their families while their men were held captive. Using animation and scenes from daily life as it moves between past and present, the film focuses on seven women, honouring the contributions they’ve made to the survival of the Palestinian community in exile. With an introduction and discussions from Rita from the Palestinian Embassy and Nakba Museum, Bristol. Tickets £5.50/£4 concessions. 16 March: Translation/Transmission: Rapunzel, Let Down Your Hair + Discussion at The Watershed, 1 Canon's Road, Harbourside, Bristol, from 1pm. March is Women’s History Month and the Translation/Transmission season at the Watershed will celebrate the diverse ways women activists have communicated their struggle and resistance through film. The problem of women’s sexuality in patriarchy, and the ways in which women receive ideas about themselves, told by revisiting this Grimms’ fairy tale. Rapunzel Let Down Your Hair is an attractive, perceptive film that encompasses several knotty problems relevant to feminism today. Breaking with a traditional narrative, Rapunzel’s story is retold and reinterpreted, each version using a different movie genre accompanied by a wonderful music score. Thus the super-seductive animation of dream and symbolism; the opportunist male voyeur as film noir detective; a raunchy cartoon Venus, her roots firmly in witchcraft; the family melodrama of menopausal angst; and finally Rapunzel’s own tale, a live-action narrative which completes the film’s substructure of the stages of womanhood, and leads firmly out of an urban desert to a finale of feminist celebration. Fairy tales were always appealing, but they never made quite so much sense – this is an alternative vision, one where women can work together or alone to navigate their own destinies. Following the film, Clarissa Jacob, co-curator of the Women and Film project, will facilitate a discussion with Sue Peggs. Tickets £5.50/£4 concessions. Edinburgh: 10 – 15 March: Just Free Film Festival at various locations, Edinburgh. ‘just’ is one of Edinburgh’s most exciting and diverse festivals. With top-quality speakers, conversations, performances, film, food, exhibitions, family activities, workshops, art, culture and more the festival is now looking forward to its fourteenth year. They partner with over twelve faith, belief and non-faith committees to encourage community by exploring diversity. just provides a platform for people to explore their own spirituality by engaging with other people’s, to promote peace. Join just for a week of free films – free venues, free entry and free films. Explore global issues of social justice, inequality and diversity. The programmes feature films on the topic of human trafficking, gender issues and the sex industry among others. For full details of the film screenings and their locations, click here. London: 15 March: Stop Porn Culture Conference Launch at Wedge House/Kids Company, 36-40 Blackfriars Road, London SE1. Join Gail Dines, Julie Bindel and Stop Porn Culture International leaders and collaborators at this conference, which launches the SPC International branch in the UK. Speakers and participants on the panel include: Julie Bindel – leading feminist and political activist and co-founder of Justice for Women, co-editor of Gaze and columnist at The Guardian; Dr. Gail Dines – co-founder of Stop Porn Culture, professor at Wheelock College in Boston and author of "Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality"; Guðrún Jónsdóttir – Icelandic feminist with Stígamót, the organization that works to eradicate sexual violence and offer resources; Marie – Feminist, exited prostituted woman and survivor of the German sex industry; Sarah Mathewson – Campaigns and Media Strategy Manager of OBJECT, the women's group, feminist activist and campaigner against the objectification of women; Dr. Julia Long – author of "Anti-Porn: The Resurgence of Anti-Pornography Feminism" and radical feminist activist with the London Feminist Network; Lia Latchford – Information and Development Officer at Imkaan; Wiveca Holst – Swedish feminist and treasurer with Roks, and expert to the EWL Observatory on Violence against Women; Lisa-Marie Taylor – Head of SPC UK, feminist activist and organizer of the Feminism in London Conference as well as this one; Ane Stø – Head of SPC Norway and the feminist group Ottar, co-editor of "The Nordic Approach: Feminists Write Candidly About the Nordic Battle to Ban the Purchase of Sex". The panel will be facilitated by human rights activist, author and journalist Joan Smith. For the full schedule of events, please click here. Until 22 March: The Mistress Contract by Abi Morgan at Jerwood Theatre downstairs, Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W She and He are the pseudonyms of a real-life couple who live in separate houses in the same city on the west coast of America. She is 88. He is 93. For 30 years he has provided her with a home and an income, while she provides 'mistress services' – 'All sexual acts as requested, with suspension of historical, emotional, psychological disclaimers.' They first met at university and then lost touch. When they met again twenty years later, they began an affair when She – a highly educated, intelligent woman with a history of involvement in the feminist movement – asked her wealthy lover to sign the remarkable document that outlines their unconventional lifestyle: The Mistress Contract. Was her suggestion a betrayal of all that she and the women of her generation had fought for? Or was it brave, honest, and radical? Then — on a small recorder that fit in her purse — this extraordinary couple began to tape their conversations about their relationship, conversations that took place while travelling, over dinner at home and in restaurants, on the phone, even in bed. Based on reams of tape recordings made over their 30 year relationship, The Mistress Contract is a remarkable document of this unconventional couple, and the contract that kept them bound together to this day. The Mistress Contract is Abi Morgan's Royal Court Theatre debut. Her theatre credits include most recently 27 for National Theatre of Scotland and Frantic Assembly's Lovesong. Her previous plays for the stage include Skinned, Splendour and Tiny Dynamite. A BAFTA award-winning writer; on film, she wrote the screenplay for The Iron Lady starring Meryl Streep and Shame, directed by Steve McQueen and starring Michael Fassbender and on television, her credits include The Hour, Birdsong, White Girl and Sex Traffic. Tickets £32, £22, £16, £12. Until 23 March: Hannah Höch exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, London, E1 Hannah Höch was an artistic and cultural pioneer. A member of Berlin's Dada movement in the 1920s, she was a driving force in the development of 20th century collage. Splicing together images taken from fashion magazines and illustrated journals, she created a humorous and moving commentary on society during a time of tremendous social change. Höch was admired by contemporaries such as George Grosz, Theo van Doesburg and Kurt Schwitters, yet was often overlooked by traditional art history. As the first major exhibition of her work in Britain, the show puts this inspiring figure in the spotlight. A determined believer in artistic freedom, Höch questioned conventional concepts of relationships, beauty and the making of art. Höch's collages explore the concept of the 'New Woman' in Germany following World War I and capture the style of the 1920s avant-garde theatre. The important series 'From an Ethnographic Museum' combines images of female bodies with traditional masks and objects, questioning traditional gender and racial stereotypes. Astute and funny, this exhibition reveals how Höch established collage as a key medium for satire whilst being a master of its poetic beauty. Tickets £9.95/£7.95. Oxford: Until 16 March: Oxford International Women’s Festival's 25th anniversary celebrations. A very special line-up of activities is taking place during this milestone Festival, ranging from theatre, to poetry and storytelling, plus talks, film screenings, cabaret, a dinner, and more. The Festival exists to celebrate the achievements of women from Oxford and beyond. 11 March: Dorothy Hodgkin memorial lecture at Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 at 5pm, followed by a reception at 6pm. Speaker Professor Carol Robinson of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Oxford celebrates the achievements of Dorothy Hodgkin (1910–1994) who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her work on the structures of medically important molecules (including penicillin, cholesterol, vitamin B12 and insulin) by X-ray techniques. It is 50 years since Dorothy Hodgkin was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. She is the only British woman to have received this prestigious award for Science. Free. Wheelchair Access. All welcome. For full details of the week's events click here.  |
| Report on Iraq today: no woman is safe Posted: 10 Mar 2014 02:20 AM PDT
On 11 March a public meeting will be held in House of Commons Committee Room 17 to discuss the recent Human Rights Watch report on the abuse of Iraqi women in detention. The 105-page report, 'No One Is Safe': Abuses of Women in Iraq's Criminal Justice System’ documents abuses of women in detention based on interviews with women and girls, Sunni and Shia, in prison; their families and lawyers; and medical service providers in the prisons at a time of escalating violence involving security forces and armed groups. Earlier this year Haifa Zangana spoke at the European Parliament in Brussels, outlining the appalling situation women in Iraq face, and made clear what steps she thinks Europe to take to help her country. She said: 'The National Iraqi News Agency reported on 24 January that the Iraqi military's mortar shelling the night before left 4 people dead and 32 more injured "including women and children" and Saturday's military shelling of Falluja left 5 people dead and 14 more injured — "most of them women and children." Falluja General Hospital was shelled as well. Iraqi's government assault on Anbar continues – and the attacks have been indiscriminate, leading many civilians to flee; since fighting broke out at the end of last year, more than 140,000 people have been made homeless – on top of the 1.13 million people already internally displaced in Iraq.' And she continued to clearly illustrate how the regression in women's situation is devastating. The transcript was published later. WVoN has taken just a few points from it. ' I will,' she said, 'focus on violence in the public sphere and how it became so prominent that women have been forced to give up hard earned rights, such as employment, freedom of movement, abolition of polygamy, and the right to education and health services, seeking instead, protection for themselves and their families. The occupation of Iraq in 2003 left Iraqi women in a terrible state of regression on two interrelated levels. The first level is relevant to women as citizens in an environment that lacks guarantees and protection by a credible national criminal justice system embodying international standards. This subjects women as well as men to violations of their human rights. The second level is to do with gender-related violence in public which is particularly relevant during occupation, war and armed conflict, often providing the context for sexual abuse, rape, and trafficking of women and girls. Iraq "remains in a state of low-level war" with nearly 9500 civilians were killed in 2013. The right to life and physical security are the first casualties of the current " low level war" affecting women as citizens whether the violence targets them directly (physically) or indirectly (the killing of their children or male relatives leaving them as heads of households). War and occupation have claimed over a million Iraqi lives, thus leaving behind an approx million widows and 5 millions orphans. The phenomenon of women begging in the streets has become commonplace in Iraq. Invariably, the government's response is to arrest them and throw them in prison, Instead of finding permanent solutions to lift them from this suffering." Iraq is currently host to one of the highest execution rates in the world: 1,300 prisoners are said to be on death row, women are among them. Some executions are carried out secretly. Under current Iraqi law, 48 offenses are subject to the death penalty. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay likened Iraq's justice system to "processing animals in a slaughterhouse." She also mentioned that Iraq's justice system is "too deeply flawed to warrant even a limited use of the death penalty, let alone dozens of executions at a time," warning that the death penalty undermines efforts to reduce violence and achieve a more stable society. Torture, sexual abuse and the threat of rape and actual rape are frequently inflicted on detainees, regardless of their gender. The lack of basic security in the streets, road blocks, collapsed health systems, water contamination and the feeling of fear, anxiety and despair are factors which affect mothers. Being able to give birth safely is becoming a privilege rather than a fundamental human right – the maternal mortality rate for Iraq remains the highest in the region. Dr Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, an environmental toxicologist at the University of Michigan's School of Public Health and author of the book Pollution and Reproductive Damage, said: 'Sterility, repeated miscarriages, stillbirths and severe birth defects – some never described in any medical books – are weighing heavily on Iraqi families.' Problems attributed largely to white phosphorus bombs US troops used in their major offensives against the city of Fallujah In November 2004. The effects of wide spread polygamy, no matter how it is marketed, will damage what Iraqi women have been struggling to get rid of for over a century. Combined with temporary marriage, it is a huge degrading step backward. According to the 2011 Trafficking in persons (TiP) Report, Iraq is a source and destination country for men, women and children subjected to trafficking for begging, prostitution and organ trafficking. For girls less than 16 years old, prices range from USD30,000; older girls USD2,000… To read the rest of this presention, which makes gruelling reading, click here. Zanagana is quite clear about what Europe can and should do to help Iraqi women. First: actions to stop the atrocities. The priority of international pressure is to ensure the current bloodshed stops, before it multiplies to a level comparable to Syria. A public stance by the EU against social and political abuse is, she said, the best policy to fight terrorism When Iraqi women are asked about the most important issue their reply is ‘security’ followed by ‘health’ and ‘education’ and ‘employment’. Running workshops on political participation and democracy are great, but, Zangana explained, at time of conflict and war they are at the bottom of the list of priorities. A Special Rapporteur should be appointed. She sees this is a first step to monitor the crimes committed by the sectarian corrupt regime; crimes which must be addressed to bring an end to a state of impunity. Second, and a related point – the emphasis should be on the root causes of terrorism in government policy rather than focussing on Islamophobia and myths about foreign forces. Ban Ki-moon in his visit to Iraq on January 14 singled out what the protests has been demanding all along: looking at the root causes of the problems. They are: sectarianism, corruption, lack of basic services, violations of human rights, increasing unemployment and organised gangs and militias flourishing under a kleptocratic government. Third: stop supplying weapons to a regime which is using them against the Iraqi people. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) shows in its annual report a massive disregard by many states in this respect. You cannot expect the Iraqi people to believe the West's good intentions when faced with this underlying reality, namely Western countries selling weapons to a government which is oppressing Iraqi civilians. Fourth: expose corruption and demand transparency. Where is Iraq’s wealth stashed? The current Maliki government has been harvesting over USD100bn a year for some time now, from the nation's oil wealth. That amounts to on average to about USD20,000 a year per Iraqi household of 7 people. And Iraqis are left deprived of basic commodities as a result of this process. The wealth is being squandered or stolen or both. A situation described by Transparency International as: "Massive embezzlement, procurement scams, money laundering, oil smuggling and widespread bureaucratic bribery have led the country to the bottom of international corruption rankings, fuelled political violence and hampered effective state building and service delivery." And she concluded by remarking that 'implementing justice is the only way to put an end to terrorism, and to allow the Iraqi people to rebuild their country and rehabilitate a cohesive social structure.' Human Rights Watch has said that the Iraqi authorities 'should acknowledge the prevalence of abuse of female detainees – women have described being beaten, kicked, slapped, hung upside-down and beaten on their feet, given electric shocks, and raped or threatened with sexual assault by security forces during their interrogation – promptly investigate allegations of torture and ill-treatment, prosecute guards and interrogators responsible for abuse, and disallow coerced confessions. 'They should make judicial and security sector reform an urgent priority as a prerequisite for stemming violence that increasingly threatens the country's stability. "The abuses of women we documented are in many ways at the heart of the current crisis in Iraq," deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch Joe Stork said. "These abuses have caused a deep-seated anger and lack of trust between Iraq's diverse communities and security forces, and all Iraqis are paying the price."  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Women's Views on News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |