Women's Views on News |
- Probation inspection report out
- Music festivals: anybody listening
- Strong, compassionate, influencial and Muslim
| Probation inspection report out Posted: 13 Oct 2016 12:54 PM PDT
Probation staff are doing some excellent work with women who commit crime, but their efforts are hampered by a lack of accommodation for women, doubts over the future of Women's Centres, and a lack of funding. These women can sometimes turn their lives around, but they need the right support. With less funding available, and without a clear strategy for women, this is likely to get increasingly difficult and so leave more women more likely to re-offend, Dame Glenys Stacey, HM Chief Inspector of Probation, said. One in 10 offenders being supervised by probation services are women. Women differ from male offenders in that they tend to offend for different reasons, commit less serious offences and reoffend less. They have more often experienced abuse, trauma, depression and substance misuse, and often respond to different approaches and interventions, when compared to men. Stacey published a report recently called ‘A thematic inspection of the provision and quality of services in the community for women who offend’. The inspection explored the quality and effectiveness of services for women after the implementation of the government's Transforming Rehabilitation programme. It looked at work that had been commissioned, delivered or accessed by Community Rehabilitation Companies or the National Probation Service. Inspectors previously looked at services for women in 2011, four years after publication of the pivotal Corston report. Following a strong lead from the Ministry of Justice and National Offender Management Service (NOMS), a great deal was achieved between 2007 and 2011, although services were nevertheless inconsistent and performance measures scarce. This more recent inspection found no better published performance measures and much less focus on women as a distinct group. There were excellent individual examples of work being done by probation staff and others, but the availability and range of provision in the community is still inconsistent. In recent years, dedicated funding for women has virtually disappeared, and so the future of some services, and in particular those provided by Women's Centres, was in doubt. There was also a lack of available accommodation for women. The inspection found cases where Women's Centres had been pivotal in turning women away from crime and helping them to rebuild their lives. Dame Glenys Stacey said: "After the improvements we saw when we last inspected, in 2011, it is disappointing to see that progress has stalled. "Women differ from men – they offend for different reasons, and they often need different sorts of support, to turn away from crime. "Women's centres were doing some excellent work to help women do that, and to rebuild their lives. "These centres need recognition, support and funding so that they can continue to help these women and make communities safer." To read the full report, click here. HMI Probation's last inspection of services for women offenders, Equal but Different: an inspection of the use of alternatives to custody for women offenders, published in 2011, can be found here. To read the Corston report, click here.  |
| Music festivals: anybody listening Posted: 13 Oct 2016 12:43 PM PDT
Music festivals are growing in popularity year by year, with hundreds of thousands of people attending to see performances by their favourite artists over a number of days. While generally a positive experience, with like-minded individuals gathering in one place to share their passion for music, these festivals also create the opportunity for individuals to be targeted for sexual assaults by those who take advantage of the care-free atmosphere. Sweden came into the spotlight recently when over 50 cases of sexual assaults were reported over one weekend at two of Sweden's biggest musical festivals Bravalla and Putte I Parken. Offences committed against women who were mostly under 18, with the youngest victim a child aged 12, included forcefully grinding against the women from behind, groping over and under clothing – and rape. In the course of investigations into this, it was revealed that complaints about similar activity had been filed in 2014 and 2015, but the Swedish police had failed to investigate them. It then became clear that sexual assault and rape are issues at music festivals around the world. In July 2016, 5 cases of sexual assault or rape were reported at the Roskilde festival in Denmark, which was attended by more than 100,000 people. More than a hundred complaints of sexual assaults were filed after a public event on New Year's Eve in Cologne, Germany. In America, rapes were reported in 2014 at Electric Zoo, an electronic music festival held in New York, and at Made in America in 2013. Closer to home, in 2016, an 18 year-old girl was raped at the Scottish music festival T in the Park; in 2015, three cases of sexual assaults were reported at Glastonbury; in 2014, one woman was raped at the V festival in Essex; in 2013, two women were assaulted at Wilderness music festival in Oxfordshire; in 2010, a 12 year-old girl was attacked at the Secret Garden Party in Cambridgeshire by a 16 year-old boy; in 2010, two women were raped at the Latitude festival in Suffolk – one aged 17 was assaulted in a tent, and a 19 year-old was raped by three men; and in 2009, one woman was raped at the Reading festival. When you consider that a high number of sexual assaults are not reported to the police – especially in these situations, where because of alcohol and drug use the victims worry that they will not be believed – it becomes clear that the true scale of these assaults is likely to be much greater. Notwithstanding the widespread and increasing number of cases coming to light, there still seems to be very little action being taken to keep women safe at these festivals. Most festivals do have sections on their websites setting out general safety tips, but there is little information and guidance regarding the – very real – risk of sexual assaults. Furthermore, although most festivals have security teams patrolling the area, there appears to be reluctance on the part of the organisers to speak up about these issues mostly likely for fear for their festival. As a result, it has had to be outside organisations and campaign groups drawing attention to this. As a first step towards stopping such assaults, it is essential that the organisers of these festivals invest in awareness-raising programmes and put in place a structured framework which prevents sexual attacks on their sites. There is, for example, clearly a need for proper training of staff and for support services to be made available to address this growing problem. We all know how devastating the impact of any kind of unwanted touching and of rape can be; festival planners need to look beyond profitability and realise they also have a social and a moral duty to tackle these issues head on. Preferably before the season starts again. Zahra Awaiz-Bilal is an Associate Solicitor and part of the Child Abuse Team at London-based law firm Bolt Burdon Kemp.  |
| Strong, compassionate, influencial and Muslim Posted: 13 Oct 2016 12:28 PM PDT
As part of national Hate Crime Awareness Week, the Muslim Women's Network UK (MWNUK) launched a digital role-model campaign called '#AndMuslim', at an event on 11 October 2016 in Portcullis House, London. The campaign aims to challenge the negative stereotypes of Muslim women who are often portrayed as victims, oppressed, or linked to extremism. Instead, it promotes the diversity of the female Muslim community in Britain, and celebrates their successes, achievements and contributions. Supported by the government's wider 'Building A Stronger Britain Together' campaign, a series of short videos – to be available in due course on the MWNUK's YouTube channel – demonstrate how many Muslim women are diverse and active British citizens. For example one of the women featured is Dr Iram Sattar who is a GP, who plays football and is a massive Liverpool FC fan. Another, Jahanara Salihi, is a civil servant with a passion for motorcycles. We also see that Muslim women can be faith leaders too, with Chaplain Shahin Ashraf, who not only provides religious and pastoral support within the community but also works with priests and rabbis to bring people together and promote cohesion. Then there is Neelam Rose, a campaigner challenging community attitudes on taboo issues such as sexuality; she attended the London Orlando vigil in solidarity with the LGBT community. Faeeza Vaid, Executive Director of MWNUK, said: "The central message of this campaign is that Muslim women are active contributors to Britain in so many different ways. "The campaign highlights that we all have multiple identities, and for many faith is an important and enabling one. "We're also saying that Muslim women should not just be identified by their faith." 'Tell MAMA', a national organisation working with the police to record and measure anti-Muslim hate crimes, also shared their findings at the event. Following the Brexit result, Tell MAMA had a four-fold increase in the number of anti-Muslim and racist incidents reported into them. And data from over 1,128 cases – of which over 800 were found to be anti-Muslim in nature – identified that women were particularly vulnerable to attacks. Incidents involving women, according to Tell MAMA, accounted for 61 per cent of those reported. The campaign’s launch event was hosted by Naz Shah MP, who said: "The rapid rise in hate crimes needs to be addressed to ensure that no one lives in fear of being targeted simply because of who they are. "The #AndMuslim campaign is a fantastic initiative to raise awareness of the brilliant contributions of Muslim women in this country, and their diversity." MWNUK is encouraging other British Muslim women to take part by tweeting, sharing online content and nominating their own role models using the hashtag #AndMuslim. And although the campaign focuses on Muslim women, MWNUK looks forward to Muslim men and members of other minority groups joining in too, to combat stereotypes. Perhaps other hashtags may emerge, such as #AndPolish, #AndSikh, #AndBlack.  |
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