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PART 1: International media about the
atrocities against women worldwide
from March 1 untill April 16 2021 and continuing
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PART 2: International media about the
atrocities against women worldwide from April 26 untill April 12 2021
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PART 3: International media
about the atrocities
against women worldwide.
June 16 (hoever starting with a must read referal to an article
June 16 (including a 5 06 referral to an article) and the month
May 2021 and further
down untill April 16 2021
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PART 4: International
womens-day21
International media about the atrocities
against women worldwide.
5 june - 16 April 2201
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When one hurts
or kills a women
one hurts or kills hummanity and is an antrocitie.
Gino d'Artali
WELCOME TO PART 3 OF
INTERNATIONAL WOMENS DAY 2021
WHICH GOES ON THIS PAGE WHERE I
LEFT IN PART 2 APRIL 25 untill 12 BUT NOW CONTINUE FROM THERE IF YOU SCROLL ALL THE WAY
DOWN
OR YOU CAN STAY AT THE BEGINNING WHICH STARTS JUNE 5 2021 AND CONTINUES
WITH MY MEDIA LOGBOOK. YOU'LL FIND OUT HOW IT WORKS
BY SCROLLING, FOLLOW A LINK AND READING.
THANK YOU.
We, my colleagues and me, too
often are said <your news is old> but my Mother (Gianna d'Artali 1931
untill 1996) always said: <No news is old news because you can always
learn from it.>. When you often experience reading an article of
cryfeedom.net as old news you are forgeting that we all have a
collective memory.
International
Women's Day 2021
When
I quote I use < is opening quote and
> is closing quote. I close with >> followed by a link
to the article. Gino
d'Artali, radical feminist, founder and journalist of cryfreedom.net
Call
forward by Gino d'Artali
The violence against women and the rapings of women globally has in this
not even 3 months since the International women's day March 8
2021 increased in a horryfying way and numbers and can be called
a global athrocity. Not only domestically but also by the police,
politicians and as a weapon in war. I, a male, I am a RADICAL FEMINIST and I call all the readers forward to, in whatever
way they can, to STOP IT!!! Do not leave the women alone here and
stand by their side!!! And by the way the women are NOT alone because they keep
FIGHTING BACK!!!
The first article I refer to is
of an extreme atrocity so read it and WAKE UP!:
Al Jazeera
By Thabi Myeni
5 June 2021
‘Our bodies are crime scenes’:
<South Africa its murdered women
Tshegofatso Pule was
eight months pregnant when she was murdered and her body hung from a
tree on June 5, 2020. This is her story and the story of the other women
murdered by men on that day in a country where a woman is killed every
four hours.
Police walk past demonstrators during a protest against gender-based
violence outside the parliament in Cape Town in 2020.
Johannesburg, South Africa – As the
winter sun dipped below the horizon on a cold Wednesday evening last
June, hundreds of women, men and children gathered sombrely on the
streets of Meadowlands in Soweto.
Dressed in black, and clutching pink balloons and flickering candles,
the crowd – some hand-in-hand, many with tears in their eyes – made
their way to the home of Tshegofatso Pule, the words of an old
anti-apartheid struggle song echoing in the air around them.
<Senzeni na, senzeni na (what have we done?),> they sang, paying their
final respects to a life lost too soon. It would be the first of many
gatherings in her name.
Five days earlier, on June 5, 2020, a group of residents from Durban
Deep in Roodepoort, a residential area seven kilometres (four miles)
from Meadowlands, stumbled upon a spine-chilling sight: the lifeless
body of a heavily pregnant woman, blood dripping from her torso to her
toes, hanging from a tree in broad daylight.
They made multiple phone calls to other community members but their
efforts failed to identify her. So the group of men took pictures and
videos of the gruesome scene and started circulating them on social
media. <The footage was posted to try and find her family,> said one
witness, Tshepo Bodibe, who had been summoned to the crime scene by a
friend.
On June 8, the devastated family of
Tshegofatso, who had been searching for their daughter for days, saw the
gut-wrenching viral video of a woman hanging from a withered grey tree.
They recognised her as their ‘Tshego’, as she was affectionately known.
The 28-year-old had been eight months pregnant when she was shot in the
chest and then hanged.
<Nothing could ever prepare you for this,> says Tshego’s childhood
friend, Zinhle Zwane, as tears well up in her eyes. A distraught Zinhle
had first shared the news of her friend its gruesome death on Twitter.
It sent shockwaves across the country, sparking outcries from women,
politicians and celebrities.
Among those who took to social media to express their shock in the wake
of the killing was former Miss Universe, Zozibini Tunzi, who tagged the
South African president in a tweet, expressly saying <I am not okay!
This is not okay! Mr President, we are dying!>
Zinhles smile perseveres across her tear-stained face as her mind
wanders back to the good memories she shared with her friend. The pair
met 22 years ago when they were just six years old. Their mothers before
them, had also been close friends. But the line is now cut; her child
will never get a chance to be friends with Tshegos daughter, who died in
the womb along with her mother that day.
<As women, we are not safe. We can fight, march and raise awareness, the
reality is that we are not safe,> Zinhle says.
One of eight women
In South Africa, a woman is killed every four hours. On June 5 last year
– the day Tshego was killed – she became yet another statistic: one of
eight women brutally murdered by men in South Africa that day.
We know the names of two of the others: Luyanda Nkambule, 29, whose life
was cut short in her home in Secunda, Mpumalanga province, and
Nompumelelo Tshaka, 45, who was mutilated and her body discarded in
Mthatha, in the Eastern Cape.
For two of the others, we know a bit of their story: in KwaZulu-Natal,
two young nurses were brutally killed on their way home from St
Apollinaris Hospital, allegedly by an ex-boyfriend of one of the
victims.
But the other three are merely numbers. The grim reality is that
femicide is grossly underreported in the media, and police reports often
strip victims of their identity, turning them into statistics.
According to the human rights organisation, Centre for Constitutional
Rights, the femicide rate in South Africa is five times the global
average. In the first two weeks of June 2020, 21 women were reportedly
murdered by men in the country. But we may never know the names, faces
and stories of all of them.
For South African women, the familiar feeling of fear and collective
trauma has shown itself in desperate pleas on social media, urging the
government to take action against femicide.
Days following the
public outcry after Tshego’s killing, President Cyril Ramaphosa released
a statement condemning the surge in violence against women and children
in the country. In the statement, he urged communities to <end the
culture of silence and speak up>, adding <it could save your lives>.
But for many young South African women, like Beloved Sechele, his words
rang hollow. The law student replied under his statement posted on
Twitter, <This is dismissive and hurtful because we have articulated our
troubles and reported many times.> She went on to say, <We are literally
suffering and this feels like yet another brush-over of our concerns.> >
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/6/5/our-bodies-are-crime-scenes-south-africas-murdered-women
June 16 2021
By Zecharias Zelalem
<Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – Aster Goshu squints as she speaks quietly into the
phone’s camera. <They lock me in the home when they leave,> she says in Arabic,
speaking in a frantic tone.
<I spend my days crying,> she adds, pointing to the dark circles under her
swollen eyes. <I’ve cried so much that I have trouble seeing things from a
distance.>
It was late 2019, and the then-24-year-old Ethiopian woman had waited for her
employers to leave their home for work in Beirut, Lebanon, before hitting
record.
<I went four years without hearing from my parents,> Aster says into the camera.
<My employers say, ‘you Ethiopians will always be poor, what difference would it
make?’> she adds, explaining that she’s only received a salary for three months
of the four years she is owed. <I beg you to help me escape this home.>
Six years earlier, Aster left Ethiopia in search of work. But after a Lebanese
family hired her as a live-in housekeeper in 2014, she found herself cut off
from the outside world and labouring without pay. Aster’s family, unable to
contact her, feared she was dead.
Ethiopian women, like Aster, have flocked to the Middle East to work as nannies,
caregivers and housekeepers for decades. Driven by Ethiopia’s rising living
costs and unemployment, hundreds of thousands have gone to Saudi Arabia, Lebanon
and Kuwait. But what many find, activists and domestic workers say, is a cycle
of exploitation and modern-day slavery that is hard to escape.>>
Note by Gino d'Artali: I's a long article but please your attention for their
situation is very needed!
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/6/16/vanished-the-plight-of-3-ethiopian-domestic-workers-in-lebanon
The Guardian
June 16 2021
Justin McCurry in Tokyo
South Korea
<Online sex crimes crisis in South Korea affecting all women, report finds
Human Rights Watch found sex crime prosecutions involving illegal filming rose
11-fold between 2008 and 2017.
South Korea’s epidemic of online sexual abuse has left survivors traumatised for
life, and is adversely affecting all women and girls in the country, according
to a new report.
Molka – the use of hidden cameras to film or share explicit images of women
without their consent – is forcing victims to contemplate suicide or to consider
quitting their jobs or leaving the country, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in the
report, My Life is Not Your Porn: Digital Sex Crimes in South Korea.
The trauma is worsened by encounters with unsympathetic police and courts, the
US-based organisation said, and called on the government to introduce harsher
penalties and educate men and boys about the dangers of consuming abusive images
online.
<Digital sex crimes have become so common, and so feared, in South Korea that
they are affecting the quality of life of all women and girls,> Heather Barr,
HRW’s interim director of women’ rights, said on Wednesday.
Arrests over hotel spycam porn ring that filmed 1,600 guests across South Korea
Barr, who authored the report, added: <Women and girls told us they avoided
using public toilets and felt anxious about hidden cameras in public and even in
their homes. An alarming number of survivors of digital sex crimes said they had
considered suicide.>>
Read more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/16/online-sex-crimes-crisis-in-south-korea-affecting-all-women-report-finds
Al Jazeera
June 15 2021
<Ilhan Omar may face censure for words on Israeli war acts
Republican members of the US House filed a resolution seeking to censure Omar
for her criticism of Israel.
Republicans in the United States House of Representatives are looking to exploit
a divide among Democrats over support for Israel following controversial
comments last week by Representative Ilhan Omar, one of the three Muslim members
of Congress.
Three rank-and-file Republican members of the US House filed a resolution on
June 14 seeking to censure Omar and her progressive political allies: members of
'The Squad' (LINK TO PREVIOUS ARTICLE), including Representative Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez.
<We cannot turn a blind eye to members of Congress openly defending terrorist
attacks by Hamas against our close ally Israel nor their dangerous rhetoric
which has contributed to anti-Semitic attacks across the country,> Republican
Mike Waltz said in a statement announcing the introduction of the resolution.
House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy was reportedly set to bring the issue
before a closed-door meeting of the House Republican Conference on Tuesday.
<We are seeing this big fight within the Democratic Party right now over
anti-Semites and whether they’re going to stand up and confront this problem,>
Steve Scalise, a top House Republican leader said on Tuesday.
The move by Republicans follows the opening of a divide among Democratic
legislators over Israel’s 11-day bombardment of Gaza in May that killed 256
Palestinians.
In a House committee hearing with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Omar had
asked about the US opposition to the International Criminal Court (ICC)
inquiries into alleged war crimes by the US, Israel, Hamas, the Afghan
government and the Taliban.
If the US opposes war crime investigations at the ICC, a standing body based in
The Hague, where should victims of atrocities go to seek justice? Omar had
asked. Blinken responded that courts in the US and Israel already provide
adequate judicial forums for such claims.
Fatou Bensouda, the chief prosecutor of the ICC, announced in March she had
launched a formal inquiry into alleged crimes in the occupied Palestinian
territories. Israel and the US oppose the inquiry.
The ICC is also probing alleged war crimes by the US in Afghanistan.>>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/15/omar-faces-censure-in-house-for-questioning-us-israeli-war-acts
and more articles about her on the same page!
The Guardian
June 12 2021
Staff and agencies
<Hong Kong
Agnes Chow: activist leaves jail as China says Hong Kong ‘pawn in geopolitics’
Key figure was imprisoned for more than six months for her role in the 2019
anti-government protests.
The Hong Kong democracy activist Agnes Chow has been released from jail after
serving more than six months for taking part in unauthorised assemblies during
2019 anti-government protests that triggered a crackdown on dissent by mainland
China.
Chow, 24, was greeted by a crowd of journalists as she left the Tai Lam women’s
prison on Saturday. She got out of a prison van and into a private car without
making any remarks.
A small group of supporters were on the scene – the government has threatened to
jail those it deems in violation of a sweeping national security law that
Beijing imposed on the territory a year ago.
The legislation has resulted in the arrests of leading democracy activists
including Joshua Wong and Jimmy Lai, who are serving prison terms. Others have
sought asylum abroad. Critics say China is routinely violating commitments it
made to preserve freedoms promised to Hong Kong for 50 years after the handover
to Chinese rule in 1997.>>
Read more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/12/agnes-chow-hong-kong-democracy-activist-is-freed-from-jail
The Guardian
Sam Jones in Madrid
June 11 2021
<Spain
Discovery of girl’s body prompts nationwide protests in Spain.
Father suspected of killing six-year-old and dumping body at sea, amid surge in
domestic violence.
Protests against gender-based violence are to be held across Spain after the
discovery of the body of a six-year-old girl who is suspected to have been
murdered by her father and dumped at sea.
A surge in domestic violence cases has coincided with the end of Spain’s state
of emergency restrictions last month.
On Thursday afternoon, search teams looking for two sisters, who were taken by
their father at the end of April, recovered the body of the elder child, Olivia,
six. She was found inside a sports bag, weighed down with an anchor, at a depth
of 1,000 metres about three miles (5km) off the coast of her home island of
Tenerife.
A similar but empty bag was found nearby by an oceanographic research ship
equipped with specialist sonar. Officers from Spain’s Guardia Civil police force
are continuing to search for Olivia’s one-year-old sister, Anna, and for the
girls father, Tomás Gimeno.
Their mother, Beatriz Zimmerman, told officers her ex-husband had phoned to tell
her she would never see the girls again after he took them on 27 April.
The case has shocked and angered Spain. The prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said
on Twitter on Thursday night: <I can’t imagine the pain of the mother of little
Anna and Olivia, who had disappeared in Tenerife, given the terrible news we’ve
just had. I’m sending a hug, my love, and that of my whole family, who today
stand in solidarity with Beatriz and her loved ones.>>
Read more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/11/discovery-girl-body-prompts-nationwide-domestic-violence-protests-spain
The Guardian
June 11 2021
Osman Can Yerebakan
<In 2019, the most recent iteration of the Every Woman Biennial drew 3,000
attendees to two galleries in New York and Los Angeles. Among the 600 artists
represented were a 12-year-old trans photographer of moths and butterflies and a
91-year-old multimedia artist who makes paper assemblages.
<That was ultimately the show of my dreams,> says C Finley, who founded the
world’s largest biennial of women and non-binary artists. She is confident about
the forthcoming inaugural London leg: <This show is the thirst trap of London –
it will scratch an itch people didn’t even know they had.>
A New York-based artist and curator, Finley started Every Woman seven years ago
to carve out room for the inclusivity she realised was missing in the art world.
The expansion across the pond pushes her agenda further with the biennial’s most
diverse and comprehensive programme to date.
The month-long show opens on 12 June across various sites – from a 19th-century
mansion in Canary Wharf to a brutalist building in central London – with more
than 300 artists from 33 countries. Copeland Gallery in Peckham will present the
show’s main exhibition, My Love Is Your Love, filling its walls with works by
more than 200 artists, all available to acquire. Five jury members will each
select an emerging artist to reward with £100.
The goal is to give a voice to all. <We are not stuffy about medium – this is a
broad church,> says the curator Eddy Grattan-Bellew, who approached Finley with
the idea of a London outpost after they met at the LA leg. They co-selected the
works, <to break down barriers of access>, entirely from a free-of-charge open
call, and almost everyone got in. <This is a ‘pan’ affair: all mediums, nations,
ages, and gender expressions are welcome.>>
Read more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/jun/11/every-woman-biennial-london
The guardian
June 11 2021
Hannah Summers
Government pledges to raise legal age of marriage to 18 in England and Wales.
Commitment from justice ministry seen as victory by rights campaigners, who say
current law is exploited to coerce children.
The government has committed to raising the minimum legal age of marriage to 18
in England and Wales in a victory for campaigners.
Currently, 16 and 17-year-olds can marry with parental consent, but a coalition
of charities has warned that this legal loophole is being exploited to coerce
young people into child marriage.
In a letter to campaigners from the Ministry of Justice, shared with the
Guardian, it said it was committed to raising the minimum legal age to 18 <as
soon as legislative opportunity arises>.
The news came as Sajid Javid, the former chancellor, told the Times he would
introduce a private member’s bill next week making it illegal for under-18s to
marry.
Last month, the four co-chairs of the coalition Girls Not Brides UK wrote a
letter to the prime minister warning that the current law on forced marriage law
did not go far enough to protect young people.
Read more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jun/11/government-pledges-to-raise-legal-age-of-marriage-to-18-in-england-and-wales
The Guardian
June 10 2021
Sally Weale Education correspondent
<Schoolchildren have told Ofsted inspectors that sexual harassment and online
sexual abuse are such a routine part of their daily lives they don’t see any
point in challenging or reporting it.
Girls suffer disproportionately, complaining of sexist name-calling, online
abuse, upskirting, unwanted touching in school corridors and rape jokes on the
school bus. Boys share nude pictures on WhatsApp and Snapchat <like a collection
game>, inspectors were told.
A review by the schools’ inspectorate concluded that sexual harassment has
become <normalised> for young people, in school, online and in other
unsupervised spaces including parks and house parties.
It found that teachers <consistently underestimate> the scale of the problem and
that sex education in schools was so out of touch with the reality of children’s
lives that pupils turned to social media or their peers for information. One
girl told inspectors: <It shouldn’t be our responsibility to educate boys.>
The report, published on Thursday, concluded that school inspections by Ofsted
and the Independent Schools Inspectorate were <sometimes not robust enough> on
sexual harassment and there was not always effective joint working between
schools and local safeguarding teams.
Presenting the report, the chief inspector of schools in England, Amanda
Spielman, said she was shocked by its findings. <It’s alarming that many
children and young people, particularly girls, feel they have to accept sexual
harassment as part of growing up. Whether it’s happening at school or in their
social life, they simply don’t feel it’s worth reporting.>>
Read more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jun/10/sexual-harassment-is-a-routine-part-of-life-schoolchildren-tell-ofsted
Al Jazeera
June 10 2021
<Bangladesh to monitor TikTok after girls lured by traffickers
Surveillance begins on app users after a trafficking gang that lured girls into
the sex trade in India was busted.
Bangladesh has begun surveillance on people using the TikTok video-sharing
platform after security forces busted a trafficking gang that lured girls into
the sex trade in neighbouring India using the app, an official said.
<A large number of TikTok users suspected of being involved in criminal
activities are under close watch,” ANM Imran Khan, spokesman for the
crime-fighting Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), said on Wednesday.
The monitoring began after eleven members of a suspected transnational gang were
arrested for allegedly trafficking women and young girls to the neighbouring
country using the application.
The traffickers used the app to trap girls by offering to make them TikTok
models, and eventually smuggling them to the Indian sex trade in the name of
better jobs there, Khan said.
The arrests came after a girl, who managed to escape from captivity in India and
return to Bangladesh, filed a case with police in Dhaka, and video of a sexual
assault on another 22-year-old Bangladeshi girl went viral on social media last
month.
In her complaint, the girl accused one Rifatul Islam Ridoy, who is also known as
TikTok Ridoy for his expertise in shooting videos using the app, of tricking her
to a bordering district in February, and then smuggling her to India.
She was then taken to the southern Indian city of Bengaluru and forced into the
sex trade, police said, according to the complaint.>>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/10/bangladesh-tiktok-scanner-sex-traffickers-lure-girls
Al Jazeera
June 9 2021
By Parth MN
<Rajasthan, India – <I want to study at least up to 12th standard (grade)> was
Saira Bano’s heartfelt cry when her parents started looking for a groom for her
in October 2020.
It had been a tough year for her parents in their remote northwestern Indian
village. Since a nationwide lockdown to check coronavirus was imposed in March
2020, Saira’s father has not been able to find much work.
He earned about 1,200 rupees ($17) a week as a labourer in pre-COVID times,
which barely kept the family afloat. And when that stopped too, he thought it
was better to marry Saira off instead of spending the family’s limited resources
on her education.
Saira is 17.
<We are six brothers and sisters,> she said over the phone from her village of
Kudgaon in Rajasthan state’s Karauli district.
<We have always lived in poverty. After COVID, it has become even more difficult
to sustain the household.>
Around the world, about 12 million girls a year are married off before they turn
18, according to the United Nations. Nearly 30 percent of South Asian women aged
20 to 24 were married before 18.
The coronavirus pandemic has only exacerbated the crisis.
While the Indian government has not maintained comprehensive data, international
organisations say child marriages could be a major fallout of the pandemic.>>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/9/girls-india-marginalised-groups-child-marriage
Al Jazeera
June 9 2021
<Failure to Protect: How domestic violence separates families
In Florida, survivors of domestic violence can lose custody of their children.
Is the state blaming victims of abuse?
A mother in the US state of Florida was beaten and strangled by her ex-husband,
so why did the state take her children from her?
Under Florida law, domestic violence victims can lose their children if the
state thinks they did not do enough to prevent the kids from witnessing the
abuse. The state calls it <failure to protect>.
<I called for help. I wanted out, and I still got punished,> says Lena Hale, who
lost custody of her two children after Florida’s child welfare agency deemed her
an unsafe parent because she maintained a relationship with her abusive partner.
Her ex-husband – the abuser – was later awarded full custody of their daughter.
Fault Lines investigates Florida’s child protection agency and asks if the state
is doing more harm than good to some families.>>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/program/fault-lines/2021/6/9/failure-to-protect-how-domestic-violence-separates-families
And if I by mistake copy/pasted the entire article I deeply apologize to Al
Jazeera
Al Jazeera
June 9 2021
<Dozens of children, mostly girls, abducted by Mozambique fighters
Report by Save the Children says 51 minors taken by armed groups in conflict-hit
Cabo Delgado in 2020, a figure likely an underestimate.
Fighters in conflict-hit northern Mozambique abducted dozens of children during
raids in 2020, according to a new analysis by Save the Children.
The charity said in a report on Wednesday the “abduction of children has become
a new and alarmingly regular tactic by armed groups” in Cabo Delgado province,
where worsening fighting over the past three-and-a-half years has killed nearly
3,000 people and displaced more than 700,000, half of whom are children.
Save the Children said <at least 51 children, most of them girls> were seized by
non-state armed groups in the region last year, adding that the numbers involved
were likely <far higher> than its estimates, which were based on data collected
by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project and reflected only reported
cases.
It warned that the victims are at risk of sexual violence, early marriage and
being used as fighters in the conflict.
<Being abducted, witnessing abductions, experiencing attacks, being forced to
flee from armed groups – these are extremely traumatising events for young
children and adolescents,> said Chance Briggs, the Mozambique country director
for Save the Children.
Attacks by an armed group known locally as al-Shabab, whose origins, analysts
say, are steeped in local political, religious and economic discontent, have
steadily increased in the Cabo Delgado province since October 2017.
The sophistication of the attacks has increased, too.
The fighters linked to ISIL (ISIS) have ransacked towns and gained control of
key roadways, destroying infrastructure and beheading civilians. In some cases,
they have forced locals into their ranks or held them as sex slaves.
Since August 2020, the fighters have been in control of the key port town of
Mocimboa da Praia, while in March, they launched a coordinated assault on Palma
town, killing dozens and forcing more than 67,000 to abandon their homes.
A video by the group distributed in August last year – filmed in either
Mozambique or the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to the
US-based SITE Intelligence Group – showed three gun-toting children flanked by
adults in front of an ISIL banner.
<Abducting a child constitutes one of the six grave violations against children
in times of conflict, as defined by the United Nations. It is against
international humanitarian law and can be a first step towards war crimes such
as forced child conscription or sexual violence against children,> Briggs said.
<Every day spent by abducted children outside their community is one too many,
and the risks of abuse, early marriage and pregnancy increase the more time goes
by.>>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/9/dozens-of-children-mostly-girls-abducted-by-mozambique-fighters
Al Jazeera
June 8 2021
<Salvadoran woman jailed for suspected abortion released
Sara Rogel had been sentenced to a 30-year jail term for an abortion-related
crime in El Salvador.
Women’s rights advocates have welcomed the release of a woman in El Salvador who
was sentenced to a lengthy prison term for a suspected abortion, in a case that
has drawn international attention to the South American nation’s strict abortion
ban.
Sara Rogel, 28, was arrested in October 2012 after going to a hospital with
bleeding injuries caused by what she said was a fall while carrying out chores
at home.
Then a 22-year-old student, Rogel was prosecuted and sentenced to 30 years in
prison for killing her unborn daughter. Her sentence was later reduced to 10
years, which would have seen her released in October 2022.
On Monday, she left a women’s jail near Zacatecoluca, about 56km (35 miles)
southeast of the capital San Salvador, where she was joined by members of her
family and her lawyer Karla Vaquerano of the pro-abortion rights group ACDATEE.
<She was deprived of freedom for almost nine years, in a sentence we believed
was unfairly given,> Vaquerano said.
Rogel was one of dozens of Salvadoran women imprisoned for abortion-related
crimes in the country, which banned abortion in all circumstances, including
rape or if the mother’s life is in danger, in 1998.>>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/8/salvadoran-woman-jailed-for-suspected-abortion-released
The page includes links to related articles
Al Jazeera
June 8 2021
<UK police officer admits to kidnapping, raping Sarah Everard
Wayne Couzens, 48, also accepts responsibility for the death of Everard during a
hearing at the Old Bailey.
A British police officer has pleaded guilty to kidnapping and raping Sarah
Everard, whose killing shook the United Kingdom and led to a debate about male
violence against women.
A court at London’s Old Bailey on Tuesday heard that Wayne Couzens, 48, also
accepted responsibility for the death of Everard.
Couzens, who appeared by video link from Belmarsh prison, did not enter a plea
on the charge of murder, however.
Everard, 33, was abducted as she walked home from a friend’s house in south
London on March 3.
Her body was later found in woodland about 80km (50 miles) away in southeast
England.
Everard’s relatives sat in the court on Tuesday as Couzens entered his pleas.
Medical reports about the Metropolitan Police officer are currently being
prepared and a further hearing before the judge, Adrian Fulford, will take place
on July 9.
A postmortem concluded earlier this month that Everard died as a result of
compression of the neck.>>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/8/uk-police-officer-admits-to-raping-and-kidnapping-sarah-everard
Al
Jazeera
June
2 2021
<How
to stop Ethiopia its weaponised sexual violence?
Ethiopia
its six-month-old conflict in its Tigray region has been marked by
widespread reports of rape being used as a weapon by the Ethiopian
and Eritrean armies, and by forces from the neighbouring Amhara
region.
The
violence is brutal. There are reports and witness accounts of rocks,
nails and other objects being forced inside the bodies of women.
There are allegations that men have been forced to rape their own
family members or be killed. And aid group the International Rescue
Committee has said women are being forced to engage in sexually
exploitative relationships for money, food and shelter.
After
months of denial and silence, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in
March acknowledged that sexual violence was taking place. In a speech
to parliament, he called war <a nasty thing> and suggested that
troops from neighbouring Eritrea, which has fought on the Ethiopian
government its side throughout the conflict, were also responsible.
Abiy, though, pointed the finger at the opposing side in the
conflict, the Tigray People its Liberation Front, for creating what
he called the <propaganda of exaggeration>.
In
April, the United Nations Security Council issued its first joint
statement on the crisis, expressing <deep concern> about
allegations of human rights violations and sexual violence against
women and girls. And last week the US government – a key
Ethiopian ally – announced sanctions and visa restrictions on
government officials and members of security forces over the
atrocities.>
In
this episode of The Stream, we ask how can the wave of horrific
sexual violence be stopped and what accountability for these crimes
should look like.
In
this episode of The Stream, we are joined by:
Meaza
Gidey,
https://twitter.com/meazaG_
Activist
and International Relations Researcher
Seenaa
Jimjimo
https://twitter.com/SeenaaJimjimo
Executive
Director, Oromo Legacy Leadership & Advocacy Association
Madiha
Raza
https://twitter.com/madz_raza?lang=en
Senior
Global Communications, International Rescue Committee>
Read
more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/program/the-stream/2021/6/2/how-to-stop-ethiopias-weaponised-sexual-violence
The Guardian
Alexandra
Topping
Wed
26 May 2021
<Northern
Irish woman told to go to England for abortion gets case heard.
Action
is being brought against the Northern Ireland secretary, the Northern
Ireland Executive and its health department.
A
Northern Irish woman told to travel to England for an abortion during
the pandemic lockdown will have her case against the Northern Ireland
secretary, the Northern Ireland Executive and its health department
heard at Belfast high court on Wednesday.
The
woman, whose is bringing the case with the Northern Ireland Human
Rights Commission (NIHRC), argues she was put at risk even though
abortion should be legally available to women in the country.
The
NIHRC launched the landmark legal action against the parties at the
start of the year for their failure to commission safe and accessible
abortion services, more than a year after abortion was made legal in
Northern Ireland.
It
accuses the Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, of unlawfully
denying the rights of women in the country, warning that they
continue to be forced to use unregulated services and to travel
during the pandemic.
In
a statement, the woman at the centre of the case said the service in
her trust area was suspended and she could not be referred anywhere
else in Northern Ireland. <Travelling to England would have put me
at risk at a time when we were being urged not to travel,> she
said.>>
Read
more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/26/northern-irish-woman-told-to-go-to-england-for-abortion-gets-case-heard
The
Guardian
May
23 2021
<I
had to find them. :kidnapped filmmaker Melissa Fung on her mission to
find the Boko Haram girls.
After
being abducted on assignment in Afghanistan, journalist Mellissa Fung
shares an intense bond with the teenage girls who were held captive
by Boko Haram.
The
journalist and filmmaker Mellissa Fung is showing me her wound –
or to be precise, the scar where her wound once was. It is from the
struggle with one of the Afghan rebels who, 12 years ago, kidnapped
Fung near Kabul and held her in a pit in the ground for a month, a
place she refers to simply, and rather chillingly as, <the hole>.
<In
combat training they teach you not to fight back, but I played ice
hockey as a kid so I couldn’t help it,> Fung says. <The
guy had a knife so I learned my lesson.>
I
am peering at her collar bone when Fung directs my gaze to a spot on
her right shoulder – a white mark about the size and shape of a
garden grub.
I
nod and a grim silence descends as we both reach for a glass of wine.
We are sitting in the kitchen of her flat in Primrose Hill, London,
where she has lived for the past five years with her husband, the
Canadian TV news correspondent Paul Workman, and their rescue mutt
Sammy.
Back
in her native Canada, Fung’s kidnapping is a matter of public
record. I have met her socially, but I have never been alone with her
before and we have never discussed it in depth. I have certainly not
seen her scar. By showing it to me she is making a dark joke.
<If
you need me to bleed, I’ll bleed,> she says. <But
obviously you know all I really want to talk about is the girls.>
>
Read
more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/23/i-had-to-find-them-kidnapped-filmmaker-on-her-personal-mission-to-find-the-boko-haram-girls
The
Guardian
May
21 2021
by
Carley Petesch.
<Amid
the Covid pandemic, Senegal women find renewed hope in fishing.
More
than a thousand women in Bargny, and many more in the other villages
dotting Senegal its sandy coast, process fish – performing a
crucial role in one of the country its largest exports
Since
her birth on Senegal’s coast, the ocean has always given Ndeye
Yacine Dieng life. Her grandfather was a fisher, and her grandmother
and mother processed fish. Like generations of women, she now helps
support her family in the small community of Bargny by drying,
smoking, salting and fermenting the catch brought home by male
villagers. They were baptised by fish, these women say.
But
when the pandemic struck, boats that once took as many as 50 men out
to sea carried only a few. Many residents were too terrified to leave
their houses, let alone fish, for fear of catching the virus. When
the local women did manage to get their hands on fish to process,
they lacked the usual buyers, as markets shut down and neighbouring
landlocked countries closed their borders. Without savings, many
families went from three meals a day to one or two.
Dieng
is among more than a thousand women in Bargny, and many more in the
other villages dotting Senegal its sandy coast, who process fish –
performing a crucial role in one of the country its largest exports.
We
speak to all the women of the world to stand up and take their
destiny in their hands. Ndeye
Yacine Dieng <It was catastrophic – all of our lives
changed,> Dieng said. But, she noted, <Our community is a
community of solidarity.>
That
spirit sounds throughout Senegal with the motto <teranga>, a
word in the Wolof language for hospitality, community and solidarity.
Across the country, people tell each other: <on est ensemble>,
a French phrase meaning <we are in this together>.
Last
month the fishing season, the first since the pandemic devastated the
industry, kicked off bringing renewed hope to the processors, their
families and the village. The brightly painted wooden fishing boats –
pirogues – are once again carrying dozens of men to sea, with
people swarming the beach to help the fishers carry in their catch
when they return.
But
the challenges from the coronavirus – and so much more –
remain. Rising seas and the climate crisis threaten the livelihoods
and homes of those along the coast, and many can not afford to build
new homes or move inland. A steel processing plant rising near
Bargny’s beach raises fears about pollution and will join a
cement factory that is also nearby, though advocates argue they are
needed to replace resources depleted by overfishing.
<Since
there is Covid, we live in fear,> said Dieng, 64, who has seven
adult children. <Most of the people here, and female processors
have lived a difficult life … We are exhausted. But now,
little by little, it is getting better.>
Dieng
and her fellow processors weathered the pandemic by relying on each
other. They are accustomed to being breadwinners – one expert
estimated that each working woman in Senegal feeds seven or eight
family members. Before the pandemic, a good season could bring Dieng
500,000 CFA ($930). Last year, she said, she made little to nothing.
Siny
Gueye, center left, is joined by other women fish processors to sing
a blessing and thankful song at Bargny beach, 22 miles east of Dakar,
Senegal.>>
Read
more
here:
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/may/21/amid-the-covid-pandemic-senegal-women-find-renewed-hope-in-fishing
Al
Jazeera
By
Simeon Tegel
19
May 2021
<Peru
forced sterilisations case: ‘They could get away with it. Victims
of mass forced sterilisations in the 1990s fear upcoming Peru
presidential runoff results could close door to justice.
Now
a quarter of a century later, she is one of thousands of Peruvian
women hoping to finally receive justice for one of the most notorious
cases of mass forced sterilisations in history.
The
tubal ligations, irreversible surgeries that prevent women from
having children, occurred under the guise of a family planning and
population control programme during the 1990-2000 government of
Peru’s then-strongman President Alberto Fujimori, who is now
serving a 25-year jail sentence for ordering two massacres of
suspected subversives.
fAter
decades of legal roadblocks, a judge finally heard details of the
case against Fujimori and three of his former health ministers
earlier this year. The judge is due to decide soon whether the case
can finally go to trial.
If
Fujimori is eventually found guilty, the sterilisations would
constitute a crime against humanity as defined by the International
Criminal Court. Yet the case is at serious risk of collapsing before
it even begins.
Fujimori
his daughter, Keiko Fujimori, 45, is running for president and has
promised to pardon her father if elected. It is widely assumed in
Peru that she would also seek to shut down new prosecutions of her
father, including for the sterilisations case.
Alberto
Fujimori remains revered by some Peruvians for ending a
hyperinflation crisis and presiding over the crushing of the Shining
Path, a group that Peru had declared a <terrorist organisation>.
But Transparency International accused Fujimori of stealing $600m
from public coffers. He has consistently denied the allegation and
the many others made against him by prosecutors and human rights
groups.
His
daughter has acknowledged the former president made <errors>
but has insisted that corruption <attacked> his presidency.
During the weekend, Keiko Fujimori also dismissed the <so-called
forced sterilisations>, saying, <That was a family-planning
plan. These are investigations that have been going on for 20 years
and which have been shelved on four occasions.<>
Read
more
here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/19/peru-forced-sterilisations-case-fears-they-could-get-away-with
The
Guardian May 19 2021 MaryTuma in Austin
<The
Texas Republican governor Greg Abbott has signed into law one of the
most extreme six-week abortion bans in the US, despite strong
opposition from the medical and legal communities, who warn the
legislation could topple the states court system and already fragile
reproductive healthcare network. <This
bill ensures that every unborn child who has a heartbeat will be
saved from the ravages of abortion,> said Abbott, flanked by
several members of the Texas legislature this morning.
Senate
Bill 8 (SB 8), passed by both chambers of the Republican-dominated
Texas legislature, bars abortion at six weeks of pregnancy with no
exception for rape or incest, amounting to a near-total ban as most
women are not aware they are pregnant at this stage. While a dozen
states have passed similar so-called <heartbeat> bills –
bans on abortion once embryonic cardiac activity is detected –
none have yet been enforced due to court challenges. Unlike
those measures, the Texas version absolves the state from enforcing
the law. Instead it allows any private citizen the extraordinary
authority to sue an abortion provider – they do not need to be
connected to the patient or even reside in the same state, opening up
the floodgates to harassing and frivolous civil lawsuits that could
shut down clinics statewide.>> Read more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/19/texas-abortion-ban-law-greg-abbott
Al
Jazeera May 19 2021 By Al Jazeera staff
Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia
–
<When a 17-year-old Malaysian student went on TikTok to call out
her physical education teacher for a <rape joke> he shared in
front of the class in late April, it triggered a firestorm of debate
but also a backlash against the teen in the Muslim-majority country.
In
her video, Ain Husniza Saiful Nizam, a student at a state secondary
school in Puncak Alam near Kuala Lumpur, said the male teacher had
made the comment as the topic of sexual harassment was being
discussed. The class had been talking about laws that protect
minors from sexual abuse and harassment when the teacher suddenly
interjected: <If you want to rape someone, make sure they are
above 18.>
Ain
was disgusted.
<He
really said that, and the girls were quiet but the boys were laughing
like it was so funny to joke about raping someone,> she said.The
video has been viewed more than 1.8 million times since it was posted
and Ain its social media post has reignited debate over sexual
harassment, misogyny and violence against women and girls in the
Southeast Asian nation, which is home to the majority ethnic Malays
who are Muslim, and sizeable ethnic Chinese and Indian communities as
well as various Indigenous groups.
#MakeSchoolASaferPlace
Ain
its video came soon after another case that highlighted the
victimisation and abuse of girls in schools. A
human rights activist with the Twitter handle @TerryDieHeiden brought
up the issue of female students being subject to <period spot
checks> – a practice where teachers conduct physical
examinations of their pupils including touching the girls its groins
to see if they are wearing sanitary napkins or asking for evidence of
their menstrual blood. The
abusive practice apparently evolved from teachers checking to see if
their female students were really menstruating at that time as Muslim
women are exempt from prayers and fasting during their periods. The
tweet – posted during the fasting month of Ramadan – was
widely shared and several people on social media confirmed that the
practice remained commonplace in schools.
Then
several women spoke up, disclosing personal episodes of sexual
harassment and trauma they had experienced throughout their formative
years.
<By
hardening students and children to invasive procedures such as period
spot checks, and normalising it, kids grow up not questioning authority figures
when they invade or dictate their personal life; from who they love, what they
believe, how they think, and so forth,> TerryDieHeiden, who prefers to be known only by their Twitter handle,
told Al Jazeera. After
Ain created the #MakeSchoolASaferPlace Twitter hashtag to highlight
the hostile response she had received for speaking up, thousands of
Malaysians from all walks of life took to social media to show their
support for Ain, speaking out against sexual harassment in schools.>>
Read
more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/19/the-17-year-old-exposing-rape-culture-in-malaysian-schools
Al
Jazeera May 18 2021 By
Abeer Abu Omar and Filipe Pacheco Bloomberg
<Getting
more women on corporate boards in the United Arab Emirates was never
going to be easy, and the numbers after a new rule went into effect
to boost their presence bears that out.
Since
the country announced on March 15 that listed companies should have
at least one female board member, only four of the 23 people added to
such roles at firms on the UAE’s two major stock exchanges have
been women, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That barely
moves the needle in a country where about 96% of such positions are
held by men.
Giving
Teeth
The
UAE wants to show it is serious about its new rule. The Securities
and Commodities Authority told Bloomberg in a written response to questions that penalties for companies that don’t comply may
range from warnings to a fine, or even a referral to public
prosecution. Companies will be asked to disclose board representation
in annual reports, an SCA spokesperson said.>> Read more
here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/5/18/bbuae-struggles-with-new-rule-to-get-women-on-company-boards
Al
Jazeera May 17 2021
<US
Supreme Court will consider rollback of abortion rights
The
majority conservative court will decide whether states can ban
abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
The
United States Supreme Court has agreed to consider a major rollback
of abortion rights, saying it will decide whether states can ban
abortions before a foetus can survive outside the womb.
The
court’s order on Monday sets up a showdown over abortion,
probably in the fall (from September), with a more conservative court
seemingly ready to dramatically alter nearly 50 years of rulings on
abortion rights. The
court first announced a woman’s constitutional right to an
abortion in the 1973 Roe v Wade decision and reaffirmed it 19 years
later. The
abortion-rights advocacy group NARAL Pro-Choice America called the
court’s decision <a direct challenge to Roe v Wade, opening the door for
this majority-conservative, anti-choice (Supreme Court) to overthrow Roe.>
The
case involves a Mississippi
law
that
would ban abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy. The state its
ban had been blocked by lower courts as inconsistent with a Supreme
Court precedent that protects a woman’s right to obtain an
abortion before the foetus can survive outside her womb.
<(The)
law at issue in (the) Mississippi abortion case bars abortion after
15 weeks, except in cases of medical emergency of severe foetal
abnormality. Such laws have broad public support in this country and
are widespread in Europe,> Ed Whelan, a fellow at the Ethics and
Public Policy Center, told the Reuters news agency.
The
justices had put off action on the case for several months. Justice
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, an abortion rights proponent,
died
just
before the courties new term began in October. Her replacement,
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, is the most open
opponent
of
abortion rights to join the court in decades.> >
Read more
here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/17/us-supreme-court-will-consider-rollback-of-abortion-rights
Al
Jazeera May 15 2021
<Ten
bodies found on former El Salvador police officer his property
Seven
women and three children found buried on ex-policeman his property
after he was arrested for two other murders.
The
buried bodies of seven women and three children were discovered on
the property of a former police officer in El Salvador.
Hugo
Osorio Chavez Osorio, 51, is being investigated on suspicion of sex
crimes and 13 murders, the country its attorney general his office
said. He was originally arrested last Saturday for the murder of a
woman and her adult daughter, to which he confessed, according to The
Associated Press. That
arrest came after neighbours in the western city of Chalchuapa called
the police and reported hearing a woman crying for help. Officers
found the bodies of a 57-year-old woman and her 26-year-old daughter
in the house in a pool of blood with signs of sexual abuse.The
investigations led to excavations in various places on the property.
Among the bodies found were a 7-year-old girl and two boys aged 2 and
9.
Police
did not elaborate why the number of murders being investigated was
13.
Some
of the people appeared to have been killed about two years ago, the
attorney general his office said on Twitter.
Seven
other possible graves on the property are still being investigated.
At least 25 people are considered missing in the area. Chavez
Osorio had been fired from his job as a police officer in 2005 for
sexually aggressive behaviour and spent five years in prison,
investigators said. Based
on the information in the case, prosecutors issued arrest warrants
for nine other suspects who may have acted as accomplices in 13
killings, including the murders of eight women.>>
Read
more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/15/ten-bodies-found-on-former-el-salvador-police-officers-property
and 3 more related articles.
The
Guardian
May 14 2021
Humanity
United and
Tracy
McVeigh
<Bodies
are being eaten by hyenas; girls of eight raped>: inside the
Tigray conflict. A
nun working in war-torn Tigray has shared her harrowing testimony of
the atrocities taking place.>>
An
article one must
read
:
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/may/14/bodies-are-being-eaten-by-hyenas-girls-of-eight-raped
Al
Jazeera
May 14 2021
By
Maziar
Motamedi <Tehran,
Iran –
As
Iran its crypto community grows, so does the number of women making
their mark on it. Mostly young, self-taught and
multi-disciplined,
they are swelling the ranks of active traders looking to shield
hard-earned savings against local currency inflation and economic
uncertainty. Some
of these women are sharing their insights with aspiring crypto
investors and even taking advantage of a self-employed flex schedule
to achieve a healthier work-life balance.
Like
other crypto investors, many of these innovators have been burned by
the famously volatile, sometimes shady crypto market. But they are
all crushing it in their own way.
Narges
Moradabadi
The
thrill of the trade
Full-time
crypto trader and investment adviser Narges Moradabadi first embarked
on her crypto journey in 2018, when she took a job heading the
digital marketing department at a Tehran-based, crypto-focused firm.
Then
last year, with COVID-19 ravaging Iran its already sanctions-strapped
economy, she made the leap to full-time trading; starting small, then
scaling up as she taught herself more about a market in which price
swings can be so sudden and steep, it birthed the acronym HODL –
hold on for dear life.
But
for Moradabadi, who studied technology engineering and earned an MBA,
the volatility is the best part of it.
<What
attracted me the most to trading was how challenging and diverse it
is, and how much excitement it brings,> she told Al Jazeera. <You
lose track of time at the charts.>
The
34-year-old also likes the flexibility that comes with trading since
it allows her to adapt her schedule to spend more time with her
four-year-old daughter and her husband.
Moradabadi
is also <sharing the wealth> so to speak, publishing her
analysis charts on social media where she boasts tens of thousands of
followers.>>
Read
more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/5/14/these-iranian-woman-are-crushing-it-in-crypto
Al
Jazeera
May 14 2021
By
Andalusia K Soloff
Mexico
City, Mexico –
<In the middle of the global pandemic crisis, Maria Muñoz,
a 26 year-old journalist, found herself facing an unwanted pregnancy
in Mexico City. Fearful of contracting COVID-19 at a hospital or
clinic she decided to abort at home, with assistance coming via the popular
messaging service, WhatsApp.
An
increasing number of women in Mexico are turning to online support
networks who advise them on how to use misoprostol, an
over-the-counter ulcer medicine, to abort.
Maria
found about this network through a friend, contacted them and was
added to a WhatsApp group alongside psychologists, and what they call
<abortion accompaniers>. They checked in with her frequently to
see how she was feeling, sent her infographics on where to get
misoprostol, how to take the pills, what she should eat beforehand
and sent her reminders so she would keep to the proper administration
schedule.
While
Muñoz lives in Mexico City, one of two places in Mexico where
abortion is legal until the 12th week of pregnancy, she still opted
for the home-online support option. <I decided to do it at home
because many times you go to the clinic and there are anti-right
groups that attack you,> she told Al Jazeera. COVID-19, economic
accessibility and the ability to have her partner by her side also
contributed to her decision.
Following
her abortion she was added to a WhatsApp group of women across Mexico
who had been through the process and wanted to share their
experiences. <It really affected me to listen to women who aborted
where it was not legal and they had to suffer from double fear –
the fear of aborting and also the fear of being incarcerated for
abortion when they are in such a vulnerable moment,> added Muñoz. In
30 Mexican states, womens options to abort are very limited. The
legal termination of pregnancy is only permitted under certain
circumstances including rape or health factors that put the woman her
life at risk. Abortion was legalised in Oaxaca in 2019 yet very few
clinics provide it as a service, making women’s access there
basically non-existent.>>
Read
more
here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/14/women-in-mexico-use-mobile-apps-for-at-home-abortions
and 3 more related articles.
The
Guardian May 14 2021
<A
game-changing moment>: <Chile constitution could set new gender
equality standard>
<Chileans
to elect 155-strong assembly made up of equivalent men and women to
set out new framework and enshrine equal rights. Womens
rights activists in Chile say that the country its new constitution
will catalyze progress for women in the country – and could set
a new global standard for gender equality in politics.
In
a two-day vote this weekend, Chileans will elect a 155-strong
citizens assembly to write a new constitution for the country –
the first anywhere in the world to be written by an equal number of
men and women.
<You
might die because you desire peace>: Colombians split on protests.
<It
is a game-changing moment, like when women won the right to vote,>
said Antonia Orellana, 31, who is running as a candidate in the
capital, Santiago.
A
new constitution for Chile emerged during an anti-government uprising
in October 2019, when calls for equality and fair access to health,
pensions and education broadened to a demand for an overhaul of the
entire political framework.
The
current constitution – drawn up in 1980 during the Pinochet
dictatorship and chiefly authored by a conservative Catholic lawyer,
Jaime Guzmán – prioritizes a market-driven economy but
has been broadly criticized for failing to adequately guarantee
healthcare, education and pensions.
During
the uprising, women were among the most fervent advocates of a
constitutional rewrite to enshrine equal rights and greater public
participation.
Although
Chile its current constitution
guarantees
equality or non-discrimination based on sex,
it does not
ensure
women its rights to equality in marriage
and
stipulates the protection of <life to be born> – a clause
that has blighted access to legal, safe abortion in the
country.>> Read more
here:
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/may/14/chile-constitution-gender-equality-women
The
Guardian
May
13 2021
Sarah
Johnson and
Ruth
Michaelson
<A
decade after the launch of the Istanbul convention, the landmark
human rights treaty to stop gender-based violence, women are facing a
global assault on their rights and safety, according to campaigners.
This
week marked 10 years
since
the
first
13 countries signed up
to
the convention, seen as a turning point in efforts to address
violence against women.
Yet
despite 46 countries signing the treaty, the world has become gripped
by a pandemic of violence against women, exacerbated and exposed by
Covid-19, according to a UN envoy.
<The
Covid pandemic revealed what was happening before,> said Dubravka
Šimonović, UN special rapporteur on violence against
women. She said across the world there had been a stark increase in
calls to domestic violence helplines, reports of women missing or
killed, and a lack of safe places for those fleeing abuse.
<We
have a pandemic of violence against women that was not addressed
properly in a huge number of states,> she said.
The
rise in violence against women and girls has been mirrored by a
political backlash against the convention – the first
international legally binding framework to prevent domestic violence,
protect survivors and promote equality.
In
March, to widespread domestic and international condemnation, Turkey,
the birthplace of the convention, announced it would be pulling out
of the treaty from July.
Turkey
its withdrawal from the convention capped years of escalating
anti-feminist, anti-women and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric by its
politicians, including the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Erdoğan
has publicly and repeatedly stated that he does not believe in
equality between men and women and his government has increasingly
linked womens safety to remaining at home with their families and
having more children.
<We
lost a safety net,> said Elif Ege, of the women its refuge
organisation Mor Çati in Istanbul. <The Istanbul convention
was not implemented properly at all over the years … but it
doesn not mean
it was completely ineffective; it was a significant tool in the hands
of feminist organisations.>> Read more
here:
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/may/13/violence-against-women-a-pandemic-warns-un-envoy
Al
Jazeera May 13 2021
<Pam
Turner: Rally held for US Black woman killed by cop
The
family of Turner, a Black woman killed by a Texas police officer,
join George Floyd his family lawyer at a rally calling for
justice.
Civil
rights lawyer Benjamin Crump joined the family of Pamela Turner, a
Black woman
killed
by a Texas police officer
in
2019 at a rally on Thursday, calling for justice in her killing on
the second anniversary of her death.
Turner, 44, was killed in May 2019 in the
parking lot of her apartment complex after a confrontation with Baytown police
officer Juan Delacruz, who also lived at the complex. Delacruz shot Turner after
the two struggled over his stun gun.
Turners
family has said she was suffering a mental health crisis at the time
of the shooting. Turner was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in
2005. A bystander captured the confrontation on video. <Today
we declare, we will not let them disrespect Pam Turner,> Crump
said at the rally, held outside the complex where Turner died.
Delacruz,
who faces a charge of aggravated assault by a public servant over
Turners death, is still employed by the Baytown Police Department.
Dozens of people attended the rally, chanting <Fire Delacruz!> Crump
said Delacruz is <still employed by the Baytown Police Department,
completely disrespecting Pam Turner>. Delacruz
his lawyer Greg Cagle has claimed Delacruz was acting in self-defence
and according to his training.
Federal
lawsuit
Crump
and Turners family announced a federal lawsuit against Delacruz, the
city of Baytown and the apartment complex in April. That
month, a jury found former Minneapolis Police Department (MPD)
officer Derek Chauvin guilty of unintentional murder and manslaughter
in the May 25, 2020 death of George Floyd. Crump
represented Floyd his family in a civil suit against the MPD,
securing a record $27m settlement.
The
settlement and guilty verdict have given hope to police reform
activists that change is coming.>> Read more
here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/13/pam-turner-crump-demands-justice-for-black-woman-killed-by-cop
LIFEGATE 11
May 2021
by
Luigi
Mastrodonato
<The
state of women’s rights in Turkey is critical, and gender-based
violence is increasing. The country’s withdrawal from the
Istanbul Convention will only make matters worse.
If
there’s a country that needs the
Istanbul
Convention
more
than most, that country is
Turkey.
After becoming the first country to ratify the document on preventing
and combating violence
against women
and
domestic
violence
in
2011,
the country’s government, led by
Recep
Tayyip Erdoğan,
has in recent years set its sights on gender-based issues, curtailing
rights and liberties. Today, Turkey is characterised by an alarming
state of affairs from this perspective, with
femicides and
abuses
on
the rise – a situation further exacerbated by
the Covid-19 pandemic.
The government’s decision, last March, to withdraw from the
Istanbul Convention risks precipitating an already compromised
situation.
Erdogan
against women
The
Council
of Europe Convention
on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic
violence owes a lot to Istanbul,
Turkey its iconic city. It is here that the Council of Europe its
Committee of Ministers approved the Convention in2011,
and it its also where, one year later,
the
document
was
ratified for the first time, by Erdoğan’s government.
Entering into force in 2014,
this legal instrument commits countries to respond to gender-based
violence, introducing a series of new crimes and establishing new
forms of protection for victims of abuse and discrimination.>>
Read
more
here:
https://www.lifegate.com/turkey-istanbul-convention-womens-rights
Al
Jazeera May 11 2021
Leena
Ghani, Lala Rukh and Pakistan its #MeToo movement
<One
of the leading voices in Pakistan its #MeToo movement discusses the
feminist icon who inspired her.
On
the day she appeared in court for the first time in her life, Leena
Ghani found it difficult not to squirm in front of the judge. She
realised within five minutes that the cushioned seat she was on was
infested with bedbugs. You could sit right on the edge of your seat
and hope to be spared, or, as she shows me on the day I accompany her
to Karachi its city court in February, you give it a good thump. That
was her second lesson. The first: she was dressed entirely
inappropriately at that appearance, in a comfortableStranger
Things
sweatshirt
and jeans, her nails painted black. On the day we meet, she wears
clothes borrowed from her mother – a white cotton kurta with
sleeves long enough to cover the delicate stars inked on her wrist,
loose white cotton trousers that almost hide the kite tattooed in flight
on one ankle, and a grey scarf to cover her head out of respect for
the female judge she will appear before. She finds a way to represent
herself though – her white
khussas
are
hand-painted with a map on one shoe and the line <Oh, the places
you will go!> on the other.
Over
the past year, Ghani, an artist and activist, has come to relish
these court dates, but at first, she was intimidated. Now she does
not stare at the convicts with chains hanging from their wrists
waiting for their turn in the dock, and she walks without pause
through a scrum of lawyers gleefully watching a man and woman shout
at and abuse each other outside the court room. She cuts an unusual
figure. The women we see around us have worried faces, they are here
to request a judge grant a divorce, convince their husbands to return
their dowries, plead for custody of their children. Unlike them,
since 2018, Ghani is both accused and accuser.
On
April 19, 2018, the singer and actress Meesha Shafi
tweeted
a
note accusing a fellow singer and actor Ali Zafar of <sexual
harassment of a physical nature…> It was the first big
allegation of this kind in Pakistan after the #MeToo movement had
kicked off the previous year. Both artists are stars in Pakistan, and
while Shafi had made her Hollywood debut in Mira Nairs ‘The
Reluctant Fundamentalist’ opposite Riz Ahmed, Zafar was forging
a career in Bollywood. Shafi and Zafar had been friends and performed
together for many years, with Shafi even doing a small cameo in a
music
video
for
a song off Zafar’s first album in 2003. <I know I am not
alone,> she wrote in her tweet. Zafar
responded
with
a denial and said he would <take this through the courts…
to address this professionally and seriously rather than to lodge any
allegations here, contesting personal vendettas on social media and
in turn disrespecting the (#MeToo) movement…>
A
few hours later, there was a second accusation, also from a friend of
Zafars. <In the many years I have known Ali,
wrote> Leena
Ghani on Twitter, he has on several occasions crossed boundaries of
what is appropriate behaviour between friends.> She called out
<inappropriate contact, groping, sexual comments…> and
added, <The memories of the times where Ali thought he could get
away by saying vulgar things to me still disgusts me.> Zafar has
denied
the
<false and malicious statements>, and in a
note
tweeted
by his legal team, stated that Ghani’s allegations came <as
no surprise> as she had worked with Shafi in the past, and knew
one of Shafi her lawyers, Nighat Dad, through her activism. Her
allegations were part of a <malicious agenda> to support Shafi
and target Zafar, his team implied.>>
Read
more
here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/5/11/leena-ghani-lala-rukh-and-pakistans-metoo-movement
LIFEGATE
10
May 2021
by
Valentina Neri, Gurvinder Singh, Mike Mwenda and Lise Josefsen
Hermann
<One
in three. Violence against women is a global pandemic.
One
in three women have suffered physical or sexual violence. With
contributions from Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America, we look at
how this shadow pandemic affects every corner of the world.
11th
May marks the ten-year anniversary of the signing of the Istanbul
Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and
domestic violence. The Council of Europe convention is a binding
international treaty, and the widest in scope when it comes to
combatting this serious human rights violation. We look at different
areas of the world to discern just how global the plague of violence
against women is, with a focus on Europe, Italy in particular, South
Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Violence
against women is a global pandemic
One
in three women worldwide have been subjected to either physical or
sexual violence, according to the World Health Organisation. This
trend is thought to have been aggravated by the financial strain and
restrictions on movement unleashed by the coronavirus pandemic, the
brunt of which have been felt by women the world over. So alarming is
the situation that UN Women, which is dedicated to gender equality
and women’s empowerment, launched the Shadow Pandemic campaign
stressing the global rise in domestic violence on the backdrop of the
Covid-19 crisis.>
Read
more here:
https://www.lifegate.com/violence-against-women-world
Al
Jazeera May 10 2021
PODCAST
THE TAKE
<The
mobile apps helping Mexican women seek abortion
Feminist
groups and activists in Mexico are helping women perform ‘at-home’
abortions.
Feminist
groups and activists in Mexico have taken it upon themselves to help
women gain access to abortion, in a country where it is largely
illegal. At great risk to their safety, they use social networks to
inform women on how to perform <at-home> abortions. They have
taken to the streets and to their cellphones to push back against the
law, while helping women find the support they seek. The local
efforts come as Mexico its Supreme Court prepares to discuss the
legal merits of cases surrounding abortion in June.
And
about 7 more articles i.e. links to Instagram – Twitter and
Facebook>> Click here to read
more:
https://www.aljazeera.com/podcasts/2021/5/10/the-mobile-apps-helping-mexican-women-seek-abortion
The
Guardian May 9 2021
Moira
Donegan
<For
too many girls, teenage years are a time of unwanted attention from
older men
A
viral TikTok video captured an everyday reality reflected in the
allegations against Matt Gaetz and Blake Bailey. At
first the girl is animated and fast-talking, gesturing with her hands
as she speaks to the camera. She is wearing a tie-dye shirt that
hangs cavernously around her thin frame; her long blond hair is stick
straight. She speaks with the unrestrained enthusiasm of a kid.
Later, I learn that she is 18. When the man approaches her, just out
of frame, at first she thinks he just wants to take one of the empty
chairs that is at her table and drag it away somewhere else; she is
in the courtyard of the motel where she is staying with her mom, and
she is sitting at one of the outdoor tables alone. But he does
not want to take the chair, he wants to sit down in it. The man never
enters the frame, but we can tell he is older, and he must be much
bigger than she is: the girl, still seated, cranes her face to look
up at him. The calm confidence behind her large glasses snuffs out;
her shoulders tense up, rising toward her ears. He is trying to sleep
with her. Off camera, the man can be heard commenting on the girl its
visible discomfort. <I see your hesitancy,> he says. On the
screen, the caption the girl eventually added to the video reveals
that she has given him a fake name. Eventually, she reveals to him
that she is taping. “I’m just doing a live and talking to
some people,> she says, and glances towards her phone. That is
when he finally leaves her alone: not when he notices that she is
uncomfortable, but when he realizes that he is being watched.
The
video
(in
two
parts),
posted to TikTok by the teenage user @maassassin_, immediately goes
viral. Women, young and old, saw in the exchange a microcosm of their
own experiences of being young girls, and of being approached,
harassed, groomed or merely leered at by older men in ways that
scared them at the time, and which they only later learned to put
into context. The video blasted into the public consciousness on the
heels of two high-profile cases of sexual misconduct by adult men
towards teenage girls: first that of the Florida congressman Matt
Gaetz, who allegedly paid a 17-year-old for sex, and second that of
Blake Bailey, the Philip Roth biographer who is accused of paying
untoward attention
towards his middle school students, and of sexually assaulting some
of those students, as well as another woman, after they became
adults. Gaetz and Bailey both deny wrongdoing.
The
incidents have prompted a miniature reckoning, with women reflecting
on how much of their teenage years were spent navigating the sexual
attentions of men many years their senior – and what it means
when teenage girl her experiences of male mentorship, early romance,
and their own emerging adulthood is filtered so heavily through the
lens of male desire and power imbalance.>> Read more
here:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/09/teenage-girls-unwanted-adult-male-attention
The
Guardian May 9 2021
Simon
Tisdall
<Cries
of the victims of mass rape go unheard in Ethiopia its mountain war
<Prime
minister Abiy Ahmed opened the way for victimisation of women with
disastrous decision to attack Tigray.
The
use of rape as a weapon of war is as old as warfare itself. In Bosnia
in the 1990's, thousands of Muslim women were brutalised by Bosnian
Serb forces, who set up <rape camps> as part of a policy of
<ethnic cleansing>. In 2001, the UN its Yugoslav war crimes
tribunal redefined mass rape
as
a crime against humanity.
Yet there have been many similar atrocities since then, including in
South Sudan, Syria, Iraq, and Myanmar.
Now
the world looks on – or rather, looks away – as it
happens again. Today, in Tigray, in northern Ethiopia, large numbers
of women and girls are again being subjected to <unimaginable>
terror and suffering as a result of persuasive sexual violence. The
word <unimaginable> is taken from a disturbing
new
report
on
Tigray by Parliament its international development committee –
a report
largely
ignored
by
the British government and media.
Reporting
from Tigray last week, where fighting erupted in November after
government-led forces invaded to topple the region its breakaway
leadership, the International Rescue Committee charity the crisis was
especially affecting women. <Women are having to engage in
sexually exploitative relationships, receiving small amounts of
money, food and/or shelter to survive and feed their children,> an
IRC spokesman said.
<Rape is being used as a weapon of war across the
conflict. Multiple displaced people have given eyewitness accounts of
mass rape. Women who are assaulted are in need of multiple levels of
care, including emergency contraceptives, and drugs to prevent HIV in
addition to psychological support. With 71% of hospital and medical
facilities damaged and many looted, medical supplies are scarce,>
the IRC said.
Ethiopia
its prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, opened the way for this mass
victimisation of women with his disastrous decision to attack. Once
feted as a peacemaker, he will be remembered as the man who chose
brute force to settle a political argument, in one of the world its
most fragile states, in the middle of a global pandemic.
After
failing to secure the quick victory he predicted, Abiy has minimised
the scale of the emergency. The latest UN assessment tells a
different story: 4.5 million people in need of food and assistance,
hundreds of thousands displaced,
67,000
refugees
sheltering
in Sudan, and humanitarian convoys blocked. Opposition parties say
more than 50,000 people
have
died.
Amnesty International last week decried a <ferocious
tide>
of
rights violations including <numerous credible reports of women
and girls being subjected to sexual violence, including gang rape, by
Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers.>>
Read
more
here:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/09/cries-of-the-victims-of-mass-go-unheard-in-ethiopias-mountain-war
Note
from the cryfreedom editor: The Guardian was so kind to tell me that
I have read 110 articles that relates to the
www.cryfreedom.net
feminists topics.
Al
Jazeera May 8 2021
By
Mersiha
Gadzo
<Muslim
women are reviving forgotten tradition of Quran recitation
#FemaleReciters
movement aims to revive the sacred practice of female public Quran
recitation, forgotten in the West. Learning
to become a qari (or qari’ah for females), a skilled reciter of
the Quran, the holy book for Muslims, is not easy. It takes years or
even decades of practice and discipline to master proper recitation
and pronunciation known as tajweed. For
Madinah Javed, 25, a law graduate and activist from Glasgow,
Scotland, her journey to become a qari’ah began from a young
age when her mother would attend tajweed classes while they were
living in Qatar. As a toddler, she would sit in her classes and
inadvertently absorb what she was hearing. Some
two decades of training later, the St Mary its Cathedral in Glasgow
invited Javed in 2017 to recite a part of the Quran and share the
story of Mary and Jesus as a guest for their Christian service. The
audience was touched by her melodic recitation, and it was a proud
moment for Javed. But when she posted the video of her recitation
online, she did not expect to be met with a huge backlash from the
far-right worldwide.
For
months she was the target of hate messages and threats, so much so
that she wanted to disappear and change her name. The police had her
phone number registered, so that if she called they would arrive
immediately. Through
the entire ordeal, the Muslim community remained silent, as women are
usually shunned in many communities in the United Kingdom when they
recite the Quran publicly. It
was something that never made sense to Javed as she believed the
focus should be on the meaning of the recitation, instead of the
reciter its gender, colour or dress. But
later, Javed realised there was a silver lining after all. After
viewing her recitation online, many Muslim women wrote to Javed,
saying they were inspired as it was the first time in their lives
they heard a woman recite the Quran in public.
#FemaleReciters
In
many Muslim-majority countries such as Algeria, Nigeria, Malaysia,
Indonesia and Bosnia & Herzegovina, it is common for women to
recite the Quran in public spaces for both men and women to hear. But
in some Muslim communities in the West, some hold the opinion that
women cannot recite for audiences that include men, as they see the
woman’s voice as <awrah>, as part of that which should be
covered. Noticing
it was mostly men posting their recitations online on this side of
the world, Javed launched her #FemaleReciters campaign that year,
aiming to encourage Muslim girls and women to share their recitations
online, to raise awareness and help revive the sacred tradition of
Quran recitation.>>
Read
more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/5/8/muslim-women-are-reviving-forgotten-tradition-of-quran-recitation
Al
Jazeera
May
7 2021
<Here
is how women are changing the way economies are run
Being
open to new solutions, empathising, speaking up for the vulnerable
are proving key to solving emerging challenges. Women
now hold many of the jobs controlling the world its largest economy –
and they are trying to fix it. Treasury
Secretary Janet Yellen, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and trade
tsar Katherine Tai hold top jobs in United States President Joe
Biden’s administration and many of his economic advisers also
are women, as are nearly 48 percent of his confirmed cabinet-level
officials. This
sea change may already be affecting economic policy – a new
$2.3 trillion spending plan introduced by Biden last week includes
$400bn to fund the <care economy,> supporting home- and
community-based jobs taking care of kids and seniors, work normally
done by women that has mostly gone unacknowledged in years past. The
plan also has hundreds of billions of dollars more to fix racial and
rural-urban inequalities that were created in part by past economic,
trade and labour policies. Yellen
says the focus on <human infrastructure,> and the earlier $1.9
trillion rescue bill should result in significant improvements for
women, whose share of the workforce had hit 40-year lows even before
the crisis and for everyone else as well.
<In
the end, it might be that this bill makes 80 years of history: it
begins to fix the structural problems that have plagued our
economy
for the past four decades,> she wrote on Twitter, adding, <This
is just the start for us.> Women
leaders can bring a fresh perspective to economic policy, experts
say. <When
you are different from the rest of the group, you often see things
differently,> said Rebecca Henderson, a professor at Harvard
Business School and author of Reimagining Capitalism in a World on
Fire. <You
tend to be more open to different solutions,> she said and that is
what the situation demands. <We are in a moment of enormous
crisis. We need new ways of thinking.>
Empathy,
stability Over
the past half-century, 57 women have been president or prime minister
of their countries but institutions that make economic decisions have
largely been controlled by men until recently.> > Read more
here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/4/7/heres-how-women-are-changing-the-way-economies-are-run
The
Guardian May 7 2021
<The Guardian has published more
than 5m pieces of journalism since 1821. With the help of staff,
readers, supporters and alumni we pick 200 of the most powerful, and
ask Guardian staff past and present to reflect on their enduring
appeal. Day three: women, from suffragists to sexploitation.>> Click
here to read
more:
https://www.theguardian.com/media/ng-interactive/2021/may/07/we-were-there-the-guardians-most-memorable-journalism-over-200-years
Al
Jazeera By
Sirin
Kale and
Lucy
Osborne
May
7 2021
<Noel
Clarke accused of sexual harassment on Doctor Who set
Exclusive:
BBC
faces questions as further allegations made about Clarke – and
co-star John Barrowman is accused of exposing himself
Noel
Clarke accused of sexual harassment on Doctor Who set
The
Noel
Clarke
sexual
harassment controversy threatens to embroil the BBC after several
sources came forward to allege they were sexually harassed or
inappropriately touched by the actor on a flagship show, Doctor Who.
Another
Doctor
Who
actor,
John Barrowman, has also been accused of repeatedly exposing himself
to co-workers on two BBC productions, prompting questions about
whether the corporation allowed a lax culture on its sets during the
mid-2000s.
The
developments come a week after ITV, Sky and the BBC announced that
they had cut ties with Clarke after the Guardian
published
testimony
from
20 women who variously accused him of groping, sexual harassment and
bullying.
Clarke,
who vehemently denies any allegations of sexual
misconduct, criminal wrongdoing or sexually inappropriate behaviour,
including the latest accuations, was also stripped of a Bafta award
he was
given
earlier this month.
Clarke
his new accusers allege sexual harassment on the set of Doctor Who or
at a promotional event for the show. He played the vehicle technician
Mickey Smith from 2005 to 2010 in Doctor Who, gaining household
fame.>> Read more
here:
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/may/07/noel-clarke-accused-of-sexual-harassment-on-doctor-who-set
Al
Jazeera
By
Sasha
Borissenko
7
May 2021
<Why
New Zealand its foreign minister is her own woman.
Nanaia
Mahuta, the daughter of Māori royalty who entered Parliament at
26, has been shaped by her Indigenous background.
Wellington,
New Zealand – Nanaia Mahuta was only 11 when she first stood up
for her political beliefs.
Mahuta
was one of 30 Māori and Pacific Island students at an all-girls
Anglican school and the South African rugby team was touring New
Zealand, dividing the country in the process.
While
the schoolgirl had no idea of what was soon to become one of the
largest civil disturbances in New Zealand history, she could not
stomach the fact her school had offered to host a group of South
African students – a decision she felt validated apartheid.
Rather
than simply <dealing with it>, she skipped school in protest.
<As
a Māori woman there is an embedded sense of social justice, and
striving for equality of opportunity and Indigenous advancement,>
she told Al Jazeera.. <If
you have been brought up in a Māori community you will have
experienced some form of mistreatment and at an extreme level –
racism.>
The
daughter of Sir Robert Te Kotahitanga – the adopted son of
Māori King Koroki – Mahuta grew up assisting her father in
key treaty negotiations.
She
has spent almost half her life in Parliament, having first won a seat
at the age of 26.
In
2016, Mahuta became the first woman to display a moko kauae (sacred
facial tattoo) in Parliament, and last year chalked up another first
– becoming New Zealand its first female foreign minister. The
50-year-old’s appointment was a surprise, according to
political commentator Ben Thomas.>>
Read
more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/7/holdwhy-new-zealands-foreign-minister-is-her-own-woman
The
Guardian May 7 2021
<Noel
Clarke and the allegations that have shaken the film and television
industry. Journalists Lucy Osborne and Sirin Kale discuss the
allegations of verbal abuse, bullying and sexual harassment by 20
women against Clarke.
On
10 April 2021, the actor, director and writer Noel Clarke was awarded
one of the most prestigious accolades bestowed by the British Academy
of Film and Television Arts, the prize for outstanding British
contribution to cinema. But 13 days before presenting Clarke with his
award, Bafta was informed about the existence of several allegations
of verbal abuse, bullying and sexual harassment against Clarke. Bafta
does not dispute it received anonymous emails and reports of
allegations via intermediaries, but said it was provided with no
evidence that would allow it to investigate.
Journalists
Sirin
Kale
and
Lucy
Osborne
tell
Rachel
Humphreys
about
their investigation into Clarke. They spoke to 20 women, all of whom
knew Clarke in a professional capacity. They variously accuse him of
sexual harassment, unwanted touching or groping, sexually
inappropriate behaviour and comments on set, professional misconduct,
taking and sharing sexually explicit pictures and videos without
consent, and bullying between 2004 and 2019.>>
Read
more
here:
https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2021/may/07/noel-clarke-and-the-allegations-that-have-shaken-the-film-and-television-industry-podcast
Read
also:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/may/01/met-police-receive-report-of-sexual-offence-claims-after-allegations-against-noel-clarke
The
Guardian May 6 2021
Lauen
Attani
<Two
women stabbed in San Francisco amid rise in anti-Asian
attacks. Women, one 63 and the second 84, were waiting for the bus.
Suspect
arrested and faces two attempted murder charges.
Two
women are in hospital after they were stabbed at a bus stop in
San
Francisco
in
the latest attacks against Asian Americans nationwide since the
start of the pandemic.
The
women, one 63 and the second 84, were waiting for the bus on San
Francisco its Market Street early Tuesday evening when a man stabbed
them each multiple times. A
woman working at a flower stall nearby who witnessed the attack told
the Associated
Press that
she saw the man walk away <like nothing happened> after the
stabbing.
Stop
AAPI Hate, a national coalition that has been
collecting
self-reported
incidents of anti-Asian hate and violence, said in a
report
on
Thursday that there were 6,603 incidents of reported anti-Asian
between 19 March 2020 and 31 March 2021. Over a third of the
incidents were reported in 2021, an uptick in reporting the coalition
says is due to increased attention around hate-related incidents.>>
Read
more
here:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/06/san-francisco-asian-women-stabbed
The
Guardian
May
6 2021
Jason
Burke,
Africa correspondent, and
Samuel
Okiror
in
Kampala
<The
international criminal court has sentenced a former militia leader
and child soldier from Uganda
to
25 years in prison after he was found guilty of war crimes and crimes
against humanity in a landmark judgment.
The
presiding judge, Bertram Schmitt, said the panel of judges had
considered sentencing Dominic Ongwen to life imprisonment, the
court’s harshest punishment, but had sided against it due to
the defendant its own personal suffering. Ongwen
was
convicted
in February on charges of murder, rape, sexual slavery, abduction and
torture
committed
as a commander in the Lord his Resistance Army (LRA), a violent cult
which waged a bloody campaign in Uganda and neighbouring countries
from the mid-1980s until only a few years ago.>> Read more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2021/may/06/icc-sentences-ugandan-lords-resistance-army-leader-dominic-ongwen-to-25-years
Aljazeera May
5 2021
From
wittness.
<Becoming
Black: A filmmaker her quest for truth about her past
Filmmaker
Ines Johnson-Spain shares her experience of growing up Black with
white parents in East Germany in the 1960s. Born
with dark skin to white parents in East Berlin in the 1960s,
filmmaker Ines Johnson-Spain had a childhood shrouded in secrecy. Ines
was told as a child that her skin colour was a coincidence and of no
importance. But she discovered later that her biological father was
one of the African students invited by the East German government
during the Cold War to study at an East German college. To
better understand her past, she travels between Togo, Benin and
Germany and untangles the astonishing strategies of denial that her
parents and those around her came up with.>>
Read
and watch more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/program/witness/2021/5/5/becoming-black-a-filmmakers-quest-for-truth-about-her-past
LIFEGATE
May
4 2021
By Camilla Soldati
<European
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen reminded us of the gravity
of violence against women around the world, and of the Istanbul
Convention’s utmost importance.
European
Commission President Ursula
von der Leyen,
during a plenary session of the European Parliament on 26th April,
spoke about the incident that took place during her visit to Turkey
alongside European Council President Charles Michel. When the two
arrived at a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan,
von der Leyen was
left without a chair.
She believes this wasn’t an issue of planning or protocol, but
a gender
issue.
All
countries should ratify the Istanbul Convention
Von der Leyen used the
incident to bring light to what happens to women all over the world
every day: discrimination,
violence, and a lack of equal treatment.
Unfortunately, however, too many episodes of violence –
psychological or physical – are not reported, so nothing is
done about them. For this reason, von der Leyen highlighted the
importance of the Istanbul
Convention,
the Council of Europe treaty to combat and prevent violence against
women and domestic violence, which was opened for signature ten years
ago, on 11th May 2011.>> Read more
here:
https://www.lifegate.com/ursula-von-der-leyen-women-istanbul-convention
Aljazeera
May
3 2021
Guillerme
Canela
Chief
of Freedom of Expression and Safety of Journalists at UNESCO
<UNESCO
has just announced the Philippine investigative journalist and media
executive, Maria Ressa, as the winner of the Guillermo Cano Prize for
Press Freedom, which honours champions of media freedom, particularly
those who have faced danger in order to do this. Ressa risks her own
personal safety every day, as she pursues the facts and holds the
powerful to account. She is often the target of anonymous online
attacks – in 2016 she received 90 online hate messages an hour
– many of which are rooted in misogyny and racism.
But
Maria Ressa is by no means alone. Women everywhere are being attacked
online for daring to practice journalism while female. Back in 2014,
23 percent of the women journalists who responded to a UNESCO survey
said they had been threatened, intimidated and insulted online in
connection with their work. By December 2020, this number had leapt
to 73 percent.
Women
journalists from more than 120 countries, across all UNESCO regions
of the world, have now spoken out in a new study commissioned by
UNESCO and carried out by the International Center for Journalists
(ICFJ), describing how they were attacked online. They work for the
BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, and other national and local
media outlets.
The
study reveals alarming trends: female journalists are threatened with
physical violence, rape, kidnapping, and doxxing – the
publication of their addresses on social media. Some are publicly
accused of using sex to secure stories. Their inboxes and those of
their newsroom colleagues are spammed with lies, disinformation and
pornographic images with their faces photoshopped in. In some cases,
these women’s partners and children are directly threatened, or
sent the photoshopped images. Unsurprisingly, a quarter of women told
the researchers they had sought psychological help; some had suffered
PTSD. Increasingly,
online violence leads to offline abuse, attacks and harassment: some
of the women interviewed who were trolled via email or social media,
were then also verbally abused, or physically attacked. This was the
case for over half of Arab women journalists surveyed. The late
Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was initially targeted with
online threats that she would be burnt as a witch, before being
killed with a car bomb. I
cannot emphasise enough that online abuse aimed at shutting down
women journalists and deterring them from reporting on controversial
stories, works. After being targeted, 30 percent of the women
surveyed said they self-censored on social media and 38 percent
adopted a lower public profile. Some women switched beats to report
on less inflammatory stories, some quit journalism or even
emigrated.>> Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/5/3/online-violence-is-silencing-women-journalists
And
also:
Kimberly
Halkett (@KimberlyHalkett)
White House correspondent, Al Jazeera English
Ghada
Oueiss (@ghadaouiess),
Presenter, Al Jazeera Arabic
Julie
Posetti (@julieposetti),
Global director of research, The International Center for Journalists
Connect
with The Take:
Twitter
(@AJTheTake),
Instagram (@ajthetake)
and Facebook (@TheTakePod) SOURCE:
AL JAZEERA
The
Guardian May 1 2021 Molly Blackall
<Met
police receive report of sexual offence claims after allegations
against Noel Clarke
Police
said they received report of allegations of sexual offences but did
not confirm identity of the person implicated The
Metropolitan police say they are assessing a <third-party>
report relating to claims of sexual offences committed by a male,
after allegations were made against the actor Noel Clarke. The
Met police did not confirm the identity of the person implicated, but
said they had received the third-party report last week.
The
Guardian
spoke
to 20 women
who
accused Clarke of sexual harassment and bullying, and a
further
six came forward
with
allegations of misconduct after publication of the report on
Thursday. The
Met police said in a statement: <On Wednesday 21 April police
received a third-party report relating to allegations of sexual
offences committed by a male over a period of time. Officers are
currently assessing the info
<We
would urge anyone who believes they have been subjected to a sexual
offence to report this to police so the information can be assessed
and investigated accordingly. There are specially trained officers
ready to provide advice and support.>> Read more
here:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/may/01/met-police-receive-report-of-sexual-offence-claims-after-allegations-against-noel-clarke
The
Guardian April 30 2021
Rafqa
Touma
<Rape
and sexual assault
‘Stealthing
is rape’: the Australian push to criminalise the removal of a
condom during sex without consent.
<ACT
Liberal leader Elizabeth Lee is trying to change legislation to
explicitly criminalise the act amid a rise in disturbing rethoric.
One
in three women and one in five men globally have been the victim of
<stealthing>, the non-consensual act of removing a condom
during sex, yet the term has only recently entered public awareness –
and courtrooms. <Anecdotally,
stealthing was something that felt yuck, confusing, violating and
wrong,> the Australian Capital Territory its Liberal opposition
leader, Elizabeth Lee, says. <But victims of it did not even know
it had a name, let alone that it negated their consent.>
In
2015, Monica Tan described stealthing in Guardian Australia as
<sort-of>
rape.
Two years later, American civil rights attorney Alexandra Brodsky
wrote of <rape-adjacent>
condom removal
for
Columbia its Journal of Gender and Law, enshrining its colloquial
name in academia. In the same year, bothvictims
and
perpetrators
shared
their <stealthing stories> to Triple J's Hack. The
act has now begun being
openly
portrayed on screen,
namely in Michaela Coel’s series I May Destroy You. And cases
of stealthing have increasingly entered judicial courts around the
globe, with
New
Zealand its first prosecution against the act
last
week landing the accused in jail. As
a result, stealthing has slowly started entering the realm of
discourse around consent. Now, Lee leads the Canberra Liberals its
proposal to the ACT legislative assembly, pushing to change ACT
consent legislation to explicitly criminalise the act of stealthing.
<Sex
without consent is sexual assault. And sexual assault is a crime,>
she says. <In essence, stealthing is rape.>>
Read
more
here:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/may/01/stealthing-is-the-australian-push-to-criminalise-the-removal-of-a-condom-during-sex-without-consent
Then
read the follow-up by:
Al
Jazeera April 27 2021
By
Agnieszka
Pikulicka-Wilczewska
and
Aigerim
Turgunbaeva
<Aizada
Kanatbekova her stalker murdered her after she rejected his advances
in a case that has prompted calls for reform. Aizada
Kanatbekovas cold, lifeless body lay in a red Honda Civic parked in a
field about 25 minutes drive from central Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan its
capital. Next
to her, the corpse of 37-year-old Zamirbek Tenizbayev. On
April 7, a witness informed the police about the tragic discovery.
The car had been parked there for two days. Traditionally,
the Kyrgyz custom of Ala Kachuu – bride kidnapping – gave
young people whose parents were against their marriage the chance to
tie the knot according to adat – the local law. It
allowed young couples who wanted to be together against all odds to
elope. But
Aizada and Zamirbek were not the Kyrgyz Romeo and Juliet. The
custom of Ala Kachuu, which dates back to the 17th century, has often
been used as a way to abduct women and force them into marriage
against their will. Aizada, 27, worked as a Turkish translator in a
textile company.On
April 5, her colleagues informed her mother that she had not made it
to work.
Her
family immediately started their search. They felt that something bad
had happened. In
the preceding months, Aizada had complained about a stalker. Though
they had met on the internet, she was not interested in continuing
the acquaintance. But
Zamirbek Tenizbayev was not ready to let her go. He found out where
she worked and walked home with her several times. When she rejected
his advances, threats began. <He
told her: ‘There are only women in your family and you will not
be able to defend yourself, even if I do something to you.’
Then he started following her and threatening her that he would stab
her mother,> Baktygul Shakenova, Aizada her aunt, told Al Jazeera. <This
went on for a while. On the advice of her friends, Aizada turned to a
lawyer, but he told her there was little they could do.> The
day they realised Aizada was missing, her family went to the police
station and quickly found out that she had been kidnapped by four
men. A CCTV recording soon emerged. According
to Aizada her aunt, the police joked that they should soon expect
gifts from matchmakers, as required by the Kyrgyz tradition.
<One
investigator, Ularbek, said that in his youth he also stole a woman
and everything worked out between them,> Shakenova said. <I
said that Aizada would have called us, to which he replied that they
had probably stopped somewhere to eat and drink and that they will
call us by the evening.> Systemic
bride kidnapping
The
practice of bride kidnapping is prolific in KyrThe
United Nations estimated in 2018 that almost 14 percent of all Kyrgyz
women under 24 were married through some form of coercion.The
same year, Kyrgyz police stated that over a five-year period, they
had received 895 reports of abductions with the purpose of marriage. According
to rights groups, however, the data does not reflect the true scale
of the problem. Even
though authorities upped penalties for bride-kidnapping in 2013,
making the crime punishable with up to seven years of imprisonment,
the situation has remained largely unchanged since.>> Read
more
here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/27/we-want-justice-family-of-murdered-kyrgyz-woman-demand-change
The
Guardian
April 26 2021
Ben
Quinn
<British
woman to sue UAE royal she accuses of sexual assault for damages. Caitlin
McNamara her lawyers say she is taking the step after the CPS refused
to prosecute Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan
A
British woman who accused a senior
United
Arab Emirates
royal
of sexually assaulting her has issued a formal claim for damages.
Caitlin
McNamara is claiming damages for multiple sexual assaults and
false imprisonment she allegedly suffered at the hands of Sheikh
Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan on 14 February 2020 at a private
residence in Abu Dhabi. Her
lawyers said today that she was compelled to take the step after the
refusal of the British authorities to prosecute Nahyan,
the UAE’s minister for tolerance and coexistence. In
effect, the letter gives the sheikh an opportunity to hold his hands
up and potentially offer an out-of-court settlement. The likelihood
of that remains an open question. Civil
proceedings will be brought if necessary in the high court in London,
according to the law firm Carter-Ruck, which has been engaged by
McNamara. McNamara,
who was the curator of the first Hay festival in Abu Dhabi in
February 2020,
went
public with her accusations
last
year. She
alleges that the sheikh attacked her shortly before the festival,
which his department had funded.>> Read more
here:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/26/british-woman-to-sue-uae-royal-sexual-assault-damages-sheikh-nahyan
The
Guardian April 25 2021
Pryja
Elan
<Model
‘hands off my hijab’ post sparks protest over France its
proposed ban
Rawdah
Mohamed, whose Instagram selfie went viral, says she wants to fight
‘deeply rooted stereotypes’
A
Somali-Norwegian model whose Instagram post criticising a proposed
ban on the hijab in France went
viral has said she wants to fight <deeply rooted stereotypes>
against Muslim women.
Rawdah
Mohamed
posted
a selfie on Instagram
with
<hands off my hijab> written on her hand, starting a campaign
that has been trending on
Twitter,Instagram
and
TikTok.
#Handsoffmyhijab,
along with its counterpart
#PasToucheAMonHijab,
has been taken up by the Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad and the US
congresswoman Ilhan Omar, as well thousands of women internationally.
They have used the hashtag to protest against the French senate its
vote to ban anyone under 18 from wearing the garment in public. <I
started the hashtag as I felt the need to humanise the movement,>
Mohamed told the Guardian. <Ethnic minority women are always
spoken for. I wished to take back the control of our narratives and
tell our stories.> Mohamed
added that the proposed legislation <stems from discrimination and
deeply rooted stereotypes against Muslim women.>
France
was the first country to ban the niqab in public spaces, in
April
2011,
and French towns have
banned
the burkini,
starting a national conversation around nationalism, identity and
feminism.>>
Click
here to read
more:
https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2021/apr/25/model-rawdah-mohamed-hands-off-my-hijab-protest-france-ban
Read
also an interview with Rawdah Mohamed here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/13/muslim-women-are-always-left-out-qa-with-rawdah-mohamed
and
more on the same page different issues concerning this matter.
Note
from Gino d'Artali: during editing this page, which took me about 3
weeks. I
often listened to Arvo Paert's Symphony No. 3, Symphony of sorrow
songs with
a soprano whose singing chills the bones just
like the nummerous murders and rapings of women globally.
Listen
to it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqLXliq-WP0
The Guardian April 16 2021
<Documentaries to view of...
In the heart of the Village, a loyalist
area in Belfast, the Windsor Womens Centre has fought a 30-year battle to keep
its doors open. The centre, an oasis for vulnerable women, is deeply rooted in
the community. As it faces financial insecurity and navigates the pandemic, will
these women make it through their toughest year so far?
Film-maker Kathryn Ferguson talks with us about making the documentary and the
relevance it holds in today its context. Read the interview here:
https://www.theguardian.com/global/ng-interactive/2021/apr/16/space-to-be-documentary
|