Last updated February 2, 2013

Contents:

Websites dealing with Violence Against Women

Facebook pages dealing with Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)

Links to Other Voices Speaking Out on Violence Against Women (particularly media's role)

News and Information

The Longest War is the One Against Women

Leader’s Suicide Brings Attention to Men’s Rights Movement

Our Colorful World, by Samantha Gina Young, WIFP

Advertising misogyny

"Sex worker"? Never met one!

Four Women Journalists Kidnapped by Supporters of Female Genital Mutilation

Iceland to Ban Stripping and Prostitution

Voices Against Female Genital Mutilation by Sarah Glover, WIFP

Supreme Court's Decision Sets Back Struggle Against Domestic Violence by Bonnie Carlson, WIFP

Breaking the Silence: A Safe Haven for Women

Assault on the Home Front, by Laura Forester, WIFP

50,000 Americans Touched by Domestic Violence Programs in a Single Day

UNIFEM Launches Database to Track Violence Against Women in Afghanistan

Violence Against Women, A Worldwide Phenomenon

LANDMARK STUDY ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE- WHO REPORT FINDS DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IS WIDESPREAD

Normalizing Function of the Mass Media: Cosmetic Foot Surgery

Recommended Book: War Is Not Over When It's Over, Women Speak Out From the Ruins of War

to WIFP home page

A few of our buttons . . .

Websites dealing with Violence Against Women

AHA Foundation - Female Genital Mutilation and other issues of concern to women

What is female genital mutilation?

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is any procedure involving the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs and is often performed on girls between the ages of 4 and 14 to ensure their virginity until marriage. FGM has no foundation in Islamic scripture or law; however, in the West it is mainly practiced in Muslim communities.

Is female genital mutilation harmful?

Yes. The World Health Organization reports that FGM has no health benefits and can cause a number of health problems. Immediately following the procedure, girls are at risk for severe pain, shock, bleeding, bacterial infection, and injury to nearby tissue. In the long term, girls and women who have suffered this procedure are at risk for recurrent bladder and urinary tract infections, cysts, infertility, and complications during intercourse and childbirth.

Take Back the Night

Take Back the Night was first mentioned in 1976 at the International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women in Brussels, Belgium. The phrase spread to Rome, West Germany, and England, where women who refused to accept that they were unsafe at night marched down their neighborhood streets to protest violence against women, including domestic violence. Today, Take Back the Night events are organized around the world and typically include a rally, march and vigil for sexual assault survivors.

The website has information on official and local events. It also makes an excellent resource for women activists who want to take initiative and organize their own Take Back the Night event in their community or university. Also included are resources for victims of sexual assault, for support as well as legal help. Takebackthenight.org has also become a medium through which sexual assault survivors can share their stories via Shatter the Silence, a way to submit your own and view other women's stories online.

Feminist Coalition Against Prostitution (FCAP)

Feminist Coalition Against Prostitution is a coalition of UK Feminist individuals and groups who believe that prostitution is violence against women:
*This is a UK wide group advocating a common approach to prostitution for the whole of the UK
*We invite all Feminist individuals and groups, from all backgrounds, to join this Coalition
*We are calling for the decriminalisation of all women, children and men involved in prostitution - and demand that all criminal records for loitering and/or soliciting be wiped so that survivors are not barred from employment branded as 'sex offenders'
*We urge the UK Government, the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly to consider a Swedish style law to make buying sex illegal and to invest money in exit services such as housing, education & training, legal advice, welfare benefits and health care
*We believe that prostitution is not inevitable - end demand

Coalition Against Trafficking in Women

The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) is a non-governmental organization that promotes women's human rights. It works internationally to combat sexual exploitation in all its forms, especially prostitution and trafficking in women and children, in particular girls.

National Clearinghouse on Marital and Date Rape    

"National Clearinghouse on Marital and Date Rape We are most well known for so transforming the attitudes in this country (by our 20-year campaigns to change customs, policies, behaviors and laws) that we were able to make marital/cohabitant/date rape a crime in all fifty states, at least where force is used. (1993) All the governments in the U.N. voted in Beijing in 1995 to abolish the marital privilege to sex on demand from wives. This is testimony to our world-wide movement's strength."

Feminists Against Violence Network

FAVNET Feminists Against Violence Network (favnet@otd.com) is a fully moderated email list dedicated to ending domestic violence & violence against women through networking & direct action for feminists & pro-feminists women & men within a feminist environment and based on a feminist perspective. Counselors, legal advocates, survivors, and all feminists & profeminist women & men who seek to redress violence against women are welcome!

AbuseAware

Domestic Abuse Awareness, Inc. is on a mission to reconnect with the children from the book Living With The Enemy. Back in the 80's and early 90's, the book took form as Donna Ferrato searched for the truth behind domestic violence with her camera. She could not believe the all too accepted mentality that women who stay in abusive situations like it. She recognizes that although she captured much of the women's pain, she was only scratching at the surface. From the action of violence springs infinite levels of reactions. From the mother, to her children, to their children, the cycle of abuse grows from a deep root. This trailer is the beginning of Ferrato's search for the children and the answers.

Men Can Stop Rape  

Men Can Stop Rape empowers male youth and the institutions that serve them to work as allies with women in preventing rape and other forms of men's violence. Through awareness-to-action education and community organizing, we promote gender equity and build men's capacity to be strong without being violent.

Female Genital Mutilation Education and Networking Project

The website has undergone a lot of changes, including changing its name to the FGM Education and Networking Project. Excellent resources and information.

What You Should Know About Rape And Sexual Assault

Excellent and useful information about rape and sexual assault.

Maiti Nepal Crusading for the Prevention of Girl Trafficking, Rescue, Rehabilitation, and Reintegration of Traffic Victims

Maiti Nepal's crusade is to protect Nepali girls and women from crimes like domestic violence, trafficking, child prostitution, child labour and various forms of exploitation and torture. A group of socially committed professionals like teachers, journalists and social workers together formed Maiti Nepal. It also actively brings justice for the girls and women against criminals through legal channels.

Maiti's focus is the prevention of trafficking of girls which is a burning issue for Nepal. Rescuing girls forced into prostitution and helping to find economic alternatives have been its key struggle. It holds counselling and educates on health, laws, basic reading and writing for them. The survivors are also trained to develop income-generation skills and are housed in Maiti's shelter until they can manage on their own. Sexually abused girls, abandoned children, destitute women, prisoner's children, returnees from Indian brothels, girls and children infected with HIV and Hepatitis B are also its beneficiaries.

The word Maiti has a sentimental value for Nepali women. It refers to the family one is born to. This tie is severed when a woman marries for she loses all rights to her parents and their property. She then becomes an outsider belonging solely to her husband and his family forever.

Language:English
E-mail Address: info@maitinepal.org or maiti@ccsl.com.np
Website: <http://www.maitinepal.org/>

White Ribbon Campaign  

"In 1991, a handful of men in Canada decided we had a responsibility to urge men to speak out against violence against women. We decided that wearing a white ribbon would be a symbol of men's opposition to men's violence against women. The WRC is the largest effort in the world of men working to end men's violence against women. We encourage men to do educational work in schools, workplaces and communities, to support local women's groups, and to raise awareness internationally."

Incite

"INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence is a national activist organization of radical feminists of color advancing a movement to end violence against women of color and their communities through direct action, critical dialogue and grassroots organizing."

Women Against Violence Against Women

Supporting survivors since 1982. Shifting society for the future.

WAVAW is a non-profit organization that has been providing sexual assault support services to women 14 years of age and older, in Greater Vancouver for 23 years. We are open and accessible to all women survivors of violence. We operate within a feminist and anti-oppression framework, and are committed to non-violence.

Nisaa Institute for Women's Development - South Africa

The Nisaa Institute for Women's Development is a non-profit organisation, which focuses on violence prevention and the empowerment of women who have been abused by their partners. The organisation offers services to the survivors of domestic violence and their children. It uses the media to deepen the scope of its public awareness campaigns. The organisation uses traditional media such as radio, television and newspaper to communicate its messages to the community. It also uses postcards, pamphlets, posters, cards, billboards and stickers.

Main Communication Strategies
Nisaa Institute for Women's Development believes that raising public awareness about gender based violence (GBV) is the first step in persuading people to change their behaviour, and in improving legal polices and services for women. The organisation has six programmes each containing a number of ongoing projects. Its activities include:

* Providing emergency shelter for women and children whose lives are endangered by violence perpetrated against them by intimate partners/husbands.
* Conducting various forms of counseling services for adults and children as a form of intervention. This includes crisis telephone counseling, individual and group counseling.
* Promoting public awareness and education on violence against women to relevant stakeholders and to a broader audience locally, nationally and internationally.
* Developing and conducting training on specific competencies, gender issues and violence against women.
* Producing and developing publications at a range of levels and disseminating relevant information to a broader national and international audiences.
* Consolidating and expanding outreach services to Orange Farm and Soweto.

Nisaa's prevention programmes activities include: Date Rape Campaign: This campaign includes a small booklet, posters and stickers for adolescents. It alerts teenagers to the high incidence of date rape and abuse among youth. It also offers information on how best to prevent date rape and more general information on sexual rights and sexuality.

Radio campaigns: Nisaa's services are advertised regularly on different radio stations. Also on radio is a 30 episode drama that aims to increase awareness of violence against women and HIV/AIDS. It reaches rural communities in hard to reach provinces in South Africa.

Nisaa Resource Center and Website: Provides information for other civil society organisations, activists, women experiencing violence and other interested partners. The campaigns are highlighted, as well as Nisaa's services and outreach. This programme is linked to the womensnet website where Nisaa offers online counseling and education services via the internet.

Anti Anti-Rape Bus Campaign: Posters, booklets, billboards, 20 buses, 12 taxis, and major daily newspapers carried the message of "You're only half a man if you rape a woman". This campaign was seen all over town and took the message to large numbers of people. It sparked public debate and strongly stated that rape will not be tolerated in the communities.

Peace on Earth begins at Home: This campaign developed during the holiday season, included a billboard, posters and greeting cards. The campaign makes the connection between domestic violence and global violence.

Development Issues
Gender, Women, Rights, Children.

Key Points
Nisaa Institute for Women's Development objectives are to:

* Encourage women to gain control over their lives in ways that they deem appropriate.
* Provide refuge for women survivors of violence and their children when their lives are endangered by interpersonal violence.
* Establish organizational links and mechanisms that enable the use of the community, municipal, national and international resources for women's emancipation.
* Lobby for appropriate legislation and resources that protect and maintain the dignity of survivors of violence.
* Raise awareness on violence against women through public awareness education, media intervention and a range of training.

For more information, contact:
Nisaa Institute for Women's Development, P O Box 1057, Lenasia 1820, Johannesburg, South Africa. Tel: +27 (0)11 854 5804/5. Fax: +27 (0)11 854 5718 - email contact [at] nisaa.org.za

Links to Other Voices Speaking Out on Violence Against Women (particularly media's role)

Lucinda Marshal (Not) In The News: Media Culpability in the Continuum of Violence Against Women, appearing in Dissident Voice (www.dissidentvoice.org)

Important, moving video From Fear to Freedom: Ending Violence Against Women

Article on violence against female journalists. Foreign correspondents and sexual abuse article by Judith Matloff in Columbia Journalism Review.

Volcano Press: Bringing domestic violence issues to the forefront

Volcano Press publisher Ruth Gottstein had a revelation at one point when she was director of Glide Publications in San Francisco.

Gottstein was offered a manuscript from England titled" Scream Quietly or The Neighbors Will Hear." She realized unequivocally that the book, which dealt with domestic violence, was needed in the United States. A member of the then-Governor's Commission on Crime agreed to create "Battered Wives," the first book on the subject published under the United States. That was 1976, and she still receives requests for reprints of a poignant but graphic letter that appears in "Battered Wives."

Since then Gottstein has been in the vanguard of publishing books which address the issues of domestic violence, child abuse and women's issues. Along the way, her company has also published award-winning children's books as well as several books of Gold Country history. . . .

Article by Marcia Oxford in 2003 in the Ledger-Dispatch. For full article, go to: http://www.ledger-dispatch.com/life/lifeview.asp?c=33034

News and Information:

* Male partners or ex-partners kill 1,000 to 1,500 women each year in the United States, according to FBI statistics; most of the murders come after a pattern of escalating abuse.

* "Worldwide, it is estimated that more than 700,000 women and girls are trafficed every year. Human traffickers usually lure their lare numbers of women and girls into the sex industry by promising them good pay. Unfortunately, on arriving to their destination these women are often kept prisoners by their employers and crime syndicates who saddle them with unlawful debts." ["Trafficing in Women Migrants: Issues of Concern in South Asia" by Chineze Onyejekwe, Ph.D., Pakistan Journal of Women's Studies: Alam-e Niswan, 2004]

*Focus on Violence Against Women:

Women's Human Rights: A Matter of Life and Death Media Democracy Online, Spring 2010

Common Dreams

The Longest War is the One Against Women
A rape a minute, a thousand corpses a year: hate crimes in America (and elsewhere)

by Rebecca Solnit

https://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/01/24-10

Intelligence Report, Spring 2012, Issue Number: 145
Leader’s Suicide Brings Attention to Men’s Rights Movement

By Arthur Goldwag

After 10 years of custody battles, court-ordered counseling and imminent imprisonment for non-payment of child support, Thomas James Ball, a leader of the Worcester branch of the Massachusetts-based Fatherhood Coalition, had reached his limit. On June 15, 2011, he doused himself with gasoline and set himself on fire just outside the Cheshire County, N.H., Courthouse. He was dead within minutes.

In a lengthy “Last Statement,” which arrived posthumously at the Keene Sentinel, Tom Ball told his story. All he had done, he said, was smack his 4-year-old daughter and bloody her mouth after she licked his hand as he was putting her to bed. Feminist-crafted anti-domestic violence legislation did the rest. “Twenty-five years ago,” he wrote, “the federal government declared war on men. It is time to see how committed they are to their cause. It is time, boys, to give them a taste of war.” Calling for all-out insurrection, he offered tips on making Molotov cocktails and urged his readers to use them against courthouses and police stations. “There will be some casualties in this war,” he predicted. “Some killed, some wounded, some captured. Some of them will be theirs. Some of the casualties will be ours.”

For people who associate the men’s and fathers’ rights movements with New Age drum circles in the woods, the ferocity of Ball’s rhetoric, the horror of his act, and, in particular, the widespread and blatantly misogynistic reaction to it may come as something of a revelation. When the feminist Amanda Marcotte, a bête noire of the men’s rights movement, remarked that “setting yourself on fire is an extremely effective tool if your goal is to make your ex-wife’s life a living hell,” a poster at the blog Misandry.com went ballistic. “Talk about the pot calling the kettle black,” he raged. “She is evil and such a vile evil that she is a disease that needs to be cut out of the human [consciousness] just like the rest of the femanazi ass harpies.”


Darren Mack
It’s not much of a surprise that significant numbers of men in Western societies feel threatened by dramatic changes in their roles and that of the family in recent decades. Similar backlashes, after all, came in response to the civil rights movement, the gay rights movement, and other major societal revolutions. What is something of a shock is the verbal and physical violence of that reaction.

Ball’s suicide brought attention to an underworld of misogynists, woman-haters whose fury goes well beyond criticism of the family court system, domestic violence laws, and false rape accusations. There are literally hundreds of websites, blogs and forums devoted to attacking virtually all women (or, at least, Westernized ones) — the so-called “manosphere,” which now also includes a tribute page for Tom Ball (“He Died For Our Children”). While some of them voice legitimate and sometimes disturbing complaints about the treatment of men, what is most remarkable is the misogynistic tone that pervades so many. Women are routinely maligned as sluts, gold-diggers, temptresses and worse; overly sympathetic men are dubbed “manginas”; and police and other officials are called their armed enablers. Even Ball — who did not directly blame his ex-wife for his troubles, but instead depicted her and their three children as co-victims of the authorities — vilified “man-hating feminists” as evil destroyers of all that is good.

This kind of woman-hatred is increasingly visible in most Western societies, and it tends to be allied with other anti-modern emotions — opposition to same-sex marriage, to non-Christian immigration, to women in the workplace, and even, in some cases, to the advancement of African Americans. Just a few weeks after Ball’s death, while scorch marks were still visible on the sidewalk in Keene, N.H., that was made clear once more by a Norwegian named Anders Behring Breivik.

On July 22, Breivik slaughtered 77 of his countrymen, most of them teenagers, in Oslo and at a summer camp on the island of Utøya, because he thought they or their parents were the kinds of “politically correct” liberals who were enabling Muslim immigration. But Breivik was almost as voluble on the subjects of feminism, the family, and fathers’ rights as he was on Islam. “The most direct threat to the family is ‘divorce on demand,’” he wrote in the manifesto he posted just before he began his deadly spree. “The system must be reformed so that the father will be awarded custody rights by default.”

The manosphere lit up. Said one approving poster at The Spearhead, an online men’s rights magazine for the “defense of ourselves, our families and our fellow men”: “What could be more ‘an eye for an eye’ than to kill the children of those who were so willing to destroy men’s families and destroy the homeland of men?”

‘The Homeland of Men’
The men’s rights movement, also referred to as the fathers’ rights movement, is made up of a number of disparate, often overlapping, types of groups and individuals. Some most certainly do have legitimate grievances, having endured prison, impoverishment or heartrending separations from genuinely loved children.

Jocelyn Crowley, a Rutgers political scientist and the author of Defiant Dads: Fathers’ Rights Activists in America, says that most men who join real (as opposed to virtual) men’s rights groups aren’t seeking to attack the family court system so much as they are simply struggling to navigate it. What they talk most about when they meet face to face, she says, are strategies to deal with their ex-partners and have better relationships with their children.

But Molly Dragiewicz, a criminologist at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and the author of Equality With a Vengeance: Men’s Rights Groups, Battered Women, and Antifeminist Backlash, argues that cases in which fathers are badly treated by courts and other officials are not remotely the norm. The small percentage of divorces that end up in litigation are disproportionately those where abuse and other issues make joint custody a dubious proposition. Even when a woman can satisfactorily document her ex-husband’s abuse, Dragiewicz says, she is no more likely to receive full custody of her children than if she couldn’t.

The men’s movement also includes mail-order-bride shoppers, unregenerate batterers, and wannabe pickup artists who are eager to learn the secrets of “game”—the psychological tricks that supposedly make it easy to seduce women. George Sodini, who confided his seething rage at women to his blog before shooting 12 women, three of them fatally, was one of the latter. Before his 2009 murder spree at a Pittsburgh-area gym, he was a student — though clearly not a very apt one — of R. Don Steele, the author of How to Date Young Women: For Men Over 35. “I dress good, am clean-shaven, bathe, touch of cologne — yet 30 million women rejected me over an 18 or 25-year period,” Sodini wrote with the kind of pathos presumably typical of Steele’s readers.

George Sodini
Other movement adherents have forsworn sex altogether, or at least romantic relationships and marriage; the acronym they use for themselves is MGTOW, for “Men Going Their Own Way.” “If you are willing to marry a woman — any woman — in the West then you must also be willing to become the next murder-suicide story when she threatens to file for divorce, steal your kids out of your life and extort you for every current and future dollar you will ever earn,” wrote one commenter at The Spearhead. “If a man kidnapped your children, stole your home, your wallet and your bank account, you’d be more than willing to kill him in self defense. Why is it any different when ex-wives do it with the full force of the law behind them?”

Some take an inordinate interest in extremely young women, or fetishize what they see as the ultra-feminine (read: docile) characteristics of South American and Asian women. Others, who have internalized Christian “headship” doctrine, are desperately seeking the “submissive” women such doctrine celebrates. Still others are simply sexually awkward, and nonplussed and befuddled by society’s changing mores. The common denominator is their resentment of feminism and of females in general.

“It’s ironic,” the feminist writer Amanda Marcotte observes. “These [misogynist Web] sites owe their existence to feminism’s successes. At some point in the last couple of years, the zeitgeist hit a tipping point where female power — Hillary Clinton’s, Rachel Maddow’s, even Sarah Palin’s — stopped being questioned. Being sexist has become less acceptable than it used to be. This makes some men particularly anxious.” At the same time, of course, domestic violence and sex crimes are much more likely to be prosecuted than they were even a decade ago. Shelters, social services and legal aid are more available to most battered women than in the past.

But some experts argue that men’s rights groups have been remarkably successful. The groups, says Rita Smith, director of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, “have taken over the way courts deal with custody issues, particularly when there are allegations of abuse,” largely by convincing them that there is such a thing as “Parental Alienation Syndrome” (PAS). (PAS is a supposed clinical disorder in which a child compulsively belittles one parent due to indoctrination by the other — frequently leveling false allegations of abuse. It is not recognized as a clinical disorder by either the American Psychiatric Association or the World Health Organization.) Citing studies that show that false domestic abuse accusations against men are far less common than men’s groups and PAS enthusiasts claim, Smith says the groups nevertheless have “been able to get custody evaluators, mediators, guardians ad litem and child protective service workers to believe that women and children lie about abuse.”

Threats and Abuse
One kind of abuse that is undeniable is the vilification of individual women on certain men’s group websites. The best example of that may be Register-Her, a registry of women who “have caused significant harm to innocent individuals either by the direct action of crimes like rape, assault, child molestation and murder, or by the false accusation of crimes against others.” The site was set up by Paul Elam, the blogger behind A Voice for Men, less than two weeks after Ball’s suicide. “If Mary Jane Rottencrotch decides to falsely accuse her husband of domestic violence in order to get the upper hand in a divorce,” Elam boasted on his Internet radio show, “we can publish all her personal information on the website, including her name, address, phone number … even her routes to and from work.”

Under a headline reading, “Why are these women not in prison?” the site features photos and information about some 250 alleged malefactors, including notorious women like Lorena Bobbitt and Tonya Harding, although Elam hasn’t made good on his threat to publish home addresses or phone numbers. Many of those listed received prison sentences for various crimes, but large numbers were acquitted in court, while others were never accused of any lawbreaking. A well-known feminist, for example, is listed for “anti-male bigotry,” which is compared to racism.

Elam’s site can be frightening to its targets. In one case, he offered a cash reward to the first reader to ferret out a pseudonymous feminist blogger’s real name. In another, Elam singled out a part-time blogger at ChicagoNow who describes herself as a “vegetarian park activist with two baby girls.” The woman’s mistake was to write about her discomfort with male adults helping female toddlers in the bathroom at her daughter’s preschool. The blogger conceded that she was being sexist, but wrote that “I’d rather be wrong than find out if I’m right.”

After the woman was listed, she was widely attacked on men’s movement sites. “I don’t always use the word ‘cunt’ to describe a woman,” one poster raged, “but when I do it’s because of reasons like these.” Shocked, the “Mommy blogger” took down her original post and apologized for her “demonization of men.”

It wasn’t enough. “You targeted fathers, and just fathers,” Elam rebuked her. “It strikes me that you have never really been held to account for any of your actions in life. It is quite likely that the concept of complete, selfless accountability is just completely foreign to you.” Over at the Reddit Mens Rights forum, another poster fumed: “This entire episode should be a warning to all those male hating feminists out there who believe that they are safe screaming their hate messages on the web. Finally, they are held accountable for their hate messages and finally the rest of the world will find out exactly what type of depraved people they really are.”

Scott Dekraii
Amanda Marcotte, who is a prime Register-Her target, writes about men’s rights activists less than she used to. That’s not because she doesn’t take them seriously — they introduce too many “anti-woman, anti-child, pro-abuse, pro-rape ideas into the public discourse” not to — but because “they’re so doggedly mean. It becomes frightening after a while.” Marcotte says the registry may incite violence against its targets, especially because many angry male activists are active abusers. “They interact with their ideological adversaries online,” she says, “much as they do with their spouses and children: ‘I’ll give you something to cry about!’”

“I don’t know if Thomas James Ball ever visited this site,” Elam wrote on his blog when he started Register-Her. “What I do believe is, though, that he, if convinced to stay alive, would have been a hell of a soldier in this war.”

Soldiers in the War
The first shots in this so-called war on feminism were fired 22 years before Tom Ball’s suicide. On Dec. 6, 1989, Marc Lépine, a troubled 25-year-old computer student, strolled into the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, Canada, carrying a Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic rifle and a hunting knife. He walked into a classroom, ordered the men to leave, and lined the women up against a wall.

“I am fighting feminism,” he announced before opening fire. “You’re women, you’re going to be engineers. You’re all a bunch of feminists. I hate feminists.”

By the time he turned the gun on himself, 14 women were dead and 10 were wounded; four men were hurt as well. The suicide note in Lépine’s pocket contained a list of 19 “radical feminists” he hoped to kill, and this: “I have decided to send the feminists, who have always ruined my life, to their Maker. … They want to keep the advantages of women … while seizing for themselves those of men.”

Today, that kind of rage is often directed at all women, not only perceived feminists. “Women don’t need the powers-that-be to get them to hate and use men,” the blogger Alcuin wrote recently. “They have always used men; maybe they have always hated us too.” Added another blogger, Angry Harry: “There are now, literally, billions of dollars, numerous empires, and millions of jobs that depend on the public swallowing the idea that women need to be defended from men.”

“A word to the wise,” offered the blogger known as Rebuking Feminism. “The animals women have become want one thing, resources and genes. … See them as the animals they have become and plan … accordingly.”

And many are quick to endorse violence against women. “There are women, and plenty of them, for which [sic] a solid ass kicking would be the least they deserve,” Paul Elam wrote in an essay with the provocative title, “When is it OK to Punch Your Wife?” “The real question here is not whether these women deserve the business end of a right hook, they obviously do, and some of them deserve one hard enough to leave them in an unconscious, innocuous pile on the ground if it serves to protect the innocent from imminent harm. The real question is whether men deserve to be able to physically defend themselves from assault … from a woman.”

For some, it’s more than just talk. In 2006, Darren Mack, a member of a fathers’ rights group in Reno, Nev., stabbed his estranged wife to death and then shot and wounded the family court judge who was handling his divorce.

That kind of violence continues right up to the present.

In Seal Beach, Calif. last Oct. 12, a day after Scott Evans Dekraai and his ex-wife had been in court to fight over custody of their 8-year-old son (Dekraai had 56% custody but wanted full custody and “final decision making authority” on matters of the child’s education and medical treatment), Dekraai walked into the hair salon where his ex-wife worked armed with three handguns. There, he allegedly shot seven women, six of them fatally; he also is accused of killing two men — the salon’s owner, as he attempted to flee, and a man in a car outside.

Michelle Fournier, Dekraai’s ex-wife, had testified that Dekraai was not taking his bipolar medicine and that he was suicidal and dangerous. If she had survived his rampage, she might have enjoyed having the last word about his propensity for violence. But she did not, becoming instead the latest in a long, sad line of victims of women-hating men.

Caryl Rivers and Murray Straus use their publications to support and promote the views of father’s/men’s rights activists hate propaganda about women being over-privileged and as violent as men


Women's Views on News
Tag Archive | "fathers4justice"
Men’s rights activists named as hate group
Posted on 19 March 2012. Tags: fathers4justice, MRAs
Jane Osmond
WVoN co-editor
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a US non-profit organisation dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry, has named men’s rights activists (MRAs) as a hate group in its latest quarterly publication.

In an issue entitled The Year in Hate and Extremism, the SPLC, based in Montgomery, Alabama, explores how MRAs spread false claims about women:

Misogynists in the men’s and fathers’ rights movements have developed a set of claims about women to support their depictions of them as violent liars and manipulators of men.

Some suggest that women attack men, even sexually, just as much as men attack women. Others claim that vast numbers of reported rapes of women, as much as half or even more, are fabrications designed to destroy men they don’t like or to gain the upper hand in contested custody cases.

Shining the spotlight on the recent suicide of an MRA – seen as a call-to-arms for American MRAs – the SPLC outline how this man became disgruntled with the family law courts after he abused his four-year old daughter:

All he had done, he said, was smack his 4-year-old daughter and bloody her mouth after she licked his hand as he was putting her to bed.

Feminist-crafted anti-domestic violence legislation did the rest. “Twenty-five years ago,” he wrote, “the federal government declared war on men. It is time to see how committed they are to their cause. It is time, boys, to give them a taste of war.”

Some of the false claims include an insistence that men are victimized by sex crimes and abuse as much, if not more, than women but that the courts ‘outrageously favour women’.

And that as many women attack men as the other way round. Or that half or more of the sexual assaults reported by women never took place and that women routinely lie about rape.

As feminist bloggers know only too well, these claims can be found in the comments section of any article that focuses on the harms done to women by male centric societies that consistently portray women primarily as sexual objects who are not capable of sitting in the rooms where the manly art of decision making takes place.

Consequently, women are under-represented in any space where decisions affecting their lives are made, resulting in political, economic and reproductive discrimination.

Any attempts to redress this balance, for example, women’s studies courses that focus on the power structures that were originally developed by men for men, are dismissed as unscholarly in that ‘using gender as a means of analysis is flawed’, and that they indoctrinate students with one worldview.

Take the recent case brought by student Tom Martin against the London School of Economics (LSE) as a good example.

Citing the Gender, Media and Culture masters course as ‘systematically anti-male’ and therefore overlooking men’s issues, Martin criticised the course (leaving it after only six weeks) as having an over simplistic view of men as perpetrators and women as victims.

Martin lost his case earlier this year after the judge said it was too weak to proceed to trial.

However, Martin has had wide coverage in the media since he brought his case, asking for donations to fund it and also setting up websites and twitter feeds such as The Missing Minister which includes comments such as:
Scumbaggy feminist writing in Guardian gets 100% disapproval rating in comments section.

Undercover research shows some radical feminists want to kill males – these haters work in education, so no joke
He is also quoted as saying:
My belief is that 50 to 90 per cent of rape claims are made up, the rape statistics are inflated to make men look more rapey than they really are.

This level of anger against women is difficult to fathom – there are acres of statistics, studies and reports about how women suffer under a male centric society and yet MRAs dismiss these as false in the face of overwhelming evidence.

Even concrete examples of sexual assault, reflected by the recent Mumsnet campaign We Believe You, are attacked, with Fathers4Justice stating that :
Mumsnet “promotes gender hatred”, and labels “men and boys as rapists, paedophiles and wife beaters”

This led to Justine Roberts, CEO of Mumsnet, issuing a statement in which she comments:
By and large, it seemed most sensible to ignore them, not least because we’ve had our hands quite full with stuff that actually matters, like Mumsnet’s We Believe You campaign to dispel rape myths.

In addition, misogyny is found in rape jokes on Facebook, and vile comments on sites such as Unilad.

Meanwhile, there are many decent men out there who do believe that women are discriminated against, who would never dream of sexually assaulting women, who are good, consistent fathers to their children, but where are their voices?

Why do they not speak up in support of the women in their lives? Why do they not shut down the rape jokes told in their presence?

Or call out deadbeat dads who don’t see or pay maintenance for their children? Report when they hear accounts of sexual assault in the pub?
------------------------------------------
George Pierre Hennard was a mass murderer who killed 23 people and wounded dozens of others in a deadly massacre at Luby's Cafeteria.

Born in Sayre, Pennsylvania, Hennard's father Georges was an expert in orthopedics, and as a result, the family constantly moved around the country since he worked at various Army hospitals. After graduating high school in 1974, Hennard joined the Navy, and then drifted from job to job, having numerous jobs in different U.S. states. Hennard eventually became particularly prejudiced against women, once sending two sisters living a couple of blocks away from him a five-page letter voicing his hatred for them.

After eating breakfast at a convenience store he commonly visited, Hennard then drove to a Luby's Cafeteria 17 miles away and intentionally crashed his pickup truck into the cafeteria, hitting an elderly man in the process. People gathered around the truck, believing the crash to be an accident, and Hennard seized the opportunity to shoot at those nearest with two pistols he legally purchased. He stepped out of his truck and yelled, "This is what Bell County has done to me!" He then proceeded to continuously shoot at people hiding under the tables at point-blank range, injuring and/or killing them. Several witnesses have reported seeing Hennard bitterly spit out misogynistic statements at some of his female victims before shooting them; they also reported he was smirking the entire time. It would later be revealed that most of Hennard's chosen victims were females.

Hennard attracted a crowd by crashing 1987 Ford Ranger pickup truck into the cafeteria, to which he would then start shooting with two semiautomatic pistols, one a Ruger P89, the other a Glock 17. Most of his victims were shot at point-blank range. He would choose which people he would kill before shooting them; most of those chosen by him were women due to his misogynistic personality.

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Our Colorful World

by Samantha Gina Young, WIFP
June 22, 2011

The world is not black or white. Unthinkable things occur in various parts of the world that tends to leave a lifelong image in the heads of those who have witnessed these things. These things can be summed up in five words; “Women and Children Being Abused”. The word “abused” in this context is not to be taken lightly. It does not just mean getting yelled at, or a random slap every now and then. No. These women and children experience daily domestic violence, rape, human trafficking, and sometimes it may lead to their death. These horrific events do not just occur in places of war, but also in places that one would never expect.

Places such as Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Congo, Thailand, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon have been known to host some of the most destructive wars in history. Women and children were abused to the point of death during these wars, and even now, after the war is over, the abuse has not stopped. It has become part of everyday life for these women and children. Most of these women and children are unaware of their rights and that further complicates this injustice.

Ann Jones, author, photographer, and a gender adviser for the United Nations, wrote a book on her journey through these countries; War Is Not Over When It’s Over. Her mission was to help women become aware of their rights, and empower them to stand up for themselves. Her method was a photography project. She gave cameras to some of these women and asked them to photograph things that were good and bad in their village or area. By doing so, the women were able to come up with a list of issues they wished to be addressed or changed. In her book, while visiting Cote d’Ivorie, she wrote the following:

Wives were told everyday to do things they didn’t have the time or strength to do, let alone the inclination. Failure brought punishment. When the women began to bring in their photos, I learned that men routinely beat their wives for their failures: to produce dinner on time, wash the clothes, sell tomatoes, stay at home, go to the field to work. The list was endless. Men also beat their wives for small acts of assertion: going to visit a neighbor, answering back, being tired or “lazy”. Men referred to wife beating as “education. (27-28)

This is not only the case in Cote d’Ivorie, but it’s the case in most war-driven places. According to the UN Commission on the Status of Women, at least 1 out of 3 women and girls are beaten and/or sexually abused in their lifetime. This statistic is on a global scale. The main areas of the world that this statistic occurs are Africa, Middle East, and most of Asia. What makes it even worse for some of these women is the fact that they are uneducated and do not know what their rights are. As Ann Jones quotes in her book while watching the uneducated women in Africa, “[She] thought of all the women [she’d] met in Afghanistan who told [her] they wanted to learn to read so they could see if the Quran really said what mullahs and husbands told them it did.” (25). Women in the Middle East are not so different from the women in Africa.

There has been a lot of revealing recently of what women in the Middle-East experience. Many of the women who escaped from their homes in the Middle East have written memoirs and autobiographies detailing what they went through and what women who have not escaped are still going through. Such women are Zana Muhsen (Sold: One Woman’s True Account of Modern Slavery), Nujood Ali (I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced), and Taslima Nasrin (My Girlhood, Gusty Wind, Split Into Two, Those Dark Days).

One particular story of women in the Middle East that has opened people’s eyes of the inhumane events that women still endure in this part of the world is the story of Soraya M. The biographical novel has been recently adapted into a movie. It was the movie that brought to light the issue of stoning women as punishment. The book and movie revealed that this primitive punishment is still in existence.

What makes all this abuse towards women even more horrific is the fact that most of it is domestic. Women and girls suffer from beatings, domestic rape, and molestation from their fathers, husbands and in some cases, brothers. This sort of abuse can be found in even the most unexpected places of the world, such as the Caribbean islands.

The Caribbean Islands sounds like the perfect vacation spot, doesn’t it? White sandy beaches, clear blue water, authentic Caribbean spicy food, cultural music, and warm, cheerful natives. The Caribbean is like a paradise, a way to escape the harsh times of everyday life and have some real fun. However, ask yourself, are these cheerful natives really as happy as they seem, or is there more than what meets the eye?

The answer is, yes. There is a lot more to these Caribbean citizens than what is seen by tourists. One has to remember, although the Caribbean is a paradise, every island in the Caribbean is under the Third World Country category. There are things that occur in these islands that would shock even the most unstirred person.
The islands are known for their beautiful beaches, waterfalls, carnival festivals, and abuse. Young children, teenagers and women on the island have been physically, mentally, and verbally abused. Unlike other countries, where the abuse is from peers or gangs, the islands abuse is mostly from the parents and family members of the child, and on most occasions, it’s the male members. The abuse can go from a simple slap on the head to a full on rape.

One particular island where this abuse is prominent is Trinidad and Tobago. According to the Minister of the People and Social Development of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Glenn Ramadharsingh, “there were a total of 13,684 calls for help to Child Line, for the period of January to September [in 2009]”. The Child Line is the child abuse services that the island offers for children and teenagers to call when they are being abused. According to UNICEF, 77% of children on this island are subjected to what their parents call “child discipline”. This discipline comes in the form of brutal beatings that leave the children scarred for life. As these children become adolescents, 10% of them gain the mentality of acceptance to their abusive family members (unicef.org).

In an interview with a young woman, Jynona Moore, from Trinidad and Tobago, she revealed some of what she had to endure from her father growing up.

“And then he slapped me across my face. I didn’t know what to do . . . so I ran into my room. It was quiet for a while. I thought he was doing something else. But then . . . he opened the door to my room . . . he had the bamboo stripped broom . . . you know, the thin pieces of bamboo tied together . . . the one that stings a lot? He swung it towards my arm . . . it stung at first . . . but he wouldn’t stop. He pushed me onto my stomach, and then . . . began to swing at my back. I passed out after the . . . sixth whiplash . . . I think it was the sixth. But yea . . . that’s how it started. It continued every day after that . . . just worse . . . and worse with each day.”

Some of the islands in the Caribbean have laws that try to prevent this abuse from happening in the future. However, the mentalities of the past have rolled over so much that no one pays attention to these laws. The Child Abuse Hotlines seem to be the only source of help for these children and teenagers. But even that is not enough.

One would assume that as we move further into the 21st century, these issues would not be so prevalent. Yet, the issues simply change slightly due to various conditions. The encouraging aspect is that this information is getting out and, particularly because of the internet, we can share ideas on what needs to be done, what has been successful, and where we should go from here.

About the author:
Samantha Gina Young, WIFP staff in the summer of 2011, is from Trinidad and Tobago.

Advertising misogyny

Blog by Cath Elliott, a freelance writer, blogger and researcher, an unapologetic feminist, and a trade union activist:

While some of these ads are quite shocking, they’re actually pretty tame in comparison to a lot of the stuff that gets past the advertising authorities today.

http://toomuchtosayformyself.com/2011/01/31/advertising-misogyny/

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"Sex worker"? Never met one!

By Trisha Baptie

I was a prostitute for 15 years and I have never met a sex worker. The name stems from the movie Pretty Woman... and from the people who support and benefit from the commodification of women. I know prostituted women - I have even been one - and were there out of poverty, racism, classism, sexism and child abuse.

Then, I would have told you it was empowering and liberating - how could I look at myself in the mirror otherwise? Yet it always tore my heart out to see each new girl enter into the "trade". And none of us ever wants their daughter going into that soul sucking industry

I am against sex as work for it affects not only the women caught in it but all women and our interaction with the world. Here and globally women - almost all of them poor and racialized - are forced, coerced, beaten and tricked into this industry. It's because I want ALL women to be free - that I am against our sale as masturbation toys.

People sometimes say "She's gotta pay the bills." How about we provide them with education, opportunity, dignity, guaranteed liveable income.! What if we went for child support and made sure kids in government care have resources when they move out of care... There are other ways of helping women than screwing them.

My friends who are still on the street know what I do and they all support me. For they want no one else to enter into this lifestyle. So they work to put themselves out of harm's way, and I to make sure the men are arrested before they buy them.

"Harm reduction"? You can't make prostitution "safer"; prostitution is violence in itself. It is rape, the money only appeases men's guilt. Do we really think they are unable to do without orgasm on demand? Also why are women the only ones required to get health checks to make sure we are "proper" for me to abuse? Why not force men to get checked to keep the women safe?

Why institutionalize the worst in humanity. Our culture imposes a patriarchal view of women; demanding of us to have sex on demand, rip out our hair, submit to plastic surgery... What if women were allowed to be women with all of our beautiful differences? I am sad to see just how much society brings women and girls to act like hookers.

As for the so-called "choice" to have sex many times a day with anonymous men, my experience paints a quite different picture. Wherever there is prostitution, there is, human trafficking, organized crime, drugs and a myriad of other criminal activity that no country has managed to disentangle. Why then would we allow a minute percent saddle us with their individualism when we know society as a whole will suffer and it will be the poor women and women of color whose human rights will be trampled to keep the supply of sex on demand to men going?

______________________________________
Trisha Baptie is a former prostitute living in Vancouver. She extracted herself from drug addiction and the street eight years ago. A mother, abolitionist and freelance journalist, she recently covered the trial of mass murderer Robert Pickton for various media.

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Four Women Journalists Kidnapped by Supporters of Female Genital Mutilation

Reporters Without Borders is shocked and appalled by the abduction and intimidation of four women journalists in the eastern city of Kenema on 6 February by members of a women's secret society that practices female genital mutilation (FGM). One of the journalists was forced to walk naked through the city's streets.

"Such disgraceful behaviour worthy of a bygone age is very damaging to Sierra Leone's image," Reporters Without Borders said. "We urge the president to personally intervene in this case to ensure that the perpetrators receive an exemplary punishment. We also urge the minister of social welfare, gender and children's affairs, Haja Musu Kandeh, to take note of this incident, which is very traumatic for all women in Sierra Leone."

The four reporters – Manjama Balama-Samba of the United Nations radio and the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service (SLBS), Henrietta Kpaka of the SLBS, Isha Jalloh of Eastern Radio and Jenneh Brima, also of Eastern Radio – were kidnapped on 6 February by members of Bondo, a secret society that practices FGM. The next day, their abductors forcibly undressed Balama-Samba and made her walk naked through the streets.

The journalists had been conducting a series of interviews jointly with the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices in order to mark International Day of Zero Tolerance of Female Genital Mutilation, which was celebrated on 6 February for the 5th year running. The Bondo group regarded their questions and comments as a sign of disrespect for their traditions.

According to UN estimates, 94 per cent of women in Sierra Leone have been subjected to FGM. Sources in Sierra Leone put it at more like 65 per cent, partly as a result of the country's Christians taking a stand against the practice. The government publicly undertook last year to adopt a law banning FGM but has not yet done so.

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Iceland to Ban Stripping and Prostitution

Minister of Social Affairs Ásta Ragnheidur Jóhannesdóttir presented an action plan against human trafficking yesterday, which includes placing bans on operating strip clubs and purchasing sexual services.

It is hoped that the ban will take effect before the parliamentary elections on April 25, 2009.

(...)
"Human trafficking is the most disgusting form of international and organized crime that exists in the world," Jóhannesdóttir said while presenting the 25-point action plan, Fréttabladid reports.

In 2007, with an amendment to existing legislation, prostitution was legalized in Iceland as long as a third party doesn't profit from it.
After Jóhannesdóttir presented the action plan, MP for the Left-Greens Atli Gíslason presented a bill on banning the purchase of sexual services, which is backed by other MPs from the government parties and the Progressive Party.

"A complete victory has been achieved after many years of fighting by women's rights organization and other social organizations-and no less by MPs who have often submitted bills on this topic to Althingi [the parliament]," Jóhannesdóttir said. "I'm one of them and so this day is an especially happy day for me."

The new bill will not criminalize the solicitation of sex, which Jóhannesdóttir described as the "Swedish approach" to combating human trafficking.
http://icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/?cat_id=16539&ew_0_a_id=321477

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Voices Against Female Genital Mutilation

by Sarah Glover, WIFP

"As an innocent child, I was led like a sheep to be slaughtered… I was blindfolded and stripped naked… I was forced to lie flat on my back by four strong women, two holding tight to each leg… When the operation began, I put up a big fight. The pain was terrible and unbearable…"

These are the words of Hannah Koroma, who at the age of ten was forced to undergo the most traumatic, as well as quite possibly the most normative and expected, experience of her life. At this moment, her childhood came to an abrupt end, not only because of the horrible ordeal she experienced but also because, in the eyes of those who were holding her down, they were performing the act that would make her a woman. Koroma’s description of this process, that they were slaughtering her innocence, is a completely accurate description of this moment in her life.

The only inaccurate part of her statement is that she underwent an “operation,” because what Koroma truly experienced on that day is more accurately and commonly called mutilation. The act of female genital mutilation (FGM) and its horrible aftereffects have only been commonly known worldwide since the 1990s, though this practice has been occurring throughout Africa and some parts of Asia and the Middle East for centuries.

And it should be made clear that to say that this was the most expected moment in Koroma’s life, perhaps the only event she knew for certain she would experience at some point in her days on earth, is not at all an exaggeration. The practice of FGM is so widespread that currently 100 to 140 million women are alive who have experienced FGM and in Africa, 3 million girls are at risk for FGM each and every year.

What exactly is this practice that is so awful that four strong women must be employed to hold a girl down to make her go through it? Is it not just female circumcision, no more harmful or painful than the circumcision that millions of male babies undergo every year? On the contrary, it is certainly not the same at all, and it is appalling to use the sterilized term of “circumcision” to explain a process in which not even the tools that touch the most tender parts of a girl’s flesh are sterilized.

Female genital mutilation “comprises all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.” Different types of genital mutilation range from a partial removal of the clitoris, known as a clitoridectomy, to complete removal of all external genitalia as well as narrowing of the vaginal opening, known as infibulation. This process is not done by medical professionals, but is instead carried out by traditional circumcisers using all manner of instruments from dirty razor blades to shards of glass to tin lids, all without the use of anesthetic.

Aside from the agonizing pain experienced by the young girl that undergoes FGM, though this immediate pain certainly should not be minimized, the long-term effects of this mutilation are equally as disturbing. The immediate risks are death from infection or hemorrhaging as well as the contraction of the HIV virus from filthy equipment, with long-term risks of infertility, increased risk during childbirth, and increased risk of newborn deaths.

Along with this damage that FGM does to a girl’s body is the damage done by the perpetuation of sexist attitudes towards women that allow their human rights to be violated in this manner. FGM “reflects deeprooted inequality between the sexes, and constitutes on extreme form of discrimination. The continuation of the practice of FGM is due to this inequality, which allows women to be mutilated in order to conform to societal norms of beauty. This act is considered a part of a girl’s preparation for marriage, as it is believed that FGM ensures premarital virginity and ensures marital fidelity.

On the most basic levels of humanity, FGM violates not only women’s but also human rights. The World Health Organization recognizes that “the practice also violates a person’s rights to health, security and physical integrity, the right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, and the right to life when the procedure results in death.”

Though this matter is obviously a pressing human rights issue, it might still be easy to dismiss the problem as something that happens in a different culture in another part of the world. But those who believe this should take a look into their own backyard. In western Massachusetts alone there are currently living 2,500 immigrant women who are survivors of female genital mutilation. Though nothing can reverse the horrible trauma that these women have suffered, they are fortunate to now have FGM survivor and activist MaryAnn Mohamoud supporting them.

Dr. Martha Allen and I were privileged to be able to talk with MaryAnn Mohamoud before she spoke on an FGM panel at the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) conference on July 21. Ms. Mohamoud is not only an outspoken FGM activist, she is also the founder of Breaking the Silence: A Safe Haven for Women. This organization provides support and medical information for women who are survivors of FGM.

Besides providing support for survivors, Ms. Mohamoud’s activist work is aimed to giving a voice to an issue that she believes does not currently have a big voice. Ms. Mohamoud’s voice and her dedication to breaking the silence are essential to an issue in which those most affected are continually silenced. She recalls that even as a child, she knew that female genital mutilation was wrong, but also felt that there was nothing she could do about it.

Even now, Ms. Mohamoud is attacked by those in her community for talking about FGM and is accused of becoming Americanized. Though she certainly feels the sting of these attacks, Ms. Mohamoud knows that she cannot allow herself to be silenced again. “If I don’t do it,” she asks, “who else is going to do it?” In response to those from within her community who attack her stand against FGM, Ms. Mohamoud replies that female genital mutilation has nothing to do with culture and everything to do with mutilation. These are also important words for activists outside of the community that practices FGM who feel that it may not be their place to speak out about another culture. This is why Ms. Mohamoud joined with other activists at the NCADV conference to place the issue of FGM under the broader umbrella of domestic violence and violence against women.

Fellow panelist Dr. Sabrina Gentlewarrior agreed that while it is important to be sensitive to different cultures, it is appropriate for everyone to be an activist against FGM because it is a human rights, not a cultural, issue. If someone is hurt, the issue moves out of the realm of culture and becomes everyone’s issue. Furthermore, even if FGM is a part of culture, when it comes to human rights, we have an obligation to examine culture. Dr. Gentlewarrior reconnected the issue of FGM to domestic violence by reminding us that domestic violence used to be a cultural norm, but was challenged by supporters of women’s and human rights. Now, it is important for activists as well as those of us who have a voice to speak out to ensure that this particular form of violence against women, FGM, can no longer be considered a cultural norm.

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Supreme Court's Decision Sets Back Struggle Against Domestic Violence

By Bonnie Carlson, WIFP

Dwayne Giles murdered his girlfriend, Brenda Avie on September 29, 2002. After shooting her six times, he fled the scene. Two weeks later, he was apprehended by police and charged with murder. The prosecution uncovered a taped phone conversation between Brenda Avie and a police officer that was made three weeks before she was killed. In this taped phone call, Avie was crying and told the police officer that her boyfriend, Dwayne Giles, was physically abusing her and had threatened to kill her. This phone conversation was used by the prosecution to demonstrate Giles’s history of violence.

In a district court, Giles was found guilty by a jury of his peers, and appealed the decision to the California Court of Appeal and then the California Supreme Court, both of which upheld the conviction. Giles claimed that the courts’ use of Avie’s taped phone conversation with the police violated his Sixth Amendment right to face his accuser; since Giles did not have the opportunity to question Avie regarding her accusations against him, Giles felt that his conviction was unjustified. His case was heard by the United States Supreme Court in April of 2008. In a six-three decision for Giles v. California, the Court sided with Giles, ruling that he had indeed been stripped of his Sixth Amendment Rights to face his accuser. The Supreme Court sent the case back to the California state courts for a retrial without the use of the taped conversation.

Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the majority opinion for the Court. He claimed that while Sixth Amendment rights can be forfeited by wrongdoing, this exception does not apply in Giles’s case. Scalia wrote that the mere fact that Giles murdered Avie was not enough evidence to forfeit his Sixth Amendment rights; in order to give up his right to face his accuser, Scalia claimed the prosecution would have to have proven that Giles committed the murder with the intention preventing her from testifying against him. Since it was unclear throughout the trial whether or not Giles new that Avie had informed the police of his behavior, Scalia reasoned that he did not necessarily kill her to keep her from bringing charges against him or testifying against him. Thus, he had not forfeited his right to face Avie for the accusations she made against him.

Scalia concluded with remarks regarding the rights of victims versus the rights of the accused. He made strong appeals for defending the rights of the accused, claiming that people accused of crimes must be awarded all rights delegated to them in the Constitution. He wrote that, “Domestic violence is an intolerable offense that legislatures may choose to combat through any means… But for that serious crime, as for others, abridging the constitutional rights of criminal defendants is not in the State’s arsenal (Scalia 23). The majority of the Court, then, ruled that protecting the rights of the accused must take precedence in criminal trials.

Writing for the dissent, Justice Stephen Breyer took issue with Scalia’s interpretation with the application of the forfeiture by wrongdoing clause of the Sixth Amendment. Breyer argued that is legally unacceptable for a criminal to benefit from his or her own wrongdoings. Quoting the author of the original treatise on the forfeiture clause, Breyer wrote that a defendant “shall never be admitted to shelter himself by such evil Practices on the Witness, that being to give him Advantage of his own Wrong” (pg 35). Giles should not be permitted to benefit from murdering Avie, and thus should not benefit from the rights of the Sixth Amendment

Breyer continues by noting that the Giles’s intent behind killing Avie is insignificant in this case and places an undue burden on the prosecution. Whether or not Giles was specifically acting to silence Avie, the end result was the same. Also, Breyer claims that requiring the prosecution to definitively determine Giles’ thought process before and during the murder is unrealistic and impossible, and gives criminals and undue benefit. He writes that “a constitutional evidentiary requirement that insists upon a showing of purpose (rather than simply a probabilistic knowledge) may permit the domestic partner who made the threats, caused the violence, or even murdered the victim to avoid confrontation for earlier crimes by taking advantage of later ones” (Breyer 57-58). In other words, this type of burden on the prosecution will serve only to allow perpetrators of domestic violence to benefit from further harming their victims.

Clearly, this case holds major implications in the realm of domestic violence. Recognizing this, the Battered Women’s Justice Project filed a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court urging them to uphold Giles’s convection. The brief decries the potential harm were the court to decide in favor of Giles. It states, “by it’s nature, a batterer’s violent and coercive course of conduct carries with in an intent to silence his significant other. Indeed, domestic violence homicide is the ultimate act of silencing. A specific intent requirement would only further the batterer’s campaign to silence his murdered victim’s voice trammeling on fundamental principles of equality” (12). Just as Breyer wrote in his dissent, then, advocates for victims of domestic violence recognized the danger of a decision supporting Giles’s case. Future prosecutors in domestic violence cases must operated under the assumption that the highest court in the land will be more inclined to support criminal rights than to support victim rights.

If you are wondering why this Supreme Court case doesn’t sound familiar, it’s probably because it doesn’t. The mainstream media all but ignored this decision and its behemoth implications for victims of domestic violence. In order to fully grasp the dearth of media attention surrounding this case, let’s examine the coverage from the nation’s three most widely circulated newspapers: USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. Between these three publications, USA Today was the only one to run a full-length news story after the decision was handed down from the Supreme Court. The online edition of the Wall Street Journal contained only a two-sentence summary of the decision, listed with forty-five other case summaries. The New York Times squeezed in a three-paragraph summary of the case at the end of an article about another Supreme Court case. None of these papers contained an opinion piece agreeing with either side of the decision. Obviously, the mainstream media did not believe that the Giles case was worth their attention.

In the few instances where big media organizations decided to cover this case, the coverage itself did little to convey the seriousness of the decision and its implications for victims of domestic violence. An examination of several news story headlines makes it clear that the gravity of the decision was lost on members of the mainstream media. For example, in the one article that USA Today published regarding the case, the headline read “Court Affirms Right to Confront Witnesses”. In a similar tone, the Washington Post ran an article about the case with the headline reading “Right to Face Accusers is Affirmed in an Unusual Case”. Even when the media did cover this case, then, the coverage itself was problematic and did little to alert people to the potential consequences of the decision.

The Supreme Court’s decision in Giles v. California marks a historic low in the fight against domestic violence. The highest court in the nation has declared the importance of defendant’s rights over victim’s rights, and the face of domestic violence prosecution has been permanently altered. However, the decision itself is not the only injustice. Rather than alerting people to the true nature of this case, the mainstream media has instead chosen to allow this story to remain unheard by the majority of the population. The minimal coverage that major newspapers did publish was itself problematic, and masked the true nature of the decision. The manner in which the big media organizations handled this case is almost as inexcusable as the decision itself; it serves as yet another bleak warning for the need to keep ourselves informed and make our voices heard.

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Breaking the Silence: A Safe Haven for Women

Breaking the Silence: A Safe Haven for Women is an organization in Massachusetts that provides resources and services for survivors of female genital mutilation (FGM).

" There are approximately 2500 immigrant women in western Massachusetts who are survivors of female genital mutilation. Sometimes called female circumcision or excision, FGM is a common practice in many African, Middle Eastern, & Asian countries in both Muslim and Christian areas. In this procedure, young girls' genital parts are removed surgically. Usually performed without any kind of anesthetic, the practice often result in permanent health ddamage, post-traumatic stress disorder, and childbirth mortality. Many girls die from infections resulting from excision, which is often performed in unsanitary conditions.

"Many families apparently believe FGM is an essential part of initiation into adulthood and the only way to ensure their daughter is seen as 'pure' and desirable by potential husbands.

"Islamic scholars say it has no justification in the Koran, and several have recently spoken out against the practices."

--Brochure of Breaking the Silence.

Email: breakingthe silence@nelcwit.org

To contribute to Breaking the Silence, make check or money order payable to their Fiscal Agency, NELCWIL (New England Learning Center for Women in Transition), and make sure to write "Breaking the Silence" in the Memo. Mail to Breaking the Silence c/o NELCWIT, P.O. Box 520, Greenfield, MA 01302.

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Assault on the Home Front
Bringing awareness to the existence of sexual abuse in the Armed Services

By Laura Forester, WIFP

Women in the United States Armed Services are facing a private war. Not only are these women technically prohibited from engaging in ground combat operations, despite rigorous training, but they also face threats and actions of violencefrom their peers.

The history of the armed services has developed through a strong patriarchic society. However, when conscription, “the draft”, came to an end in the early 1970s, women increasingly became involved in this previously male dominated field.

Commonly, it is recorded that women receive better test scores when entering the armed services, and this attribute results in high quality servicewomen. For example, in 1997, there was a re-structuring of the Armed Forces Qualification Test. According to the test results black women score 2.4 points higher than black men, and white women score 0.8 points higher than white men.  (Charles Murray – The Inequality Taboo). Despite better test results the services tend to recapitulate the view that women are second-class support.

Must American servicewomen regard sexual harassment and assault, as additional hardships to be faced as part of the cost for serving the nation as ‘secondary’?

This overwhelming duplicity of intelligent women serving alongside men as “equal”, yet alarmingly being treated as victims, needs to be properly placed into awareness.

Ilona Meagher, editor of PTSD Combat, comments that we should be aware of how different the Iraq war is for women than any other war in America’s history. 160,500 or more American female soldiers have served in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East since 2003. Women now make up 15 percent of active forces, four times more than in the 1991 Gulf War. Also, the casualties and deaths reported from Iraq relate that this is more female loss than in the Korean, Vietnam and first Gulf Wars combined (http://ptsdcombat.blogspot.com).

Specialist Mickiela Montoya confronted the dangers of war and of rape when she was deployed to Iraq with the National Guard "There are only three kinds of female the men let you be in the military: a bitch, a ho or a dyke," said Montoya, "This guy out there, he told me…in Vietnam they had prostitutes to keep [men] from going crazy, but they don't have those in Iraq. So they have women soldiers instead." (http://ptsdcombat.blogspot.com).

Women face the terrifying effects of combat undertakings accompanied with sexual assault. Tragically, it is not a rare combination. Equally tragic, our military women obtain this treatment from their peer officers. In the New York Times there was a 2003 report, financed by the Department of Defense, cited that nearly one-third of a nationwide sample of female veterans seeking Veterans Administration health care "said they experienced rape or attempted rape during their service." Of this sampling of female military veterans, "37 percent said they were raped multiple times, and 14 percent reported they were gang-raped." (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/magazine/18cover.html?pagewanted=5).

In 2005, the department of defense implemented a new Sexual Assault Prevention Policy. The department created this policy to have consistent education across the services to create a superior understanding of what constitutes assault, risk factors, and preventive measures. The sexual assault policy was created so that there is uniformity in the standards of concern and care. This policy is meant to have a substantial impact on creating a culture of prevention and an environment of awareness.

Major General K.C. McClain, of the United States Air Force, who served as the commander of Joint Task Force Sexual Assault Prevention and Response from September 2004 until June 2006, said the sexual assault policy "will make a tremendous difference in the lives of the men and women in our services." She acknowledged that the new policy "is no silver bullet" or "overnight solution." (http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=24457).

According to the March 2007 Department of Defense annual sexual assault report  there were 2,947 allegations of sexual assaults reported in 2006; a 24% increase from 2005. In this report there was mention of a Sexual Harassment and Assault Survey of the Service Academies. This survey found 6 percent of females and 1 percent of males admitting to being sexually assaulted in 2004-2005, and less than half the females who experienced sexual assault reported it.  Also, 60% of female cadets indicated sexual harassment was about the same as when they first enrolled at their academy.  Due to this insidious problem, Congresswoman Slaughter has proposed The Military Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Act.

Women and men alike should seek to equalize the communication between the services, by expanding knowledge of these issues and concerns. Men are encouraged to speak up about the abuse their female peers undergo when these men are aware of assault. Awareness of this violent issue, and removing it from the veil of taboo and red tape, will allow for more comprehensive and protective measures for victims, and potential victims, of this type of hostility. 

Individuals like Montoya, who has voiced her experiences, and Congresswomen Sanchez and Slaughter, who are trying to pass legislation to amend how sexual assault should be defined and prevented, encourage projects that move us toward goals of health and protection for service men and women fearing assault in the armed services.

The power of awareness and the victim’s voice, are the ground workings for where innovative ideas about progress and protection are cultivated. Communication and commitment to bringing awareness to this issue and prioritizing the safety and honor of our armed servicemen and women is not only patriotic but necessary. 

__________

To learn more about the people and their actions, like the previous proposal, that are improving the serious presence of violence in the military, be sure to see the links and contacts below:

Honor Betrayed: Sexual Abuse in America's Military (Dr. Mic Hunter)
In Honor Betrayed, Dr. Mic Hunter probes beyond the headlines to reveal the reality of sexual abuse in the military. The culture of the military's training is to turn recruits into those who follow orders without question.

http://sapr.mil
The Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office website. SAPRO serves as the single point of accountability for Department of Defense (DoD) sexual assault policy.

Loretta Sanchez – Member of Congress
1230 Longworth HOB
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225 5859http://www.lorettasanchez.house.gov/ 

Louise M. Slaughter – Member of Congress
U.S. House of Representatives
2469 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-3615 [phone]
http://www.louise.house.gov/

The Military Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Act:
Proposed by Congresswoman Louise M. Slaughter
* Establish an office of Victims Advocate within DoD
* Create comprehensive confidentiality protocols to protect the rights of victims within military law; and
* Codify policies for preventing, responding, treating, and prosecuting cases of family violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking in the military and among military families.

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50,000 AMERICANS TOUCHED BY DOMESTIC VIOLENCE PROGRAMS IN A SINGLE DAY

First-of-its-Kind Survey Documents Extensive Reach of Domestic Violence Programs

(March 13, 2007) Washington, DC – In a single day, domestic violence programs served more than 50,000 adults and children in the United States. This astonishing data comes from the release of Domestic Violence Counts: the National Census of Domestic Violence Services (NCDVS). Conducted by the National Network to End Domestic Violence and health economists at Harvard University, the NCDVS is the most recent data documenting the number of individuals served by domestic violence programs. In addition to providing a national snapshot, the NCDVS report (available online at http://www.nnedv.org) also includes state-level data.

More than 1,200 domestic violence programs from across the country (62%) participated in the survey, giving advocates and researchers a glimpse into the number of individuals seeking services, the types of services requested and the number of service requests that went unmet due to a lack of resources. However, because the survey was not able to obtain a count from all domestic violence programs, advocates say the data only skims the surface.

“While the census provides advocates and policymakers with tremendous insight into the need for domestic violence services, the sobering fact is that there are still many more victims who need our help,” said Else. “We need to ensure that resources are available to not only meet current needs, but to also increase public awareness so that all victims know help is available.”

The NCDVS collected a national, unduplicated count of adults and children who received life-saving services from domestic violence programs on November 2, 2006. During the 24-hour survey period 47,864 received direct services, including:

• more than 14,000 Americans sought refuge in emergency shelters
• almost 8,000 lived in transitional housing facilities
• more than 25,000 received non-residential services such as counseling, legal advocacy and children’s support groups.

However, the survey found there was still a significant need for services. More than 10% of requests for services were referred elsewhere because domestic violence programs did not have the resources to aid them.
“Funding cuts preclude us from employing an overnight advocate,” reported a domestic violence program in California which participated in the census. “Many times lack of overnight coverage is a deterrent for victims seeking shelter.”

In addition to providing shelter and advocacy services, domestic violence programs invested a significant amount of time and energy raising public awareness in their communities. During the survey period, domestic violence programs informed more than 40,000 Americans about domestic violence, available resources, and what they could do to help prevent the violence.

The census provides critical data supporting advocates’ efforts to secure full funding for the Violence Against Women Act of 2005. Congress unanimously passed the legislation in December 2005, but since has not passed an appropriations package that includes funding for new programs.

Participating programs logged an unduplicated count of adults and children accessing their services between 8 a.m. EST on November 2, 2006 to 7:59 a.m. EST on November 3, 2006. This “snapshot” approach allowed researchers to document the scope of services without collecting victim-identifying data.

“Individuals seeking domestic violence services are often in immediate danger and need to keep their location a secret. Unfortunately, most research methods place victims at risk,” said Cindy Southworth, NNEDV’s Safety Net Technology Project Director. “The National Census of Domestic Violence Services was designed to protect the safety and confidentiality needs of victims.”

About the National Network to End Domestic Violence

The National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) is a membership and advocacy organization representing the 54 state and U.S. territory domestic violence coalitions. NNEDV is the voice of these coalitions, their more than 2,000 local domestic violence member programs, and the millions of domestic violence survivors who turn to them for services. In 2000 and 2005, NNEDV members all across the country played a crucial role in the reauthorization of VAWA. Through its extensive state and grassroots network, NNEDV continues to mobilize a powerful constituency to make their voices heard in Congress. For more information, please visit www.nnedv.org.

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UNIFEM Launches Database to Track Violence Against Women in Afghanistan

A new pilot project to capture cases of violence against women in a comprehensive database has been launched by UNIFEM in Afghanistan. The database will be used to analyze trends and determine strategies to tackle the issue, including identifying gaps in nation-wide response mechanisms and service provision for victims.

The current availability of mostly anecdotal evidence of violence against women has led to a limited understanding of the root causes of violence in Afghan society. Women's rights advocates cite common problems associated with apathy and an acceptance of violence within communities, disregard of women's complaints of assault by law enforcement agencies, and even a lack of understanding as to what constitutes violence against women in the first place. Many advocates also lament the often poor response from national institutions that are supposed to protect women.

The new database includes a standardized format intended to identify the types of violence perpetrated, systematize recording and reporting of cases, and form a central repository of information for law enforcement agencies to utilize, so that women's complaints are taken seriously and these agencies are better able to prosecute cases. The data collected will also be used to inform recommendations to government and law-making bodies to improve legislation and legal processes to address the issue. The data will be incorporated in the national statistics compiled and disseminated by the central statistics office.

As a key part of the project, UNIFEM has been training field workers in conducting interviews with victims of violence and recording their experiences. Inputs from the training have in turn helped to refine and sharpen the research and format elements of the database. The interview process includes a practical check-list of priorities to cover, beginning with the immediate safety of the woman being interviewed, followed by recommendations on getting treatment in the event of any injuries, and then documentation of the victim's injuries for future court proceedings. All throughout, interviewers are reminded of the necessity of building trust by listening and not placing blame on the victim, so that fear and stigma do not prevent them from reporting their experiences.

http://www.unifem.org/news_events/story_detail.php?StoryID=412

* UNIFEM
Source: UNIFEM - www.unifem.org
* WUNRN
SOURCE: WUNRN - www.wunrn.com

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Violence Against Women, A Worldwide Phenomenon

On the occasion of the International Women’s Day OMCT wishes to recall the every-day discrimination women are subjected to worldwide, for the crimes committed against them go most often unpunished and the crimes they are convicted for and the way they are punished are all too often disproportionate and arbitrary.

Violence against women perpetrated by one’s family and community is as universal as the rights they should enjoy. It requires more than prohibition in law. Its practice goes unchanged as long as it is socially tolerated in the name of patriarchal order, tradition or sexual domination. However when one points at the State’s duty to exert its due diligence to prevent, protect, investigate and punish domestic and community violence against women, one should first look at the State’s perpetrating or sponsoring of violence against women. Hence the need to look at all dimensions of the problem and tackle it at different fronts, different levels, through a holistic approach. This is what OMCT, with the support of its members (282 as of today), has been doing since 1996.

OMCT has noted throughout the ten years of the existence of its Violence against Women Programme that certain women are particularly prone to be victims of violence because they play a specific role in society or belong to a certain social category. For instance, in Tamil Nadu, India, dalit women victims of violence, including rape, will most likely be denied access to justice and redress because the perpetrator is from an upper caste. The virtual guarantee of impunity plays a catalyst role for the perpetuation of such acts. Moreover, those who defend the rights of women, whether a men or a woman, are often targeted for their challenging both governmental policies and social norms.

OMCT has also long documented the particularly acute violence women are subjected to in the context of internal armed conflicts (Sudan, Colombia) occupation (Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories) or within the context of dispute over territorial sovereignty (Western Sahara). In these cases governmental and rebel armed forces which are expected to abide by International Humanitarian Law enjoy impunity for the ill-treatment, the use of forced labour, sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of women often used as a weapon of war.

Numerous factors restrain and dissuade women from denouncing acts of violence they are subjected to, be it social pressure, shame, fear of retaliation or the certainty that nothing will be done to investigate and punish these crimes. OMCT has noticed however that international solidarity networks, such as its SOS-Torture network, are particularly active in the support of women victims of violence. The underreporting of such violence is detrimental to the improvement of the situation of actual and potential victims. Perpetrators must be named and shamed and States held accountable either for committing or condoning violations of the most fundamental rights of women.

For further information or documentation see www.omct.org or contact:
Mariana Duarte, Tel.: +41 22 809 49 39 - Fax: +41 22 809 49 29 – E-mail: md@omct.org

* WUNRN
SOURCE: WUNRN - www.wunrn.com

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LANDMARK STUDY ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE- WHO REPORT FINDS DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IS WIDESPREAD

The first-ever World Health Organization (WHO) study on domestic violence reveals that intimate partner violence is the most common form of violence in women's lives - much more so than assault or rape by strangers or acquaintances. The study reports on the enormous toll physical and sexual violence by husbands and partners has on the health and well-being of women around the world and the extent to which partner violence is still largely hidden.

"This study shows that women are more at risk from violence at home than in the street and this has serious repercussions for women's health," said Dr LEE Jong-wook, Director-General of WHO at the study release in Geneva. "The study also shows how important it is to shine a spotlight on domestic violence globally and treat it as a major public health issue."

The study is based on interviews with more than 24 000 women from rural and urban areas in 10 countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, Japan, Namibia, Peru, Samoa, Serbia and Montenegro, Thailand, and the United Republic of Tanzania. The Women's Health and Domestic Violence Against Women study makes recommendations and calls for action by policy makers and the public health sector to address the human and health costs, including by integrating violence prevention programming into a range of social programmes.

The study finds that one quarter to one half of all women who had been physically assaulted by their partners said that they had suffered physical injuries as a direct result. The abused women were also twice as likely as non-abused women to have poor health and physical and mental problems, even if the violence occurred years before. This includes suicidal thoughts and attempts, mental distress, and physical symptoms like pain, dizziness and vaginal discharge. The study was carried out in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, PATH and national research institutions and women's organizations in the participating countries.

"The degree to which the health consequences of partner violence in the WHO study are consistent across sites, both within and between countries, is striking," noted Dr Charlotte Watts, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, a member of the core research team for the study. "Partner violence appears to have a similar impact on women's health and well-being regardless of where she lives, the prevalence of violence in her setting, or her cultural or economic background."

Domestic violence is known to affect women's sexual and reproductive health and may contribute to increased risk of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. In this study, women who were in physically or sexually abusive relationships were more likely to report that their partner had multiple sexual partners and had refused to use a condom than women in non violent relationships. Women who reported physical or sexual violence by a partner were also more likely to report having had at least one induced abortion or miscarriage than those who did not report violence.

Although pregnancy is often thought of as a time when women should be protected, in most study locations, between 4% and 12% of women who had been pregnant reported being beaten during pregnancy. More than 90% of these women had been abused by the father of the unborn child and between one quarter and one half of them had been kicked or punched in the abdomen.

For policy makers, the greatest challenge is that abuse remains hidden. At least 20% of women reporting physical violence in the study had never told anyone before being interviewed. Despite the health consequences, very few women reported seeking help from formal services like health and police, or from individuals in positions of authority, preferring instead to reach out to friends, neighbours and family members. Those who did seek formal support tended to be the most severely abused.

"This is the first ever study conducted in Thailand on this issue and has made us better understand the extent of violence that women experience in our country," noted Dr. Churnrurtai Kanchanachitra from Mahidol University, and a member of the study team in Thailand. "The findings helped us to develop the national plan for the elimination of violence against women and children."

The report recommends a range of vital interventions to change attitudes and challenge the inequities and social norms that perpetuate abuse. It further recommends integrating violence prevention programming into ongoing initiatives aimed at children, youth, HIV/AIDS, and sexual and reproductive health. Health service providers should be trained to identify women experiencing violence and to respond appropriately.

Prenatal care, family planning or post abortion care are potential entry points to provide care, support, and referral to other services. Schools need to be safe places, support systems for victims must be strengthened and prevention programmes put in place. Raising awareness of the problem among the general public is critical. . "Domestic violence can be prevented and governments and communities need to mobilize to fight this widespread public health problem," said WHO's Dr Claudia Garcia Moreno, Study Coordinator. "WHO will continue to raise awareness about violence and the important role that public health can play to address its causes and consequences. Globally, we need to stop the violence from happening in the first place, and to provide help and support to women who are in abusive relationships."

WHO's Global Campaign for the Prevention of Violence supports governments to develop comprehensive violence prevention programmes to address domestic violence alongside other types of violence.

Some quotes from women interviewed for the study

"I suffered for a long time and swallowed all my pain. That's why I am constantly visiting doctors and using medicines. No one should do this." Woman interviewed in Serbia and Montenegro. "He got this gun, I don't know from who... And he would tell the girls: "I'm going to kill your mother... The day will break and your mother will be dead right here..." I would sleep in a locked bedroom and with a dog inside the room with me. My dog. So he would not kill me". Woman interviewed in Brazil. "He hit me in the belly and made me miscarry two babies - identical or fraternal twins, I don't know. I went to the Loayza hospital with heavy bleeding and they cleaned me up." Woman interviewed in urban Peru.

How physical and sexual violence was measured: For physical violence, women were asked whether a current or former partner had ever: slapped her, or thrown something at her that could hurt her ; pushed or shoved her ; hit her with a fist or something else that could hurt ; kicked, dragged or beaten her up ; choked or burnt her on purpose ; threatened her with , or actually used a gun, knife or other weapon against her.

Sexual violence was defined by the following three behaviours: Being physically forced to have a sexual intercourse against her will ; having sexual intercourse because she was afraid of what her partner might do ; being forced to do something sexual she found degrading or humiliating.

The study is available online at http://www.who.int/gender/violence/who_multicountry_study/en/index.html

For more information contact:

Melissa Rendler-Garcia
Gender, Women and Health Department,
Telephone: +41 22 791 5543

Source: WHO - www.who.int.

Normalizing Function of the Mass Media: Cosmetic Foot Surgery

By Sena Christian
WIFP Associate

Foot binding in China was seen as a crime against women. It was a crime that occurred for over a thousand years, deforming and disabling an estimated one million women. Even though it was outlawed in 1911, foot binding continues to occur to a far lesser degree in China. Now thousands of miles away, in a troubling phenomena reminiscent of ancient foot-binding practices in China, women in the U.S. are voluntarily mutilating their feet for the latest fashion trend.

Women in the U.S. are risking permanent disabilities through toe shortening and foot narrowing surgeries in an effort to fit into designer high heels and to emphasize "toe cleavage." Doctors report having their offices filled with women suffering from failed cosmetic foot procedures. Sadly, this new form of cosmetic surgery is not very surprising when you consider that several times a week the American television viewing public can witness women (and men) putting their faces and bodies under the knife in a painful sacrifice to "beauty."

The mass media serves a normalizing function in the U.S., normalizing even the most extreme and detrimental behavior and perspectives. "Extreme Makeover," for instance, claims to be "A real life fairy tale in which [people's] wishes comes true, not just to change their looks, but their lives and destinies." Each week the show features two individuals who undergo several surgeries all over their faces and bodies, getting everything from chin implants to tummy tucks. MTV's "I Want a Famous Face" shows painful and risky reconstructive surgery undergone by people who want to look like a celebrity. MTV implies that it is basically performing a public service need by "documenting this new phenomenon." These shows make it acceptable for viewers to comment on every physical aspect of other people. Women especially, are supposed to meet certain standards, look a particular way, and if they do not, they are expected and encouraged to alter themselves.

Undoubtedly, the messages and images portrayed through the mass media have played a significant role in the recent cosmetic foot surgery phenomena. Everyday viewers see and hear messages that normalize unrealistic beauty expectations, promoting the notion that cosmetic surgery is common. How often can these messages be relayed without being absorbed?

Women and men have gotten the idea that it is acceptable and expected that women-primarily-undergo drastic measures to meet certain unrealistic standards of beauty. The most obvious reason for this is the mainstream media's production of shows such as "Extreme Makeover" and "I Want a Famous Face," normalizing cosmetic surgery as a realistic, reasonable and expected procedure and option for the American public. The media is an integral part of the everyday lives and culture of a large segment of the American public. As such, it is part of our socialization process in the U.S.. There have been endless debates as to whether or not what we see and hear on television affects us as individuals and a society. Violent images on TV and subsequent violent tendencies of viewers is usually at the center of the debate; however we need to look at the more subtle and indirect ways in which the images and representations portrayed in the media-particularly those involving gender roles and expectations-reflect and/or determine our realities, our desires, our expectations and our perceptions.

Americans live in a society which considers it desirable for women to chop off their toes and narrow their feet to emphasize toe cleavage, and which regards high heels as sexy. These preferences suggest more than just fashion, they reflect gender roles and expectations in our society. Cosmetic foot surgery and high heels make women vulnerable, require women to rely on male assistance, immobilize women and keep them in "their place." Indeed, this recent phenomena in the U.S. brings to mind the ancient custom of Chinese foot binding. According to Janet Chen who has written on foot binding, "Because of this custom, women became totally dependent on male relatives, thus reinforcing their subordinate positions in life. Women stayed at home, unable to work or to have any sort of public life. The practice was an ingenious, as well as cruel, method of social control over generations of women, keeping them from seeking independence and liberation."

As one woman writes in an article condemning cosmetic foot surgery, "Where can a woman go in such shoes? Not far. How fast can a woman travel in such shoes? Not very. How long can a woman stand in them? It depends, I guess, on how long a woman is willing to suffer."

The increase of cosmetic foot surgeries in the U.S. has developed out of societal pressure on women to conform to the latest fashion trends, regardless of the effects on women's bodies, health or minds. These are pressures and trends which have been normalized, spread and perpetuated through the mass media. Women are expected to want to meet societal and media-established standards of beauty; if they do not, they are subject to suspicion and ridicule. It is believed that women should want to masochistically cut off their toes to fit more easily into painful high heels. Women should want to suffer pain and sacrifice to appeal to men and heterosexual standards of beauty. Afterall, as Suzanne M. Levine, M.D., a New York podiatrist told the New York Times, "Take your average woman and give her heels instead of flats and she'll suddenly get whistles on the street... I do everything I can to get them back into their shoes."

The ancient custom of foot binding began in China during the Sung dynasty as an imitation of an imperial concubine who was required to dance before the emperor with bound feet. Foot binding requires a tight binding of the toes and feet using bandages in order to keep the feet as small as three inches long. While at first the practice was seen as a status symbol for only the rich, the practice quickly spread until all but the very poor bound the feet of their daughters. Daughters with bound feet symbolized the wealth of the family and the suitability of the daughter for marriage. In addition, foot binding was "partly powered by a sexual fetish among Chinese men... The small, unsure steps of a woman with lotus feet were considered very feminine, while the inability to walk long distances helped ensure the girl's virginity, as she could not leave home."

Mention the ancient custom of Chinese foot binding today and most Americans would shake their heads in disbelief; yet how would these same people respond to TV shows like "Extreme Makeover" or coverage of the cosmetic foot surgery trend? As Adele Horin writes, "If it happened in Afghanistan [or China] we'd call it barbaric. In the West we call it fashion."

Recommended Book:

War Is Not Over When It's Over, Women Speak Out From the Ruins of War

By Ann Jones

(Henry Holt & Co, NY, 2010)

"In 2007, the International Rescue Committee, which brings emergency relief to countries in the wake of war, sought to understand what women in post-conflict zones really needed, wanted, and feared. Answers came through the point and click of a digital camera. On behalf of the IRC, Ann Jones spent a year traveling through Africa, East Asia, and the Middle East, giving cameras to women who had no other means of telling the world what war had done to their lives.

"The photography project--which moved from Liberia to the Congo to Burmese refugee camps in Thailand and points in between--quickly became a lens on the true nature of modern warfare and its consequences for the most vulnerable. ... And along with peace often comes worsening violence against women, both domestic and sexual, inflicted by roving militias, brought home by men returning from the front, and taken up by civilians."

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