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PART 1: International media about the
atrocities against women worldwide
from March 1 untill April 25 2021
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PART 2: International media about the
atrocities against women worldwide from April 26 untill April 12 2021
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PART 3: International media
about the atrocities
against women worldwide.
June 3 2021 untill April 16 2021
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PART 4 : International media about the atrocities
against women worldwide.
June 29 2021 untill November 15 2020.
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PART 3: International media
about the atrocities
against women worldwide.
July 31 2021 untill June 30 2021. |
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CLICK HERE ON HOW TO
READ THE
BELOW
When one hurts
or kills a women
one hurts or kills hummanity and is an antrocitie.
Gino d'Artali
WELCOME TO PART 4 OF GLOBAL
ATROCITIES AGAINST WOMEN
THANK YOU.
www.cryfreedom.net its 'header'
of the month:
Al Jazeera
Edna Bonhomme
8 March 2021
<<What is International Women’s Day for Black women?
It is a reminder of the erasure of Black feminist struggles.
Today much of the world marks International Women’s Day. From
Afghanistan to Guinea-Bissau and the United States, March 8 is
recognised as the day to celebrate the achievements of women’s rights
movements.
The origins of International Women’s Day can be traced to New York
where, in 1908, thousands of garment workers went on strike, marching
through the streets of the city to demand better pay and working
conditions. Several years later, European feminists held a meeting in
Copenhagen where they agreed to establish an international day to
commemorate the women’s struggle. In 1911, March 8 was celebrated
internationally for the first time.
The pioneers of mainstream feminism in the US and Europe advocated for
better working conditions, suffrage, the right to run for political
office, and an end to discrimination against women. Their work in
pursuing gender equality was admirable, but it also featured some deeply
flawed practices which have to be acknowledged.
The European and American mainstream feminist movement for a long time
excluded Black women from its history and its celebration of women’s
achievements. International Women’s Day, too, has historically left out
Black women.
The exclusion is not a result of Black women’s lack of political
participation in eliminating gender oppression, rather, it is the result
of the perennial anti-Blackness of the white feminist movements.
Members of the early white feminist movement were, by no means, a
homogeneous group, but the majority did not necessarily espouse
anti-racist views or anti-slavery and anti-segregation agendas. In fact,
there has been a clear link between white feminism and white supremacy
and colonialism.>>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/3/8/what-is-international-womens-day-for-black-women
And now let's get started for
more:
The Guardian
June 26 2021
Ann Malaika Tubbs
<<I knew how dangerous things could become’: the perils of childbirth as
a Black woman
When she was pregnant, Anna Malaika Tubbs was thrilled – then terrified,
knowing the shockingly high death rate of Black women in childbirth.
Could she find a way to stay safe?
In the bathroom of a friend’s house in Washington DC, I waited anxiously
for a few minutes before turning to look at the pregnancy test. It was
positive. My eyes filled with tears; I was overjoyed, grateful and
excited, but also very scared.
I think many parents can relate to this feeling, which seems to start as
soon as we see that test result, and continues until our children are
adults; we are overwhelmed with happiness for their mere existence while
simultaneously terrified of the possibility of losing them. But as a
Black feminist scholar, I was well aware that I had even more reason to
worry.
I knew the dangers for a pregnant Black woman. I knew that neither my
degrees, nor my access to resources could protect me from the Black
maternal health crisis in which Black women in the US are three to four
times more likely to experience a pregnancy-related death than our white
counterparts. I was aware that my experience of receiving care for my
child was likely to be tainted by bias that could lead to my needs being
disregarded by the professionals who were meant to serve me and my baby.
And I knew that this was the case partly because the medical system I
would need to rely on was built by experimenting on the bodies of Black
women who were enslaved.
Since I was pursuing my PhD at the University of Cambridge, I wondered
if it would be safer for me to be based in the UK for prenatal care and
my child’s arrival; I had access to the NHS, and was also aware that my
care would be midwife-led. But I did my research and found that things
were the same, if not worse: in the UK, Black women are five times more
likely to die in pregnancy or in childbirth than white women.>>
Click here to read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/jun/26/i-knew-how-dangerous-things-could-become-perils-of-childbirth-as-a-black-woman
TRTWORLD
25 June 2021
<<Pakistan provincial court bans virginity tests on rape victims.
Declaring them illegal, Lahore High Court said a virginity test offends
the personal dignity of the female victim and therefore is against the
right to life and right to dignity.
A court in Pakistan's most populous province has outlawed virginity
tests on rape victims, a longstanding practice in the country used to
assess a woman's so-called honour.
Critics of the tests, including an invasive <two-finger test>, had filed
petitions in the eastern city of Lahore in a bid to have them outlawed.
The World Health Organization has previously said that there is no
scientific merit to the examinations and considers them a human rights
violation.>>
Read more here:
https://www.trtworld.com/asia/one-woman-reports-a-rape-every-15-minutes-in-india-32845
TRTWORLD
18 Jan 2021
<<Women only taxi service launched in South Africa as sexual assault
rises.
Activist Joanie Fredericks' ladies only taxi service launched last week
has already received calls from women requesting a ride to work that
will keep them safe.
From a women-only driving school to an all-female taxi service — a South
African activist-turned-entrepreneur has been tackling high rates of
sexual assault by providing safe transport in one of the country's most
crime-ridden areas.
The Cape Flats, which lies on the outskirts of the popular tourist city
of Cape Town, is notorious for gang warfare, and sexual violence is an
everyday fear for women taking taxis or using public transport in the
area, said Joanie Fredericks.>>
Read more here:
https://www.trtworld.com/africa/women-only-taxi-service-launched-in-south-africa-as-sexual-assault-rises-43369
The Guardian
27 Jun 2021
Martin Pengelly
<<‘First of all, I’m taller’: AOC dismisses Greene’s ‘little communist’
attack
Marjorie Taylor Greene has harassed Ocasio-Cortez on Capitol Hill,
prompting the progressive to raise concerns for her security.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has dismissed comments in which the Georgia
Republican extremist Marjorie Taylor Greene called her a <little
communist> and said she should be locked up, tweeting: <First of all,
I’m taller than her.>
‘He’s not a quitter’: faithful out in force as Trump gets back to the
campaign trail.
Greene is a far-right congresswoman and controversialist who was
stripped of committee assignments for comments including advocating
violence against political opponents. This month, she apologised for
comparing public health rules to combat the coronavirus to the
Holocaust.
Greene has harassed Ocasio-Cortez on Capitol Hill, prompting the
prominent progressive to raise concerns for her security and that of
others.
Greene was speaking on Saturday evening to supporters of Donald Trump at
a rally outside Cleveland, staged to bring the former president back to
the campaign trail and to target an Ohio Republican who voted for
Trump’s second impeachment.
Referring to Ocasio-Cortez as <the little communist from New York City>,
Greene responded to boos and remarks from the crowd when she said:
<Right. Yeah, lock her up too, that’s a good idea.>>
Read more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/27/aoc-marjorie-taylor-greene
And more here about <The Squad> an article written by Gino d'Artali in
the summer of 2020:
http://www.cryfreedom.net/USA%20-%20the%20bad%20ass%20THE%20SQUAD.htm
Al Jazeera
27 June 2021
<<Saudi Arabia releases two prominent women’s rights activists
Samar Badawi and Nassima al-Sadah were arrested in August 2018 as part
of a government crackdown against dissent.
Saudi Arabia has released two prominent women’s rights activists held in
detention for nearly three years, a rights group has confirmed.
<Human rights defenders Samar Badawi and Nassima al-Sadah have been
released following the expiry of the sentences against them,> ALQST for
Human Rights said in a tweet on Sunday.
The activists were arrested in August 2018 as part of a then widening
government crackdown against peaceful dissent.
Most of those imprisoned, estimated to be in the dozens, campaigned for
the right to drive and an end to the kingdom’s male guardianship system,
which requires women to obtain the consent of a male relative for major
decisions.
Badawi received the United States’ International Women of Courage Award
in 2012 for challenging the guardianship system, and was among the first
women who signed a petition calling on the government to allow women to
drive, vote and run in local elections.
She is also the sister of Raif Badawi, a prominent human rights
campaigner, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2014 on charges
of <insulting Islam> on his blog.
Al-Sadah, from the restive Shia-majority Qatif province, has also
campaigned for the right to drive and to abolish the guardianship
system. She was a candidate in the 2015 local elections which saw women
run in elections for the first time.
Her name was ultimately removed by authorities.
Some of the women’s rights activists arrested in 2018 include Eman al-Nafjan,
Loujain al-Hathloul, Aziza al-Yousef, Aisha al-Manea, Ibrahim Modeimigh
and Mohammed al-Rabea.>>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/27/saudi-arabia-releases-two-prominent-womens-rights-activists
Al Jazeera
June 24 2021
Juliana-Nnoko-Mewanu
<<Climate action must take into account women’s right to land.
Climate action plans have to include measures to redress women
disproportionately affected by deforestation and plantation expansion.
On a rainy day in April 2018, I rode a small speedboat along the Kapuas
River in West Kalimantan province, Indonesia, headed for three tidal
swamp villages, whose residents had protested against the expansion of
oil palm plantations on their farmland and settlements.
The government had permitted a palm oil company to establish and expand
its plantations in the area. The company had cleared and drained
peatlands, an important carbon sink, and planted oil palm trees on land
villagers had been using for decades. In the process, it had completely
disregarded how its actions violated the villagers’ land rights, led to
the loss of livelihood for the village women, who had mostly farmed the
land, and contributed to the global climate crisis.
Villagers had little information about where the oil palm plantations
started or ended and how or where it overlapped with their land. Women
had even less information than men, and had fewer avenues to negotiate
directly with the company about their losses. During my visit, these
women told me that when they started protesting against the expansion of
the palm plantations, the company met only with the men of the village
to discuss possible compensation.
The loss of livelihood has rendered the village women even more
vulnerable to climate change, as it has affected their food security and
source of income. They will face more difficulties overcoming or
adapting to its effects and will be among the hardest hit.>>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/6/24/climate-action-must-take-into-account-womens-right-to-land
The Guardian
June 23 2021
Rory Carrol
<<Ireland
Irish couple to receive damages over advice that led to unnecessary
abortion.
Rebecca Price terminated pregnancy after being mistakenly told foetus
had fatal abnormality.
A couple in Ireland are to be awarded damages for being mistakenly told
their unborn baby had a fatal foetal abnormality, which led them to
terminate the pregnancy.
The high court in Dublin will consider the damages to be paid to Rebecca
Price and Patrick Kiely on Wednesday after medical personnel and
institutions involved in the case admitted liability.
Price said she had suffered all-consuming physical and mental trauma
since discovering she had unnecessarily terminated her pregnancy what
would would have been her first child, a boy to be named Christopher
Joseph Kiely.
A lawyer representing Merrion Fetal Health Clinic, one of the
defendants, called it a <terribly sad> case.
The couple, from Dublin, said they were delighted to discover on
Christmas Eve 2018 that Price was pregnant. An ultrasound scan on 21
February 2019 at the Merrion fetal health clinic – a business
partnership run by the consultants Peter McParland, Fionnuala McAuliffe,
Rhona Mahony, Shane Higgins and Stephen Carroll – was normal.
Price said she was advised to have a prenatal check known as a Harmony
test, and was told a week later the foetus had trisomy 18, also known as
Edwards’ syndrome, a rare and serious condition usually fatal before or
soon after birth. A sample sent to the Greater Glasgow Health Board for
analysis also showed evidence of trisomy 18.
Price and Kiely said they had been told the pregnancy was not viable and
that there was no point in waiting for the results of a more
comprehensive chromosomal analysis. An abortion was carried out at the
National Maternity hospital in Dublin on 14 March 2019.>>
Read more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/23/irish-couple-to-receive-damages-over-advice-that-led-to-unnecessary-abortion
Al Jazeera
23 June 2021
<<Sri Lanka’s belated #MeToo movement starts from its newsrooms
Government orders probe into sexual harassment in media after a string
of allegations from female newsroom staff.
Sri Lanka’s government has ordered an investigation into sexual
harassment in the media after a string of #MeToo allegations from female
newsroom staff.
The flood of claims began after journalist Sarah Kellapatha tweeted last
week that a male colleague had threatened to rape her while working at
an unnamed newspaper from 2010-17.
<It was almost impossible for any female to wear a dress to work,
without having to endure salacious remarks from male colleagues about
their legs and bodies in general, or they would utter a loud ‘sexy’
whenever they felt like it,> Kellapatha said.
She said she had <blocked [the rape threat] from my mind for YEARS, as a
coping mechanism, until one day, I remembered it and broke down in
tears>.
Other women journalists have since taken to Twitter in a campaign
reminiscent of the #MeToo movement that began in the United States in
2017 when sex offender Harvey Weinstein’s crimes emerged.
Journalist Sahla Ilham said she was sexually abused by a <famous editor>
at a now-defunct paper who had pressured her family to keep quiet.
<I have been silent for too long, now I have to add what happened to me,
as well,> Ilham said.
US journalist Jordana Narin, who had been an intern at a Sri Lankan
newspaper, said a senior colleague had subjected her to a campaign of
sexual harassment before the chief editor forced him to resign.>>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/23/sri-lanka-metoo-newsrooms-women-journalists
The Guardian
June 23 2021
Lizzy DAVIES
<<Sadia Hussein: the FGM survivor who is saving girls from the knife.
Being cut, aged 10, led to extraordinary pain and complications in
childbirth. Now Hussein’s campaign to end mutilation has led to a
staggering change in attitudes.
Sadia Hussein had been in labour for three days when she felt she could
take no more. She could hear her mother crying in the distance, pleading
with God to save her daughter’s life.
But even though things were clearly not progressing as they should have
been, the women in her small Kenyan village were resistant to the idea
of sending her to hospital. Her mother told her that doctors would <tear
her apart> with a pair of scissors; that, at home, they could at least
use a razor. <So now, on top of the overwhelming pain of labour, there
was this continuous cutting,> Hussein recalls.
Sadia Hussein had been in labour for three days when she felt she could
take no more. She could hear her mother crying in the distance, pleading
with God to save her daughter’s life.
But even though things were clearly not progressing as they should have
been, the women in her small Kenyan village were resistant to the idea
of sending her to hospital. Her mother told her that doctors would <tear
her apart> with a pair of scissors; that, at home, they could at least
use a razor. <So now, on top of the overwhelming pain of labour, there
was this continuous cutting,> Hussein recalls.
Eventually, Hussein gave birth to a baby girl. When she came to, several
hours later, she found her legs had been tied together, making it
impossible for her to sit up, let alone hold her newborn. Her mother
came into her room and brought her tea, and Hussein asked her to help
her cradle the baby. <I couldn’t control my tears,” she says, now. “I
was telling my daughter: ‘I love you so much. My mother failed to
protect me but I will protect you.’ And that’s when I swore that this
should never happen to my daughter.>
Hussein’s horrendous labour was a direct result of the female genital
mutilation (FGM) she suffered at the age of 10. Like so many women, her
trauma did not end there. It returned, years later, when she got
married, and underwent further cutting to prepare her body for sex. And
it was there once again, in labour, when she feared she would lose both
her baby’s life and her own.
Sadia Hussein 'I said 'You are my mother, but you are not the mother of
my daughter. I will decide what should happen to my daughter'>>
Read more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jun/23/sadia-hussein-the-fgm-survivor-who-is-saving-girls-from-the-knife
Al Jazeera
23 June 2021
<<US defence chief backs change in military sex assault cases
The move comes after a years-long push for removing commanders from
decisions on trying sexual assault cases.
In a major shift, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he backed
removing the prosecution of sexual assault and other related crimes from
the military’s chain of command, allowing instead for independent
lawyers to try those cases.
Advocates and lawmakers have been calling for years for the military
commanders to be taken out of the decision-making process when it comes
to prosecuting sexual assault cases, arguing that they are inclined to
overlook the issue.
Sexual assault and harassment in the US military is largely
underreported and the Pentagon’s handling of it has come under renewed
scrutiny.
<We will work with Congress to amend the Uniform Code of Military
Justice, removing the prosecution of sexual assaults and related crimes
from the military chain of command,> Austin said in a statement on
Tuesday, becoming the first defence secretary to support such a move.
Austin said he also backed removing other related crimes, such as
domestic violence, from the military chain of command.
He said he would brief President Joe Biden on the recommendation from an
independent commission on sexual assault established by the Pentagon.
The panel made the recommendations that Austin endorsed.
Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand who has been leading the push for
years and spearheaded a bill that would remove military commanders from
decisions on pursuing sexual assault cases welcomed Austin’s statement,
but said it falls short of the required changes.
<Secretary Austin’s recommendations are an excellent step in the right
direction, but it’s not the full reform we need,> Gillibrand said in an
interview with NPR aired on Wednesday.
<While taking sexual assault out of the chain of command is a good full
step, it’s not enough,> she said, <there is a lot of bias in the
military justice system and one of the most glaring places of bias is
with issues of sexual assault.>
Gillibrand said this bias has affected which cases are tried, as well as
who is being charged. She pointed to studies that have shown that
service members of colour are more likely to be investigated and charged
with sexual crimes and misconduct.
Austin said he also backed removing other related crimes, such as
domestic violence, from the military chain of command.
He said he would brief President Joe Biden on the recommendation from an
independent commission on sexual assault established by the Pentagon.
The panel made the recommendations that Austin endorsed.
Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand who has been leading the push for
years and spearheaded a bill that would remove military commanders from
decisions on pursuing sexual assault cases welcomed Austin’s statement,
but said it falls short of the required changes.
<Secretary Austin’s recommendations are an excellent step in the right
direction, but it’s not the full reform we need,> Gillibrand said in an
interview with NPR aired on Wednesday.
<While taking sexual assault out of the chain of command is a good full
step, it’s not enough,> she said, <there is a lot of bias in the
military justice system and one of the most glaring places of bias is
with issues of sexual assault.>
Gillibrand said this bias has affected which cases are tried, as well as
who is being charged. She pointed to studies that have shown that
service members of colour are more likely to be investigated and charged
with sexual crimes and misconduct.>>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/23/us-defence-secretary-backs-change-in-military-sex-assault-cases
Al Jazeera
23 June 2021
<<Egypt arrests TikTok star after ‘human trafficking’ conviction
Police arrest female TikTok influencer Haneen Hossam, who was sentenced
to 10 years in prison for ‘human trafficking’.
In the latest twist in a nearly year-long saga, a Cairo court on Sunday
sentenced Haneen Hossam, 20, in absentia to 10 years in prison, and
co-defendant Mawadah al-Adham, 23, who was present, to six years.
The court also fined the two university students 200,000 Egyptian pounds
each ($13,000) for encouraging women to share footage on the
video-sharing app in exchange for money.
Hossam was arrested in a Cairo suburb and will be transferred to the
Public Prosecution, the AFP news agency reported, citing a security
official.
Appeal
Hossam’s lawyer, Hani Sameh, said on Monday that she would appeal the
prison sentence handed down to her.
<We will demand restoration of the case proceedings because there are
contradictions between the verdict and the merits on which the court’s
decision is based,> said Sameh.
“We hope that she can get a reduced jail sentence or an acquittal,> he
told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Hours before her arrest, Hossam posted a video in which she asked
President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi for a pardon.
<10 years! I didn’t do anything immoral to deserve all this. I was
jailed for 10 months and didn’t say a word after I was released … Why do
you want to jail me again?> she said, as she cried and pleaded.
She added: <I was wronged, and I did not do anything. I am literally
dying. Save me. My mother is about to have a stroke after the ruling.>
Crackdown on social media influencers
Several women have been accused of <inciting debauchery> for challenging
Egypt’s conservative social values, and the battle has moved online as
the use of social media by young Egyptians surges.
Hossam, who has about 900,000 followers on TikTok, was among five
Egyptian social media influencers who were sentenced to two years in
jail in July 2020 for promoting immorality by encouraging women to make
money through social media followings.
She was arrested after posting a video on Instagram explaining how women
could earn up to $3,000 by broadcasting videos using the video creation
platform Likee, which authorities interpreted as promoting women selling
sex online.>>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/23/egypt-detains-female-tiktok-stars-over-human-trafficking
Al Jazeera
22 Jun 2021
By Eva Clifford
<<The Indigenous woman who survived a desolate Arctic island
In 1921, 23-year-old seamstress Ada Blackjack embarked on an expedition
to a remote Siberian island with four white men. They would face -50
degree temperatures, starvation, bears and scurvy. Only one of them made
it home.
On September 16, 1921, Ada Blackjack watched as four white men planted a
British flag on the shore of a desolate Siberian island. The group had
been sent by Vilhjalmur Stefansson, the Canadian-born explorer, to
colonise Wrangel Island, 140km (87 miles) off the coast of Siberia, on
behalf of the British Empire.
As well as being a prime spot for fur trapping and walrus hunting – both
profitable industries – Vilhjalmur saw the potential for a future
airbase on the island, which could aid his search for the uncharted
northern continent he was convinced existed. For the young,
adventure-seeking explorers recruited, the prospect of being involved in
such a mission was too great to refuse.
The plan was for the team to stay there for up to two years, with a
supply ship scheduled to arrive after a year. Ada, a 23-year-old Iñupiat
woman, would be their seamstress, sewing fur clothing to withstand the
Arctic temperatures.
The only problem was that she did not want to be there, but by then it
was too late. Behind her, the Silver Wave – the ship they’d arrived on
and her sole connection to home – drifted towards the horizon as her
eyes filled with tears.
<When we got to Wrangel Island, the land looked very large to me, but
they said that it was only a small island,> said Ada in a statement
published in Vilhjalmur’s book, Adventure of Wrangel Island, four years
later in 1925. I thought at first that I would turn back, but I decided
it wouldn’t be fair to the boys.>
Gold, death and poverty
Ada was born in the remote Inuit settlement of Spruce Creek, northwest
Alaska, in 1898, the year of the Alaskan Gold Rush.
When gold was discovered in the nearby village of Solomon, 13km (eight
miles) west of Spruce Creek, the region saw an influx of thousands of
non-Native people from across the US. Infrastructure followed, including
a railroad and telephone line, but when tidal storms hit in 1913, the
railroad was destroyed and – with the Gold Rush over – Solomon became a
predominantly Iñupiat village once again. In 1918, the area was ravaged
by the Spanish flu epidemic which wiped out over half of Solomon’s 62
residents.
Ada’s family endured their own personal tragedy. When she was eight
years old, her father died after eating spoiled meat. After his death,
her mother sent her to a Methodist school run by Christian missionaries
in Nome, another nearby gold rush town. There, she was taught to read in
English, sew and cook <white folk’s food>. Such schools often forcibly
removed Indigenous children from their families, communities and
cultures, punishing them for speaking their Native languages and
practising their beliefs.
At 16, Ada married a local dog musher, Jack Blackjack, and they lived
together on the Seward Peninsula, 64km (40 miles) away from Nome. They
had three children, but only one survived infancy. According to Jennifer
Niven’s book, Ada Blackjack: A True Story of Survival in the Arctic
(2003), which is based on Ada’s journals and interviews with her son,
Jack beat and starved Ada.
In 1921, when she was 22, Jack deserted her. Poverty-stricken, she
walked with her then five-year-old son, Bennett, who was ill with
tuberculosis, from the Seward Peninsula back to Nome. When Bennett got
too tired to walk, she carried him.
While Nome had once been the largest settlement in Alaska at the peak of
the Gold Rush in 1900, by 1920, its population had shrunk from 12,488 to
852. According to Niven’s book, Nome in 1921 was <violent, turbulent,
and grim. There were no sewers, no ditches, no safe drinking water, and
crime was rampant>.
Once she returned, Ada was forced to leave Bennett in the care of an
orphanage, as she could no longer afford to raise him on her meagre
earnings from housekeeping and sewing. It was around this time that an
expedition crew arrived in Nome seeking a seamstress who spoke English.
Ada’s name was immediately put forward by the local police chief.>>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/6/22/ada-blackjack-the-female-robinson
TRTWORLD
<<Thousands of women are still going through hell inside the Syrian
regime's detention centres. Many died and only a few have managed to get
out alive. Off the Grid speaks to survivors who are willing to tell
their story so that justice can be done.>>
To view the survivors telling their story:
https://www.trtworld.com/video/off-the-grid/syrias-imprisoned-women-surviving-torture-off-the-grid/608e49973b0f87001e8e2c23
Al Jazeera
June 21 2021
<<Violations against children in conflict ‘alarmingly high’: UN
UN says COVID pandemic increasing vulnerability of children in conflict
zones to grave violations.
The UN verified a total of 26,425 grave violations, of which 23,946 were
committed in 2020 and 2,479 were committed earlier but verified only in
2020.
<Escalation of conflict, armed clashes and disregard for international
humanitarian law and international human rights law had a severe impact
on the protection of children,> the report found.
According to the report, the highest numbers of grave violations were
recorded in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC),
Somalia, Syria, and Yemen.
While more than 8,400 children were killed or harmed in ongoing wars,
nearly 7,000 others were recruited to fight, mainly in the DRC, Somalia,
Syria, and Myanmar.
Verified cases of abduction and sexual violence against children
increased by 90 and 70 percent, respectively, it said – with abductions
often coupled with the <recruitment and use of children and sexual
violence> including rape.>>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/21/violations-against-children-in-conflict-alarmingly-high-un
Al Jazeera
Juni 21 2021
<<Rights group urges UK to probe UAE activist’s death near London.
A US-based advocacy group, Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), has
called on United Kingdom authorities to investigate the circumstances of
a prominent Emirati dissident’s death in a car crash near London.
Alaa al-Siddiq, 33, executive director of the UK-based ALQST, a
non-profit organisation that advocates greater freedoms and human rights
in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the wider Gulf region, died in an
automobile collision in Oxfordshire on Saturday.
<UK police should ensure that no foul play was involved in the death …
in light of the fact that the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain have
violently targeted activists in the UK and around the world,> DAWN said
in a statement on Sunday.
It also urged UAE authorities to arrange for the immediate repatriation
of al-Siddiq’s body to the UAE so she can be buried according to Islamic
tradition in her hometown surrounded by loved ones.
DAWN also called on the UAE <to immediately release> Muhammed al-Siddiq,
Alaa’s father and a prominent activist, who has been held in detention
by Emirati authorities since 2013, so he can attend any funeral held for
his daughter in the country.
<The very least Emirati authorities could do is to repatriate al-Siddiq’s
body and allow her father to leave prison to attend a funeral and
properly grieve her loss,> said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director
of DAWN and a board member of ALQST, said in the statement.
<Like so many hundreds of thousands [sic] Arab democracy exiles, Alaa
al-Siddiq’s exile in the UK was a direct consequence of her government’s
repression; her death far away from her loved ones is a tragic and sad
outcome of Emirati government persecution.>
DAWN was founded in 2018 by Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist who was
murdered in the embassy of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul, Turkey, later that
year.
‘At risk all the time’
Also on Sunday, Alaa’s close colleague Khalid Ibrahim, executive
director of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights, told the UK’s Telegraph
newspaper she was <at risk all the time> >>.
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/21/rights-group-urges-uk-to-probe-uae-activists-death-near-london
Al Jazeera
20 June 2020
<<Alaa al-Siddiq, a prominent dissident Emirati rights activist and
critic, has died in a car crash near London.
Alaa was the executive director of the United Kingdom-based ALQST, a
non-profit organisation that advocates for greater freedoms and human
rights in the UAE and the wider Gulf region.
<With deep sadness, ALQST mourns the sudden death of its loved and
respected Executive Director Alaa Al-Siddiq on Saturday 19 June 2021,>
the group said in a tweet. <May she rest in power.>
Her father, Mohammad al-Siddiq, is also a prominent activist who has
been held in detention by Emirati authorities since 2013.
Today, the able Emirati researcher and honest sister, professor Alaa al-Siddiq,
left this world, while her father, Mohammad al-Siddiq languishes in the
notorious prisons of the United Arab Emirates, wrote Saudi activist
Abdullah al-Awda.
According to Doha News, Alaa and her husband sought asylum in Qatar in
2012, where they had been living with their relatives.
The activist’s presence in Qatar, and Doha’s stance towards political
activists at a time when the UAE was cracking down on voices of dissent,
led to a rift between the two neighbours.>>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/20/prominent-emirati-activist-dies-in-london-car-crash
TNTWORLD
18 June 2021
<< < UK apologises for failing rape victims, blames funding cuts.
UK apologises for failing rape victims, blames funding cuts. UK
apologises for failing rape victims, blames funding cuts. Justice
Secretary Robert Buckland says public service funding cuts, including to
the Crown Prosecution Service, are to blame for many rape victims not
getting justice.>
The British government has apologised for failing rape victims,
acknowledging that swingeing cuts to the legal system in recent years
contributed to plunging conviction rates.
<The first thing I need to say is sorry,> said Justice Secretary Robert
Buckland, as a review into the handling of rape allegations was
published, calling for root-and-branch reform.
<It's not good enough. We've got to do a lot better,> he told the BBC in
an interview.> >>
Read more here:
https://www.trtworld.com/europe/uk-apologises-for-failing-rape-victims-blames-funding-cuts-47630
AND A READ MORE FROM TRTWORLD article with this header <UN: Hundreds of
millions of women do not have autonomy over own body>:
Read more here:
https://www.trtworld.com/life/un-hundreds-of-millions-of-women-do-not-have-autonomy-over-own-body-45887
Al Jazeera
15 June 2021
By Julie Bindel
<<The long fight to criminalise rape in marriage
Thirty years ago, marital rape became a crime in the UK. This is the
story of those who fought to make that happen – and of those who
resisted it.
<The intercourse which takes place between husband and wife after
marriage is not by virtue of any special consent on her part but is mere
submission to an obligation imposed on her by law.> – Justice Henry
Hawkins, 1888
In 1981, at the age of 19, I joined feminists across the United Kingdom
to campaign for the criminalisation of rape in marriage. Our aim was
about more than overturning the immunity for husbands who raped their
wives: it was also about asserting the rights of women to refuse sex
with any man, in any situation, for whatever reason. It was a battle
that dated back centuries.
Sir Matthew Hale was chief justice of England between 1671 and 1676 and
is still widely considered to have been one of the most pre-eminent
jurists and judges in the history of English and Welsh law. As the
leader of the Hale Commission in the 1650s, he oversaw a radical law
reform commission. His recommendations included reducing the
availability of the death penalty, the use of laypersons in the Court of
Appeal, and establishing County Courts. But he was also a huge
misogynist.
In a letter to his children, Hale wrote of their mother: <An idle or
expensive wife is most times an ill bargain, though she bring a great
portion.> He also oversaw the Bury St Edmunds witchcraft trials, where
he sentenced two young women to death. Meanwhile, his views on marital
rape and how men could treat their wives were abhorrent.
He said of rape accusations: <It must be remembered … that it is an
accusation easily to be made and hard to be proved, and harder to be
defended by the party accused, tho never so innocent.> And he ruled that
a man simply cannot be guilty of raping his wife. This became known as
Hale’s Rule.>>
Read more here (And hey, don't shoot me, I'm only the messenger. Gino
d'Artali)
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/6/15/the-long-road-to-criminalising-rape-within-marriage
Al Jazeera
18 May 2021
<<Rights group urges Egypt to free detained mother of inmate.
A leading international rights group is urging Egyptian authorities to
release a woman who was arrested apparently over publishing a letter
from her imprisoned son in which he claims he was tortured and sexually
assaulted behind bars.
Police last month raided the Cairo home of Hoda Abdel Hamid and detained
her along with her husband and daughter.
Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Tuesday that the arrest
followed Abdel Hamid’s posting on Facebook her son’s account in which he
describes being tied up by another inmate with the assistance of prison
guards, stripped of his clothes and sexually assaulted.
Her son, Abdelrahman al-Showeikh, 29, passed the letter to her when she
recently visited him in prison. He has been detained in a
maximum-security prison in the southern province of Minya for the last
15 months.
<Instead of investigating Hoda Abdel Hamid’s report that her son had
faced horrific torture and sexual assault in prison, Egyptian
authorities are persecuting the messenger,” said Joe Stork, the New
York-based group’s Middle East and North Africa deputy director, adding
the case “strongly underscores the abysmal state of Egypt’s so-called
justice system>.
‘Crackdown on dissent’
Since the arrests were made, Abdel Hamid’s husband and daughter have
been released but she remains in custody, HRW said, adding that the
group has written to the government inquiring about the incident but has
so far not received an answer.
There was no immediate comment from the authorities.>>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/18/rights-group-urges-egypt-to-free-detained-mother-of-inmate
LIFEGATE
10 May 2021
Simone Santi
<<10 things you need to know about the Istanbul Convention on violence
against women>>
Read more here:
https://www.lifegate.com/istanbul-convention-10-years
LIFEGATE
Camilla Soldati
4 May 2021
<<The Istanbul Convention is revolutionary and all countries should
adopt it.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen reminded us of the
gravity of violence against women around the world, and of the Istanbul
Convention’s utmost importance.
All countries should ratify the Istanbul Convention.
Von der Leyen used the incident to bring light to what happens to women
all over the world every day: discrimination, violence, and a lack of
equal treatment. Unfortunately, however, too many episodes of violence –
psychological or physical – are not reported, so nothing is done about
them. For this reason, von der Leyen highlighted the importance of the
Istanbul Convention, the Council of Europe treaty to combat and prevent
violence against women and domestic violence, which was opened for
signature ten years ago, on 11th May 2011.
Given the critical women’s rights situation in certain countries, some
of which (like Turkey) have even withdrawn from the Convention, or are
thinking of doing so (like Poland). Von der Leyen stated that all
European countries’ adhesion to this binding international treaty
remains a priority for the Union and that laws will be put forth to
expand the list of crimes – like hate crimes – so that any form of
violence is prevented, condemned, and prosecuted.>>
View her here on channel:
https://www.lifegate.com/ursula-von-der-leyen-women-istanbul-convention
NOTE FROM GINO d'ARTALI: You call the below 'old news'. IS IT?
Al Jazeera
29 March 2021
By Brandi Morin
<<Freda Huson: An Indigenous ‘warrior’ for the next generation
How a Wet’suwet’en matriarch is defending her traditional territories in
Canada from the construction of the CGL pipeline – and the
seven-year-old who is inspiring her.
Freda Huson starts each day with prayer in the quiet of the mountain
forest where she lives in a small two-room wooden cabin. She prays for
the safeguarding of her lands and waterways and then thanks her
ancestors for preserving her Wet’suwet’en traditional territories.
Then the 57-year-old heads outside to begin her day’s work. There are
buildings to maintain at the healing centre she runs as well as broken
souls to tend to.
Huson established the Uni’stot’en healing camp 12 years ago. Located
66km (41 miles) up a mountainside from the nearest town in northern
British Columbia, Canada, it is a communal gathering space that
incorporates traditional Wet’suwet’en culture and helps people to heal
from trauma by connecting to the wilderness.
Huson is just 4’11, but she’s a tough, straight-talking matriarch with a
passion for her cause. She is a wing-chief of the Dark House Clan (named
so because of the abundant shadows in the valley of the mountain where
the clan’s territory is located) and is also known as Chief Howilhkat.
Today, she cleans a bedroom that an elder has just vacated in the
centre’s main building, preparing it for its next guest.
Most days she takes some time to walk down to the nearby river to revel
in the beauty of the Wet-zuhn-buhn (pronounced wet-zin-bun) – meaning
the “bluish-green colour of the water,” the traditional Wet’suwet’en
name for the Morice River, which runs parallel to Uni’sto’ten.
In spawning season, salmon fill the river, returning hundreds of miles
from the Pacific Ocean to their birthing grounds to continue the cycle
of life. It is these ancient life systems Huson fiercely protects.
Note from Gino d'Artali, journalist of cryfreedom.net:
It's a long article and I'll leave you with one more quote and and a
link to the article:
<For Huson, protecting this land is a matter of life or death. <We
are stewards of the land,> she explains. <We don’t own … [it]; we’re
entrusted to take care of it, so the land will take care of us. But if
we destroy the land, we destroy ourselves.> >>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/3/29/freda-huson-an-indigenous-warrior-for-the-next-generation
Al Jazeera
21 March 2021
By Laurin-Whitney Gottbrath
<<Lexington, Kentucky – For Sarah Williams, the revolution is as much
about recognising the past as it is about what comes next.
The 38-year-old civic change agent and organiser from Lexington,
Kentucky, has been at the forefront of racial justice protests for
years. But she is also working to save Black communities in her hometown
from gentrification and, at the same time, preserve her family’s history
and her community’s past. The hard moments “remind you of the shoulders
upon which you stand”, Williams says as she reflects on the last year.
From raising her children during COVID lockdowns to being arrested
during protests against police brutality in July, 2020 definitely took
its toll on Williams. But it is in those difficult moments that she
leans on the teachings of those on whose shoulders she stands,
especially those of her 94-year-old grandmother, Grandmama Mary <Sue> Taylor.
<Living through her childhood prior to the civil rights movement,
there’s just a certain amount of courage and endurance and perseverance,
that no matter what happens, you’re going to overcome,> Williams says,
highlighting her grandmother’s spirituality and deep roots in the Black
Church.
<Very akin to what our ancestors did when they ran from slavery and to
the north, there’s a certain amount of faith and courage that goes along
with taking that journey,> Williams tells Al Jazeera. <And so in many
ways, I carry that forward with me today.>
The unadulterated truth
In her work on the front lines of today’s racial justice movement,
Williams is not afraid of confrontation. But her goal is to speak a
truth that ultimately shifts the way people think and act.
<When we reveal truths, it can feel very brutal and aggressive,> she
says. <But I just try to remind people that we’re not here to inflict
physical harm. That might be what it feels like,> she adds, <but we’re
here to change your mindset … and pull at your heartstrings.>
It is a lesson she has learned from her grandmother, who always speaks
the <unadulterated truth>, Williams explains. <She doesn’t mince her
words and I think when you’re doing social justice work, that’s at the
root of disturbing people’s comfort zone.>
Williams shouts those truths on the streets during protests, but she
also reveals them in her research and work on the displacement of Black
communities in Lexington and the Bacot writes that she and the children
lived in fear of provoking Polette’s ire. He broke her nose, hit her
over the head with a hammer, arranged for her to have lesbian
encounters, which he filmed, and kept her a virtual prisoner. She was
not allowed to speak to anyone when she went out shopping and he had his
friends and relatives spy on her, she recounts.>>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/3/21/the-revolutionary-and-the-shoulders-upon-which-she-stands
Al Jazeera
By Maram Humaid
17 Mar 2021
<<Born rebels: From Rosa Luxemburg to Palestine’s Azza Qasem
Palestinian women’s rights activist Azza Qasem was always a rebel. Then
she discovered the work of the revolutionary Polish socialist Rosa
Luxemburg.
One of Azza Qasem’s earliest memories is of Israeli soldiers breaking
into her family’s home in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza, at night, and
arresting her father and uncles. It was 1967 and she was four years old.
Like many other Palestinian men at the time, her father was deported –
to Egypt. And like many other Palestinian women, her mother and
grandmother responded by becoming the main breadwinners for their
family, opening the first clothes shop in Beit Hanoun.
“They became the main breadwinners for our family,” says Qasem (who is
also known by her family name, Azza al-Kafarna) and is now a journalist
and women’s rights activist.
<I can’t forget my mother’s attempts to hide her tears every day, facing
the huge responsibility of raising seven children. But, I was surrounded
by strong women, whose characters deeply influenced me. They made me a
rebel.>
Eleven years after he was expelled from his home, the Israeli
authorities granted Qasem’s father a 40-day permit to visit his family.
Qasem was 15 at the time and says: <I remember those days. They were my
first chance to meet my father properly.>
But, just 18 days into his visit, her father died of a heart attack. He
was in his early 40s.
Finding Rosa
A couple of years later, Qasem started studying at Birzeit University
near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. It was there that she first
discovered the works of revolutionary socialist Rosa Luxemburg
(1871-1919).
A Polish Jew with a limp as a result of a childhood ailment, Luxemburg
was very much a second-class citizen in Russian-occupied Poland. Qasem
immediately identified with her.
<I was deeply influenced by her writings,> she says. They marked a
<quantum leap>, she explains, in her ideological thinking.
Qasem became a student activist and was arrested several times by the
Israeli authorities.
<I spent six years at the university because of the continual closure of
the campus due to the students’ activities,> she says.
At that time, political resistance to the Israeli occupation was at its
peak. Qasem joined the General Union of Palestinian Women which was
affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
<Rosa’s writings gave me answers to my questions about linking social
and economic conditions,> she explains.>>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/3/17/born-rebels-from-rosa-luxemburg-to-palestines-azza-qasem
Al Jazeera
March 13 2021
By Chris Kenning and Laurin-Whitney Gottbrath
<<‘No stopping us’: The Black women fighting for Breonna Taylor.
A cadre of Black women in Louisville is honouring Taylor’s legacy by
giving back to their communities, just as Taylor, an ER technician, did
when she was alive.
Louisville, Kentucky – Dozens of cars blared their horns as they rolled
up on the north side of Kentucky’s state Capitol last week, one woman
waving a Black Lives Matter flag from a truck bed.
<Whose law,> one protester yelled into a megaphone. <Breonna’s law,> the
others chanted back.
It has been nearly a year since Breonna Taylor was killed by Louisville
Metro Police in the early hours of March 13, 2020, in a botched raid.
Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, huddled with the protesters who called
on legislators to do more to enact police reforms.
After the police killing of George Floyd in May, Taylor’s name became a
rallying cry during worldwide marches against systemic racism and police
brutality throughout the summer and fall.
In Louisville, protesters took to the streets for more than 180
consecutive days, pressuring the city to pay $12m to Taylor’s family and
agree to wide-ranging police reforms. But Palmer was pushing the state’s
General Assembly to pass <Breonna’s Law>, a proposed statewide ban on
no-knock warrants.
<It’s easy to say, yeah OK, we’re going to do all these things,> Palmer
said. But so far, she said, <it’s fallen short.>
Calls for policy reforms such as a ban on <no-knock> police warrants are
just one way Louisville’s Black community is pushing for change since
Taylor’s death.
In neighbourhoods and halls of power, a cadre of Black women in
Louisville is honouring Taylor’s legacy by giving back to their
communities, just as Taylor, a hospital technician, did when she was
alive.>>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/3/13/no-stopping-us-the-black-women-fighting-for-breonna-taylor
They are running nonprofits
Al Jazeera
By Minreet Kaur
8 Mar 2021
<<The 97-year-old Sikh grandmother feeding London’s homeless.
As a baby, she was left to die on a rubbish dump. Now she is determined
to help others for as long as she can.
In her narrow, sun-lit London kitchen, 97-year-old Nisharat Kaur Matharu
is following her life’s motto: As long as your hands and feet work, use
them to serve others. For now, that means her hands are covered in flour
as she vigorously kneads and punches dough.
It is a sparkling clean, functional space where everything has its place
and the smell of buttery, fresh-off-the-hot-plate chapattis fills the
air. It is also the room where, since 2017, she has made hundreds of
meals a week – creamy lentils, Indian-style rice pudding with cardamom
and nuts, crispy pastry with cumin seeds – for the homeless.
The food is served by Hope for Southall Street Homeless, a community
initiative that runs a night shelter and drop-in centre in the area of
west London that Nisharat has called home since she first arrived in the
UK as a 54-year-old mother-of-five in 1976.
By then, her life’s journey had already taken several unexpected turns.
With a huge smile, Nisharat’s 67-year-old daughter, Kulwant, prepares to
share her mother’s story, but not before she has asked her for a masala
chai – <the proper Indian cha (tea), mum>.
<My mother was born in Punjab and when she was six months old, she lost
her mother,” she explains, the two now sitting in Nisharat’s impeccably
neat, white-walled living room with its large industrial sewing machine
in the corner. <My granddad remarried soon after – another arranged
marriage – and when he and his wife had their first child … the step mum
decided she didn’t want her.>
Nisharat was two years old when she was left on a pile of rubbish
outside her family’s house in Moga, Punjab. A few hours later, she was
found there by her paternal aunt – hungry and sunburned. Her aunt took
her to her paternal grandmother’s house, where Nisharat was kept as a
child labourer, responsible for cooking, cleaning and any other chores
that were assigned to her.
With the cuts on her fingers stinging from chopping onions, garlic and
chillies, she would watch girls her age go to school or to the park and
wonder why she was not able to. But, by the age of eight, she could cook
a three-course Indian meal and was an expert at making perfectly shaped
chapattis.
The two women talk simultaneously – Nisharat often saying in Punjabi
exactly what Kulwant, a head teacher and mother-of-three, is describing
in English. At 5ft10 (1.8 metres), Kulwant towers over her mother in her
white salwar kameez, her thin, grey hair tied neatly into a bun. They
are both mother and daughter and best friends.>>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/3/8/the-97-year-old-sikh-grandmother-feeding-londons-homeless
Al Jazeera
16 Feb 2021
<<Saudi woman handed death sentence for killing Bangladeshi maid
Saudi court sentences Ayesha al-Jizani to death for killing Bangladeshi
maid Abiron Begum in March 2019, says Bangladeshi official.
Begum’s relatives urged the Bangladeshi government to take action
against the brokers who “tricked” Begum, 40, into taking the job in
Saudi Arabia four years ago.
<(She) wanted to go abroad to earn more money so that she could pay for
her aged parents,> Ayub Ali, Begum’s brother-in-law, told the Thomson
Reuters Foundation.
<They started torturing her two weeks after she left. She would call us
and cry … we begged the brokers here to bring her back, but no one
listened to us.
Jizani’s husband was jailed for three years for failing to help Begum
access medical treatment and making her work outside the family home
illegally, confirmed Ahmed Munirus Saleheen, a senior official at
Bangladesh’s expatriate ministry.
Jizani’s son was sent to a juvenile facility for seven months, Saleheen
added.
Campaigners said the Saudi court’s verdict against an employer was
unusual.
<I have been working in the migration field for several years and I have
never heard of such a verdict,> said Shakirul Islam, the head of the
Ovibashi Karmi Unnayan Program, which deals with migrant rights in
Bangladesh.
‘Exemplary punishment’
Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen welcomed the verdict. <I
praise Saudi government for giving out this rare yet exemplary
punishment.>>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/2/16/saudi-convicted-of-murdering-bangladeshi-maid-in-rare-verdict
Al Jazeera
12 Feb. 2021
By Simona Foltyn
<<Iraqi women struggle to escape abuse as domestic violence rises
Some women’s rights groups in Iraq are running underground shelters,
despite serious legal and security risks.
Baghdad, Iraq – Dhoha Sabah had been married for eighteen years when her
husband first laid a hand on her. Crowded into a modest, single-room
home in Baghdad’s Sadr City neighbourhood, the couple had always
struggled to put food on the table for their four children.
But then the coronavirus pandemic struck, sending Iraq’s oil-dependent
economy into a downward spiral and putting many out of work.
<We don’t have an income. The kids need to go to school, and I cannot
afford it. Whenever I talk to him about this issue, he beats me and the
kids,> Sabah told Al Jazeera. On at least one occasion, Sabah had to
seek medical care because of her husband’s physical abuse.
Police say domestic violence has increased in Iraq by about 20 percent
since the onset of the pandemic, which has pushed millions of Iraqis
below the poverty line. Poor neighbourhoods like Sadr City have been
most affected by mounting economic and psychological pressures.
Sabah thought about divorcing her husband, but like so many Iraqi women
who lack financial independence, she had no alternatives.
“I had decided to take my kids and run away, but where could I go? Who
could take me in? My parents are also poor people,” she said.
And so she turned to Iraq’s community police, a unit under the interior
ministry whose mandate is to resolve intracommunal conflicts before they
escalate.
<When a wife complains against her husband in a police station or goes
to a court, for sure their relationship will never return to normal. But
if the community police intervenes, solves their conflicts through
reconciliation, things will return to normal,> Brigadier General Ghalib
Atiya Khalaf, the head of the community police, told Al Jazeera.
After several mediation sessions and with support from Sadr City’s
tribes, the community police forced Sabah’s husband to sign a promise
that he would not beat her again. For now, the abuse has stopped.
<If we can unite families and preserve the community, we will reduce
crime rates,> >>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/2/12/iraqi-women-struggle-to-escape-abuse-as-domestic-violence-rises
Al Jazeera
7 May 2020
Jennifer Knight QC
Jennifer Knight QC is a criminal barrister specialising in the
prosecution of serious sexual offences.
<<Why do so few rapes result in a conviction?
The MeToo movement sparked a rise in reports to police, but convictions
remain three times lower than for other crimes.
The 23-year prison sentence imposed on Harvey Weinstein in New York in
March was the culmination of a case that had catapulted the by then
decade-old MeToo movement to international prominence.
In its new hash-tagged social-media incarnation, #MeToo has undoubtedly
played a part in raising society’s awareness of the true scale and
nature of sexual offending.
The seminal prosecutions of Weinstein and a cohort of similarly
high-profile celebrity and establishment giants are the tip of an
iceberg which is now widely understood to extend through every part of
society.
It is against this background that figures reported in September 2019
showed that convictions in rape cases in the UK fell by 26 percent in
the year between 2017-18 and 2018-19.
In 2017-18, there were 54,045 rapes reported and 2,635 convictions – a
conviction rate of 4.9 percent. The following year, there were 58,657
rapes reported and 1,925 convictions – a conviction rate of just 3.3
percent.
According to the Criminal Justice Statistics published by the UK
government, the total number of crimes reported in the year ending March
2019 was 5.95 million. Of these, 550,052 ended in a conviction – a rate
of 9.2 percent – or nearly three times higher than that for rape. Given
that rape figures are included in this total, the conviction rate for
all other crime is even higher than this.
More worrying perhaps than this headline figure is the 33 percent fall
in the number of completed prosecutions and a 38 percent fall in the
number of cases charged in the first place, the last figure heralding a
potential ongoing decline in conviction rates.
These are the biggest falls since records began.
So why, at a time when sexual offending has perhaps never been more
widely recognised and reported, have convictions hit an all-time low?
The nature and effect of sexual offending have always presented a unique
set of evidential and perceptual challenges for prosecutors.
Such offences are almost invariably committed in private without
witnesses and, consequently, the determination of the central issues in
most cases relies on a jury’s assessment of differing accounts from the
complainant and the defendant.>>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/5/7/why-do-so-few-rapes-result-in-a-conviction
Al Jazeera
December 20 2020
<<Leading Saudi women’s rights activist al-Hathloul sentenced
Loujain al-Hathloul sentenced to five years and eight months in prison
by a Saudi court.
The court suspended two years and 10 months of her sentence.
She has 30 days to appeal the verdict.
Reactions
The United Nations human rights office said the conviction was <deeply
troubling>.
<Conviction and 5 yrs 8 month sentence handed down to prominent women’s
rights campaigner #LoujainAl-Hathloul, already arbitrarily detained for
2 ½ years, is also deeply troubling. We understand early release is
possible, & strongly encourage it as matter of urgency,> it said on
Twitter.
<She was charged, tried and convicted using counter-terrorism laws,> her
sister, Lina al-Hathloul, said in a statement.
<My sister is not a terrorist, she is an activist. To be sentenced for
her activism for the very reforms that MBS and the Saudi kingdom so
proudly tout is the ultimate hypocrisy,> she said, referring to the
Saudi crown prince by his initials.
Al-Hathloul, 31, has been in custody since 2018 after being arrested
along with at least a dozen other women’s rights activists.
Al-Hathloul’s case, and her imprisonment for the past two and a half
years, have drawn criticism from rights groups, members of the US
Congress and European Union lawmakers.
Cale Brown, the deputy spokesman of the State Department said the United
States was <concerned by reports> of her sentence.>>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/28/saudi-court-hands-jail-sentence-to-womens-rights-activist
Note from Gino d'Artali: Amnesty International reported that the Saudi
human and womens rights activist after 1001 days in prison has been
released Februari 1 2021 and is expected to continue her activities
which she does. She proves again that women are strong!!
Al Jazeera
10 Oct 2020
From The Stream
(Al Jazeera:
https://www.aljazeera.com/program/the-stream )
<<BANGLADESH RAPES PROTESTS
Why are women raped with impunity in Bangladesh?
October 12 2021
Anger over a viral video of a woman being stripped, beaten and sexually
assaulted by nine men in Bangladesh, as she begged for mercy, has
brought thousands of people to the streets.
Demonstrators are now demanding justice for women who have been raped
and sexually assaulted, and an end to what they say is a culture of
impunity. The video, filmed on September 2, was shared hundreds of
thousands of times on Facebook before a court ordered it removed.
<This truly disturbing footage demonstrates the shocking violence that
women in the country are routinely being subjected to,> rights group
Amnesty International says, while calling for an impartial
investigation.
Women’s rights activists were already angered by a gang rape, which also
came to light in September, committed by members of the ruling Awami
League Party. The government has been criticised for inaction.
According to local human rights organisation Ain-o-Salish Kendra, there
were 975 rape cases reported from January to September of this year, but
the rights group says it is unlikely even a fraction of those attacked
got justice. The One Stop Crisis Centre says that between January 2001
and July 2020 just 3.56 percent of cases filed under the Prevention of
Oppression Against Women and Children Act have resulted in a court
judgment and only 0.37 percent of cases have ended with a conviction.
Activists say antiquated laws and a culture of taboo around rape and
sexual assault need to be addressed.>>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/program/the-stream/2020/10/10/why-are-women-raped-with-impunity-in-bangladesh
Al Jazeera
Megan Lane
15 Nov 2020
<<‘As if nothing happened’: Going to court after sexual assault
<I was sure their mother must have heard my screams, but afterwards, she
just bathed me – washing away the evidence.
This article contains an account of sexual assault that some readers may
find disturbing or triggering.
I can still remember the smell of vodka, cologne and orange juice. We
were in Rob’s* bedroom, with his older brother Timothy* and Timothy’s
friend, Joey*, drinking shots. A dozen later and the room was spinning.
Timothy chuckled, persuading me to have one more. I obliged, and the
sexual assault that followed is now no more than a blurred memory.
At the beginning of ninth grade, my English teacher asked me if I wanted
to join an after-school club for gifted students. My heart skipped a
beat when I saw Rob there. He had never noticed me in study hall, even
though we sat two rows apart from each other three days a week, but I
noticed him. He wore a black leather jacket, with no regard for the
weather. He was handsome and intimidatingly cool.
I had presumed popular kids had no interest in learning about the great
works of American literature. But he was smarter than I anticipated, and
more devious, too. If I could redo one choice in my life, I would choose
to decline my teacher’s invitation.
Rob and I shared similar interests. We were both fond of JD Salinger’s
novel, The Catcher in the Rye. The main character, Holden Caulfield,
deemed anyone who was attractive, charismatic, wealthy or superficial a
phoney. Rob possessed all of these characteristics.> >>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2020/11/15/going-to-court-after-sexual-assault
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