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Rise in women facing domestic abuse at Christmas, English charities report

by Narges Mohammadi

Calls and contacts to helplines remain higher than pre-pandemic, compounded by cost of living crisis

Rising numbers of women are experiencing domestic abuse at Christmas, with calls to helplines still higher than pre-pandemic levels due to the cost of living crisis.

Refuge, the leading support service in England, said calls and contacts to the national domestic abuse helpline in 2023 were still far higher than pre-pandemic, with 171,490 calls in the year ending March 2023.

The charity is warning that Christmas, when there are always more incidents of domestic abuse, presents specific challenges such as social isolation and increased costs that are compounded by the cost of living crisis.

Refuge’s Sarah Berry-Valentine said: “Demand for Refuge’s national domestic abuse helpline increased by a staggering 61% between April 2020 and February 2021, and recent data published by the Office for National Statistics shows that this demand has remained alarmingly high, with it still surpassing pre-pandemic levels.

“The cost of living crisis is creating challenges that worsen the impact of domestic abuse on survivors as well. Frontline staff at Refuge have reported that the cost of living crisis is creating opportunities for, or is intensifying, economic abuse, which can include withholding funds, accruing debt in a survivor’s name and restricting a survivor’s ability to work.

“Devastatingly, the increased cost of living has also meant that Refuge is seeing many survivors faced with the impossible position of choosing to stay with an abuser or risking homelessness and destitution.”

The charity, which is running a Christmas appeal, noted that data presents the issue as being smaller than it is, as so much abuse is unreported. It has calculated that domestic abuse affects one in four women in their lifetimes, with two women a week killed by a current or former partner, and three dying by suicide. On average, it takes a woman seven attempts to leave an abusive partner for good.

Women’s Aid, which is also running a winter appeal, said it was anticipating the 15% rise it usually saw immediately after the festive period. Sarah Davidge, the charity’s head of research, said this “demonstrates just how many women have been forced to spend what should be a happy time trapped in a potentially life-threatening situation”.

“Additionally, due to many services – from GPs and pharmacists, through to offices and schools – running reduced hours, many struggle to access the help that they need,” Davidge said.

One woman had contacted Women’s Aid through its live chat on Boxing Day after ongoing emotional abuse – including threats, intimidation, aggression and emotional manipulation – over a number of years from her husband. This came to a head when he left the house on Christmas Eve saying he wanted to kill himself because she had been cheating on him. He returned and started an argument that continued on Christmas morning.

When she made a mistake at the dinner, her husband told her she was useless and stupid, that she did not care about their family, and was a “whore”. He threw a plate across the room, tore down Christmas decorations and started breaking the children’s Christmas presents, telling them, “you can thank your mum for that”.

The verbal abuse continued throughout the day, but the woman had nowhere to go, and was worried her children would be unsafe around her husband, who was drinking throughout the day. Women’s Aid helped her work out a safety plan including emergency accommodation, and supplied contact details for her local domestic abuse service.

The law firm Slater Heelis, which specialises in family law, said it had already seen the annual rise in domestic violence calls, which it said was up by an estimated 20% on last year, and 30% on 2019.

Vicki McLynn, a family law partner at the firm, said: “The ongoing cost of living crisis is without doubt intensifying an already high-pressure time of year, resulting in an even larger surge than normal of calls to us where there has been domestic abuse.

“At this time of year, we often see financial strain come into play as a real stressor and this year it is even worse, with a large number of people who are already struggling with the day-to-day cost of living getting into even more debt over Christmas.”

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CommunityEurope

STUDY; Scientists believe lack of women in physics tied to personal preference, but this ignores gender norms

by Narges Mohammadi

STUDY/ Fewer women pursue careers in physics than biology, and scientists from around the world believe these differences come down to personal preferences, according to a new Rice University study of international scientists. The study’s researchers warn that merely chalking this imbalance up to individual choice may diminish the push for gender equality in the sciences.

“Scientists explain the underrepresentation of women in physics compared to biology in four national contexts” appears in a recent edition of Gender, Work & Organization. Using  collected from academic biologists and physicists in the U.S. (1,777 total), Italy (1,257), France (648) and Taiwan (780), the researchers examine how scientists’ social identities and the countries in which they reside shape their explanations of  in .

Elaine Howard Ecklund, one of the study’s authors and the Herbert S. Autrey Chair, professor of sociology and director of Rice’s Boniuk Institute, said regardless of the scientists they surveyed, the decisions of women to not pursue careers in physics were interpreted by the respondents through a lens of individualism.

The danger in this, Ecklund said, is ignoring the way preferences themselves are shaped by gendered processes. For example, previous studies have demonstrated that women are more likely to be excluded from professional networks because of their , penalized for being or potentially becoming mothers and not having sufficient access to professional mentoring—all of which are factors that can affect the choices they make for pursuing or avoiding a particular field of science.

“These barriers ultimately prevent women from entering, persisting and advancing in academic science along different points in the pipeline,” noted Di Di, one of the study’s lead authors from Santa Clara University.

Ecklund further noted how gendered processes are at work long before women make decisions about their field of study, families or other aspects of life. Prior research suggests women are influenced early on by their parents’ gender roles in the family and their occupations, which shape young women’s decisions to go into fields like science, technology, engineering, math and other gendered occupations. These occupational selections are viewed as individual choices by scientists surveyed for this study.

“When scientists draw on individualist arguments to explain gender inequality—thus ignoring these gendered processes—they may blunt initiatives that can promote ‘s equity in STEM,” said Esther Chan, one of the lead authors of the study from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Source: PHYS ORG
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EuropeSociety

One in three UK men open to having more than one partner, study shows

by Narges Mohammadi

STUDY/A third of UK men are open to the idea of having more than one wife or long-term girlfriend, according to a new Swansea University study.

In contrast, only 11 percent of women surveyed would be open to the idea of a polygamous marriage if it were legal and consensual.

Researchers asked 393  and women in the UK how they felt about a committed partnership in which they shared their other half with someone else or shared themselves.

The study asked participants about a  resembling polygyny—where a man marries more than one woman—and polyandry—where a woman marries more than one man.

Men were first asked if they would be willing to be shared with more than one  and were then asked if they would be willing to share a partner with another man.

The study, published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, showed that nine percent of men said they would share a partner, whereas just five percent of women were interested in such an arrangement.

Dr. Andrew Thomas- Swansea University

Dr. Andrew Thomas, lead author of the study, said, “Comparing polygyny and polyandry directly, men were three-and-a-half times more likely to say ‘yes’ to the former than the latter, while women were twice as likely to say ‘yes’ to having more than one partner, compared to the idea of sharing their partner with someone else.”

Polygyny and polyandry are alternative forms of marriage that involve multiple spouses, and their acceptance varies across cultures. In the United Kingdom, these practices are not legally recognized or widely embraced within the mainstream culture, as the  is based on monogamy.

In contrast, certain cultures around the world historically and presently practice polygyny, where a man can have multiple wives, and polyandry, where a woman can have multiple husbands. These arrangements are often rooted in cultural, religious, or historical contexts. For example, some societies in Africa and the Middle East have long-standing traditions of polygyny, while certain communities in Tibet and Nepal have practiced polyandry.

Dr. Thomas added, “Committed non-monogamy has received a lot of attention recently. It’s a hot trend, with more and more couples talking about opening up their relationships to include other people. However, these types of relationships are far from new.”

“While most seek monogamous relationships, a small proportion of humans have engaged in multi-partner relationships throughout , especially polygynous marriage where one husband is shared by several co-wives.”

“This study shows that a sizable minority of people are open to such relationships, even in the UK where such marriages are prohibited. Interestingly, many more men are open to the idea than women—though there is still interest on both sides.”

Source: PHYS ORG

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CommunityEurope

Gender-based violence in French universities: ‘I decided something had to change’

by Narges Mohammadi

The most prestigious universities and business schools in France such as Sciences Po and HEC train the country’s future executives and politicians. But due to the prevalence of gender-based violence that takes place on campus, for many students, they are also spaces that don’t feel safe.

On November 15, Nantes University published the results of a report and found that 4 of every 10 of its students have been victims of sexual and gender-based violence. The majority of victims identified as women or non-binary.

A few months earlier, the French Observatory on Gender-Based Violence in Higher Education published its own report based on 10,000 student testimonials, which found that more than half of students don’t feel safe in their institutions, with 4 in 10 saying their school doesn’t do enough to combat gender-based violence. 71% of respondents identified as women.

Run by student associations across France, the Observatory helps academic institutions track the gender-based violence and draw up preventative action plans, maps existing student initiatives and holds student conferences on the topic.

In an October 2023 editorial published by French daily Libération, the Observatory and other student groups called for “an urgent increase in the [financial] resources dedicated to combating gender-based violence in higher education and research institutions”. A year earlier, in October 2022, Minister of Higher Education Sylvie Retailleau announced the budget to combat gender-based violence in French universities would be doubled. While student groups called this “a step in the right direction”, they said the €3.5 million allocated was “far from enough to cover” more than a few workshops and campaigns to raise awareness.

 What prompted you to take up the challenge of combatting gender-based violence in French universities?  

Marine Dupriez: What I experienced at business school was a deeply sexist, racist and homophobic culture. When I was a student, there was a school newspaper that would come out with a “whore of the month” for each edition. At the time, it’s not like the administration actively supported the newspaper, but it wasn’t strictly prohibited. Now practices like this have been banned.

There is also a specific way in which prestigious universities in France are structured. Student associations are a key part of student life in these schools, and many students join these groups because it’s important for their education – it’s vital for networking. But at what cost? The recruitment process into these associations bring about group dynamics and integration rituals that are often violent. There are very little “positive” integration rituals.

I eventually began volunteering for a number of associations that taught secondary school students about sex and emotional life while I was still in university. The more time passed, the more I realised how important it would be for these things to be taught in higher education institutions.

After graduating, I joined an organisation focussed on the prevention of domestic and sexual violence. I would talk to my former classmates about the work I was doing and they would say how wonderful it was, but nobody would talk about what happened while we were at university.

It’s as if my work and our shared experience of gender-based violence were two completely separate things. I decided that something had to change and took matters into my own hands.

Can you briefly explain when you started Safe Campus and what it is you do?  

When I started Safe Campus in September 2019 and began contacting universities, all I got were refusals. Institutions would tell me that gender-based violence didn’t exist on their campuses, and if it did, that they had it under control. They closed the doors in my face. I almost gave up, but in January 2020, an investigation published by French online newspaper Mediapart found that gender-based violence was running rampant in these elite business schools. Universities started contacting me and we began working together the way we do today.

We use a three-step approach. First, we work on improving or setting up reporting protocols. What that means is, if I’m a student and I’m experiencing gender-based violence, I’ll know exactly who to turn to and how. I will also know exactly how my report will be filed and the measures taken to treat it. We work on ensuring there is a clear protocol, staff at hand to deal with reports and that everybody knows this protocol exists.

Then we train people according to their role in the protocol. We’ll work on how staff can support a victim, for example, in particular on what we call the “first listening session”, the first interview that allows a victim to speak out. We also provide training on investigations, because it’s up to universities to carry out disciplinary hearings to get to the bottom of a case.

The last thing we do is raise awareness among students. And I use the term “raise awareness” intentionally. It’s not the student’s responsibility to get training on gender-based violence, it’s the administrations. We talk to students about how to prevent gender-based violence, consent, the legal framework and stereotypes, for example.

It’s very important that this is the last step because very often when we intervene in an institution, people end up identifying situations they experienced as violent and turn to the administration to report what happened. If those taking in a victim’s report are not properly trained, it’s can be even more disappointing or hurtful.

Does your work change depending on which university you intervene in?  

Gender-based violence is not the same across all universities in France. In prestigious establishments (“grandes écoles” in French) like business schools or engineering schools, there are more cases of violence between students, particularly during ritual parties or integration events. In bigger universities where campus life and student associations aren’t as present, there tends to be much more violence between professors and students. Often between a thesis director and their student, for example.

There are also differences between private and public universities. In public institutions, there is no choosing sanctions or penalties, they are already detailed in French law. For example, the law stipulates that any civil servant who has knowledge of a crime or misdemeanour must report it. Private establishments on the other hand are more or less free to choose how to sanction gender-based violence.

What is your biggest challenge?  

My challenges have changed with time. But there is one that persists, and that is the financial challenge. Unfortunately, these days, higher education institutions still don’t have enough time nor enough money to allocate to the prevention of gender-bases violence. So we’re obliged to do short interventions with large audiences, which inevitably will have less of an impact than long interventions with small groups.

There are laws in France stating that each university should have an advisor or specialist to help victims of gender-based violence. But there is no obligation for these universities to open new jobs, or even to increase the salaries of staff who become advisors. It’s so important to relate the legal framework to the reality on the ground.

But debates and frictions take place regardless of what year students are in. We sometimes get students who aren’t happy at all with what we’re saying, who find our presence extremely disturbing. That happens. We’re talking about difficult topics like sexual violence, but we’re also talking about consent and linking it to their everyday lives. For example, is it OK to get your mate to drink when they don’t want to? How does inebriation affect consent?

The use of alcohol is actually a very big sticking point. And the notion of consent can really call into question habits that some students don’t want to lose.

What makes you hopeful?  

When I work with universities today, especially prestigious grandes écoles, the majority of female-led student associations are being taken seriously. They speak out. They aren’t afraid of escalating issues to the administration. They’re being listened to. That would have been unimaginable four years ago.

There is one university in particular where a female-led student association pushed so hard to prevent gender-based violence that now any student group leader has to go through mandatory training before being recruited.

As someone who could only do this kind of work after graduating, I find it extremely moving.

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Australia and OceaniaHealth

The sneaky breast cancer I almost missed — and how other women can look out for it

by Narges Mohammadi

The moment the tips of my fingers detected a lump in my breast, a white, cold fear flooded through me.

It was a nondescript day during the usual end-of-year chaos, so the mental turbulence of receiving the eventual breast cancer diagnosis mingled with prize-givings and school concerts.

To steady my mind, I reassured myself that early-stage breast cancer was curable, my doctors were confident and the course was clear.

So, when my surgeon told me after she had removed the tumour that there was also a second type of cancer in my breast, I fell apart.

By this point, I had undergone a mammogram and an ultrasound and there was no hint of a second cancer.

The original tumour was obvious to the touch, but neither I nor the doctors who examined me had detected any other change.

A few weeks earlier, I didn’t know there were different forms of breast cancer. Now, the disease was landing a one-two punch.

The second blow had me reeling because my doctors had no idea how big the cancer was, or where it was located.

I now know all of that is typical of this type of breast cancer — including the lack of awareness.

The second cancer I had is called lobular breast cancer.

No-one I’ve spoken to outside of medical circles or cancer support groups has heard of it.

Most women I’ve told about my diagnosis are visibly shocked to discover there’s a detection-evading form of the disease.

So, over the past few months, I’ve gone back to the clinicians who treated me and other experts in the field to find out what we know about lobular breast cancer, and how women can look out for it.

How common is lobular breast cancer?

Lobular breast cancer accounts for 10-15 per cent of all breast cancers.

Around the world and in Australia it is on the rise.

In the four years to 1990, lobular cancer accounted for about 8 per cent of Australian breast cancer cases.

By 2019, that had risen to around 13 per cent, which is between 2,000 and 3,000 women per year.

If the number of lobular breast cancer cases were recorded separately from other breast cancers, lobular would be more common in Australian women than ovarian and cervical cancer.

And yet there is only one government-funded Australian project researching lobular cancer.

The National Health and Medical Research Council said that in the past 12 years, it had only received one application that contained the term “lobular”.

Cancer researcher Dr Amy McCart Reed from the University of Queensland is working on the project.

She said there was a strong push in the US to raise awareness about lobular breast cancer and drive more research funding towards it.

“In Australia, not a huge amount of lobular breast cancer research is undertaken,” she said.

Her team is looking at the special features of lobular cancer cells to see if they can find a drug that could target them.

“We should have targeted therapies for lobular breast cancer patients because these tumours are inherently different,” she said.

How is lobular cancer different to other types of breast cancer?

The most distinct feature of lobular cancer is that it often grows in single-file strands of cells that spread out through the tissue.

This was clear to me when Professor Andrew Field — the pathologist who discovered lobular cancer in my breast — showed me images of the two cancers I was diagnosed with.

So, I took my images to radiologist Professor Mary Rickard, who specialises in breast imaging at the Sydney Breast Clinic, to find out if she could see anything other radiologists missed.

She couldn’t.

Because lobular cancer forms as strings of cells, it doesn’t always show up as a discernible shape on a mammogram.

What made it extra difficult was breast density.

My breasts happen to be extremely dense. In fact, my surgeon once described my mammogram as “like looking at a snowstorm”.

When you look at a mammogram, the white bits are the glands, ducts and fibrous tissue; the black is fatty tissue.

Women who have dense breasts, or more fibro-glandular tissue, will have more white show up on a mammogram.

Because radiologists look for changes in the shape or pattern of the tissue, cancers can be hard to spot in mammograms for women with dense breasts.

“The denser the breast, the more difficult to find a cancer generally, and lobular is more difficult than other cancers,” Professor Rickard said.

What should women do to check for lobular cancer?

Professor Rickard wants all women who have a mammogram to know their breast density, which is rated from A to D, with D being the most dense.

“We would normally recommend that anybody who has a C or D density went on to ultrasound examination,” she said.

Ultrasound imaging uses high-frequency soundwaves to examine internal structures, so it can be useful for finding tumours in dense breasts.

But Professor Rickard said this technique could also struggle to identify a lobular cancer that has grown in between the breast tissue, rather than as a mass.

“Mammograms are not sensitive for it, ultrasound is not sensitive for it,” she said.

That’s not to say they will never pick it up, but rather that women who are still worried should consider a form of imaging that uses an injected contrast dye.

Professor Rickard said MRIs and contrast-enhanced mammography detect 90 to 95 per cent of cancers.

“All tumours are more likely to be picked up by a contrast image,” she said.

Why you should ‘advocate strongly for yourself’

Unfortunately, the government does not subsidise contrast mammograms and only offers a subsidy for MRI to very high-risk patients.

But knowing your own breasts is free.

That’s why women are now recommended to not just check for lumps, but to be “breast aware”.

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AfricaCommunity

Sexual violence still a major threat as Sudan’s conflict grinds on

by Narges Mohammadi

Activists stress need to protect civilians, aid workers in a November meeting in Cairo.

Cairo, Egypt – While sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) has increased notably in Sudan during the fighting that has torn the country apart since April, it has been an epidemic there long before April 15, according to Sara Musa, an activist with the Darfur Women’s Forum.

Musa and several other activists and humanitarian workers involved in Sudan were meeting in Cairo for the Sudan Humanitarian Conference at the end of November. They were there to discuss their experience working on the ground during the conflict and deliver their message to international aid organisations, some of whom were also attending.

A significant portion of the meetings discussed SGBV and the serious obstacles to tackling it, obstacles that make even accurately recording the number of attacks difficult. As Saja Nourin, head of programme for the Sudanese Organisation for Research and Development (SORD), told Al Jazeera, the Combatting Violence Against Women Unit has said that the cases they recorded are likely less than 3 percent of actual figures.

SGBV is tragically something that recurs during violent conflict, but the total lack of civilian protection in Sudan means that the rate of SGBV is almost unfathomable.

Women and girls are being kept by their abusers for days following the assault so that they cannot access medical care and are forced to carry pregnancies, Shaza N Ahmed, executive director of Nada Elazhar Organisation for Disaster Prevention and Sustainable Development, told Al Jazeera.

Non-Arab communities, such as the Masalit, in West Darfur are particularly vulnerable to SGBV, Ahmed said, with women girls being kept in sexual slavery, sold in markets, and kidnapped into forced prostitution. She added that fighters from various mainly Arab militias or the feared paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are raping women to intentionally impregnate them.

“Women and girls in Darfur are being told: ‘After [we] rape [you], you will carry our babies […] to change the non-Arab portion within the Sudanese blood,’” Ahmed said.

In a country where abortion is illegal, the options for survivors are extremely limited and, in some cases, the social stigma has driven them to depression or worse, Ahmed said, adding that the stigma is worse when a child is born of rape.

Not a new problem

Musa of the Darfur Women’s Forum told Al Jazeera that before the war, SGBV was already a big problem in Darfur, especially in rural areas where RSF, Sudanese army fighters or other security forces attacked women with impunity.

The RSF has said it has zero tolerance for SGBV but cases of SGBV are still reported. While this has been taken by some observers to indicate a lack of cohesion in the RSF ranks, others say the militia has been successful in fighting but that there seems to be less control once the guns quiet.

In the past, there used to be community-based mechanisms and referral pathways to deal with SGBV but now, victims are left to fend for themselves, carrying unwanted pregnancies, trauma and severe complications.

“There is no access to sexual violence service provision because there are either no service provisions [to begin with] or because of the social stigma,” said one Sudanese woman’s activist, who did not disclose her name for fear of reprisal.

“All of the facilities like the hospitals, the police stations where you [could] report [violations] all stopped because of the conflict and the fighting,” Musa said.

Whether outside Sudan or displaced within its borders, the civilians trying to survive amid this violence are still in danger of more SGBV unless protections are put in place.

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AsiaConference and Meetings

COP28: Women and climate advocates driving forward change together

by Narges Mohammadi

To combat the disproportionate impacts of climate change on women, advocates at COP28 on Monday said decisionmakers must not only enact more polices that meet their specific needs but recognize the unique knowledge and expertise women can offer that can be used to support effective climate action.

This year’s UN climate conference, underway in the United Arab Emirates’ largest city, Dubai, opened its second full week hearing a diverse cross-section of women leaders and activists raise their voices to call for ending existing gender gaps and mitigating the worsening impacts of climate change on women and girls.

Prevailing gender norms, existing inequalities and their unequal participation in decision-making processes often prevent women from fully contributing to climate solutions. Worryingly, a report launched today by UN Women suggests that by 2050, climate change may push up to 158 million more women and girls into poverty and see 236 million more face food insecurity.

But there is hope, however, as women can – and do – play an important role in climate solutions, as was highlighted on ‘Gender Equality Day’ at COP28, where women changemakers showcased how they are driving the action.

A panel discussion on the ‘Women Rise for All’ platform was organized by the UN Office of Partnerships at Creator Hub, underscored the leadership of women in scaling up sustainable solutions aligned with the Paris Agreement.

Women leading climate action

“Women stand at the forefront of the climate battle. Whether as the scientists, legislators, indigenous leaders, youth activists, they are fighting to keep the 1.5 degrees Celsius target alive,” UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said in her video remarks.

Echoing that sentiment, Jemimah Njuki, Chief, Economic Empowerment at UN Women said: “In spite of them not having the resources, we are also seeing a lot of actions led by women and girls and if we can give them the resources – including the financial resources – to do more, I think our world is going to be better for it.”

Women panelists pointed out they will be closely tracking the progress in climate negotiations at COP28, particularly on the issue of funding for just energy transition, ‘phasing out’ of fuels and ‘phasing in’ of clean energy.

“Women continue to drive ambitious climate action more​ than everywhere, including in their communities, cites, countries and regions,” the deputy UN chief underscored.

In line with the theme of the day, events highlighted how women are bringing solutions, saving lives, and protecting livelihoods, and some of these solutions are driving change thousands of miles away from the conference venue.

UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous said: “The rights of women and girls must be at the center of climate action, including here at COP28. We must ensure that women have a seat at the decision-making table.”

“We must strengthen inclusive decision-making so that the voices of feminists, youth, indigenous and other grassroot movements can be heard loud and clear from the local to the global level,” she added.

Climate crisis ‘not gender-neutral’

Greg Puley, climate lead for the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, head told delegated that it was a “grave injustice” that people on the frontlines of the climate crisis who were least responsible for it, too often found themselves “at the back of the line” for climate funding.

The climate crisis is not gender-neutral, he added, urging donors and humanitarians to remain “laser-focused” on the differentiated needs of women and girls in the aid response.

Pushing for real equality

Ignacia de la Rosa, a leader of the San Antero community in the Cispatá region of Colombia, has been working for several years on a ‘blue carbon’ project aimed at conserving and restoring coastal mangrove forests in Colombia’s Sinú River basin.

Mangroves habitats are natural nurseries for fish, protective barriers against storm surges, providing sources of wood for building and cooking, and offering green solutions for climate mitigation measures.

Speaking to UN News, Ms. De la Rosa observed that the pressure on mangroves due to agriculture and cattle ranching was immense in her community, and people were also cutting them down for construction and building materials.

So, a key challenge for her i sto manage the forest in a sustainable way for her community to continue receiving the benefits it offered, keep people related to their forests, have them living there and maintaining their livelihoods.

With a mix of sustainable practices of use of mangroves, she has not only protected a natural resource, that resource now also provides lucrative tourist revenue from birdwatchers and environmentalists who visit the area.

But this was not her only challenge. Speaking through an interpreter, she described how she faced racial and gender discrimination and how often in a meeting of 200 men, she would be the only women struggling for actions that could ensure conservation of mangroves.

Ms. De la Rosa lamented that things are still far from being perfect on the gender front. Indeed, while more women are represented, gender and racial discrimination persist.

“There is a still a lot that needs to be done to reach real equality.”

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EuropeWomen Pioneers

Northern Ireland peace deal: Women’s role finally recognized, says activist

by Narges Mohammadi

Monica McWilliams, a signatory of the agreement, looks back on the work of the Women’s Coalition during peace talks, 25 years ago.

Belfast, Northern Ireland – Northern Irish academic and activist Monica McWilliams says it has taken 25 years for women to be recognised for their roles in bringing peace.

A co-founder of the Women’s Coalition political party and delegate at the multiparty talks that drove forward Northern Ireland’s peace process in the 1990s, she was also elected to the first regional power-sharing assemblies that were established by the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

Al Jazeera interviewed McWilliams at the recent One Young World 2023 summit in Belfast, on the key role women played in the peace process and unfinished work of the Agreement.

Al Jazeera: How do you look back on your experiences of the peace talks, setting up the Women’s Coalition, running, and getting elected to the Assembly, 25 years on?

Monica McWilliams: The system was never designed for the women’s party – it was designed for the armed groups.

We sat down and worked out that, under that electoral system, we might have enough numbers to get elected ourselves. But we were accidental politicians. We actually never thought we would go into the mainstream negotiations – we always saw them as quite elitist.

And yet we knew we’d done that work on the ground all during those years – The Troubles. We’d been crossing over the peace lines, we’d been mediating, negotiating on the front line. We had a very nuanced understanding – much more than the politicians of the causes themselves. And we figured that, if we could bring that to the table, we’d have something different to say.

We put the messages out around the country – “Wave goodbye to dinosaurs”, “Vote for change”, “A new voice for new times”. But it wasn’t just slogans or soundbites. We actually had a whole series of policies – on what to do about prisoner releases, what to do on victims and reparations – because we’d worked with all these groups. And we were back-channelling with all these groups – the people that nobody else wanted to talk about – during the talks.

[Ex-Sinn Fein leader] Gerry Adams talked about dialogue – there was no dialogue! We were the best informed at the table because everybody was talking to us, and we went out of our way to talk to them. Whereas, both sides in the conflict only talked to their own side.

I was very proud of the day I signed the Agreement. Not only because a women’s party was now a signatory to an international peace agreement, but also because, having been involved, I figured the next generation can lead on from that.

But it’s proved to be an unfinished business – we’ve had a tough time implementing that Agreement.

Al Jazeera: Has there been a clear shift or reappraisal around recognising the role played by women in the peace process?

McWilliams: There has. It was great to see people talking on the 25th anniversary about the importance of women at the peace table. But did it take 25 years? Yes!

Big [political] parties [in the peace talks] just kept telling us, “Wait until we get everything resolved and then we’ll get around to dealing with your issues. The time isn’t right.” Even the women in those parties would say that to us: “Just wind your neck in and wait until we get all this hardware dealt with.”

They saw what we were putting on the table as “software”. It turns out those soft issues, as they saw them, have become the hardest to deal with: the bill of rights that I advised on as [Northern Ireland’s Human Rights] commissioner; the civic forum, equivalent to a citizen’s assembly which would’ve been so needed, was never put in place beyond all of around six weeks. We’re now dealing with legacy in a shameful way – that’s hurt victims instead of healing – and I could go on.

Only now are they starting to see how important all of these things are. I’m very proud that we were there, and really glad that it’s a peace agreement that recognises there were women present.

Al Jazeera: With the number of seats at the Stormont Assembly having been reduced from 108 to 90, smaller parties are increasingly squeezed out. I imagine it would be difficult for something like the Women’s Coalition to have representation at that level now?

McWilliams: When the second Assembly collapsed, I said: “That’ll be us.” Because we came in on the spirit of the Agreement, and [on] people wanting to see new blood and different voices. And then it went back to the old dinosaurs, who fought it out over weapons and over which positions they were going to get in government.

I said we’ll all go back into, you know, small “P” politics. It wasn’t that we walked away from doing our work.

We had electoral reform as one of our proposals and the other parties wouldn’t agree to it – apart from the Progressive Unionist Party.

Politics is narrowed enough in a warzone or a conflicted society – and after conflict is over, you need to broaden the political space. People didn’t understand that here. And it was too short a [space of] time to get them to think: “Don’t go back to the same old status quo. Do this – we know it works.” But they wouldn’t do it.

Source: Al-Jazeera

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CommunityEurope

Women in Italy don’t feel safe – and now they are showing their anger

by Narges Mohammadi

As women are taking to the streets across Europe on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, a new chant is rising up from the Italian demonstrations: “burn everything down”.

This is the message launched by the sister of Giulia Cecchettin, the 22-year-old biomedical engineering student who was found dead on 18 November.

Giulia went missing after having dinner with her ex-boyfriend at a local McDonald’s in the Venice province.

After a week of frantic searches, her body was discovered near a lake.

Giulia’s ex-boyfriend was arrested in Germany. A court has approved his extradition to Italy, arriving on Saturday, where he will be taken into custody on arrival and questioned by an investigating judge.

It was Giulia’s sister Elena Cecchettin who, after learning about her death, ignited the debate with an appeal on the Italian TV show Dritto e Rovescio: “For Giulia, don’t make a minute of silence. For Giulia, burn everything down.”

This phrase inspired by a poem by Peruvian activist Cristina Torres-Cáceres, sparked protests across Italy, including a minute of noise held in several schools including the University of Padua, where Giulia was scheduled to get her degree in biomedical engineering five days.

But what exactly does “burn it all down” mean?

As an Italian woman myself, who used to walk through the same streets students are now protesting in, I sadly know the answer.

Elena called on Italians to bring down “the rape culture built on actions that aim at limiting women’s freedom”, like checking obsessively the partner’s phone, being possessive or even catcalling.

I experienced firsthand what that system looks like. The unwanted attention from male colleagues, the sexist comments, and even the “accidental” boob graze.

Many of my female friends shared with me in the past week how they were harassed on the streets by groups of drunk men, how a stranger touched their legs on a public train when they were just 15, or how jealousy turned into domestic abuse before their eyes.

Although not all these actions can lead to episodes of extreme violence, it does create an environment in which we as women never really feel at ease.

“As female students, we don’t feel safe,” Emma Ruzzon, student-body president and member of Unione degli Universitari of Padua, which is organising the minute of noise for 25 November said.

Giulia Cecchettin, 22, a biomedical engineering student, was found dead on 18 November (AFP via Getty Images)

As women are taking to the streets across Europe on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, a new chant is rising up from the Italian demonstrations: “burn everything down”.

This is the message launched by the sister of Giulia Cecchettin, the 22-year-old biomedical engineering student who was found dead on 18 November.

Giulia went missing after having dinner with her ex-boyfriend at a local McDonald’s in the Venice province. After a week of frantic searches, her body was discovered near a lake.

Giulia’s ex-boyfriend was arrested in Germany. A court has approved his extradition to Italy, arriving on Saturday, where he will be taken into custody on arrival and questioned by an investigating judge.

It was Giulia’s sister Elena Cecchettin who, after learning about her death, ignited the debate with an appeal on the Italian TV show Dritto e Rovescio: “For Giulia, don’t make a minute of silence. For Giulia, burn everything down.”

This phrase inspired by a poem by Peruvian activist Cristina Torres-Cáceres, sparked protests across Italy, including a minute of noise held in several schools including the University of Padua, where Giulia was scheduled to get her degree in biomedical engineering five days.

But what exactly does “burn it all down” mean?

As an Italian woman myself, who used to walk through the same streets students are now protesting in, I sadly know the answer.

Elena called on Italians to bring down “the rape culture built on actions that aim at limiting women’s freedom”, like checking obsessively the partner’s phone, being possessive or even catcalling.

I experienced firsthand what that system looks like. The unwanted attention from male colleagues, the sexist comments, and even the “accidental” boob graze.

Many of my female friends shared with me in the past week how they were harassed on the streets by groups of drunk men, how a stranger touched their legs on a public train when they were just 15, or how jealousy turned into domestic abuse before their eyes.

Although not all these actions can lead to episodes of extreme violence, it does create an environment in which we as women never really feel at ease.

“As female students, we don’t feel safe,” Emma Ruzzon, student-body president and member of Unione degli Universitari of Padua, which is organising the minute of noise for 25 November, told The Independent.

“We know of female friends and classmates who were harassed while coming back home at night on their own, but even during the day, in bars, in the universities’ hallways”.

“There is also a number of women who don’t report [the abuse]. Trust in the law enforcement is close to zero”.

If this sounds too familiar to you, it is because harassment and abuse is not only an Italian problem.

Giulia was the 103rd woman to die in 2023 in Italy, according to the interior minister’s data.

This number is not far from the UK’s, where 109 women have been killed so far in 2023. Trust in the police is also dropping following cases like Sarah Everard or, more recently, Gracie Spinks, who was killed by her stalker after she had reported him to the police.

However, Giulia’s death is (quite literally) making more noise than ever in Italy, because it is bursting a bubble that has been building up for years.

The #MeToo movement that shook the core of the United States movie industry in 2016 never really took off in Italy, and women like myself were often left confused on how to report or describe harassment and abuse.

It was Giulia’s sister’s call to action that struck a chord with me and many other Italians, pushing us to re-ignite the discussion on sexism and harassment – and, more importantly, asking men to be accountable for their actions and those of their friends.

But change must also come from within the institutions.

Giulia Cecchettin, 22, a biomedical engineering student, was found dead on 18 November (AFP via Getty Images)

As women are taking to the streets across Europe on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, a new chant is rising up from the Italian demonstrations: “burn everything down”.

This is the message launched by the sister of Giulia Cecchettin, the 22-year-old biomedical engineering student who was found dead on 18 November.

Giulia went missing after having dinner with her ex-boyfriend at a local McDonald’s in the Venice province. After a week of frantic searches, her body was discovered near a lake.

Giulia’s ex-boyfriend was arrested in Germany. A court has approved his extradition to Italy, arriving on Saturday, where he will be taken into custody on arrival and questioned by an investigating judge.

It was Giulia’s sister Elena Cecchettin who, after learning about her death, ignited the debate with an appeal on the Italian TV show Dritto e Rovescio: “For Giulia, don’t make a minute of silence. For Giulia, burn everything down.”

This phrase inspired by a poem by Peruvian activist Cristina Torres-Cáceres, sparked protests across Italy, including a minute of noise held in several schools including the University of Padua, where Giulia was scheduled to get her degree in biomedical engineering five days.

But what exactly does “burn it all down” mean?

As an Italian woman myself, who used to walk through the same streets students are now protesting in, I sadly know the answer.

Elena called on Italians to bring down “the rape culture built on actions that aim at limiting women’s freedom”, like checking obsessively the partner’s phone, being possessive or even catcalling.

I experienced firsthand what that system looks like. The unwanted attention from male colleagues, the sexist comments, and even the “accidental” boob graze.

Many of my female friends shared with me in the past week how they were harassed on the streets by groups of drunk men, how a stranger touched their legs on a public train when they were just 15, or how jealousy turned into domestic abuse before their eyes.

Although not all these actions can lead to episodes of extreme violence, it does create an environment in which we as women never really feel at ease.

“As female students, we don’t feel safe,” Emma Ruzzon, student-body president and member of Unione degli Universitari of Padua, which is organising the minute of noise for 25 November, told The Independent.

“We know of female friends and classmates who were harassed while coming back home at night on their own, but even during the day, in bars, in the universities’ hallways”.

“There is also a number of women who don’t report [the abuse]. Trust in the law enforcement is close to zero”.

If this sounds too familiar to you, it is because harassment and abuse is not only an Italian problem.

Giulia was the 103rd woman to die in 2023 in Italy, according to the interior minister’s data.

This number is not far from the UK’s, where 109 women have been killed so far in 2023. Trust in the police is also dropping following cases like Sarah Everard or, more recently, Gracie Spinks, who was killed by her stalker after she had reported him to the police.

However, Giulia’s death is (quite literally) making more noise than ever in Italy, because it is bursting a bubble that has been building up for years.

The #MeToo movement that shook the core of the United States movie industry in 2016 never really took off in Italy, and women like myself were often left confused on how to report or describe harassment and abuse.

It was Giulia’s sister’s call to action that struck a chord with me and many other Italians, pushing us to re-ignite the discussion on sexism and harassment – and, more importantly, asking men to be accountable for their actions and those of their friends.

But change must also come from within the institutions.

Giorgia Meloni, who had to deal with a stalker herself before becoming Italy’s prime minister, has already announced that more funds will be directed to the anti-violence plan, sensibility campaigns in schools and the promotion of a helpline for victims of stalking and violence.

Is this enough to “burn down the system”? It won’t be, unless we can guarantee that the push for change will not die with Giulia. Every one of us in Italy, but also in the UK and across the world, has the responsibility to work every day to make sure that come next 25 November, the list of women killed in their country will be considerably shorter.

Source: Independent News

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Australia and OceaniaSociety

First Pink Sleepbus launches on the Sunshine Coast amid housing crisis

by Narges Mohammadi

Queensland’s first Pink Sleepbus will provide vulnerable women and children a safe place to rest on the Sunshine Coast next month.

A specialised service providing “compassion and a hand up”, the sleepbus is the first of five destined for regions across the state.

The pink bus was donated by ComfortDelGro Corporation Australia after being decommissioned in Gladstone.

Constructed in Melbourne, they each cost about $100,000 to build and launch.

The other buses, which are for men, are destined for Mackay, Bundaberg, Hervey Bay and Redcliffe next year.

Maroochy Neighbourhood Centre fundraiser Mark Ellis said the bus was essential to respond to a rise in homelessness on the Sunshine Coast.

Shocked by the 2019 bashing death of homeless man David Collins, Mr Ellis inspired a fundraising effort that delivered the region’s first Blue Sleepbus for men in 2022.

“Sleep deprivation destroys them,” Mr Ellis said.

“When you sleep rough for months, your mental health deteriorates, then your physical health deteriorates and then sadly, after time, you die.”

Mr Ellis said he hoped the sleepbuses would help put a stop to the unnecessary deaths.

“But we need volunteers,” Mr Ellis said.

“You can ask for help if people who care are around you.”

He said a permanent end to homelessness was desperately needed.

“They’re sleeping right outside our door … for us to go, ‘I don’t want to know you’ is arrogant,” Mr Ellis said.

He said the general public needed to “get on board” because the homeless had nowhere else to go.

“I’ve seen a steep rise of desperate people living on the streets — it has doubled in the past two years,” Mr Ellis said.

“Just in the past two weeks, we have given 120 food parcels to new families in need.”

Designed with compassion

Sleepbus chief executive and founder, Simon Rowe, fitted out and delivered the bus to the beachside suburb of Maroochydore in September.

With million-dollar apartments lining the surrounding streets, he sat behind the wheel, tooting the horn and encouraged people to volunteer.

“I basically cut a giant hole in the side of the bus and ruined it,” Mr Rowe said.

The bus has 20 individual sleep pods with their own lockable door, toilet, bed light and electronics charging station.

“The side lifts up to allow people to be able to see in from a distance — it builds rapport,” Mr Rowe said.

He said the bus was pet friendly, had storage for belongings and CCTV surveillance.

“It’s about getting a quiet, safe night sleep,” he said.

“We have security cameras all around the outside of the bus.

“Everybody has an intercom and can talk to the caretaker if they want to leave in the middle of the night.”

Safe place to park needed

The Sleepbus service is designed to help women like Mez (surname withheld to protect privacy), who has been living in a van for a decade after falling on hard times.

She said she had been without a home for so long that she didn’t think about not having one anymore.

“I got a personal loan to buy my van and I’m paying that off,” Mez said.

“So, even if I wanted to, I still couldn’t afford rent money.”

Mez said she had observed more homeless women and children living in their cars in recent years.

“It’s not safe. There’s a lot more domestic violence women [victims] now,” she said.

She said people living in their cars needed a safe place to park.

“So, we can all group up, and we can all feel safe together,” she said.

“Being out in the street in your van, you’re still vulnerable.

“We need cover — out of the rain and storms — can someone help us with that?”

Call for volunteers

Sleepbus worker Sally Pickersgill said she liked giving back to the community.

She said her job was to settle guests in when they arrived to sleep on the bus.

“It’s not difficult at all,” she said.

“I make sure that they’re really comfortable and that they feel safe.

She said people were homeless for a number of reasons.

Everybody makes a better decision when they’re able to lay flat and have a good night’s sleep,” she said.

Ms Pickersgill said volunteering “changes your world for the better”.

“You could sit at home and watch the television for three hours … or you could come out here, connect and make a difference to people’s lives,” she said.

Volunteers of Pink Sleepbus require a blue card and are supported to attend to the specific needs of women and children.

Organisers said an operational date for sleepers would be announced as soon as sufficient volunteers were engaged.

Source: ABC News

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