Tag:

violence against women

Exploring The Key Issues Facing Girls & Young Women Today

by Narges Mohammadi May 25, 2023

SURVEY/ Girl-guiding’s Girls’ Attitudes Survey 2022 asks girls and young women-how they feel about their everyday lives and today’s pressures.

The survey was taken by 3,015 girls and young women aged 7-21 across the UK. The findings of the survey are useful to charities looking to understand what the group cares about today. They study their biggest challenges they are facing, and how they are getting involved in their communities.

The issues girls and young women care about

The survey asked respondents to rank the importance of some key issues.

The girls and young women surveyed voted mental health as the most important issue. Following this was women’s and girls’ safety, then equality and inclusion. Respondents ranked climate change as the fourth most important issue.

This is useful information for understanding the demographic, both in terms of adapting relevant services to the group and engaging them with the charitable projects they feel most passionate about.

The survey also reflected that more and more girls and young women are identifying as feminists, with a steady increase from 35% in 2013 to 47% in 2018, and finally to 54% in 2022.

Appearance Pressures Impact Mental Health & Wellbeing

When it comes to mental health and wellbeing, Girl-guiding identifies appearance pressures as a “real challenge” for girls and young women, especially as they get older. Happiness with appearance declines from 42% in girls aged 7 to 10 to 10% in those aged 17 to 21.

Over a third of girls and young women between 11 and 21 don’t like posting pictures of themselves on social media unless they use filters or apps to change their appearance.

Charities looking to support the mental health and wellbeing of girls and young women might therefore prioritize addressing the specific issue of appearance pressures upon the group.

Feeling Unsafe In Public, Online, & at School

The survey found that over half of girls and young women aged 11 to 21 said they don’t feel safe when they’re outside on their own. A quarter (26%) of girls and young women don’t feel safe when they’re online, and around 1 in 5 of the group don’t feel safe in school.

Girl-guiding advocate Maddie from Southwest England comments: “It’s unsurprising to see girls and young women are feeling unsafe in many areas of life right now, this being higher in marginalized groups. Changes are being made to education and it’s good this seems to be working. However, more needs to be done to make sure girls can enjoy their lives without fearing for their safety.”

Seeing & Experiencing Sexism & Stereotypes

Sexism and stereotypes influence several aspects of life for girls and young women.

For 11–21-year-olds, sexism was experienced the most online and on social media (80%, which has risen from 68% in 2018). 73% said they experienced sexism in the media, and 68% said they experienced it in public places such as parks and public transport.

Experiencing sexism at school, college, university, or work has increased from 58% in 2018 to 66% in 2022. Over a fifth of girls aged 11 to 21 said gender stereotypes hold them back in school, while one in six respondents aged between 13 and 21 say fear of sexual harassment holds them back in school.

The survey also found that girls and women experienced several barriers to taking part in sport and physical activity. This includes insecurity (48% of those aged 11 to 21), some sports only being available for boys (21%), sport being too expensive (16%), feeling unsafe (13%), and experiencing sexism while taking part in sport (59%).

How Girls & Young Women Are Taking Community Action

A high number of girls and young women are getting involved in their communities. Over a third of those surveyed helped to improve their local area in the past year, while a third engaged in fundraising. Across the UK, 59% supported people who aren’t friends or relatives, and 61% donated money or goods.

Just under a third of girls and young women campaigned for something they believe in over the past year, while nearly half have helped a charity or cause.

Angela Salt OBE, the CEO of Girl-guiding, comments: “I am…encouraged by their unwavering enthusiasm for social and community action, and inspired by their commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion.”

Source: Charity Digital Blog

May 25, 2023 0 comment

Europe Health

‘I got a brain injury and a life sentence’: the hidden legacy of male violence against women

by Narges Mohammadi May 21, 2023

HEALTH/ The effects of head trauma on athletes are well documented. Finally, a UK study is examining the long-term brain health of females abused by their partner The violence began long before Freya Doe* married at 18 – and it quickly escalated. “It was what I thought love was,” she says, speaking on Zoom from her home in the US. On one occasion, her husband punched her in the face, threw her off a porch, and repeatedly slammed her head on the ground. He threatened her with one of the several guns he owned and then strangled her until she lost consciousness. When she came to, he was talking on the phone, saying: “I finally did it. I finally killed the bitch.”

Blood vessels in her eyes had burst. She was in hospital for a week. Twenty-two X-rays were taken of her head, neck, back, and chest. “I was told the migraines would go away. They didn’t,” she says.

Doe left her husband after 18 months. “He slams your head against a wall – which he used to do a lot – and a couple of days later, he [does it] again. Your brain doesn’t have time to recover from those traumas.” Fifteen years later, in her 30s, Doe thought she was experiencing early-onset dementia. She would forget words and suffer from anxiety and panic attacks. Then, in 2017, she read an article by US neuroscientist Dr. Eve Valera, a pioneer in the field, and she understood. Her ex-husband’s violence had damaged her brain. “I laugh about it now,” she says, “so I don’t cry.”

Brain Injury

The connection between traumatic brain injury (TBI) and intimate partner violence (IPV) is a global scandal and a public health secret. In the UK, it is hard to find any reference to it on websites concerning violence against women and girls, women’s organizations, major brain injury charities, or in training for health, police, and social workers. Yet physically, mentally, and emotionally it can affect thousands of women over their lifetime, long after the abuse has ended.

Precisely how many is unknown but in the UK now, for the first time, a longitudinal study is underway to try to establish the potential scale of the numbers of people affected and investigate the long-term brain health risks associated with exposure to IPV.

The Drake IPV study was established in 2021 and is due to publish its first two papers soon. It is headed by Glasgow University neuropathologist Prof William Stewart. The study focuses on women who are participating in Prevent Dementia, a UK-wide longitudinal study looking at risk factors for dementia in midlife.

“Remarkably, up to 30% of women may experience IPV over their lifetime, yet so little is understood,” says Stewart. “Even that statistic makes people sit up and say: ‘Hang on a second, that can’t be right.’ But it is. Sadly, studies and pathology of IPV-related TBI are vanishingly small.”

Drake Foundation

Scientific publisher James Drake initially established the Drake Foundation in 2014 to understand and improve the health and welfare of people in sports affected by head injuries. Research has since established that footballers have four to five times the risk of developing dementia than the general public. In 2021, 1.7 million women in England and Wales experienced domestic violence.

How many are also at increased risk of dementia? “You’re doing my head in” may yet prove all too true. The brain, floating in fluid, is highly fragile. Injury is caused by a hard blow or jolt that causes the head to move rapidly back and forth. Injury can also happen from lack of oxygen to the brain as a result of strangulation or suffocation.

One extreme consequence of multiple concussions is chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which may mimic forms of dementia and the development of neurodegenerative diseases. CTE is only established after death by a post-mortem. Doe, now in her 50s and happily remarried, has had to cut down her work and suffers from neural fatigue, anxiety, migraines, and dizziness. “It’s damage that’s progressive and it’s going to last my lifetime,” she says.

“At Glasgow, we have the largest archive of brain tissue for research globally,” Stewart says, “25% to 30% female. Undoubtedly, we must have many cases of unrecognized IPV-related brain injury in our archive, but the stories remain hidden.”

Standing Courageous

Individuals who have become campaigners, like Doe, do have personal stories to tell. Paula Walters is another survivor. She founded Standing Courageous, a non-profit organization, in Ohio in 2015. In 2006, her then-boyfriend threatened her at gunpoint. He hit, kicked, and strangled her. “I don’t know if I should kiss you or kill you,” he said. He was given probation and a fine. “I got a disability and a life sentence.”

Walters developed problems with balance. She became forgetful and irritable and found it difficult to concentrate. She was constantly tired and avoided bright lights and noisy areas. Medical bills left her in debt as one incorrect diagnosis followed another. A paramedic, she lost her job.

It took 13 years before Walters received a correct diagnosis – traumatic brain injury caused by IPV, revealed by an MRI scan. Since 2019 she has been getting her life back on track. “I didn’t realize how sick I was until I felt well,” she has said.

Now she speaks publicly about IPV-related TBI and trains professionals, including the police. They may see a woman in a confused state and unable to get her story straight and assume she is lying or drunk. The signs of brain injury are rarely recognized. In 2019, the domestic abuse charity SafeLives conducted research for the Disabilities Trust. It revealed that 81% of practitioners supporting survivors of domestic abuse had no training in brain injuries and 62% felt unprepared to identify symptoms.

More Details of the Research for Disabilities Trust

Survivors themselves may fail to realize the true cause of their lives falling apart – behavior that may result in eviction from a refuge, a failure to navigate benefits, housing, employment, and the loss of a child because of perceived “failings” as a mother. “Taking the children away and giving them to the abuser, what sense does that make?” asks Valera. In the 1990s she was studying neuropsychology while volunteering in a women’s shelter where users were reporting many post-concussive symptoms. Valera linked. “I heard what the women were saying. Shockingly, my search for literature on this topic yielded zero results.”

Undaunted, and unable to acquire proper funding, Valera conducted her research “on a shoestring”. She interviewed 99 women in a shelter: 75% reported at least one brain injury sustained from partners, and half reported sometimes many more. Interviewees had major cognitive difficulties and suffered from high levels of anxiety and depression.

Thirty years later Valera points out that while there has been lavish funding and a plethora of concussion-related research into “punch drunk syndrome” in boxing and a range of other sports and the military, the connection between battered women and brain injury has only just begun to attract attention. Why the delay?

“We live in a patriarchal society and women are still second class,” Valera says. “We aren’t given the same appreciation in science. Males, including in animal research, are studied far more than females.” Valera also points out that while athletics makes money, dealing with the aftermath of male violence does not. “Money is key.”

The Enigma

The Enigma (Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis) consortium is an ambitious global attempt to study neuroimaging, cognitive, psychological, and genetic data to uncover biomarkers and outcomes associated with different diseases and disorders. Set up in 2009, it now encompasses over 40 countries, 1,400 scientists, 200 institutions, and 50 working sub-groups examining areas such as schizophrenia, autism, brain injury, and the development of aging. The group has already accessed over 50,000 participants.

Five years ago, the Enigma brain working team developed a sub-group to investigate IPV-related brain injury – except that, globally, very limited data on IPV-related violence exists. “At the time, I don’t think people in our field understood how high the prevalence of brain injury and head trauma is in people with exposure to intimate partner violence,” says Dr. Carrie Esopenko, head of the sub-group.

Not all brain injury is apparent when individuals are seeking support so, says Esopenko, the right questions must be asked – by police, by health professionals, by researchers. She is also conducting a separate brain study of IPV. “We received a multimillion-dollar grant in 2021 but this is a marathon, not a sprint.”

As research develops, questions to be answered include how much IPV may increase a woman’s risk of dementia, as well as her fertility and health, later in life. It ought also to trigger a reappraisal in policing and the criminal justice system of a crime that can inflict more injury than initially is apparent. In 2019, the Canadian government gave $1m for research on IPV-related TBI to Soar (Supporting Survivors of Abuse and Brain Injury through Research) set up three years earlier in British Columbia by Karen Mason, head of a women’s shelter, and neuroscientist Dr Paul van Donkelaar.

Goals of Soar

Soar has three goals, “Explore, Educate, Empower”.

“When you think about injuries in sport, people choose to do it anyway,” Doe says. “But a victim of IPV is an unwilling participant.”

One woman who suffered at least three concussions at the hands of her ex-partner suggested to her doctor that the violence might be the cause of her migraines. She was told: “Let’s not go chasing zebras every time we hear hoofbeats.” By contrast, at Soar, survivors receive six months of part-time holistic rehabilitation services that include counseling, occupational therapy, aerobic exercise, meditation, and help addressing health and practical problems, plus follow-up support.

“I have yet to meet a woman who doesn’t find it empowering just to know that TBI is part of their trauma versus not knowing,” Valera says.

The dots haven’t yet been fully joined up but awareness is growing. In 2019 the Disabilities Trust organized a roundtable of frontline professionals and called for “uniquely tailored support”. More recently, research revealed that four in five women prisoners in Scotland have a history of significant head injury, while the Brain Charity announced a free program to support those who work with offenders with brain injury and other neurodiversity.

Last week, the Institute for Addressing Strangulation (IFAS) opened and it, too, hopes to improve training and awareness of the risk of brain injury.

“What can we do if we do learn more?” says Professor Stewart. “If the answer is ‘nothing’, I wouldn’t be doing this work.”

Source: The Guardian

May 21, 2023 1 comment

Culture Europe

NEW; FRANCE/ “What’s Wrong Between Men & Women; Debate About Femicide”

by Narges Mohammadi May 15, 2023

FRANCE/ Cold-case drama The Night of the 12th has just swept the board at the Oscars in France and has the nation talking about misogyny and murder. We talk to its director, Dominik Moll, about how it made him question his place in the patriarchy. At 6 am on a Tuesday in May 2013, the half-charred, petrol-doused body of a young woman was found on a residential street, 25km east of Paris. It was 21-year-old Maud Maréchal, who had been returning at night from a friend’s house to her family home, just a few meters from where she was killed. A neighbor discovered the corpse, the police fruitlessly investigated this horrific murder, and then Maréchal’s death was filed away, hardly noticed by the French press.

Until now in France

A fictionalized account of the murder, The Night of the 12th by Franco-German director Dominik Moll, has just swept the boards at France’s Oscars equivalent; the César awards, reviving interest in the Maréchal case. “It was important to remind people there was a real victim; and her name was Maud,” says the director, speaking over Zoom from his home in Montreuil, 20km from where the young woman lived. “But then quite a few journalists started to talk about the real case in a very irresponsible way.” Rather than Maréchal murder, he was intrigued by the idea of investigators becoming obsessed with the case that gets away. But adapting the 30pages devoted to the case, but he quickly found himself framing it within the context of the raging public debate in France about femicide: “My co-writer Gilles Marchand and I felt that we needed to develop this aspect of what’s wrong between men and women. The #MeToo movement made us more aware of these problems.”

The police make jokes, to let off steam. But they’re saying: ‘All these crimes get to me, and I feel depressed’

Moll’s previous film, the 2019 highlands thriller Only the Animals, also featured a young woman’s murder but put it at the heart of a globalized reflection on desire. The somber, almost shell-shocked The Night of the 12th is more rigorous in its interrogation of gender relations. But compared to modern cold-case classics such as Zodiac or Memories of Murder, it feels uninterested in prodding us with thriller mechanics. Instead, it emphasizes the devastation experienced by the victim’s family, before turning the lamp firmly on the investigators: the stolid new boy Yohan, played by Bastien Bouillon, and his silverback partner Marceau (Bouli Lanners), for whom the dead woman’s sex life touches a nerve, given his failed marriage. Moll spent a week with the judicial police in the Alpine city of Grenoble, where he relocated the story, and realized that almost all of them were men. This led to a certain atmosphere: “When there’s a group, there’s always this thing where you can’t show weakness. And so you can make jokes about things, to let off steam. But it’s saying: ‘All this violence, all these crimes get to me, and I feel depressed.’ I think it’s more difficult for men than women to talk about intimate things.” You can see how much routine flippancy could harden into the kind of institutional misogyny that has recently been found in London’s Metropolitan Police.

I have a problem with a lot of Tarantino’s violent scenes because I feel he’s just having fun

Another such position is, of course, that of film director – exercising representational control over the portrayal of women. Moll has often spoken about Hitchcock as his lodestar, an inspiration visible in his previous César winner, the 2000 sly black comedy Harry, He’s Here to Help, and the 2005 thriller Lemming. When I mention the master’s women-in-jeopardy fetish and misogynistic tension with many of his female leads, Moll leaps to his defense. He says Hitch’s precision regarding point of view inspired him when depicting Clara’s death and carbonized remains in The Night of the 12th – which he told his producers was necessary to lend the crime the appropriate gravity. “I have a problem with a lot of Tarantino’s violent scenes because I feel he’s just having fun. Hitchcock helped me because he is very good at conveying violence without showing it. So we had those tight closeups when she meets the killer, on the lighter, on her eyes, then suddenly to have the very wide shot – unspectacular in a sense – of her crossing the frame as a small burning figure. All those things come from studying Hitchcock and his film language.” Moll doesn’t think his work is getting necessarily darker as he gets older, even though The Night of the 12th is shorn of the piquant ironies of Harry, He’s Here to Help. But with his early noughties and present-day work is equally drawn down into unconscious nooks of the psyche, his interest in human foibles is constant. During the lockdown, he took up an old childhood love again, a remnant of his pre-cinema interest in art and biology: drawing. “Very detailed drawings of animals in black ink,” he specifies. Source: The Guardian

May 15, 2023 0 comment

Europe Health

NEW; “Russia’s War in Ukraine Exacts a Heavy Toll on Women”- says UNFPA

by Narges Mohammadi May 7, 2023

RUSSIA-UKRAINE/ As war rages, health services for women are perilous and they are particularly vulnerable to trafficking; domestic abuse, and gender-based and sexual violence.

As Russia’s bloody war in Ukraine continues to devastate lives across the country, women in particular are suffering detrimental effects to their mental, physical and sexual; and reproductive health.

Millions of women remain displaced, making them extremely vulnerable to trafficking as well as gender-based and sexual violence.

The International Rescue Committee warned last month that abuse against women was rising.

Some expectant mothers give birth without medical assistance in basements and bomb shelters while hospitals are attacked, while basic services have been disrupted to such an extent that the reproductive health of many is in jeopardy.

We have found an interview with the Ukraine representative for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Jaime Nadal, about the continuing risk the conflict poses for women.

How many babies have been born since the conflict began and what complications does war bring to pregnancy and childbirth?

Jaime Nadal: In 2022, almost 180,000 women gave birth in Ukraine, many suffering a risk to their lives because of difficulties accessing appropriate healthcare.

Hospitals and civilian infrastructure have been targeted with shelling. A pregnant woman [should] not be wandering around in the middle of shelling to access facilities.

The supply chain for items needed for C-sections and the management of birth and pregnancy complications is also impacted. In the most extreme cases, healthcare professionals have been forced to live in the hospitals they work in, adding significant stress.

We are seeing an increasing number of preterm babies and miscarriages, as well as conditions like eclampsia and hypertension. The nutrition of women is also being compromised by months of displacement and physical exhaustion.

What are the dangers of giving birth without access to medical professionals or a hospital?

Nadal: The most critical moment in a pregnancy is the delivery and the next 72 hours that follow. Any woman who is unable to follow up with a professional during that time could suffer life-threatening complications.

In the first week of the full-scale war, 84 women gave birth in the Kyiv metro. When women give birth while sheltering from missile attacks underground in metro stations or basements, they can develop life-threatening conditions such as sepsis that pose a great risk to them and their babies.

Do attacks on hospitals – especially on maternity units, as seen in the southeastern city of Mariupol in March last year – make women scared to seek medical care when they need it?

Nadal: Any attack on civilian infrastructure, including a hospital, is a human rights violation and should never happen. These attacks undermine civilian access to life-saving services.

Many women are hesitant to go to hospitals and are in the middle of shelling. It can be extremely risky to attempt to do. At the beginning of the war in Chernihiv, to the north of Kyiv, several women went to hospitals to give birth and found they couldn’t go home again as Russia had occupied their villages.

One woman went to a hospital with her husband to give birth, leaving her other children with their grandparents. Russia occupied her home and she was unable to see or speak to her children for a month. You can imagine the level of anxiety and stress that causes.

There has been a rise in sexual and gender-based violence in Ukraine since the start of the war and an increase in domestic violence.

How can women be protected?

Nadal: The invasion displaced millions of people, many of them women and children. When you have so many people at that level of vulnerability, the risk of gender-based violence, sexual violence, trafficking, and exploitation is high.

Our priority was to quickly re-establish services such as shelters and mobile clinics and to make sure women know they can access psychosocial support and hygiene kits to preserve their dignity.

We first started seeing cases of sexual violence after the liberation of Bucha and Irpin. None of the survivors had reported the cases to law enforcement, and most wanted help to test for STIs [sexually transmitted infections] or pregnancy.

This is a very complex issue surrounded by stigma. Sometimes women don’t even identify themselves as having been assaulted. Some women have been forced into sex acts to cross a checkpoint, for example.

It takes a lot of work from psychologists to get them to open up and identify as survivors, and the trauma will take a long time to heal.

Before the war, we developed an initiative that provides space for men in the Ukrainian military to engage meaningfully with their children and wives. The first hubs were in the east in 2014. We provide men with psychosocial support that steers them away from toxic masculinity. This helps them process trauma, which can manifest in violence, abuse, or alcohol misuse.

What are the latest figures on the scale of sexual violence in Ukraine?

Nadal: It’s hard to rely on numbers, as they don’t give an accurate reflection of the problem. Many survivors are reluctant to disclose what happened due to trauma, stigma, and self-blame.

Out of the cases recorded by OHCHR, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, two-thirds are women and one-third are men, many of them former prisoners of war. The number of cases reported is probably the tip of the iceberg.

In our Dnipro center, staff told me that for every 100 women they have seen, maybe 10 have suffered gender-based violence and one from sexual violence. Sometimes people try to pretend it didn’t happen or try to live with it and don’t seek help.

We need to ensure that survivors know they are not alone, the situation matters, and that the UN and the Ukrainian government are working to provide them with the best care possible. Our mobile teams have provided general support to over 17,000 women so far, and our relief centers have almost 10,000. The more services we put in place the more survivors will seek help.

The situation is very different for people in the west of the country compared to the east. How does that affect the provision of support for women?

Nadal: We’re very worried about the protracted nature of this crisis now. There has been a huge movement of women from the east and south to central and western Ukraine and abroad.

The harsh conditions of displacement increase the complexity of women’s needs.

The lack of available work and income poses a huge challenge to the well-being of women and their families, as well as the difficulty in accessing healthcare in some places. What we’re seeing is that the situation is worse in 2023 and we are constantly trying to keep up with new developments.

We have repeatedly requested access to occupied territories, but have not been granted it. In the east of the country, we’re very concerned about the situation of older women. Some don’t want to leave their homes behind and are living close to the front line of the conflict with serious health conditions, such as uterine prolapse.

With hospitals shelled, where are these women supposed to go if they experience something like this?

Nadal: There are some mobile clinics run by the government that we support that go to communities to help, especially for those with mobility issues or disabilities, and for areas where there is no public transport.

War comes with suffering, pain, stress, and anxiety. The extension of this war is prolonging the distress of millions of women.

Source: Al-Jazeera

May 7, 2023 0 comment

Asia Politics

NEW; Religious War by Israel=Unity in the Islamic World for Palestine

by Narges Mohammadi April 14, 2023

PALESTINE/ By ordering a brutal attack against Palestinian worshippers inside Al-Aqsa Mosque on the 14th day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knew very well that the Palestinian men and women would retaliate. Netanyahu’s motive should be obvious. He wanted to divert attention from the mass protests that have rocked Israel since January. These protests had divided Israeli society along ideological and political lines in ways never witnessed before.

History has proven that Israeli attacks on Palestinian holy places are guaranteed to provoke a Palestinian response. For Netanyahu the price of Palestinian retaliation was worth the political gains from uniting Israelis of all political backgrounds behind them. Ben-Gvir, in particular, knew that an attack on Al-Aqsa would reassure his far-right religious constituency about his commitment to imposing full Israeli Jewish sovereignty over Palestinian Muslim and Christian holy places in the occupied city of Jerusalem.

What Netanyahu and his allies may have not anticipated, however, is the intensity of the Palestinian response. Hundreds of rockets were fired toward the north and south of Israel. These came not only from the besieged Gaza Strip but, even more strategically important, also from South Lebanon.

Although some damage was reported, the rocket response was a political game-changer. This was the first time in years that fighters in two Arab countries coordinated their retaliatory action against Israel and hit back simultaneously.

Details on the Recent Attack in Palestine

Bakr Owais, a 24-year-old student at Birzeit University, was also at the mosque that night for a Ramadan i’tikaf and, along with the other worshippers there, was surprised when the doors were sealed with everyone inside.

The security forces stood on the roof of the mosque and used a loudspeaker to tell the worshippers that they had to leave the mosque or else they would be removed by force.

At that point, the youth present in the mosque decided to resist as they did not want their i’tikaf interrupted for the sake of clearing the compound for settler visits the next morning. The security forces decided to move in.

“They broke the windows of the mosque and started throwing stun grenades at us. There were young children, elderly men, and women stuck inside,” Owais said.

“Another group came through a door and started firing tear gas, stun grenades, and rubber-coated bullets at the people.

“They attacked the people, beating them on the head with sticks … people fainted, people suffocated, people were bleeding. Then they started arresting us. Huge numbers of people were taken. They kept swearing at us the whole time, pushing us onto buses that took us to the police station in Atarot where we were made to lie on the floor with our hands cuffed behind us.

“There must have been 400, 500 detainees. They took our names, then put a sticker on us with our name and number and called us in by the number, like we were worthless,” he said.

Owais, along with every other Palestinian arrested during the raid, has been banned from entering Al-Aqsa for a week.

Final Word

The crimes and oppression of the Israeli regime against innocent women and children has never decreased or stopped; but hopefully and end would be put to the life of this cancerous tumor for humanity.

Source; Al-Jazeera & Middle East Monitor

April 14, 2023 0 comment

Europe Society

NEW STUDY; Sexism Against Women in the Cradle of Women’s Rights

by Narges Mohammadi March 27, 2023

FRANCE/ Survey finds women targeted by online harassment, together with male ‘backlash’ towards #MeToo. Sexism remains at “alarming” levels in France in all areas, according to an official report that found the situation is getting worse, particularly for younger women.

Women are targeted by new forms of harassment; including online violence, verbal abuse on social media, and pornography with “barbaric” content, it said.

The survey also detected a male “backlash” across French society to the #MeToo movement; with “macho raids” on social media seeking “to reduce women to silence or discredit them”. It stated that situations of “discrimination, violence, and harassment” have reached “alarming proportions”.

The study of 2,500 people by the High Authority on Equality (HCE), a consultative body; found sexist behavior increasing in “all spheres”, with many men believing violent and discriminatory behavior to be acceptable. Older men often remained stuck in conservative attitudes towards male; and female roles in society, while younger men occasionally displayed aggressive macho tendencies, it found.

Results

Among the women aged 18-24 questioned, 22% said they had suffered “psychological control or excessive jealousy” by a partner; and 15% had been beaten by their partner or ex-partner. This rose to 20% among women aged 50-64.

More than one-third – 37% – of French women polled said they had been subject to non-consensual sex. The HCE found 33% of women asked; had sex when they did not want to but their partner insisted. 12% had unprotected sex at the insistence of their partner – rising to 18% in the 25-34 age group.

Of the 18- to 24-year-olds polled, 22% said they had suffered a sexual assault or rape.

Despite people being aware of the violence and discrimination since the #MeToo movement; “bias and gender stereotypes, sexist clichés and everyday sexism are still commonplace”, the HCE found.

“People recognize and deplore the existence of sexism but fail to reject it in practice, a phenomenon particularly widespread among the men questioned. This gap between perception, statements, and practice has tangible consequences in terms of symbolic, physical, sexual, and economic violence.

“From every day, so-called ‘ordinary’ sexism to its most violent manifestations, there is a continuum of violence, one forming the bedrock of the others,” it read.

Contestants in the Poll

Those questioned also spoke of a lack of confidence in official measures to combat sexism and respond “to a situation that is getting worse with a new phenomenon: online violence, increased virulence on social networks, barbarity in many pornographic industry productions, and affirmation of a masculinist and antifeminist pornographic industry.

“In addition, there are clear signs that women’s fundamental rights; especially sexual and reproductive rights; are being eroded in the world.”

Elsewhere in the poll, 93% affirmed that men; and women are treated differently in at least one of the aspects of their life: work, public space; school, or family. 80% of women asked said they had been less well-treated or felt they had been because of their sex, while 37% of men said the same.

Final Word

Fabienne El Khoury, a spokesperson for the feminist group Osez Le Féminisme, said the situation was “depressing but not surprising”.

“We see that sexism is a structural problem. It’s not just a question of discrimination in salaries and pensions or an increasing number of femicides, which are the visible part of the iceberg, but a whole mentality that needs to change,” El Khoury said.

“The only way to do that is to introduce a feminist education from a young age to combat sexist stereotypes and to address pornography that is violent, misogynistic and degrading to women but that is attracting young boys at a lower and lower age.”

“It’s not enough to protect women and punish men. If we don’t address the roots of everyday sexism and change the mentality we will never move forward. We cannot just deplore the situation we need to change it.”

She said the authorities needed to target male attitudes “from a very young age” and introduce more stringent measures to combat online sexism, violence, and harassment.

“Everyday sexism leads to violent sexism,” she added.

Sources: The Guardian

March 27, 2023 0 comment

North America Society

NEW; Fashion Must Do More To Protect Female Workers

by Narges Mohammadi March 22, 2023

BUSINESS/ We have found a report from International Women’s day back in 2016 saying that; when approximately 80 percent of the world’s fashion workers are women. The number of women heading the 15 largest mass-market apparel companies on the Fortune 500 list is ZERO!!

Garment Sectors are good at employing women; but when it comes to supporting them, they fail at it miserably.

Garment-related global supply chains provide critical jobs; and capital that help women workers to raise their standard of living and provide for their families. However, these women are also vulnerable in global value chains. Low wages, unsafe working conditions, and flexible contracts are prevalent.

Let’s take a look at this report.

Women’s Perspectives

For women’s rights to be respected, their voices have to be heard. This rarely happens in a meaningful way; particularly because owners and managers are overwhelmingly men. A recent International Labor Rights Forum report entitled Our Voices, Our Safety interviewed 70 workers in the Bangladesh garment industry. The report highlights threats against women workers who attempt to speak out about workplace abuses.

It urges the Bangladeshi government and apparel brands to foster environments; in which workers can voice their safety concerns, and help to develop solutions, including the right to freedom of association.

Brands can play an important role in speaking out when governments clamp down on workers who attempt to organize and protest for improved conditions, as Adidas, Columbia, Gap, H&M, Levi Strauss and Puma didin Cambodia in 2014.

In supply chain audits, worker interviews; conducted by trained personnel must be a core part of the process; including interviews beyond the factory gates. But ensuring workers, especially women, have a voice requires going beyond the audit process.

As the Coalition of Immokalee Workers has learned in the US food industry, the most effective protections for workers can be obtained through an approach that is “designed, monitored, and enforced by the workers whose rights it is intended to protect”. Brands must be open to worker-driven corporate responsibility.

Ensure a Living Wage

Living wages are critical for women as they often take a primary role in providing for the family. They also often receive less pay than their male counterparts. Reports indicate that the wages paid to garment workers (three-quarters of whom are women) are not enough to allow workers to provide their families with basic human necessities. Workers’ rights groups have repeatedly criticized brands for allegedly paying workers less than a living wage in their supply chains, even though the business case and benefits of paying a living wage have been well established.

According to the Asia Floor Wage; all garment workers in Asia need a wage increase; to be able to provide for their family’s basic needs. The majority of garment workers in Bangladesh earn little more than the minimum wage; and far below what is considered a living wage minimum required to provide a family with shelter, food, and education.

The statement by H&M, Primark, and others in the face of government inaction in Cambodia that they are “ready to factor in higher wages and want more cooperation with trade unions” shows corporate leadership for better wages is possible.

Protect Migrants & Refugees

The face of migration is changing dramatically as women and girls now represent about half of the 244 million international migrants worldwide. Women, along with children, form the majority of refugees fleeing conflicts in places such as Syria.

These women are even more vulnerable as they arrive in countries where they have a little support network. They may not know the language. The pressure to feed their families often means; they enter the informal economy where they lack the protections enjoyed by registered workers. Which this leaves them vulnerable to sexual harassment, low wages, and hazardous working conditions, with little or no recourse.

While our recent outreach to 28 garment brands sourcing from Turkey revealed that a few leading companies – including Next and White Stuff – are tackling the plight of Syrian refugees in their supply chains head-on, many others need to take further action.

Brands can take significant steps to identify and protect these particularly vulnerable groups by undertaking unannounced audits of their supply chain beyond the first tier of factories to detect exploitation and undeclared subcontracting. They also need clear policies that prohibit discrimination and provide support to migrants and refugees. Finally, they must work with local partners and trade unions who can assist them in identifying risks and providing solutions.

Source: The Guardian

March 22, 2023 0 comment

Europe Society

NEW; UN Chief says: “Digital Technology Is A Source Of Discrimination Against Women”

by Narges Mohammadi March 20, 2023

UNITEDNATIONS/During a dialogue with women civil society leaders in the UN General Assembly Hall last week; Secretary-General António Guterres heard about the critical need to make digital technology safer for women and girls; and to ensure that they are equal participants in global conservations; both online and in-person.

The town hall with representatives from non-governmental organizations; (NGOs) was held as part of the annual session of the UN Committee on the Status of Women (CSW); which meets in New York every March.

Its latest two-week session – known as CSW67; which runs through Friday – is focused on the theme of innovation; technological change, and education in the digital age.

Civil society also used the town to appeal for more action on other issues critical to women and girls; such as greater representation at the UN, ending the war in Ukraine, and eliminating all forms of gender-based violence.

A Male-Dominated World

In remarks before the dialogue, the Secretary-General spoke of the backslide in women’s and girls’ rights globally after years of incremental progress.

“Many of the challenges we face today – from conflicts to climate chaos and the cost-of-living crisis – are the result of what is a male-dominated world with a male-dominated culture, taking the key decisions that guide our world,” he said.

Newfound Discrimination

Mr. Guterres noted that digital technology – the product of an industry that is predominantly male; represents a new source of discrimination and bias.

“Rather than presenting facts and addressing bias, technology based on incomplete data and badly-designed algorithms is digitizing and amplifying sexism – with deadly consequences,” he said. 

“Medical decisions based on data essentially from men can damage women’s health.  Safety features based on men’s bodies can put women’s lives at risk; namely in the car industry,” he added, citing examples.

The gender digital divide is fast becoming the new face of gender inequality, he continued. Online spaces are not safe for women and girls, as they have been attacked, targeted, or denigrated on the internet.

Furthermore, “while 12 men have walked on the moon, not a single woman has done so,” he said, pointing to stereotypes that “push girls away from studying science, engineering, and math, and strangle the careers of women scientists.”

Keep Pushing Forward

Mr. Guterres said the situation must change, and in the face of the “patriarchal pushback”, the international community must push forward for women, girls, and the world.  

“Policymakers must create – and in some circumstances must reinforce to create – transformative change by promoting women and girls’ equal rights and opportunities to learn; by dismantling barriers and smashing glass ceilings,” he said.

He also called for all leaders to urgently take up UN recommendations that promote education; and training in digital skills for women and girls; as well as algorithms that align with human rights and gender equality, among other measures.

Punish Cybercrime

At the outset of the dialogue – which was moderated by Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women – the Secretary-General insisted that participants should not only ask him questions, but also offer comments, suggestions, and ideas.

He interacted with them in groups of three, first listening to their interventions as a whole; and then responding to the individual issues they raised.

Houry Geudelekian, Chair of NGO CSW New York, was the first to speak. She stressed that countries must find a way to hold perpetrators accountable for online violence targeting women and girls.

“Cybercrime should be punishable in the same way as any other crime,” she said. “Member States and the private sector have the power to reverse the regression in gender equality; and uplift women and girls in all their diversity.”

Speaking in her capacity; she also called for the international community to reduce military spending by five percent; and instead channel the funding towards sustainable development efforts.

Young Women Demand Change

Prabhleen Tuteja, Executive Director of YP, the Youth Foundation, asked the Secretary-General about the greater representation of young women at the UN, particularly to ensure “feminist, intersectional and inter-generational leadership”.

Meanwhile, Rania Harrara from Morocco reported that young leaders were “pretty disappointed”; that the town hall was taking place at the same time as a dialogue for youth representatives.

She highlighted other concerns around access to UN facilities, adding that many young people from the Global South could not take part in the conversation due to barriers such as lack of funding and visa issues.

“Equality and meaningful youth engagement are about digital access; digital literacy, and digital safety for all adolescent girls in all of their diversity,” she said.

UN “Rejuvenation”

The Secretary-General said he was surprised to hear about these impediments as the instructions; were to allow all attendees to enter the UN facilities.

Addressing the wider issue of youth participation, Mr. Guterres noted that while the UN has a strategy on gender parity; it has yet to adopt one for the “rejuvenation” of the Organization.

“We need to have a younger UN,” he insisted. “Young generations are better prepared than me to look into; for instance, the impacts of digital technologies in the way governance takes place globally.”

The Secretary-General also agreed with Ms. Geudelekian’s call for greater accountability for cyber attacks against women and girls, which he said is a matter that UN Member States should seriously examine.

A Plea On Ukraine

One participant who said she represented Ukrainian women; gave emotional testimony about how the war has affected families in her homeland.

She reported that the independent delegation of Ukrainian women wrote to the Secretary-General last October; requesting that he “immediately change the status of the United Nations”.

She underlined support for developing a new global mechanism to protect all countries from aggression; which drew applause from the room.

Mr. Guterres recalled that the conflict has generated the biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War, with women and children comprising the majority of those fleeing Ukraine.

Source: UN News Agency

March 20, 2023 0 comment

Europe Health

NEW; UK Women Claim “Childcare Duties Affect Career Progression”

by Narges Mohammadi March 18, 2023

BRITAIN/ Two-thirds of women with childcare responsibilities believe they have missed out on career progression; as a direct result business leaders have warned amid growing pressure on the government to boost support for parents.

Ahead of next week’s budget, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said tackling barriers to work posed by soaring childcare costs and a lack of support for elderly or disabled relatives was vital for equality and the economy.

A landmark survey of more than 4,000 women; found as many as 67% felt childcare duties in the past decade; had cost them progress at work; including pay rises, promotions or career development.

Barriers

“Tackling these issues is integral not only to the well-being of our women; but it is also crucial to the functioning of any strong economy;” Shevaun Haviland the BCC’s said.

The intervention adds to pressure on the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, to use his upcoming budget to provide more support for parents to work, amid warnings from economists that sky-high childcare costs are among the reasons why thousands of people have quit the jobs market.

Hunt is widely expected to place growing workforce participation at the heart of his statement but is thought to be unlikely to announce major new funding for childcare amid government concerns over the public finances.

However, charities, trade unions, and business groups argue that supporting more people to work; could benefit the economy in the longer term.

Local Economic Strategies Centre & Women’s Budget Group

A new analysis by the Centre for Local Economic Strategies and the Women’s Budget Group, published last week, finds the barriers to paid work faced by women mean almost £90bn of gross value added is lost to the economy in England, Scotland and Wales each year – equivalent to the entire contribution of the financial services industry.

Trades Union Congress

Meanwhile, the Trades Union Congress has calculated that almost 1.5 million women; are kept out of the labor market because of their caring responsibilities; compared with 230,000 men; making them seven times as likely to stand outside the workforce.

In an analysis published at the annual TUC women’s conference; the unions’ umbrella group said this showed ministers had to act now to keep women in work; make sure they are paid fairly; and properly address the gender pay gap.

Paul Nowak, the TUC general secretary, said: “We desperately need funded high-quality childcare for all families; free at the point of use, so women can stay in work once they have kids.

Jobs Website “Adzuna” & Institute For Fiscal Studies

A separate analysis by the jobs website Adzuna; shows that less than 3% of job adverts online mention support for women. It called on employers to rethink the benefits they offer to help women stay in work; and thrive while highlighting that more job adverts mention free gym membership or unlimited holidays than menopause support.

Highlighting gender gaps despite progress made in recent years, the Institute for Fiscal Studies; warned in its report that inequalities between men and women; for income from private pensions were set to persist for decades.

It said the difference between men’s and women’s average state pension incomes; for those born in the 1950s, had closed to essentially zero over the past decade. However, women still had private pension incomes about 45% lower than men.

The IFS said this was almost entirely driven by differences in labour market patterns – employment rates; hours worked and hourly wages – which particularly open up after the birth of children.

Laurence O’Brien, the research economist at IFS; said the divisions persisted even for younger age groups: “As these generations will not retire for many decades; we can expect a gender gap in pension incomes to remain for a long time yet.”

Source: Guardian

March 18, 2023 0 comment

Europe Society

NEW; Gender Pay Gap = Women Work for in 2 Months of the Year

by Narges Mohammadi March 15, 2023

UNITED KINGDOM/ The average woman in paid employment effectively works for free for nearly two months of the year; compared to the average man in paid employment, according to an analysis published by the TUC. The gender pay gap for all employees currently stands at 14.9%. This means that working women must wait 54 days – nearly eight weeks; or two months – before they stop working for free on Women’s Pay Day.

Gender Pay Gap By Age

The TUC analysis shows that this matter is the widest for older women, so they have to wait longer for their Women’s Pay Day.

Women aged between 50 and 59 have the highest pay gap (20.8%) and work the equivalent of 76 days for free, until Thursday 16 March 2023.
Women aged 60 and over have a gender pay gap of 18.4%. They work 67 days of the year for free before they stop working for free on Wednesday 8 March 2023.

The gender pay gap widens once a woman becomes a mum. And older women take a financial hit for balancing work alongside caring for older relatives as well as children and grandchildren, says the TUC.

Regional Gender Pay Gaps

The analysis shows that in some parts of the country gender pay gaps are even bigger, so their Women’s Pay Day is later in the year.

The gap is largest in the South East of England (17.9%). Women in this region work 65 days for free and they work for free until Monday 6 March 2023.
Women in the East of England (17.5% pay gap) and the East Midlands (16.6%) also work for free until next month (Saturday 4 March and Wednesday 1 March).

Regional variations in the gender pay gap are likely to be caused by differences in the types of jobs and industries that are most common in that part of the country, says the TUC.

Industrial Gender Pay Gaps

Despite the introduction of the gender pay gap reporting back in 2017, the analysis published by the TUC today shows that there are still big gender pay gaps in many industries.

Even in jobs that tend to be dominated by female workers like education and healthcare the gender pay gap persists.

In these sectors, women get paid much less per hour on average than men, both because they are more likely to be in part-time jobs or are in lower-paid roles.

In education the gender pay gap is 22.2%, so the average woman effectively works for free for more than a fifth of the year (81 days) until Wednesday 22 March 2023.
In health care and social work jobs, where the gender pay gap is 14%, the average woman works for free for 51 days until Monday 20 February 2023.

The longest wait for Women’s Pay Day comes in finance and insurance. The gender pay gap (31.2%) is the equivalent of 114 days, meaning women work for free for nearly a third of the year until Sunday 23 April 2023.

TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak said:

“Working women deserve equal pay. But at current rates of progress, it will take more than 20 years to close the gender pay gap.

“That’s just not good enough. We can’t consign yet another generation of women to pay inequality.

“It’s clear that just publishing gender pay gaps isn’t working. Companies must be required to publish action plans to explain what steps they’ll take to close their pay gaps. And bosses who don’t comply with the law should be fined.

“The pandemic highlighted that we can do more to help women balance their caring responsibilities and work. Flexible working is key to keeping mums in jobs and is our best way of closing the gender pay gap.

“We should change the law so that all jobs are advertised with all the possible flexible options clearly stated. And all workers must have the legal right to work flexibly from their first day in a job.”

On Childcare & Parental Leave, Paul added:

“It’s clear that the gender pay gap widens dramatically once women become mums. We need ministers to fund childcare from the end of maternity leave to support working parents – along with better wages and recognition for childcare workers.

“Both parents need to be able to share responsibility for caring for their kids. Dads and partners need better rights to well-paid leave that they can take in their right. Otherwise, mums will continue to take on the bulk of caring responsibilities – and continue to take the financial hit.”

Source: FENews

March 15, 2023 0 comment

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