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Women
Women in Britain are fed up
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06 December 2011
Siobhan Courtney
David Cameron's coalition government has cut many social services for families and society's most vulnerable [EPA]
Women in Britain today are fed up and that really isn't good news for the government. The economy is declining, yet the cost of living is rising. And it's women who are feeling the pinch become tighter and tighter in the rise in household bills, food prices, and increases for those that use public transport and petrol for those that drive.
The "boys" don't seem to care, as they ruthlessly cut and cull vital services, benefits, grants and support networks in Britain desperately needed by women and their families. And on the subject of the boys: could there be a more male-dominated government in Britain? A group of privileged public schoolboys running the country without a clue what matters to women. Do they honestly think tripling university fees and making women work harder and longer for their pensions is going to get our vote? But what makes me feel sick to my stomach is the cuts in social support for women's welfare. These men are disregarding and devaluing issues such as abortion, rape and domestic violence. Abhorrent behaviour from a party that I presume is still hoping to win an election at some point.
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Activista y primera dama poco convencional
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23 November 2011
OBITUARIO | DANIELLE MITTERRAND
GARA | PARÍS
Danielle Mitterrand, viuda del ex presidente francés François Mitterrand y resistente en la Segunda Guerra Mundial, murió en la madrugada de ayer en París a los 87 años. Recordada como «una mujer combativa, comprometida, defensora de los desheredados, de los excluidos y militante de los derechos humanos», fue hospitalizada en septiembre debido a una insuficiencia respiratoria en el hospital Georges Pompidou de París.
Fiel a sus ideas, en 1986 creó la fundación France-Libertés y apoyó activamente la revolución cubana, las demandas de los pueblos kurdo y tibetano, a los mapuche y al presidente boliviano Evo Morales, a quien mostró su respaldo. «¿Vamos a esperar que corra la misma suerte que Salvador Allende para llorar después sobre la tumba de la democracia boliviana?», preguntó entonces.
Siendo primera dama, no dudó en abrazar a Fidel Castro a la entrada del palacio presidencial del Elíseo, durante una visita de líder cubano en 1995. En 1989, provocó el malestar de Beijing cuando recibió al dalai lama. En 1990, renunció en el último momento a viajar a los campos de refugiados saharauis de Tinduf tras una queja de Rabat.
En el 25º aniversario de su fundación, aseguró que su «condición de esposa del presidente me ha colocado en una coyuntura en que se oyen llamamientos innumerables de hombres y mujeres oprimidos».
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Liberia leader among Nobel prize winners
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07 October 2011
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the Liberian president, is Africa's first elected female head of state [EPA]
Liberia's President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee, and Yemeni women's rights activist Tawakul Karman have been named winners of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced the names at a ceremony in the capital, Oslo, on Friday, saying the three were honoured for their "non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work".
"We cannot achieve democracy and lasting peace in the world unless women obtain the same opportunities as men to influence developments at all levels of society," the prize committee said.
The committee said that since her inauguration in 2006, Johnson-Sirleaf had "contributed to securing peace in Liberia, to promoting economic and social development, and to strengthening the position of women".
Gbowee mobilised and organised women across ethnic and religious dividing lines to bring an end to the long war in Liberia, and to ensure women’s participation in elections, said the committee.
It said Yemen's Karman had "played a leading part in the struggle for women's rights and for democracy and peace in Yemen" in what it called the most trying circumstances both before and during the 'Arab Spring'".
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Syria: Investigate Possible State Role in Decapitating Woman
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30 September 2011
Syrian security forces either killed and mutilated Zaynab al-Hosni or are turning a blind eye to gangs committing gruesome murders against anti-government activists and their families. In either case, the government of Bashar al-Assad is perpetuating a climate of terror in Syria and fanning the flames of sectarian mistrust. Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch
(New York) – The killing and mutilation of Zaynab al-Hosni, 18, by unknown persons highlights the urgent need for the UN Security Council to demand access to Syria for an international investigation into rampant killings and torture in Syria, Human Rights Watch said today. Zaynab, whose brothers are active in anti-government protests, had vanished in late July after going out to buy medication for her mother. Syrian authorities returned al-Hosni’s dismembered body to her family on September 17, 2011, without providing any information on the circumstances surrounding her killing, and forced her mother to sign a paper stating that “armed gangs” had killed her.
Security forces shot and wounded Zaynab’s brother, Muhammad, 25, on September 10, in the Bab Sba` neighborhood of Homs and arrested him. They returned his body to his family on September 14 with bullet wounds to his arm, head, and chest. Friends who were with him on September 10 told his family that he had only been shot in the arm at the time of his arrest.
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Saudi women given voting rights
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25 September 2011
Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud said the decision followed deliberation with senior clerics [AFP]
Saudi women will have the right to join the advisory Shura Council as full members and participate in future municipal elections, King Abdullah has said.
The announcement came days before municipal elections where women will be excluded.
"Because we refuse to marginalise women in society in all roles that comply with sharia, we have decided, after deliberation with our senior ulama [clerics] and others ... to involve women in the Shura Council as members, starting from the next term," Abdullah said on Sunday in a speech delivered to the Shura Council.
Women in the ultra-conservative Gulf kingdom are not allowed to vote and drive.
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Video Shows UN Troops in Sexual Assault
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09 September 2011
by MARK WEISBROT
The video is profoundly disturbing. It shows four men, identified as Uruguayan troops from the UN mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), apparently raping an 18-year old Haitian youth. Two of them have the victim pinned down on a mattress, with his hands twisted high up his back so that he cannot move. Perhaps the most unnerving part of the video is the constant chorus of laughter from the perpetrators; it’s just a big drunken party to them.
ABC News reports that Uruguayan Navy Lieutenant Nicolas Casariego confirmed the authenticity of the video. A medical certificate filed with the court in Port Salut, a southern coastal town where the incident took place, says that the victim was beaten and had injuries consistent with a sexual assault.
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Femicide: Guatemala’s growing epidemic
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03 September 2011
Photo by DavidDennisPhotos under a CC Licence
Open a newspaper in Guatemala and you are invariably greeted by the number of people killed the previous day (typically high) and the number of people arrested in conjunction with the crime (typically zero).
Recently, the number of females appearing in the first of these statistics has been increasing. So much so that human rights groups say Guatemala is witnessing epidemic levels of violence against women. Raped, murdered and mutilated, their bodies are dumped in rubbish bags and abandoned in public places.
The latest high-profile case is a missing mother of two, Cristina Siekavizza Molina de Barreda, who disappeared last month. Police are trying to locate the whereabouts of her husband, who fled with their children soon after the incident gained national attention. Cristina’s mother has since organized a number of marches throughout the capital, Guatemala City, to support victims of violence.
According to Amnesty International, Guatemalan women experience one of the highest levels of violence in the world; and while death rates continue to rise, convictions do not. Even Guatemala’s top law enforcer, Attorney General Claudia Paz, admits most crimes against women go unpunished:
‘The justice system hasn’t given violence cases the importance they deserve. And with violence against women, the problem is even worse,’ she says.
During the past decade, over 5,000 women and young girls have been murdered throughout the Central American nation: last year alone there were 685 targeted female killings. So far, less than four per cent of these cases have resulted in a conviction.
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Autodefensa feminista, no sólo ante la agresión física
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24 August 2011
Crónica | Cursos en Donostia
Trabajar técnicas físicas y sicológicas para combatir la violencia machista que afecta a las mujeres. Ése es el objetivo de Donostiako Autodefentsa Feminista taldea, compuesto por un grupo de jóvenes. Apuestan por reforzar la solidaridad y crear redes de apoyo para las mujeres.Oihane LARRETXEA
Eneida Monis, Nerea Arriola, Joana Aurrekoetxea y Almudena Núñez son algunas de las integrantes de Donostiako Autodefentsa Feminista Taldea. No todas son naturales de la capital guipuzcoana, ni han cursado los mismos estudios en la Universidad, pero la vida, y sus ideales como mujeres feministas, han hecho que sus caminos se cruzaran. Aunque llevan un par de años trabajando diferentes técnicas para combatir la lacra social de la violencia machista, no fue hasta setiembre del pasado año cuando el grupo adoptó el nombre actual.
Un domingo al mes se reúnen en Kortxoenea, el gaztetxe ubicado en las faldas del monte Ulia en el barrio de Gros, y allí elaboran técnicas tanto físicas como sicológicas, así como reflexiones apoyadas por teorías feministas. El mes pasado ofrecieron en la Casa de las Mujeres de la calle Okendo su primer taller abierto al público sobre autodefensa para mujeres, dinamizado por Maitena Monroy -quien desde 1988 imparte cursos de este tipo-, y en el que participaron mujeres de entre 18 y 65 años con realidades dispares. El balance ha sido muy positivo, y por eso consideran que lo ideal sería poder ofrecerlo de una manera más constante.
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Violencia Machista
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24 August 2011
La eficacia de medidas como las órdenes de alejamiento queda en entredicho tras el último crimen machista en Bilbo. El Departamento de Interior de Lakua dijo ayer no sabía que Daisy Mendoza estaba siendo acosada por su ex pareja, lo que ocurría de modo sistemático.
GARA | BILBO
La ex pareja de Daisy Mendoza vulneraba de manera reiterada la orden de alejamiento decretada contra él. Sin embargo, la Ertzaintza no tenía constancia del incumplimiento del mandato judicial, que había sido decretado el pasado 1 de junio por un período de tres meses.
El Departamento de Interior de Gasteiz confirmó así el dudoso nivel de protección ofrecido a la última víctima de la violencia machista, una mujer de 36 años a la que se le entregó únicamente un teléfono móvil para comunicar cualquier tipo de incidencia con su ex pareja.
Este lunes se comprobó, tal como denunciaron los familiares y amigos de la fallecida, que ese teléfono era una herramienta insuficiente para defenderse de su ex marido, Héctor Melecio Reyna, un varón de 38 años que en la tarde del lunes volvió a vulnerar la orden de alejamiento que pesaba sobre él para acabar con la vida de Mendoza.
Desde Lakua defendieron la política de protección aplicada, y explicaron que en los últimos meses no habían recibido ninguna llamada que alertara de la presencia del agresor en las inmediaciones de la vivienda familiar, una situación que se producía con regularidad. Es más, los allegados de la víctima afirmaron que el homicida «siempre andaba siguiéndola», llegando a «molestarla» en más de una ocasión.
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Turkish President Gül orders inquiry into increasing domestic violence
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19 July 2011
President Abdullah Gül
In the face of a growing number of domestic violence cases, Turkish President Abdullah Gül on Tuesday ordered the Presidency's State Audit Institution (DDK) to investigate all aspects of cases of violence against women and children.
The widespread problem of violence against women has been a contentious issue in Turkey. According to statistics, 105 women were victims of domestic violence in Turkey over the past six months. The most recent incident to cause a public outcry was the death of Tuğba Özbek last Friday. Özbek had taken shelter at her parents' home in İstanbul's Bayrampaşa district with her son Buğra after divorcing her husband. Şükrü Ö., her ex-husband, set the house on fire, killing the woman, her son and her uncle, Demir Ali Batmaz. Claims that Özbek had filed a legal petition for protection with prosecutors 11 times because of the threats of her ex-husband have increased calls for a solution to the problems of victims of domestic violence.
The most notorious case of domestic violence is the murder of Ayşe Paşalı. On Dec. 7, 2010, Paşalı was stabbed to death by her husband after her pleas for protection were rejected by authorities. Paşalı, who was beaten on a regular basis, became the symbol of domestic violence in Turkey.
This is not the first case in which Gül took action on high-profile issues. He has previously ordered inquiries into other controversial cases, such as the suspicious death of late Grand Unity Party (BBP) leader Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu in a helicopter crash in 2009 and the killing of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in 2007.
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