END FGM European Campaign launches web site

10 November 2009 in Campaign, Europe, Health, Violence Against Women

END FGM European Campaign works with partner organisations across the European Union to ensure that the EU protects the rights of women and girls who are subjected to, or are at risk of, female genital mutilation.
Three million girls and women are subjected to female genital mutilation worldwide each year. That’s 8000 girls per day.
Female genital [...]

Rid the world of female genital mutilation

10 November 2009 in Africa, Campaign, Violence Against Women

The moral imperative to end this brutal practice exists – now we need the leadership and political will to consign it to history
In countries all over the world today, women live with the threat, or consequences, of female genital mutilation.
In Africa alone an estimated 3 million girls and women are subjected to the practice each [...]

Politics can be a Risky Business for Women in Bolivia

10 November 2009 in Government, South America, Violence Against Women

Taking an active part in politics in Bolivia can be a hazardous undertaking. Hundreds of reports of violence against women participating in politics attest to the risk. And while attacks go unpunished, a bill designed to protect the rights of women occupying public office has spent almost a decade in Congress waiting to be approved.
María [...]

Somali Islamists publicly whip women for wearing bras

26 October 2009 in Africa, Faith, Violence Against Women

Somalia’s hardline Islamist group al Shabaab has publicly whipped women for wearing bras they say violate Islam by constituting a deception, north Mogadishu residents said last week.
The insurgent group, which seeks to impose a strict form of sharia Islamic law throughout Somalia, amputated a foot and a hand each from two young men accused of [...]

“It’s an injustice, pure and simple – Aboriginal women continue to experience higher than average rates of sexualized violence in Canada”

26 October 2009 in BME, North America, Violence Against Women

Canadian Member of Parliament John Rafferty (Thunder Bay – Rainy River) delivered a statement in the House last week calling for cooperation to end violence against Aboriginal women. “Aboriginal women continue to experience higher than average rates of sexualized violence in Canada,” said Rafferty. “It’s an injustice, pure and simple.”
Outside the House, Rafferty praised [...]

In the aftermath of mass rape in Guinea

13 October 2009 in Africa, Rape and Sexual Assault, Violence Against Women, War Conflict

At an 8 October gathering of Guinean women beaten or raped during the recent military attack on demonstrators, all wept as one young woman presented torn clothes soldiers had ripped off of her.
“We all collapsed in tears. It is unspeakably painful what happened here in Guinea,” Aïssata Daffe of the Union des Forces Républicaines political [...]

One third of world’s child brides from India says UNICEF

13 October 2009 in Asia, Children Parenting, Publication, Trafficking, Violence Against Women

More than a third of the world’s child brides are from India, leaving children at an increased risk of exploitation despite the Asian giant’s growing modernity and economic wealth, according to a UNICEF report.
Nearly 25 million women in India were married in the year 2007 by the age of 18, said the report released on [...]

Stop the whipping of Kartika

6 October 2009 in Asia, Faith, Legal Police, Violence Against Women, Women's Group

The Joint Action Group for Gender Equality (JAG), Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM) and National Human Rights Society (HAKAM) are gravely concerned that the Pahang Syariah Court of Appeal had heard and decided the revision of Kartika Dewi Shukarno’s (Kartika) sentence of whipping without all the relevant stakeholders in attendance to present arguments, or the public [...]

Ugandan Rioters Strip Women Wearing Trousers

25 September 2009 in Africa, Demonstration March, Violence Against Women, War Conflict

Rioters attacked and stripped about 20 Ugandan women who were wearing trousers last week during deadly riots in Kampala. The humiliations were part of a major confrontation between a traditional kingdom and President Yoweri Museveni’s government.
Male rioters in a suburb here on September 11 attacked about 20 women wearing trousers.
The men, in Rubaga, a Kampala [...]

Tribunals No Substitute for Reforms on ‘Honor Killings’ in Jordan

10 September 2009 in Human Rights, Legal Police, Middle East, Violence Against Women

Jordan should reform penal code provisions that effectively reduce or eliminate punishment for violence against women instead of establishing special tribunals to hear “honor killings” cases, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to the Jordanian Ministry of Justice on August 10, 2009.
On August 12, the Jordan Times reported the 14th such killing this [...]

Twenty-five years on, Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre stands as beacon of hope for women

4 September 2009 in Australasia, Violence Against Women, Women's Group

Since the first counselling session that August in 1984, and operating from only two rooms at Butt Street Methodist Church in Suva, more then 17,000 women have walked through its doors seeking the centre’s services. And as it celebrates its anniversary this month, the fact that they are still around after 25 years is indeed [...]

Violence and conservatism threaten Afghan women’s vote

19 August 2009 in Asia, Government, Violence Against Women, War Conflict

Poor security, rampant fraud and not enough female election staff will keep many women away from the ballot box in next week’s presidential election in deeply conservative Afghanistan, diplomats and campaign workers fear.
While the female vote has emerged as a potentially powerful bloc in some areas, it is unlikely the majority of women will exercise [...]

Women’s groups in India demand action against virginity tests

17 August 2009 in Asia, Legal Police, Rape and Sexual Assault, Violence Against Women, Women's Group

Leading women’s groups in India have called on the government to put an end to indignities against women such as making some of them undergo virginity tests and disrobing in public.
“It is shameful that governmental bodies treat women without any dignity,” says Sister Mary Scaria, one of 150 people from seven women’s organizations who demonstrated [...]

GAA Calls on Secretary Clinton to Speak Out Against Gender-Based Violence During Her Africa Trip

2 August 2009 in Abortion Contraception, Africa, Domestic Violence, Rape and Sexual Assault, Violence Against Women

Global AIDS Alliance executive director Dr. Paul Zeitz issued the following statement today on the eve of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s departure for a seven-nation tour of Africa:
“We applaud Secretary Clinton’s decision to visit Africa next week and her decision to focus attention during her visit on preventing conflict and violence, including gender-based violence, [...]

Journalist and 12 other women were arrested in Khartoum for wearing trousers face caning

31 July 2009 in Africa, Faith, Government, Violence Against Women

The Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) International solidarity network is gravely concerned to hear that on Wednesday 29 July, at 10:00 am, Sudanese time, the court will hear the case brought against Sudanese journalist Lubna Ahmad Hussein for ‘inappropriate dress and conduct’.
Hussein and 12 other women were arrested in Khartoum on July 3, [...]

Malaysian Muslim woman accepts flogging penalty after being caught for drinking beer

31 July 2009 in Asia, Faith, Violence Against Women

A Malaysian woman sentenced to flogging for drinking beer has accepted the Islamic court’s order, saying she wants the punishment to be carried out soon, news reports said Thursday.
Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, a 32-year-old model, was arrested on charges of drinking beer after Islamic authorities raided a hotel nightclub last year. She was sentenced Monday [...]

180 people, mainly women, face flogging for extramarital sex in the Maldives

31 July 2009 in Asia, Faith, Family Marriage Partnership, Violence Against Women

Amnesty International has learned that at least 180 people face being flogged in the Maldives as a punishment for extramarital sex.
The vast majority of those who are flogged in the Maldives are women, even though both men and women can be sentenced to flogging. The most up to date official statistics on flogging from [...]

Half measures against honour killings in Syria not enough – HRW

31 July 2009 in Family Marriage Partnership, Government, Middle East, Opinion Comment, Violence Against Women

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has welcomed Syria’s move to enforce a minimum jail sentence of two years for honour killers but said it was not enough as all murders should be dealt with equally.
“Two years is better than nothing, but it is hardly enough for murder,” Nadya Khalife, Middle East and North Africa women’s rights [...]

Citizens in Angola join march against domestic violence

28 July 2009 in Africa, Demonstration March, Men Against VAW, Violence Against Women

Hundreds of people participated on Saturday in Luanda in a march against domestic violence, which was dubbed “Zero Tolerance”.
The march was held in the ambit of the commemorations of the African Women Day, to be marked on July 31.
During the event, which took place under the theme “Impact of the financial crisis in the life [...]

Guyana must now be one of the most dangerous places for a woman to live

28 July 2009 in Domestic Violence, Men Against VAW, Opinion Comment, South America, Violence Against Women

Since January, over twenty women have been murdered at the hands of men they knew, the most recent and horrific crimes involving a son allegedly locking his mother in a room and beating her to death and a spurned ex-lover allegedly setting in wait and killing the mother of the woman he wanted to marry. [...]