The War on Women

[Blue]

South Africa: 'Over 25% of schoolgirls HIV positive'

At least 28% of South African schoolgirls are HIV positive compared with 4% of boys because "sugar daddies" are exploiting them, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has said.

He said 94,000 schoolgirls also fell pregnant in 2011, and 77,000 had abortions at state facilities, The Sowetan newspaper reports.

About 10% of South Africans are living with HIV, official statistics show.

Mr Motsoaledi has been widely praised for his efforts to curb the disease.

Speaking at a public meeting in the town of Carolina in South Africa's Mpumalanga province, Mr Motsoaledi said the large number of young girls who were HIV-positive "destroyed my soul".

"It is clear that it is not young boys who are sleeping with these girls. It is old men," The Sowetan quotes him as saying.

"We must take a stand against sugar daddies because they are destroying our children."

Mr Motsoaledi said some pregnant girls - aged between 10 and 14 years of age - also tested positive for HIV.

[crikkett]

Interesting use, "to fall pregnant." Is that a common thing to say in Britain?

[Allegro]

Friday, March 8, 2013, was the
102nd International Women’s Day.

Highlights mine, Links in original.

_________________
Men and women must unite for change
The Guardian | Thursday 7 March 2013 15.59 EST


^ A woman in Karachi protests against the assassination attempt by the Taliban on Malala Yousafzai. Photograph: Rizwan Tabassum/AFP/Getty

When 14-year-old Pakistani girl Malala Yousafzai was attacked by a Taliban gunman on her way home from school last October, it was a shot heard around the world. The teen has since recovered her strength and is now heralded as a leader in the movement to bring education to every girl. Her message: We won’t accept violence. Friday is the 102nd International Women’s Day and women – and men – across the world will join their voices in unison to echo the same sentiment: We must all commit to end violence, rape and abuse.

From female journalists being sexually assaulted in Egypt to politicians in the US and UK stating that only some allegations of rape are “legitimate”, 2012 sometimes seemed like a setback for women’s rights. The gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student in Delhi and a 17-year-old girl in South Africa have sparked a ripple of anger that has spread around the world. These are not exceptional cases; they are the tip of the iceberg. In the UK, one in three girls have experienced unwanted sexual touching at school. In South Africa, one in three men admit to having raped. Globally one in three women will be beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused by an intimate partner in her lifetime. This isn’t a marginal issue. We can’t continue to ignore the fact that women aged 15-44 are more at risk from rape and domestic violence than from cancer, car accidents, war and malaria combined.

In the wake of such atrocity, men and women have united to stand for equality and change. We know the support of men and boys is also an important part of the solution, that we’re more powerful together. Across the globe, bells have chimed, people have converged in peaceful protest, communities have congregated online and men and women have danced in the street in the name of change. In 2012 the power of the internet and social media gave us an opportunity to unite. This year could provide the moment to act.

We stand collectively and say “we won’t accept violence”. We can say enough is enough to violence against women and girls. We can provide better support for the survivors of abuse. We can ensure young people are educated about healthy relationships and we can challenge sexism when we encounter it. Let’s make our voices heard.


Annie Lennox activist and founder of the Equals coalition
Elton John founder, Elton John Aids Foundation
Anouskha Shankar musician and composer
Joe Wright director
Barbara Broccoli producer
Beverley Knight musician
Dion Dublin former England footballer
Caroline Lucas MP Green party
Charlie Webster presenter
Iwan Thomas Olympian
Emeli Sandé musician
Eve Ensler activist and author
Fay Ripley actor
Frisky and Mannish comedians
Gemma Cairney radio presenter
Ghostpoet musician
Guy Paul actor
Harriet Walter actor
Helena Kennedy barrister and broadcaster
Hollie McNish writer
Inja musician
Jo Brand comedian
Eddie Izzard comedian
Joan Bakewell author and broadcaster
Juliet Stevenson actor
Katy Piper activist
Jahmene Douglas musician
Katy B musician
Genneus music producer
Keira Knightley actor
Dominic Cooper actor
Maryam d’Abo actor
Hugh Hudson film director
Laura Bates campaigner
Josh Shahryar human hights reporter
Naomie Harris actor
David Oyelowo actor
Natasha Walter writer and campaigner
Phillippe Sands professor of international law
Ruth Negga actor
Sabrina Mahfouz poet and playwright
Dean Atta writer
Sam Taylor-Johnson director and artist
Aaron Taylor-Johnson actor
Mohsen Makhmalbaf director
Sarah Brown writer and campaigner
Stella Creasy MP Labour
Tessa Munt MP Liberal Democrats
VV Brown musician
Yvette Cooper MP Labour
Zainab Salbi writer and activist

• As we celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day, the UK is also preparing to appear before the UN committee tasked with monitoring the government’s progress on the promises we have made under the international law on women’s human rights – Cedaw.

The government’s engagement with Cedaw is welcome. As a state which prides itself on international human rights leadership it is important that we too step into the global spotlight and are accountable for action to guarantee basic rights here at home as well as abroad. Less heartening is what this spotlight reveals. The government’s interim response to the UN committee ahead of July’s full examination reveals a worrying picture which, in some instances, risks regression rather than progress for women’s rights in the UK. For example, the fact that women are more likely to qualify for legal aid because they are among the poorest in our society is not a sign of progress.

As Eleanor Roosevelt stated shortly after drafting the universal declaration of human rights in 1948, human rights begin in small places close to home. We applaud the government’s commitment to engaging with international human rights mechanisms, but we urge them to remember that the point of human rights, including women’s human rights, is that they must be made real here at home.


Sanchita Hosali Deputy director, British Institute of Human Rights
Annie Campbell Director, Women’s Aid Federation Northern Ireland
Lynda Dearlove Chief executive, Women at the Well
Ceri Goddard Chief executive, Fawcett Society
Rebecca Gill Director of policy, Campaigns & Communications, Platform 51
Carolina Gottardo Director, Latin American Women’s Rights Service
Lily Greenan Manager, Scottish Women’s Aid
Andy Gregg Chief executive, Race on the Agenda
Rachel Halford Director, Women in Prison
Paula Hardy Chief executive, Welsh Women’s Aid
Vivienne Hayes Chief executive, Women’s Resource Centre
Davina James-Hanman Director, AVA Project
Robina Iqbal Board member, Muslim Women’s Network UK
Annette Lawson Chair, National Alliance of Women’s Organisations
Marcia Lewinson Women Acting in Today’s Society
Polly Neate Chief executive, Women’s Aid
Sumanta Roy Policy and research manager, Imkaan
Emma Scott Director, Rights of Women
Deborah Singer Policy manager, Asylum Aid

• Food banks, soup kitchens, homeless night shelters, debt counselling… nationwide the church is engaged with those at the receiving end of the government’s austerity measures. Last week the Methodist church, the Baptist Union of Great Britain and the Church of Scotland published a report, The lies we tell ourselves: ending comfortable myths about poverty. It says statistics have been manipulated and misused by politicians and media to support a comfortable but dangerous story: that the poor somehow deserve their poverty, and therefore deserve the cuts which they increasingly face. This report from the churches focusing on UK poverty follows on from the launch of the Enough Food for Everyone If campaign, launched by over 100 charities and faith groups in January. If there was tax justice in the world; If international companies were transparent in their business dealing; If there wasn’t a massive land grab… there would be enough food in the world for everyone.

In these reports and campaigns the church is asking the right question: “Why are they poor?” Like the Faith in the city report in the 80s, the church is actively challenging government attacks on the poor. It is not, as Seumas Milne asserts (Women are now to the left of men. It’s a historic shift, 6 March), that women have swung to the left because of the decline of the church. Today the voice of women of the left is to be heard loud and clear in the church, united with all those who long for a more just and equitable society.
Rev Barbara Calvert
Chislehurst, Kent

• So women are to the left of men, and there are more of us of voting age than men. Perhaps this is the time for a shift from politics based on conflict and aggression to politics based on compassion and collaboration. If we’re to keep Earth fit for humans to live on, women and men who value co-operation over fighting need to work together to radically change the political agenda, before it is too late.
Jane Stott
Gillingham, Dorset

[FourthBase]

Great campaign!

Not to be a bummer, but amidst all the eye-opening stats, is there one that rates how many women very-willingly mate with abusive predatory "bad boy" assholes? (See my long comment in the Last Psychiatrist thread.) In other words, what percentage of the war on women is tragically self-perpetuated? Certainly not an insignificant percentage. Let this not be perceived as blaming the victim, or an excuse to excuse men. Just a harsh but true and necessary observation.

[Project Willow]

^ Why don't you invest some time in figuring out how much choice is involved in responses to abusive and predatory behavior.

[FourthBase]

^ Why don't you invest some time in figuring out how much choice is involved in responses to abusive and predatory behavior.

Um, a lot of choice, in a lot of instances?
Are you suggesting no women ever willingly fall for bad guys?

[Allegro]

FourthBase, I’m not really prepared at the moment to earnestly research your questions, because it’s very likely I’d return to RI with inadequate or old stats. So, I’d prefer reliance on women like Project Willow or compared2what? for their indications or thoughts. I’d be surprised if some stats you are suggesting weren’t already on RI, somewhere.

Now that you’ve begun asking, I had a thought. I wonder if there are stats revealing the numbers of males who are helping other males to stop beating women and girls and boys and other males? Now there’s a thought.

[FourthBase]

FourthBase, I’m not really prepared at the moment to earnestly research your questions, because it’s very likely I’d return to RI with inadequate or old stats. So, I’d prefer reliance on women like Project Willow or compared2what? for their indications or thoughts. I’d be surprised if some stats you are suggesting weren’t already on RI, somewhere.

Now that you’ve begun asking, I had a thought. I wonder if there are stats revealing the numbers of males who are helping other males to stop beating women and girls and boys and other males? Now there’s a thought.

Indeed, quite a thought. I highly recommend reading the Last Psychiatrist makeup essay I linked.

[Project Willow]

^ Why don't you invest some time in figuring out how much choice is involved in responses to abusive and predatory behavior.

Um, a lot of choice, in a lot of instances?
Are you suggesting no women ever willingly fall for bad guys?

First of all, I've never known anyone to "willingly fall" for anyone else, if you're talking about those insipid love chemicals.

Secondly, I'm saying what I'm saying. If you're positing female mate choice as an evolutionary contributing factor to contemporary male violence, then you better go back and try to imagine how much female choice is operating in reaction to "abusive and predatory" behavior, which is essentially coercive.

Thirdly, the exercise of power and its impacts on our behavior and psychology, throughout the whole of our lives, reflected and conditioned circularly through culture, is far too complex a process to reduce to such a facile conclusion.

If you want something reductive and facile, try this: men are bigger and stronger than women, men want to mate, therefore patriarchy and violence.

Yes, women will seek to attach themselves to powerful individuals. Men will too. Individuals who hold power in the group get resources, even if they obtained their power through violence, deceit, or any number of otherwise "bad" or harmful strategies. That human beings tolerate harmful strategies is a human problem, not a female problem.

Myth of Women's Masochism http://www.amazon.com/Myth-WomenS-Masochism-Paula-Caplan/dp/0802077455

[FourthBase]

All excellent points, PW. And thanks for linking that book.

At the same time, would it be useless or useful to persuade women to refuse to mate with evil?

[Project Willow]

I am sure you and I could agree that working to end child abuse is central to creating adults who make healthy choices for themselves. Empowering people is great, but this must begin with understanding and steer clear of shaming.

If I were a man, I'd work on influencing other men about their behavior. I'd be concerned about how definitions of masculinity impact me and my peers. I don't endorse all aspects of the following, these are not new ideas, but what's clear in both videos is the shift in focus and responsibility.

[FourthBase]

I am sure you and I could agree that working to end child abuse is central to creating adults who make healthy choices for themselves.

Unquestionably.

Empowering people is great, but this must begin with understanding and steer clear of shaming.

Some harsh truths that need to be understood might necessarily elicit shame, however deserved or undeserved the sensation of shame is. Although, it goes without saying, most things that are supposed to be sources of shame for women are -- and have always been -- entirely bogus male constructs, the shame entirely undeserved.

If I were a man, I'd work on influencing other men about their behavior. I'd be concerned about how definitions of masculinity impact me and my peers. I don't endorse all aspects of the following, these are not new ideas, but what's clear in both videos is the shift in focus and responsibility.

SNIP of clips

I am a man, and as one: I am sad to report that I am not too optimistic about the corrigibility of the men who perpetrate and even just passively perpetuate not only evil and heartache upon women but upon the earth. It's not that I am looking first to women to be the fixers of mostly male-initiated and male-sustained problems, it's that I have looked at the whole of men and grimly concluded that...that dog probably won't hunt (itself, lol) or heal on its own, or even just simply begin to listen. Men can be notorious bad listeners. Not to suggest a hopelessness there, but I just find the other half of humanity (or, more controversially, the better half, in general, imo, my hypothesis included) to be a more promising team of prospects to win the peace championship on behalf of the species. And so, once again, to quote Laetitia Sadier: The request is here, ready to resurrect...

Women of the world, take over. (Last time I made that request, there was a retort: "Don't you tell me what to do!", which is...ugh, sigh, weep.) 'Cause if you don't...well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L9cPiSh5aE

[JackRiddler]

[youtube]www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L9cPiSh5aE[/youtube]

For the youtube tag, use not the full URL but only the video ID code after the v=, in this case 0L9cPiSh5aE. Like so:



Le voila.

[justdrew]

A Muslim cleric has condemned to death Amina Tyler, a young 19 year old Tunisian who published a picture of herself topless, Amina posted on her Facebook account a picture with the phrase: “My body belongs to me, and is not the source of anyone’s honor.” She is a member of the group Femen, a feminist movement emerged in Ukraine in 2008 performing their topless protests to draw attention. The unusual protest sparked rejected her own family, which is considered a “insulting the modesty of a woman” and Islam.
“This young woman according to Islamic law deserves to between 80 and 100 lashes, but she did much more than that so she deserves to be stoned to death,” the religious Tunisian daily said “Assabah News” .

Amina represents us.
We the undersigned unequivocally defend Amina, and demand that her life and liberty are protected and that those who have threatened her will be immediately prosecuted.

Sign the petition here

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/25/amina-tyler-femen_n_2949376.html

[justdrew]

A teenage girl from Nova Scotia in Canada was driven to suicide after photos of an alleged sexual assault led to her being shunned and harassed by her peers.

The 17-year-old girl, Rehtaeh Parsons, died Sunday in a hospital after attempting to hang herself.

“Rehtaeh is gone today because of the four boys that thought that raping a 15yr old girl was OK and to distribute a photo to ruin her spirit and reputation would be fun,” her mother wrote Monday on a memorial page on Facebook.

Parsons was the victim of an alleged gang rape that occurred in 2011 after she attended a party where she drank vodka. Her mother said the four boys who attacked her took pictures of the assault and shared it with classmates. Parsons faced ongoing bullying and harassment because of the terrible incident, according to her mother.

“One of those boys took a photo of her being raped and decided it would be fun to distribute the photo to everyone in Rehtaeh’s school and community where it quickly went viral,” her mother added. “Because the boys already had a ‘slut’ story, the victim of the rape Rehtaeh was considered a SLUT. This day changed the lives of our family forever. I stopped working that very day and we have all been on this journey of emotional turmoil ever since.”

Police investigated the attack for a year, but concluded it was a “he said, she said” case and they didn’t have enough evidence to prosecute the boys. In regards to the lurid photo of the assault, Rehtaeh’s mother said police described it as a “community issue” rather than a criminal issue.

“The justice system failed her,” she wrote.

HALIFAX - Nova Scotia's justice minister says he does not plan to order a review of an RCMP investigation that concluded there were no grounds to lay charges against four boys over allegations they sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl.

Ross Landry said Tuesday he has no reason to believe the Mounties did not follow proper procedures in the case of Rehtaeh Parsons.

"In regards to the issue of second-guessing the police at every case, no, I'm not going to do that," Landry said.

Landry was responding after reports that Parsons killed herself, nearly a year and a half after the alleged incident. Leah Parsons, the girl's mother, has said she is dissatisfied with the outcome of the RCMP investigation.

"I have no evidence or no information before me at this time to say that the RCMP did not follow appropriate procedures and policies," Landry said.

"I have great confidence in them, I have great confidence in the police officers of Nova Scotia, I have great confidence in our Public Prosecution (Service)."

Landry said he has yet to hear of any formal complaint from the mother about the RCMP investigation.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version had an incorrect spelling of Rehtaeh Parsons' first name.

Still looking for the names and identities of the four initial attackers

"it's a community issue," so some community justice may just be coming their way.