Violence Against Women in the United States: Statistics
Despite the fact that advocacy groups like NOW have worked for two decades to halt the epidemic of gender-based violence and sexual assault, the numbers are still shocking. It is time to renew our national pledge, from the President and Congress on down to City Councils all across the nation to END violence against women and men, girls and boys. This effort must also be carried on in workplaces, schools, churches, locker rooms, the military, and in courtrooms, law enforcement, entertainment and the media. NOW pledges to continue our work to end this violence and we hope you will join us in our work.
MURDER
In 2005, 1,181 women were murdered by an intimate partner.1 That’s an average of three women every day. Of all the women murdered in the U.S., about one-third were killed by an intimate partner.2
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE (Intimate Partner Violence or Battering)
Domestic violence can be defined as a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over an intimate partner.3 According to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, women experience about 4.8 million intimate partner-related physical assaults and rapes every year.4 Less than 20 percent of battered women sought medical treatment following an injury.5
SEXUAL VIOLENCE
According to the National Crime Victimization Survey, which includes crimes that were not reported to the police, 232,960 women in the U.S. were raped or sexually assaulted in 2006. That’s more than 600 women every day.6 Other estimates, such as those generated by the FBI, are much lower because they rely on data from law enforcement agencies. A significant number of crimes are never even reported for reasons that include the victim’s feeling that nothing can/will be done and the personal nature of the incident.7
THE TARGETS
Young women, low-income women and some minorities are disproportionately victims of domestic violence and rape. Women ages 20-24 are at greatest risk of nonfatal domestic violence8, and women age 24 and under suffer from the highest rates of rape.9 The Justice Department estimates that one in five women will experience rape or attempted rape during their college years, and that less than five percent of these rapes will be reported.10 Income is also a factor: the poorer the household, the higher the rate of domestic violence — with women in the lowest income category experiencing more than six times the rate of nonfatal intimate partner violence as compared to women in the highest income category.11 When we consider race, we see that African-American women face higher rates of domestic violence than white women, and American-Indian women are victimized at a rate more than double that of women of other races.12
IMPACT ON CHILDREN
According to the Family Violence Prevention Fund, “growing up in a violent home may be a terrifying and traumatic experience that can affect every aspect of a child’s life, growth and development. . . . children who have been exposed to family violence suffer symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, such as bed-wetting or nightmares, and were at greater risk than their peers of having allergies, asthma, gastrointestinal problems, headaches and flu.” In addition, women who experience physcial abuse as children are at a greater risk of victimization as adults, and men have a far greater (more than double) likelihood of perpetrating abuse. 13
Violence affects the lives of millions of women worldwide, in all socio-economic and educational classes. It cuts across cultural and religious barriers, impeding the right of women to participate fully in society.
Violence against women takes a dismaying variety of forms, from domestic abuse and rape to child marriages and female circumcision. All are violations of the most fundamental human rights.
In a statement to the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in September 1995, the United Nations Secretary-General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, said that violence against women is a universal problem that must be universally condemned. But he said that the problem continues to grow.
The Secretary-General noted that domestic violence alone is on the increase. Studies in 10 countries, he said, have found that between 17 per cent and 38 per cent of women have suffered physical assaults by a partner.
In the Platform for Action, the core document of the Beijing Conference, Governments declared that “violence against women constitutes a violation of basic human rights and is an obstacle to the achievement of the objectives of equality, development and peace”.
Incest, Rape and Domestic Violence
Some females fall prey to violence before they are born, when expectant parents abort their unborn daughters, hoping for sons instead. In other societies, girls are subjected to such traditional practices as circumcision, which leave them maimed and traumatized. In others, they are compelled to marry at an early age, before they are physically, mentally or emotionally mature.
Women are victims of incest, rape and domestic violence that often lead to trauma, physical handicap or death.
And rape is still being used as a weapon of war, a strategy used to subjugate and terrify entire communities. Soldiers deliberately impregnate women of different ethnic groups and abandon them when it is too late to get an abortion.
The Platform for Action adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women declared that rape in armed conflict is a war crime — and could, under certain circumstances, be considered genocide.
Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali told the Beijing Conference that more women today were suffering directly from the effects of war and conflict than ever before in history.
“There is a deplorable trend towards the organized humiliation of women, including the crime of mass rape”, the Secretary-General said. “We will press for international legal action against those who perpetrate organized violence against women in time of conflict.”
A preliminary report in 1994 by the Special Rapporteur, Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy, focused on three areas of concern where women are particularly vulnerable: in the family (including domestic violence, traditional practices, infanticide); in the community (including rape, sexual assault, commercialized violence such as trafficking in women, labour exploitation, female migrant workers etc.); and by the State (including violence against women in detention as well as violence against women in situations of armed conflict and against refugee women).
In the Platform for Action adopted at the Beijing Conference, violence against women and the human rights of women are 2 of the 12 critical areas of concern identified as the main obstacles to the advancement of women.
Commitments by Governments
Governments agreed to adopt and implement national legislation to end violence against women and to work actively to ratify all international agreements that relate to violence against women. They agreed that there should be shelters, legal aid and other services for girls and women at risk, and counselling and rehabilitation for perpetrators.
Governments also pledged to adopt appropriate measures in the field of education to modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women. And the Platform called on media professionals to develop self-regulatory guidelines to address violent, degrading and pornographic materials while encouraging non-stereotyped, balanced and diverse images of women.
The U.S. Congress has passed two main laws related to violence against women, the Violence Against Women Act and the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act.
The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was the first major law to help government agencies and victim advocates work together to fight domestic violence, sexual assault, and other types of violence against women. It created new punishments for certain crimes and started programs to prevent violence and help victims. Over the years, the law has been expanded to provide more programs and services. Currently, some included items are:
Violence prevention programs in communities
Protections for victims who are evicted from their homes because of events related to domestic violence or stalking
Funding for victim assistance services like rape crisis centers and hotlines
Programs to meet the needs of immigrant women and women of different races or ethnicities
Programs and services for victims with disabilities
Legal aid for survivors of violence
Services for children and teens
The National Advisory Committee on Violence Against Women works to help promote the goals and vision of VAWA. The committee is a joint effort between the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Examples of the committee’s efforts include the Community Checklist initiative to make sure each community has domestic violence programs and the Toolkit to End Violence Against Women, which has chapters for specific audiences.
The Family Violence Prevention and Services Act
The Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (FVPSA) provides the main federal funding to help victims of domestic violence and their dependents (such as children). Programs funded through FVPSA provide shelter and related help. They also offer violence prevention activities and try to improve how service agencies work together in communities. FVPSA works through a few main ways:
This is so offensive in so many ways, I don’t know where to begin. During Houston’s NRA Conference last week, a vendor was promoting shooting targets. One target looked so much like President Obama, it had to be taken off display. However the one ‘token’ female target called ‘Ex’, to represent an ex-girlfriend, that bleeds when you shoot her, was allowed to stay. It apparently met the NRA decency guidelines.
Afghan women cover themselves as required by Islamic law. (AP Photo)
(CNSNews.com) – A U.S. lawmaker, expressing concern about the lives of Afghan women when most U.S. troops leave the country in 2014, said those who want to do so should be allowed to come to the United States:
“I’m really concerned about these women,” Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) told a House Armed Services subcommittee on April 25. “I think everyone on this panel is very concerned about these women…But I think there is something we can do. And that is to create a refugee status for any Afghan woman who wants to leave the country and is seeking asylum in our country.
PAN, May 27, 2012: Once again radicals opposing girls’ education on Sunday poisoned more than three dozen schoolgirls in northern Takhar province, the third incident of its kind over the past two months, officials said. (Photo: PAN)
…
18.04.2013
HAZMAT
Afghanistan
Province of Takhar, Taluqan [Bibi Hajira Girl School]
Over a dozen students of a girl school were mysteriously poisoned in Takhar province 245 km north of Kabul on Thursday, a local official said. “Seventeen students of Bibi Hajira Girl School in Taluqan city the capital of Takhar province were mysteriously poisoned and have been taken to hospital today,” Gul Agha Nazari, deputy to Education Department of Takhar province said. He also said that investigation has been initiated to find the fact behind the incident. Spokesman for Takhar provincial administration, Suliman Sarwari also confirmed the incident, saying investigation is underway to know the fact.
PAN, May 27, 2012: Once again radicals opposing girls’ education on Sunday poisoned more than three dozen schoolgirls in northern Takhar province, the third incident of its kind over the past two months, officials said. (Photo: PAN)
Once again radicals opposing girls’ education on Sunday poisoned more than three dozen schoolgirls in northern Takhar province, the third incident of its kind over the past two months, officials said.
The victims, students of the Bibi Hajira High School, situated on the 5th road of Taloqan city, the provincial capital, fell sick for unknown reasons, Education Director Abdul Wahab Zafari told Pajhwok Afghan News.
The incident takes place four days after more than 120 schoolgirls and three teachers of the same school were poisoned, in the second attack in as many months, blamed on conservative radicals opposed to education for women and girls in the north, according to police and education officials.
Nearly 43 girls were brought to the Takhar Civil Hospital, Public Health Director Dr. Hafizullah confirmed to Pajhwok.
However, he said the cause of the incident remained unclear and they had sent blood samples to Qaloqan city for examination.
The hospital’s administrative officer Abdul Qayum Qani said they had launched an investigation on the incident, in coordination with security personnel.
Secret filming at Sharia council shows women at risk
BBC Panorama has uncovered fresh evidence of how some Sharia councils in Britain may be putting Muslim women “at risk” by pressuring them to stay in abusive marriages.
In a small terraced house in east London a woman and her husband argue before an Islamic scholar who sits on a dais above them in a room that looks and feels like a court.
This is Leyton Islamic Sharia Council and Dr Suhaib Hasan will decide if the woman can have a divorce. Her husband is refusing to grant her one and the couple have been coming here for a year.
She accuses him of refusing to work, ignoring the children and verbally abusing her. He vehemently denies it. When Dr Hasan orders the husband to leave the room, the woman breaks down in tears.
“I hate him, I can’t even bear to look at him, he has ruined my life,” she sobbed.
Dr Hasan sends the couple away for another month to try and save their marriage, with the help of Allah.
Fearful women
Leyton Islamic Sharia Council is Britain’s oldest and one of the most active Islamic councils, hearing about 50 cases a month, mainly marital disputes. Nine out of 10 are brought by Muslim women from all over the country.
The South American nation seized Rurelec’s controlling stake in power company Guaracachi on May Day 2010 and has not paid any compensation.
Rurelec claims independent valuations show it is owed $142.3m (£94m) and on Tuesday the case will be heard at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.
Peter Earl, Rurelec chief executive, said: “Bolivia has never gone to arbitration before — they have always settled beforehand. I think they thought we were a small company and they could bully us and we would cave.
“They never realised we had strong shareholders, or that we would get the support of the British Government.”
Rurelec raised money from shareholders to pay the legal costs of the arbitration process and said William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, had personally backed its case.
The company had said it would be willing for settle for a minimum of the book value of the assets, which it puts at $75m, plus interest. But Mr Earl said Bolivia had never even suggested a figure.
New Law in Bolivia to Protect Women from Violence (including “Femicide”)
The United Nations human rights office has welcomed a new law in Bolivia which broadens the protection of women against various forms of violence. “We welcome the promulgation, on 9 March 2013, of the Comprehensive Law to guarantee women a life free from violence in Bolivia (Law 348), which broadens protection of women against various forms of violence and establishes the eradication of violence against women as a priority of the State,” the spokesperson for the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Rupert Colville, told journalists in Geneva.
The law also includes the crime of ‘femicide’ – in which a woman is murdered due to the fact that she is female – in the penal code, with a prison term of 30 years without pardon.
Egyptian women protest in Tahrir Square in Cairo in 2011 against violence against women. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
(CNSNews.com) – As the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women tries to finalize a document on violence against women by the end of its two-week session Friday, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood is leading a pushback by governments that accuse it of trying to undermine religious or cultural values.
Egypt’s ruling Islamist party called on all Muslim countries to “reject and condemn” the draft document under discussion at the CSW session in New York, warning that it would undermine the family, subvert society, and “drag it to pre-Islamic ignorance.”
“This declaration, if ratified, would lead to complete disintegration of society, and would certainly be the final step in the intellectual and cultural invasion of Muslim countries, eliminating the moral specificity that helps preserve cohesion of Islamic societies,” it said in a statement.
The declaration would in fact be non-binding, although U.N. documents are typically cited in future negotiations as having set norms to be built upon.
Earlier, Libya’s grand mufti issued a fatwa (religious ruling) against the draft document.
Among elements in the CSW draft opposed by the Brotherhood are some that would resonate with many Western conservatives – including a reference to “safe abortion” where permitted by law and an allusion to same-sex relationships (couched as the right to decide without coercion on “matters related to their sexuality.”)
Others, however, touch on norms Westerners would generally not dispute but which the Brotherhood says are contrary to shari’a, such as those relating to early marriage, polygamy, and inheritance equality.
Where the CSW document calls for women to enjoy equality in “participation and decision-making in all spheres of life,” for instance, the Brotherhood sees a threat against the right of Muslim men to give or withhold consent for wives to travel or work.
Full equality in marriage, it said in the statement, would allow Muslim women to marry non-Muslim men, abolish polygamy, and remove the authority of divorce from husbands.
Egyptian women take part in demonstrations against the Mubarak regime in Cairo on Jan. 30, 2011. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
The Brotherhood was also unhappy that the document sought to promote “full sharing of roles within the family between men and women such as: spending, child care and home chores.”
Egypt wants the draft amended to allow countries to sidestep those recommendations they view as clashing with religious or cultural values.
The document itself urges against such a provision, calling on states “to refrain from invoking any custom, tradition or religious consideration to avoid their obligations” with respect to eliminating violence against women and girls.
National Council for Women denies the UN declaration on violence against women breaches Islamic Shari’a
Egyptian women demand their rights on the occasion of the International Women’s Day, (Photo by Mohamed Omar/DNE)
The National Council for Women (NCW) denied in a statement released on Thursday that a declaration regarding violence against women currently being drafted in the 57th United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women breaches Islamic Shari’a.
The Muslim Brotherhood released a statement on Wednesday denouncing the declaration for “contradicting principles of Islam and destroying family life and the entire society”.
“The Brotherhood’s statement is completely unfounded,” the NCW said in its statement. The council added that the final draft of the declaration is yet to be released and voted on.
The council denied that the declaration goes against the principles of Islam, eliminates Islamic manner or destroys families. “This misleading allegation abuses religion to taint the UN and stall women’s rights,” the statement read. It added that the “accusations” referred to in the Brotherhood’s statement are all non-existent in the draft declaration.
“The points mentioned in the Brotherhood’s statement cannot be found in the declaration; neither literally nor metaphorically,” said Abeer Abul Ella, head of the NCW’s media office.
In its statement, the Muslim Brotherhood listed ten points allegedly present within the declaration which represent “the final step in the intellectual and cultural invasion of Muslim countries”.
The points include: granting girls sexual freedom as well as the freedom to decide their gender, providing contraceptives for adolescent girls and legalising abortion “in the name of reproductive rights”, granting adulterous wives and illegitimate children equal rights, granting equal rights to homosexuals and protecting and respecting prostitutes, allowing wives to legally accuse their husbands of rape or sexual harassment, allowing equal inheritance rights among men and women, replacing husbands’ guardianship with partnership, full equality in marriage legislation (which would allow Muslim women to marry non-Muslim men), removing the divorce authority from husbands and giving it to legal courts, and abolishing the need for husbands’ consent on matters such as their wives’ work, travel or going out.
SPRING HILL — Lisa Epsteen thought she had an advocate for her high-risk pregnancy in Dr. Jerry Yankowitz, chairman of the University of South Florida’s department of obstetrics and gynecology.
But Wednesday morning, she opened her email to find the well-known expert threatening to send police to her Spring Hill home unless she immediately reported to Tampa General Hospital for a caesarean delivery.
Epsteen, 35, was more than a week past the due date for her baby boy. Despite an ultrasound that alarmed her doctors, she wanted to wait until Friday to schedule the caesarean surgery, which would be her fifth.
”I am deeply concerned that you are contributing to a very high probability that your fetus will die or your child will incur brain damage if born alive. At this time, you must come in for delivery,” Yankowitz wrote.
“I would hate to move to the most extreme option, which is having law enforcement pick you up at your home and bring you in, but you are leaving the providers of USF/TGH no choice,” he continued.
Epsteen said she panicked.
“In a couple of hours there are going to be cops on my doorstep taking me away from home — in front of my children — to force me into having surgery,” she recalled thinking.
Then, she became angry: “There are any number of things that they could have done without threatening me.”
The stay-at-home, homeschooling mother sought help from advocacy groups that she had joined for women wishing to attempt a vaginal birth after caesarean, called a VBAC. That’s what led her to Yankowitz, who had approved taking on her high-risk case and was serving as her liaison to other USF obstetricians, Epsteen said.
Within three hours, Yankowitz had been contacted by a lawyer for the New York-based National Advocates for Pregnant Women, which demanded he “stop immediately any further threats or actions against Ms. Epsteen.”
John Griffing is a frequent contributor to American Thinker and is published across an array of conservative media, both in the realm of commentary and research.More ↓
There’s a new controversy in Texas involving the online public school curriculum called CSCOPE, which already has been the subject of heated debate and state legislative hearings.
There are reports now that students were made to wear Muslim burqas as part of their public school lessons.
CSCOPE has been facing criticism over its alleged Islamic and anti-American bias. It is a “curriculum management system” now used in 80 percent of Texas classrooms. It recently was the subject of a heated inquiry that culminated in hearings conducted by the Texas Senate Education Committee chaired by state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston.
According to a joint press release by Patrick, State Board of Education Chairwoman Barbara Cargill and CSCOPE representatives, CSCOPE ultimately agreed to “significant changes.” But it is unclear when the changes will take place and whether or not the pledged cooperation is legally binding or simply to mollify critics.
WND contacted Patrick’s office but has been unable to obtain documentation confirming whether CSCOPE compliance is required or optional.
He did release a statement: “Be assured we are working on this issue as is the SBOE almost every day. The hearing was step one, the letter step two. The only thing that is binding from a legislative standpoint is legislation. We are working on those issues based on what we are discovering now. We are doing our job, one that must be thorough and will take time.”
CSCOPE has come under fire for controversial curriculum content, including accusations of multiple lessons showing a pro-Islamic agenda. CSCOPE representatives had claimed that such content had been “taken out of context” or that they were “old lessons that have since been taken down.”
CSCOPE proponents have denied the existence of such lessons, or, when faced with documentation, have dismissed critics’ claims as exaggerations.
However, in Lumberton, Texas, this week, high school girls were made to wear burqas as part of a CSCOPE study of Islam.
One student quoted the teacher as saying, “We are going to work to change your perception of Islam.”
The teacher in the burqa lesson, according to a student, also said, “I do not necessarily agree with this, but I am supposed to teach you that we are not to call these people terrorists anymore, but freedom fighters.”
Critics argue that this should not be a teacher’s role, and are concerned that CSCOPE curriculum appears agenda-driven.
A civics unit defines political viewpoints and paradigms on a continuum. Fascism/Nazism are regarded as “conservative,” in spite of the fact that they dictate total state control and ownership of resources, while conservatism favors less government and wide economic and political freedom.
CSCOPE is a K-12educational curriculum support system that has become widespread in the state of Texas. It is created by the Texas Education Service Center Curriculum Collaborative (TESCCC).
Nineteen out of twenty education regions in Texas have districts that use CSCOPE,[1] and as of January 2, 2011 there were 747 school districts, out of 1,051 total, using CSCOPE.[2]
While popular with district administrators, CSCOPE has mixed reactions from teachers,[3] some of whom feel excessively constrained by a set timetable for lessons. Other teachers, however, feel that CSCOPE is appreciated by the students and has improved classroom performance and attendance.[4] CSCOPE is sometimes referred to as a system that will better help prepare districts for the next generation of student tests in Texas: the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, test, will debut in 2012.[5]
The system is a product of an increased emphasis on accountability in public education over the last two decades.[6]
Controversy
After complaints about its secret nature (including criminal penalties for releasing its content), and Social studies lessons (calling the Boston Tea Party terrorism [7] ) Texas has announced significant changes [8]in CSCOPE including:
-Making all meetings of Governing Board public with all the respective notice requirements being met.
-A joint review process of all CSCOPE lessons beginning with Social Studies.
-Removing civil or criminal penalties associated with the release of CSCOPE content.
-Allowing teachers to post any and all CSCOPE lessons that they deem necessary.
-Creating a standing curriculum review panel, comprised of: parents, teachers, school administrators
John Griffing is a frequent contributor to American Thinker and is published across an array of conservative media, both in the realm of commentary and research.More ↓
AUSTIN, Texas – Parents of school children across Texas now are gaining access to a previously secret public school curriculum, according to an announcement from a state lawmaker.
The CSCOPE program, an online offering that until now has prohibited, under penalty of law, teachers from sharing the lessons with parents, stirred up controversy because of its various lessons – some that were taken offline after the questions arose.
Among those issues were that the curriculum at one point taught the Boston Tea Party was an act of terrorism and Christians were cannibals, and forced students to draw a socialist flag while imagining a new socialist country.
Teachers also would have been exposed to criminal penalties for sharing CSCOPE lesson content with parents, and educators were required to teach strictly from the CSCOPE lesson plan, without additions or changes.
But Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, whose Texas Senate Education Committee held a public hearing last week investigating CSCOPE, said there now have been “significant changes.”
The Texas Education Service Center Curriculum Collaborative, which owns CSCOPE, agreed to the following changes, effectively immediately, he said.
Those include:
All future meetings of the TESCCC governing board, beginning with the February meeting, will be public with all the respective notice requirements being met.
The TESCCC will begin a joint review process of all CSCOPE lessons with the SBOE beginning with Social Studies.
Amendment of all Terms of Use Agreements, signed by both teachers and districts, removing civil or criminal penalties associated with the release of CSCOPE content.
Clarifying that all teachers and districts may post any and all CSCOPE lessons that they deem necessary.
In addition to these immediate transparency and quality control changes, CSCOPE will also undergo structural, governance, and other changes, including ending the non-profit 501(c)3 arrangement that incorporates CSCOPE, posting lessons online, and creating a standing curriculum review panel comprised of parents, teachers, school administrators, members of the SBOE, and TESCCC board members.
The online courses no longer will be mandatory, either, the senator said.
“CSCOPE is notifying all participating school districts that lessons are not intended to be taught verbatim, and the governing board generally recommends that local districts utilize CSCOPE lessons solely as a resource. Until CSCOPE lessons can be reviewed through a collaborative process with the SBOE and TESCCC, districts are strongly encouraged to review all lessons at the local level, to ensure that lessons are appropriate for their students,” the senator’s announcement said.
Among the controversies was the curriculum’s treatment of Islam. Some highlights:
“Non-Muslims in conqueror territory are allowed religious freedom (for an additional tax).”But in fact, many non-Muslims are killed in Islamic countries for exercising their faith. Almost one million Christians fled Iraq in the wake of the Iraq war because of the genocide there. Iran imprisons and executes Christians for sharing their faith.
“Zakat (almsgiving): The duty to give away alms and to help the needy.”But numerous publications have exposed the “zakat” as a means of laundering money to terrorist organizations, with charities being fronts.
“Allah is the Almighty God…Allah alone is the Creator, He alone deserves our devout love and worship.”This came from a section under the heading, “Who is Allah?” Some expressed concern that such verbiage lacks impartiality.
These and other curriculum content issues have now been placed under the scrutiny of the elected and bipartisan State Board of Education.
CSCOPE, developed by Texas Education Service Centers Curriculum Collaborative and a team of content experts, is a comprehensive, customized, user-friendly curriculum management system built on the most current research-based theories. Its primary focus is to impact instructional practices in the classroom to improve student performance. This multi-faceted system includes three key components operating seamlessly together:
Click on the link below which takes you to The Region 10 Online Learning Center. If you don’t have an Online Learning Center account you will be need to create one. When creating the account you will need to use the same email address you use for your Region 10 account. Once you are logged in you will be able to get the CSCOPE resources.
JIHAN HAFIZ, TRNN CORRESPONDENT, CAIRO: It’s a grim reality that has lately united Egyptian women from all walks of life. Two years of increased sexualized violence against female protesters has forced an ugly epidemic into the national spotlight. The gang rapes and attacks on women in the revolution’s iconic Tahrir Square enraged many Egyptians to organize this protest specifically against sexualized violence. Angry chants condemned a system that condones and perpetuates violence targeting women.
JIHAN FADEL, EGYPTIAN ACTRESS (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): There was harassment before the revolution, but what we have now is gangs. I’m talking about 30, 40, 50 men attacking with knives. That’s not harassment. They’re attacking women with pocket knives. Is that harassment? These are crimes.HAFIZ: Increased attacks singling out female protesters exploded over the past two years, culminating in scenes like this on January 25 last month. Volunteers and activists with anti-harassment campaigns filmed these mob attacks against women this past January 25.UNIDENTIFIED (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): That’s Reem! There’s Reem! She’s in that one! There is another girl!HAFIZ: Some of them were their fellow volunteers. Here one woman tries to comfort her infant daughter as a mob moves in. Inside these mobs, over a dozen women were gang-raped, relentlessly groped, stripped naked of their clothes, and assaulted with knives and iron rods. In one case, a 19-year-old girl was rushed to emergency surgery with large gashes to her genitalia. Such savagery has provoked women to arm themselves, brandishing their weapons during this march as a clear warning to their attackers.~~~REPORTER (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): Why are you holding this knife in the march?DEMONSTRATOR (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): Because no one is going to force us into our homes, no one is going to scare us into hiding in our homes. and we are going to arm ourselves to defend ourselves. And any dog who dares to come near us, I will slice him! These crimes are orchestrated. It’s a social disease and it’s present in this society. But what is happening now is organized crime.~~~HAFIZ: Rights groups and activists are convinced the systematic attacks are products of state-sponsored repression. LODNA DARWISH, ORGANIZER, OPANTISH: This is not the first time that the government uses sexual violence to intimidate men and women, especially women. We’ve been seeing, since Mubarak years until now, the government paying thugs—and it’s proven—to come and sexually harass women. They would come to the protest and not beat up women, just sexually harass them, undress them, drag them undressed—and everybody probably saw the video of the blue-bra girl who was stripped of her clothes and dragged on the streets. This was the army. And then there was the virginity test, the so-called virginity test, which was like a rape incident of the army again, forcing 18 women to go through virginity tests. So it’s a continuous pattern of sexual humiliation.UNIDENTIFIED (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): Hi. I’m with the campaign against sexual harassment. If there is any harassment in the square—.HAFIZ: A number of newly-formed campaigns combating sexual harassment have been mobilizing within communities and on the streets.DEMONSTRATORS (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): We the women will free Egypt!HAFIZ: As the march roars through this busy neighborhood, scuffles break out between some of the female marchers and male onlookers.DEMONSTRATOR (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): He said women are raped and harassed depending on how they dress. So I shamed him! In Arabic and English! I said, does anyone leave their home naked? Even if she dressed indecent, would she leave her home naked? Dog! That’s the Brotherhood’s mentality! They do this so we go back to our homes. But we will never!HAFIZ: Although daily harassment is prevalent in this socially conservative society, the subject is often ignored when addressed.~~~DEMONSTRATOR (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): I no longer take my wife out because of harassment. DEMONSTRATOR (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): We take a short trip on the metro, and I get into 36 fights.DEMONSTRATOR (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): No, no.DEMONSTRATOR (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): We don’t have the money to take a cab. If we take any public transportation, I have to sit her far against the window.DEMONSTRATOR (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): No, no! There is no such thing!DEMONSTRATOR (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): Don’t put Egypt in that category.~~~SALMA SAID, ORGANIZER, OPANTISH: We’re not only facing the problem of harassment, of sexual harassment; we’re also facing a huge problem of society wanting to be silent about it, the men being extremely aggressive when anyone trying to discuss what is happening.HAFIZ: A recent study found over 80 percent of Egyptian women and over 95 percent of foreign women have experienced sexual harassment. Videos of mob assaults of women started appearing on YouTube years before the revolution. Salma was among some of the first to blog about it several years ago.SAID: And I wrote my testimony about the time, the many, many, many times that I was sexually abused or sexually harassed from when I was a child till, like, now. And I asked other women to write about it as well, because I was—I mean, I was going to go—going crazy because men said that these things don’t happen in Egypt and that Egypt is a religious country and these kind of things. So it happened, and I was sure that the same people who were saying this are the people who are harassing women in the street.HAFIZ: Considered a taboo subject, victims are commonly blamed for the attack while the perpetrator is let off.FADEL: But no one speaks out against it. Why? Because the victim is a woman, because they argue: what brought her there in the first place? Why is she in the streets? Women are supposed to be at home. Those who come to the streets are indecent. Rather than elicit a response, people are mocking it [rather] than responding to it.HAFIZ: In the urban slums and among the rural poor, the issue is practically ignored.UNIDENTIFIED (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): There is no religion. There’s no life. There is no father who tells their sons, that’s wrong. There is no concern for it. No one walks in the street and considers, this could be my mother or sister and it might happen to her. There is no such talk.UNIDENTIFIED (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): It used to be just one individual, not the entire society against the girl. And there is no distinction. It doesn’t matter if she’s covered, showing her hair, elderly, a child. There is no distinction.UNIDENTIFIED (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): I sat down and had a talk with my daughter, because rape and harassment also happens between teachers and the girls, to children my daughter’s age. Of course, she is just a child. She doesn’t understand anything. But I speak with her, and so does Sheren. We tell her not to go into the bathroom with the teacher.HAFIZ: These women have quietly formed a support group to deal with harassment and sexual abuse in their community.UNIDENTIFIED (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): She didn’t have any pants on.HAFIZ: The silence is slowly being broken. Public discussion is opening up after the latest survivors of the mob attacks braved the backlash and recounted their experiences on national television.UNIDENTIFIED (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): I felt as if I would die in that moment.SAID: They have done an amazing favor for the rest of us, for everyone else, because they didn’t worry about facing their neighbors, their families. They were like, it’s not our fault that we were assaulted; it’s your fault, it’s society’s fault, it’s the men’s fault, it’s the government’s fault; and we are not going to suffer above our suffering from what happened; we have to solve this, and we’re going to speak up and we’re going to talk about it and we’re going to, like, make it explode in everyone’s faces.HAFIZ: But it remains a long upward battle in this patriarchal society. A sheikh from the prominent Al-Azhar Institution issued a fatwa encouraging the rape of women during protests. During Friday’s protests and on the front lines during clashes, women roamed amongst their male counterparts, asserting their resolve and participation in Egypt’s ongoing revolution will remain. Jihan Hafiz for The Real News, Cairo, Egypt.
End
DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy.
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