London Reclaim the Night March

There was a reclaim the night march last night in London and there is another one in Glasgow on 29th December. Women really do need to re-enforce the idea that we need more done about rape and abuse. We need those convictions to go up in order women feel confident that she will be believed but better than then it would be better if men did not rape and abuse women.

Fighting fear

Until all women stand up together in the struggle against male violence, they will continue to rape, beat and abuse us

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November 23, 2007 4:00 PM | Printable version

To some, feminist activism seems old hat. One of my friends, who has been involved in the women's liberation movement for as long as I have, sneered at me when I asked her if she was coming on this Saturday's Reclaim the Night march through London. The inference was that she had something better to do.

Well there is nothing better I can think of to do on Saturday. If you are planning to watch X Factor instead of marching alongside your sisters, chanting fabulous slogans such as "men off the streets," and "yes means yes, and no means no," consider this. Without feminist activism, rape in marriage would be legal; it would be perfectly acceptable to pay women less than men for the same job and sack them when pregnant; and domestic violence would be considered a normal part of family life. While you open that bottle of wine and put your feet up, more than two thousand of us will be protesting about the atrocities inflicted on women by men and telling men they will not continue to get away with it.

Although it is fashionable to look down on what is thought to be old-fashioned feminism - doing direct action, naming men as the problem, criticising rather than embracing the sex industry - women need to be out on the streets, protesting about sexual violence more than ever.

Despite four decades of campaigning against domestic violence, over 100 women are still killed every year by current and former partners. More rapes than ever are reported but far fewer convicted than the 1970s, and the sex industry is growing at an alarming rate, globally. There are so few convictions for child sexual abuse, it may as well be legal to rape an under-five year old, and sexual harassment in the workplace is still a major problem for women. I could go on.

Male violence towards women and children - yes, male - is pandemic. We must force them to change - to stop raping, killing and abusing us. When I march on Saturday, I will be doing so for women everywhere - even those of you watching X Factor - because sexual violence is the only thing in the world that affects all women, and therefore working towards eliminating it should be something we are all involved in.

Before you start having a go, telling me you have not been raped, or beaten by your partner, or sexually abused, or flashed, let me ask you (women) something. Can you honestly say, hand on heart, that you have never feared rape? Have you never modified your behaviour, even just a little, for fear of being attacked? Remember that time you took a minicab home, alone and drunk? Did you feel relieved the next day that nothing bad happened to you? Or when you walked through a park late at night alone? All women know that if we have not been raped, we are lucky. We are so accustomed to living with the constant, nagging fear of sexual violence that we rarely notice it is there half the time.

So let us stop ignoring the obvious. Until we all stand up together and make ourselves visible in the struggle against male violence, they will continue to rape, beat and abuse us. Let's see you there on Saturday. And men, if you wish to be part of the solution rather than the problem, perhaps you could send the organisers a donation for next year's march? Something tells me we will not have a world free of sexual violence by next November.

25th November is the International Day to Eliminate Violence Against Women

UN rights chief calls for end to violence against women

17 hours ago

GENEVA (AFP) — The top United Nations human rights official urged states worldwide to take more action against rape, domestic abuse and all other forms of violence against women.

"Every day, in all corners of the world, countless women and girls are killed, mutilated, beaten, raped, sold into sexual slavery or tortured," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said in a statement ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on November 25.

"This impunity is built on a foundation of discrimination and inequality ... unless these inequalities are addressed, including in the economic and social spheres, the violence will persist," Arbour said.

"A woman will not report rape if we continue to stigmatise the victims of violence rather than the perpetrators," she added.

Just last week, a court in Saudi Arabia sentenced a woman who had been gang-raped to six months in jail and 200 lashes after she spoke to the media about the case.

"We must demand that states honour their commitments to bring perpetrators to justice and provide redress for their victims," Arbour urged.

Dundee Murder trial

Tests show accused grabbed jumper of woodland murder victim, court is told

BRIAN HORNE

FORENSIC tests suggest a man on trial for the Templeton Woods murder grabbed the victim's jumper, a court was told yesterday.

Dr Jonathan Whitaker, one of the world's top experts on DNA profiling, said the results of tests on Elizabeth McCabe's clothing, and a hair root, linked her to the alleged killer Vincent Simpson.

Taken together, the combined odds of the DNA coming from someone unrelated to Simpson were one in 40 million, he said.

Ms McCabe, 20, disappeared in February 1980 after a night out with friends in Dundee city centre. The nursery nurse's remains were found in Templeton Woods 16 days later.

A jury at the High Court in Edinburgh has seen photos of the naked body with a blue jumper draped over the victim's head and shoulders.

After years in storage, the jumper was sent to a specialist forensic lab in Wetherby, Yorkshire, for further tests after the murder hunt was reopened.

Dr Whitaker yesterday explained how swabs were taken from three different parts of the blue jumper - even though there were no stains visible to the naked eye. Tests for either blood or semen had proved negative.

All results matched the DNA profile of Simpson.

Dr Whitaker said "a fair and reasonable estimate" of the DNA from the right-hand side of the jumper's neck coming from someone else was one in 320,000. A swab from the right arm produced a result which could have come from one in 38 of the population.

The chances of DNA from the back of the jumper coming from someone other than Simpson was one in 105,000.

Dr Whitaker said: "In my opinion, these DNA profile results provide extremely strong support for the assertion that the DNA recovered from the hair and the blue jumper has originated from Vincent Simpson."

Questioned by advocate depute Alex Prentice, QC, prosecuting, about the DNA result from the jumper's neck, the forensic scientist added: "This result is of particular significance since the DNA profile result is what I would expect to find if Vincent Simpson had grabbed the jumper in the area of the neck, thus transferring his DNA to this area."

Earlier, the trial heard that DNA extracted from the root of a hair found on a black plastic sheet had also been sent to Dr Whitaker's lab for testing. The sheet is said to have been used to take Elizabeth's body to Dundee Royal Infirmary's mortuary, although Simpson's defence team claims there is no proof that it was the same sheet.

Dr Whitaker told the trial that the figure of one in 40 million resulted from tests on the jumper and the hair root DNA only.

The forensic scientist also agreed with Mark Stewart, QC, defending, that there were "provisos and caveats" in his report on his findings.

Simpson, 61, now of Camberley, Surrey, denies murdering Ms McCabe, of Lochee, Dundee, in February 1980. At the time Simpson was living in Newtyle, near Dundee, and operating a private-hire taxi business. He has given the court details of an alibi and a list of 13 names - one or more of them the true killer, he claims.

The trial continues.

Woman is murder by her estranged husband

This John Smith guy murders his estranged wife whilst on bail for domestic abuse offences, he has a history of offending against her and yet it takes a judge to ask for a risk assessment once poor Kelly Smith has been butchered - it's a bit late now? What was the sheriff thinking when he granted bail? What risk assessment was done then? And why is it important that they had sex, why is this reported? Every three days in Britain a man kills his female partner or ex-partner, their children are left without a mother and a father. Well if the Scottish Parliament wants to do something about children's experiencing domestic abuse then they need to buck up the legal system and hold perpetrators of violence and abuse of their partners and ex-partners accountable.

Abattoir Butcher Murders Wife

Nov 24 2007 By Arnot Mcwhinnie

25 Knife Wounds In Frenzied Attack

A SLAUGHTERHOUSE butcher stabbed his estranged wife 25 times just minutes after they had sex, a court heard yesterday.

Mother-of-two Kelly Smith died after her husband, John Smith, launched his frenzied attack.

Her hands and wrists were sliced open as she tried to defend herself from the onslaught.

At the High Court in Glasgow yesterday, 28-year-old Smith admitted murdering her.

Smith had previous convictions for assaulting his wife and for a breach of the peace involving her.

The fatal attack happened in a friend's house at Glasgow Street, Ardrossan, Ayrshire, where Smith had been staying after he and Kelly split up.

Kathleen Harper, prosecuting, said Smith was on bail at the time and was banned from either approaching or contacting Kelly or going to their marital home.

On the evening she died, on February 19, Kelly drove her two children, aged eight and two, to a friend's house to be looked after for the night while she went out for a drink in a Saltcoats pub with another pal.

On the way home, she went to see her estranged husband.

An argument began but it calmed down to the point where they made up and had sex.

Afterwards, however, Smith went into the kitchen and returned with a knife which he plunged into Kelly as she sat on the bed.

When she fell to the floor, he continued to stab her and then stabbed himself in the left arm.

Ms Harper said Smith took his wife's house keys from her bag, intending to get her car from the family home and escape.

But he couldn't find the car keys there because Kelly had left them and the car in her friend's driveway.

He then went to the friend's house, threw stones at her window to waken her up and said he was to take the children and get the car keys. But he was told to leave.

Smith then went to another friend's house and told him: "I really done it this time.

"I need to get away from here. I think I've killed her."

They went round to Smith's house and he went in, returning to shout: "Aye, she's deid."

Police got a 999 call from Smith saying he had stabbed his wife and, when they arrived, he was still inside the house.

When he was taken to the police station, Smith asked detectives several times: "How long will I get for murder?"

Asked why he got a knife after they had made up, he said: "Coz madness.

"Just things going through ma heid and I've just lashed oot and I shouldn't have,poor lassie."

Asked why he stabbed himself in the arm, he replied: "I just thought maybe if we just both got it together.

"I wish I'd put it through me mate and then the two of us would have went the same way."

A post-mortem revealed that Kelly would not have died straight away but would have bled to death.

She had received internal wounds damaging the lungs, her spleen, a kidney, small and large bowel and liver.

Judge Lord Brailsford called for a risk assessment report before formally sentencing Smith to life in January next year.

Discussion in Scottish Parliament 22 November 2007

The Scottish Parliament discussed giving £40 million over the next 3 years to domestic abuse particularly in relation to working with children. I do have an issue with the term "male abuse" as it signifies a biological determinism in relation to why men might abuse women. I am quite insistent on calling it men's abuse as as a Marxist and a feminist I see it as a construction of class society and a gender construction that comes from that. So I winced a bit at all the "male abuse" bit but it doesn't really matter not that much. There are issues about not ring fencing the money and I don't know what consequence that will have - hopefully not be damaging to existing work. I will report back on this as soon as I know.

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-07/sor1122-02.htm#Col3741

Freedom from Fear March

CLYDEBANK WOMEN'S AID
Freedom from Fear
march
(part of 16 days of action against violence against women)
Sisters resisting male violence and abuse
Thurs 6th December @ 6.30 pm
Assemble Hall Street, Clydebank
Going to the Playdrome games hall for tea and coffee
Demonstrate your rights as a woman to live safe from the
fear of and actual male violence and abuse, both in the home
and in our community.
This is an event for women and children only
For more information contact Clydebank Women’s Aid on
0141 952 8118
or @ clydebankwomensaid@hotmail.com

Saudi Arabia has a terrible human rights record yet remains very good friends with Briatain and the US of A. Indeed Gordon Brown had tea with King Abdullah only last month - meanwhile a woman who was a victim of a gang rape has been sentenced to torture by the state - 200 lashes and 6 months in jail because she broke the law. It is a scandal, once again women are toldtomodify their behaviour in order not to tempt abusive, dangerous men. What has Britain or the USA said? Very little. My partner was flung out of the Scottish Parliament for protesting when one of the Saudi Princes came to visit. He lent up with a cut to his head when he was wrestled to the floor by the police. Aye, money talks. If you are rich you really can get away with torture and murder!

NEWS MIDDLE EAST
Saudi court punishes rape victim
Human Rights Watch has called on King Abdullahto cancel the ruling on the woman [AP]
A Saudi Arabian court has doubled a corporal punishment sentence imposed on a rape victim after she spoke out about her case.

But the decision to give a woman who was gang raped a six months jail term and 200 lashes received only mild criticism from the US on Monday.
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An official at the general court in Qatif, in Saudi Arabia's eastern province, said judges had increased the sentence because of the woman's "attempt to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media".

The woman's name has not been released.
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The case has drawn criticism internationally, with Canada saying on Monday it would complain to the Saudi authorities about the sentence.

Canadian reaction

Josee Verner, Canada's minister responsible for the status of women, called the Saudi ruling "barbaric" and said it would only further violate the 19-year-old victim.

Verner said Canada would formally express its condemnation to "the appropriate Saudi authorities".

But the US, which wants Saudi Arabia to attend its Middle East conference in Annapolis next week, did not condemn the ruling.

Sean McCormack, a spokesman for the US state department, said: "This is a part of a judicial procedure overseas in the court of a sovereign country," when asked to comment on the case.

"That said, most would find this relatively astonishing that something like this happens."

Asked whether the Saudi authorities should reconsider the sentence against the woman, McCormack said he could not "get involved in specific court cases in Saudi Arabia dealing with its own citizens".

'Illegal mingling'

In October 2006, the woman was sentenced to 90 lashes for what the court called "illegal mingling".

According to Human Rights Watch, the woman said she had met a male friend who had promised to return a photograph of her.

A Saudi woman can only have a husband ora male relative as an escort in publicAfter she met him in his car, the pair were attacked by a gang of seven men who allegedly raped them both several times.
The man was also sentenced to 90 lashes. Of the gang prosecuted in the case, four were convicted of kidnapping and sentenced to between one and five years in prison and between 80 and 1,000 lashes, Human Rights Watch said.

Abdul Rahman al-Lahem, the woman's lawyer and a human rights campaigner, criticised the court's decision publically and has subsequently had his licence to practise law suspended.

He is also facing a hearing by a justice ministry disciplinary committee in December for appearing regularly on television and talking about the case.

Impunity

Farida Deif, researcher in the women's rights division of Human Rights Watch, said: "A courageous young woman faces lashing and prison for speaking out about her efforts to find justice.

"This verdict not only sends victims of sexual violence the message that they should not press charges, but in effect offers protection and impunity to the perpetrators."

The New York-based rights group has called on King Abdullah, the Saudi monarch, to cancel the ruling against the woman, drop all charges and order the court to end its harassment of her lawyer.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies