Magazine - WOMEN AGAINST VIOLENCE EUROPE

WAVE member Autonomous Women’s Centre takes stance against legalization of surrogacy in Serbia

November 5, 2021June 3, 2019

Considering the announcement of legalization of surrogacy, proposed in the new pre-draft of The Civil Code, the Autonomous Women’s Centre warns the public, state institutions … Read more

Inspiring Thursday: Virginia Woolf

December 14, 2023May 30, 2019

Virginia Woolf is often credited for her extensive contributions to English literature and the transformation of the modern novel. Her feminist genius, however, becomes even … Read more

“My house is my castle” – the protection of victims of domestic violence under Polish law

November 5, 2021May 24, 2019

Although the Polish legal system has undergone some changes as a result of Poland’s adoption of the Istanbul Convention (1),there still are a number of … Read more

Inspiring Thursday: bell hooks

November 5, 2021May 23, 2019

In the introduction to “Feminism is for Everybody,” African American scholar bell hooks describes her discovery of feminism as an opposition to “the strongest patriarchal … Read more

Inspiring Thursday: Alexandra Kollontai

November 5, 2021May 16, 2019

In pre-revolutionary Russia, aristocratic women had little choice but to be expected to become faithful wives and devoted mothers, their lives revolving around domesticity and family duties. However, the Marxist revolutionary Alexandra Kollontai showed that it was possible to follow a different path. At the age of 27, she joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. Eventually, she became the most prominent woman in the Soviet administration following the 1917 Bolshevik revolution, when she was appointed a diplomatic counsellor to the Soviet legation in Norway, being soon promoted to head of the legation – one of the first women to hold such a post.

Reproductive rights in Croatia: Are there any left?

August 18, 2023May 13, 2019

The status of women in Croatia has been severely downgraded in the recent years. While rapists and abusers keep walking out of courtrooms unpunished, women … Read more

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The lack of implementation of the Istanbul Convention in Italy

August 18, 2023May 10, 2019

On September 10th, 2013, the Istanbul Convention was ratified by Italy and it entered into force almost one year later, on August 1st, 2014. By ratifying the Convention, Italy is obliged to prevent and eliminate violence against women (VAW), particularly by eradicating gender stereotypes which are deeply embedded in Italian culture. These are said to be the main cause behind the high rates of domestic violence and femicide, which have dramatically increased in the past couple of years. This issue was also highlighted by the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on
VAW, Rashida Manjoo(1), in her report about the situation of VAW in Italy from 2012, and was also reflected in the judgement passed by the European Court of Human Rights in 2017 concerning the case Talpis v. Italy.(2) The current legal framework is characterized by fragmentation, inadequate punishment of perpetrators, and lack of effective redress for women affected by violence.

Inspiring Thursday: Ni Una Menos

November 5, 2021May 9, 2019

„Ni una menos! Vivas nos queremos!” (“Not one [woman] less! We want to stay alive!”) This “collective scream against machista violence”[1] is born in Argentina, … Read more

Inspiring Thursday: Franca Viola

November 5, 2021May 2, 2019

1965, Sicily, Italy: a young woman named Franca Viola, abducted and raped for a week, had the courage to publicly refuse to marry her rapist, thus becoming the first Italian woman to defy a long-standing legal and cultural tradition that was harmful to women – the matrimonio riparatore (literally rehabilitating marriage, a sort of “marry-your-rapist” law) – that would have her marry her abuser to “restore” her honor. Instead, she and her family pressed charges against the rapist, Filippo Melodia, and won. Franca Viola thus became a symbol of cultural progress and emancipation of women in post-war Italy.

Inspiring Thursday: Margaret Hamilton

November 5, 2021April 25, 2019

Margaret Hamilton is an American computer software programmer and systems engineer who, in the 1960s, served as Director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory. Renowned mathematician and computer science pioneer, she was the scientist who coined the term “software engineering” in the first place, to better describe her work. She was only in her early 30s when she led the team that developed the computer code for the command and lunar modules used on the Apollo missions to the Moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s.