Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, Zitkala-Sa – Red Bird, was a writer and an Indian rights activist who strove to expand opportunities for Native Americans and to safeguard their cultures, as well as a teacher and a magazine editor.
Rape trials: re-victimising the women instead of punishing the perpetrators
“She didn´t say no”, “She meant yes when she said no”, “She was drunk but she knew what she was doing”, “She didn´t scream”, “She wore a short dress”, “You have to look at the way she was dressed. She was wearing a thong with a lace front”, “By her behaviour, her dress or by her look, she asked for it”, “Are you sure it was not your fault? Maybe you provoked him”, “There was no crying, no screaming. You didn´t push him away”.
These are forms of victim blaming and rape myths which are “attitudes and beliefs that are generally false but are widely and persistently held, and that serve to deny and justify male sexual aggression against women” (Kimberly Lonsway and Louise Fitzgerald in Psychology of Women in 1994). They are tied to stereotypes about how victims of rape should behave before, during and after the assault.
Another common assumption is that rapes are mostly committed by strangers even though the majority of rapes are committed by someone known to the victim, such as a friend, a colleague, a family member, partner or ex-partner. The ‘stranger myth’ sends the wrong message that a sexual assault committed by someone known to the victim is not rape and, consequently, it should not be a crime.
Gender biases are deeply rooted in the justice system. Victims of rape face social and legal barriers such as gender stereotypes, misconceptions of what sexual violence is, victim-blaming, credibility questioning, inadequate support and ineffective legislation. In the end, rapes are hugely under-reported due to lack of trust in the justice system or because of fear of not being believed. It takes a lot of courage and determination to report a rape and when women do so, they are often blamed and humiliated, being repeatedly asked what they did to provoke it or why they put themselves in a particular situation. Too often police, lawyers for defendants and judges question the victim of rape about what she was wearing and use the length of her dress as an indicator of the consent.
Inspiring Thursday: Mona Eltahawy
“It would take (…) years and feminism — and multiple (…) times when my body was groped, pinched and touched without my permission during the nine years that I wore hijab — to know unwaveringly that sexual assault has nothing to do with how you’re dressed. It has everything to do with the predator who assaults you.”
Inspiring Thursday: Tarana Burke
Tarana Burke is an African-American civil rights activist. She’s most well-known as the founder of the “Me Too” movement in 2006 which has turned into a worldwide campaign to raise awareness about sexual harassment, abuse, and assault in society.
Women´s reproductive rights in Italy: obstetric violence as a human rights violation
Obstetric violence is an intersection between institutional violence – condoned, endorsed and/or perpetuated by the state- and violence against women during pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum. It can be manifested in several ways:
• the denial of treatment during childbirth
• forced coerced medical interventions that accelerate the natural process of birth, such as the Kisteller manoeuvre, without a free, informed and expressed consent of the woman,
• disregard of a woman’s needs and pains and/or verbal humiliations before, during and after birth,
• invasive practices,
• physical violence,
• unnecessary use of medication,
• forced unnecessary caesarean section,
• forced unnecessary episiotomy,
• forcing a woman to give birth lying on her back with her feet in stirrups,
• dehumanizing or rude treatment,
• exposing a woman naked in front of many subjects,
• separating a mother from her newborn without medical reason,
• not including a woman in decisions concerning her body and her birth.
Inspiring Thursday: Una Marson
Jamaican poet and journalist, Una Marson, was a role model for women within the Black Internationalist community and her work contributed greatly to the recognition of West Indian literature – her own writing included.
Inspiring Thursday: Margherita Hack
Known as the “Lady of the Stars”, Margherita Hack, the most famous Italian astrophysicist, was the first woman to lead an astronomical observatory in Italy. Committed atheist, feminist, and vegetarian, Margherita publicly advocated for laws in favour of abortion, euthanasia and homosexual couples’ civil rights.
Trafficking and Vulnerability
Women are not vulnerable simply because they are women, nor do the women we support in our trafficking provision lack the capacity or the intelligence to make life choices. Many of these women come from societies that do not recognise their equality or view them as “lesser” human beings and they have been made vulnerable due to circumstances over which they have no control.
Inspiring Thursday: Ana Mendieta
During her short life, Ana Mendieta created art that portrayed many different themes of life, focusing on incorporating natural elements in her pieces, which she felt brought her closer to nature. At the same time, her work was bold and challenged restrictive ideas of normative categories like gender and race.
Inspiring Thursday: Nadia Murad
Born in 1993, Nadia was a high school student when ISIS militants overran her village. She was one of an estimated 3,000 girls and women who were victims of rape and other abuses by the IS army.
