Tag Archives: sexual assault

NEWS: What Can Men Do to Stop Rape Culture?

Video on link.

At a panel presented by V-Day and The Nation, Eve Ensler challenged men to up their role in combating violence against women. As Nation sports editor Dave Zirin put it, rape culture is “what happens to our culture when we let it sit and don’t actively challenge violence against women.” It’s “not the two boys in Steubenville who committed the crime, it was the fifty people who saw it happen and did nothing.” To change that culture, the panel asks, what will it take to redefine masculinity? And what role do women have in that conversation?

—James Cersonsky

On thenation.

ACTION: 15-year-old rape survivor has been sentenced to be whipped 100 times in public

Another petition, another horrific case.

It’s hard to believe, but a 15-year-old rape survivor has been sentenced to be whipped 100 times in public! Let’s put an end to this lunacy by hitting the Maldives government where it hurts: the tourism industry.

The girl’s stepfather is accused of raping her for years and murdering the baby she bore. Now the court says she must be flogged for “sex outside marriage” with a man who has not even been named! President Waheed of the Maldives is already feeling global pressure on this, and we can force him to save this girl and change the law to spare other victims this cruel fate. This is how we can end the War on Women – by standing up every time an outrage like this happens.

Tourism is the big earner for the Maldives elite, including government ministers. Let’s build a million-strong petition to President Waheed this week, then threaten the islands’ reputation through hard-hitting ads in travel magazines and online until he steps in to save her and abolish this outrageous law. Sign now and share this with everyone!

Petition here: Avaaz.

Related:

EVENT: Reclaim the Night 2012, 24th November, London

Women’s march against rape and all forms of violence against women. Take back the capital and put your feet on the streets for women on Reclaim the Night 2012. Join with thousands of women to shout a loud NO to rape and male violence against women and demand justice for survivors. Be there – for your friends, your sisters, your daughters, your colleagues, yourself; be there for all the women that can’t. See you at RTN 12. www.reclaimthenight.org

[Read more: Reclaim the Night 2012]

EVENT: Aldermaston Women’s Peace Camp (8th – 11th July, 2011)

*Aldermaston Women’s Peace Camp * invite you to *Long Weekend Camp

When: Starting at noon on Friday 8th July and ending at noon on Monday 11 July.

Where: “Dingly Dell”, outside AWE Aldermaston, (opposite Young’s Industrial
Estate) near Tadley, Berkshire.

How to get there: see http://www.aldermaston.net/camp/visit

Welcoming, relaxed and inclusive skills sharing and discussion that will nurture and inform us in our daily resistance to violence in all its forms; weapons, cuts to services, violence against women, destruction of the earth’s resources.

An extended weekend of women only non-violent discussion and activity,
including:

-A large banner that we make over the weekend which maps our thoughts and
discussions and that all women can contribute to

Discussions
-Why women only?
-Women’s Non-violence
-Inclusive action – looking at the common hierarchies of arrest
and not arrest and the criminalisation of resistance and how we can find
ways to address these issues.

Practical workshops
– tripod -everyone climbs
– dancing (with extreme ironing)
– blockading

Both Saturday and Sunday will include practical workshops and discussions
Please contact us if your group would like to contribute to the weekend
programme, or to any particular workshop.

Please bring vegetarian/vegan food to share and cook.
If you don’t want to camp, please let us know, and we can provide
information about local accommodation.

This is a women only event.
Further information will be sent out after 12 June or contact
info@aldermaston.net

EVENT: Leeds SlutWalk (Saturday 23rd July 2011)

Saturday July 23rd – 1200 – 1500

Meet at Victoria Gardens in front of the art gallery, Leeds. You may have heard of the success of the recent Slutwalk marches that are happening across the world! We are organising a march in Leeds for the 23rd July and we really hope you can join us! Please invite all your friends to march and rally and confront the rape culture that we live in.

With the rape conviction rate stuck at a shocking 6% (of reported rapes), 1 in 10 survivors never engaging with the criminal justice system and rape survivor survices being cut left right and centre now is the time to stand together and protest against the shameful victim blaming. It’s amazing that the comments of one ridiculous police officer in Toronto (who told students that if women wanted to avoid being raped they should “avoid dressing like sluts) can spark off a global movement. Lets celebrate the birth of a response to survivor/victim blaming, stand together and say that rape is NEVER the fault of the victim/survivor. For those on FaceBook here’s a link to the FB group https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=140250409386868

EVENT: Slutwalk Manchester – march with us! (Friday 10th June, 2011, 7pm – 9pm)

slutwalkFriday 10 June · 7pm – 9pm
——————————
Location – Meeting outside Manchester Town Hall
——————————
On 24th January 2011, a Toronto policeman told a group of law students that in order to avoid being raped ‘women should avoid dressing like sluts’.

This sparked protest and outrage around the world because this statement
represents an attitude in our society. That if we behave or dress in certain
ways, we deserve to be raped.

Rape is NEVER the fault of the survivor.
…..
SlutWalk Manchester says that nobody deserves rape. If we wear revealing
clothes. If we are drunk. If we walk home alone late at night. If we flirt
with you. If we are married to you. If we are sex workers. If we defy gender
norms. WE DO NOT INVITE SEXUAL ASSAULT.

SlutWalk Manchester does not just fight against rape, it fights against all
forms of sexual assault and harassment, right down to the last time you were
shouted at or ‘complimented’ by a stranger in the street. It fights against
sexism and promotes feminism.

We are tired of being oppressed by slut-shaming; of being judged by our
sexuality and feeling unsafe as a result. Being in charge of our sexual
lives should not mean that we are opening ourselves to an expectation of
violence, regardless if we participate in sex for pleasure or work, or if we
choose not to have sex at all..

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