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Saturday Vids: Trade of Innocents
I recently came across a movie that takes on the issue of human trafficking called Trade of Innocents starring Mira Sorvino and Dermot Mulroney. Although it doesn't look like the film is getting wid...
WMC Women Under Siege
January 23, 2013 Media,
Violence against women
Women’s Media Center, Columbia University sponsoring symposium on sexualized violence
The Women’s Media Center and Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health on Friday are sponsoring a free symposium to discuss how to end global sexualized violence.
WMC FBomb
January 22, 2013 | Sarah E |
Feminism,
Gender-based violence,
International,
Religion,
Violence against women
The Surprising Similarities Between Burqas and Short Skirts
The Burqa ban is the cause of much debate in France. The ban sparked a discussion about human rights: do the citizens of France have free will to wear whatever they want? Is the next step to silence p...
WMC News & Features
January 22, 2013 | Debbie Hines |
Economy,
Health,
Immigration,
Politics,
Race/Ethnicity,
Violence against women
Maryland Women's Agenda for Obama's Second Term
The author checks in with state legislators from the Maryland Women's Caucus to see what they expect from President Barack Obama in his second term.
WMC Women Under Siege
When will I 'earn' my right to safety?
Delhi. Ohio. Nepal. Around the world, women are suffering sexual assaults so heinous that they are making the headlines on an almost daily basis. And yet, almost inconceivably, governments, members of the judiciary, and authority figures around the world continue to advocate that the solution lies with women—that their behavior is to blame and that their behavior has the power somehow, magically, to prevent rape.
WMC News & Features
Kosovo Human Rights Activists Resist Attacks on LGBT Community
The author, a mtvU/Fulbright fellow in Kosovo, confronts an outbreak of religious extremism of unexpected violence, directed against LGBT expression in Prishtina.
WMC Women Under Siege
Why Steubenville is not Delhi: How we are failing in this country
The father of the woman gang-raped and killed in Delhi in December has told the media that the crime against his daughter is “an awakening” for India. It certainly has been an awakening for much of the world, as I wrote in this op-ed for CNN. The local and international media have been cracking open issues from dowry-related burnings of women to street harassment, asking exactly what is wrong with men in India to have created such a culture of hate and violence against women. It is heartening to watch the introspection.
WMC FBomb
WMC Women Under Siege
Video: Tracking violence against women in Syria—CNN
With Syria's war taking the lives of women at an average rate of 9 percent across the country, I spoke to CNN International's Hala Gorani about the terrible price women and children are paying as noncombatants.
WMC News & Features
India Tragedy Seen as Transitional Moment
Activists in India look to the unabated anger at the death of a young woman as a turning point in their struggle to combat violence against women.
WMC Women Under Siege
Video: WMC’s Women Under Siege director talks about the roots of rape on HuffPost Live
In this video hosted by HuffPost Live’s Abby Huntsman, our director, Lauren Wolfe, cites a finding that may get you riled up: that 65 percent of men surveyed in the Democratic Republic of Congo believe women should accept partner violence to “keep the family together.” More shocking is the finding she cites next: that 53 percent of girls in India think wife-beating is justified—girls who may one day be those very wives.
WMC News & Features
January 04, 2013 | Mary Ann Swissler |
Immigration,
LGBTQIA,
Politics,
Race/Ethnicity,
Violence against women
Violence Against Women—Unfinished Business
The new Congress will have to undo the damage caused by GOP House members who blocked reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act—legislation that until now had earned broad bipartisan support.
WMC Women Under Siege
January 03, 2013 | Lauren Wolfe |
Violence against women
What can we do to end rape in 2013?
On Tuesday, I wrote a piece for CNN calling to make 2013 The Year to End Rape. I know it’s wishful—there’s a lot to try to end: global legal failings that allow rapists to commit crimes with impunity; attitudes that blame the victim, leading to suicides and honor killings; misogyny that conditions men (and women) to view women and girls as less than human, as objects to be controlled.
WMC Women Under Siege
End culture of rape in 2013
On December 16, a young medical student in one of India's major cities was gang-raped, her body destroyed by the bodies of the men who allegedly assaulted her and also by the rusting metal bar doctors say they used to penetrate her. The bar removed part of her intestines. The rest were removed in a hospital far from home where she struggled for her life for just a few days.
WMC FBomb
The Opportunities and Perils of Being A North Korean Woman
While in the car I recently listened to an NPR story by Louisa Lim called Out of Desperation, North Korean Women become Breadwinners. Although considering North Korea's traditionally patriarchal socie...
WMC Women Under Siege
An open letter to the chief minister of Delhi, Sheila Dixit
Dear Mrs. Dixit: I have read your comments on the Delhi gang-rape. I applaud your honesty in admitting failure, in admitting the dangerous condition of Delhi for women and your determination that there must be change. In a more cynical mood, I think that it is easy for you to make these admissions considering that you are not in charge of security. However, you are in charge of the city and the mindset thriving in it makes this your responsibility.
WMC Women Under Siege
A garden in Afghanistan: Women, roses, and guns
Sometimes an image comes across my desk that really grabs me. I was lucky enough to have this happen recently when I received a holiday card from a Belgian photographer named Wendy Marijnissen in my email. I clicked and found a strange twilight enveloping a garden of soft trees and red roses. In the middle of the picture a guard stands awkwardly with a gun. Plastic tents billow in the background. What exactly was I looking at? I asked Marijnissen to tell me more:
WMC News & Features
December 24, 2012 | Jennifer Mattson |
Arts and culture,
Feminism,
Girls,
International,
Violence against women
The Year 2012 Is Reflected in "Emotional Creature"
Eve Ensler's latest play on the inner lives of girls treats topical concerns for feminists today throughout the world.
WMC Women Under Siege
Redefining the rapist: The line between 'nice' and wrong
It takes a lot to make me angry. My patience is so legendary, this one time a partner couldn’t take it anymore and threw a chair at me for not getting angry at her for something she’d done. On Tuesday, however, something really got to me.
WMC Women Under Siege
Sexualized violence in Syria: Keeping track of a crisis in motion
On a still warm day in October, I sat on a panel of mostly Syrian women at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. One woman wore a wool scarf draped around her shoulders in the black, red, and green of the Free Syrian Army. Most wore a hijab, the Islamic headscarf. Turn by turn, we described our work documenting and assisting Syrian women and children who were drawn into the ongoing Syrian conflict.
WMC News & Features
The Longest, Darkest Night of the Year
This commentary on gun violence will be featured on Women's Media Center Live with Robin Morgan on Saturday, December 22, at 11 AM ET on CBS radio 1580 in the Washington, D.C., area and streaming from WMCLive.com.
WMC Women Under Siege
Eight reasons why victim-blaming needs to stop: Writers, activists, and survivors speak out
About once a day someone comes to this website by searching “Are rape victims to blame?” I hope when these visitors arrive they find some solace in the message they find here that rape victims are not culpable, ever, no, never. Unfortunately, they will also find information on how rape survivors are blamed mercilessly around the world for the violence perpetrated against them.
WMC Women Under Siege
Are women being targeted in Syria?
The baby's body was found near a checkpoint on the road that connects Homs with the ancient city of Palmyra, in central Syria, in January. At four months old, she was said to have been given over to a paternal uncle, dead, with bruises on her back, abdomen, and hands.
WMC FBomb
Eve Ensler's Emotional Creature
At the NOW conference in June, playwright Eve Ensler delivered the keynote speech. She was a riveting speaker whose passionate words truly rallied me to action. I’d been hoping to see one of her plays...
WMC Women Under Siege
Revealing rape: How to illustrate a crime
Women describe their rapes from behind black face scarves in videos on our site that documents sexualized violence in Syria. We have no photos of women whose faces aren’t covered. We have few photos of survivors of rape even with their faces covered.