WMC Women Under Siege
The Taliban’s New Criminal Code Is Governing Women Out of Existence
In early January, Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada quietly enacted the expansive “Criminal Procedure Code for Courts,” which effectively turns violence into everyday rule, patriarchy into official policy, and ideology into enforceable law.
WMC Women Under Siege
In Oaxaca, Migration Drives Indigenous Women into Political Participation
As men migrate north to the United States in search of better lives for their families, the women left behind are taking on many new community responsibilities once occupied by their husbands.
WMC Women Under Siege
ICC Case Could Make History with Gender Prosecution
The Al Hassan case has the potential to shine light on the unique harm perpetrators commit against individuals based on their gender, which enforces patriarchal social norms and increases the potency of their crimes. It could also chart a path forward for international criminal law to define gender.
WMC Women Under Siege
September 07, 2017 | Frances Nguyen |
Gender-based violence,
Health,
International,
Violence against women
Abortion rights in peril: A global look
Women around the world continue to struggle not only with draconian laws that deny them ownership of their own bodies, but also the threat of hard-won rights being rolled back. Here, we take a look at some of the places around the world that are playing the long game for abortion reform.
WMC Women Under Siege
Women missing in discussion of peacekeeping cuts
In the Trump administration’s proposed mass slaying of any and all programs the United States financially supports in terms of human rights, one in particular is troubling for women around the world—and it’s an angle media have missed in their reporting.
WMC Women Under Siege
In DRC, girls choose to become child soldiers to escape poverty
Throughout the conflict in DRC, children have been abducted and made to serve as soldiers. While most are male, it is estimated over a third are female, used mainly as domestic and sexual servants, but sometimes as fighters. Now an NGO has released a report showing that many of the girls weren’t enlisted by force.
WMC Women Under Siege
Councilwoman urges ‘no fear’ for girls in post-IS Fallujah
Little girls returning to school in Fallujah “have nothing to fear,” said Nahla al-Rawi as a few security officers dusted off a chair for her in the partially rehabilitated main hospital. Al-Rawi, 48, is a member of the Anbar provincial council, which is tasked with inspecting and overseeing public facilities such as schools and hospitals.
WMC Women Under Siege
Improving post-conflict development outcomes: Empowering adolescent girls
Post-conflict development efforts cannot afford to forget about adolescent youth. While all youth face certain challenges in adolescence, girls are constrained in different, and often more detrimental, ways than boys, particularly in post-conflict settings.
WMC Women Under Siege
Writing Rape: Women’s Media Center study finds crucial gap in coverage by gender
Media coverage of U.S. campus rape and sexualized violence is significantly skewed toward the bylines and voices of men, according to a Women’s Media Center report released today.
WMC Women Under Siege
August 21, 2014 | Lauren Wolfe |
Violence against women
The Index: The Cost of Violence Against Women
Cost of sexualized and domestic violence in the U.S. estimated per year in 2003, in billions: 5.8 ... Overall cost of health care in this estimate, in billions: 4.1 ... Cost of rape in this estimate, in millions: 319 ...
WMC Women Under Siege
July 18, 2014 | Cara Hoffman |
Violence against women
Giving women a fair fight in the US military
It’s unfathomable to think that in 2014 half the global population will be prevented from a full range of occupations because of their gender. This kind of prejudice is broadly seen as a throwback to a distant and unenlightened era—which is why the findings of a recent study of the best U.S. colleges was surprising to many.
WMC Women Under Siege
Safety a click away: The tech industry’s response to violence against women
To combat sexualized violence, advocates and technologists have created new, tech-based apps and services in recent years. Some recent anti-rape device creations include rape-resistant underwear, female condoms with teeth, hairy leg tights, and even “killer tampons.” But not all of the creations are that bizarre. Some tech-based responses include smartphone apps, GPS tools, and other personal safety services and software that may be useful in the right—or wrong—situation.
WMC Women Under Siege
Mind the digital gender gap: Empowering women online
Women face a variety of barriers to full and equal access, including cost, lack of digital literacy, lack of awareness of the Internet’s potential, and entrenched cultural and gender norms that limit them from forming independent connections outside their home or community. These obstacles are worth overcoming.
WMC Women Under Siege
Measuring self-worth in units of male approval: Marriage in India
While women’s rights in India have begun to make news this year, we are barely off the starting line yet. The news includes domestic and international outrage over the gang rapes of strangers, but these make up a very small percentage of the sexual attacks in the country. In India, more than 90 percent of rapes are committed by people known to the victim, according to a 2012 report by India’s National Crime Records Bureau.
WMC Women Under Siege
Why are we still surprised that Egypt’s women are not free?
Egyptians often tout their country as a beacon of culture, liberalism, and Muslim modesty in the Middle East. But in terms of freedoms for women, a recent study on how people in Muslim countries prefer women to dress in public showed that Egypt is significantly more conservative than its Arab neighbors.
WMC Women Under Siege
10 must-read books on sexualized violence in war
Our mission here at WMC’s Women Under Siege is to add to the public record on sexualized violence in conflict. But if you’re just setting out to learn more about a topic as complicated as this, figuring out where to begin might seem a bit daunting.
WMC Women Under Siege
A competition of suffering: Male vs. female rape
One of the main components of our project at WMC’s Women Under Siege is to educate the public about how rape is used not only as a crime of war but also as a strategic tool. During our research on systemic sexualized violence in wartime, we have found that rape disproportionately affects women. But the key term here is disproportionately.
WMC Women Under Siege
‘He bonked them’: Making light of rape in the West African media
Yvonne Ntiamoah, a resident in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, was driving her two daughters home when she heard something on a local radio station that she could simply not endure.
WMC Women Under Siege
'Survival sex': How NGOs and peacekeepers exploit women in war
It’s easy to associate rape with the Democratic Republic of Congo, a region torn by conflict since 1996. Dubbed the “rape capital of the world,” the country sees four women raped every five minutes, according to a 2011 study published by the American Journal of Public Health.
WMC Women Under Siege
The topsy-turvy world of men who oppose anti-violence campaigns
At the start of this year, my friend and WMC’s Women Under Siege director, Lauren Wolfe, started a Twitter hashtag, #2013EndRape, to highlight the epidemic of sexualized violence against women. While the hashtag has seen success, one of the unintended consequences has been its trolling and attacks on it by various “Men’s Rights Activists.”
WMC Women Under Siege
Women’s bodies: Cause of ‘epidemics and disasters’?
Her name is Amina. She is a teenage girl. A man in her country, Tunisia, thinks stones should be thrown at her until she dies because she posted a photo of herself on a website. Because she is a woman. Because she had the audacity to make a comment about her own body, and to photograph her body, and to use it to share her ideas with others.
WMC Women Under Siege
Poynter: CNN’s Steubenville coverage called too sympathetic to teens found guilty
Journalists took to Twitter Sunday to criticize the the media’s coverage of the two teenage boys who were found guilty in the Steubenville, Ohio, rape case. Lauren Wolfe, Xeni Jardin and others called out CNN’s Poppy Harlow and Paul Callan for sympathizing with the men and highlighting that the woman who was raped was “allegedly drunk.”
WMC Women Under Siege
Gloria Steinem challenges BBC presenter on violence against women
On Tuesday, Gloria Steinem, who originated WMC’s Women Under Siege, spoke to BBC “Hardtalk” presenter Stephen Sackur about the women’s movement. But I wanted to do more than point you to the video (which you can watch here) and highlight something I found particularly interesting about their chat.
WMC Women Under Siege
Covering rape responsibly
In the light of the recent coverage of the rapes in India, it’s time to talk about how we cover rape in this country. For some 20 years now, I have been criticizing the press for never asking why men rape. Now, with the rapes in New Delhi gaining so much attention, I ask it again.
WMC Women Under Siege
Why everyday gender inequality could lead to our next war
What if I suggested that reducing the rates of rape and sexism in the U.S. would reduce our risk of international conflict? You might think that American girls and women who regularly adapt their lives to deal with “harmless” street harassment, or who are assaulted by American men, have little to do with, say, the Iraq War. Yet research shows an undeniable relationship between the treatment of women in everyday life and a nation’s propensity for engaging in war.