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Welcome to the Pixel Project VAW e-News Digest – Edition 3!

As usual, we have collated the most relevant news on Violence Against Women (VAW) across the world that came out over the past 2 weeks. Each headline summary is hyperlinked and will click through to the full article.

On December 6th, 1989, a man walked into Ecolѐ Polytechnique in Montreal, separated the men from the women, told the men to leave the hall, lined the remaining women up, and opened fire on them. “You’re all feminists,” he declared, “I hate feminists.”

Fourteen young women, each around 23 years of age, died that day for only one crime: women were studying engineering, a field dominated then, and still now, by men. Twenty years after the massacre, Canada remembers December 6th as the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.

Violence against women is very often not random. Violence is often utilized as a means of control, of keeping women – and by extension, people – ‘in place’, by force. We find this in regions of political conflict and oppression most clearly, as the news this week reveals how Mugabe, the dictator of Zimbabwe, launched campaigns of organized rape against women who were supporters of the opposition.

But it’s not just in regions of conflict do we find violence against women used as a means of control; around the world, we find news of women threatened by violence and facing difficulties seeking recourse and justice. The countries change, but the stories are the same.

This week, the 16 days of activism combating violence against women closes, but on a sober note. As news around the world concerning various forms of violence against women shows, there is still a lot to be done to combat violence against women, both in the developed and developing world. A glance at the statistics of reported cases of violence against women from countries around the world tells us that there is much more to be done.

So, think about how you can help prevent, stop and end VAW. It could be a gesture as small as sending The Pixel Project any links and VAW news you wish us to include in forthcoming editions of The Pixel Project VAW e-Newsletter. Please email our archivist, Catalina Rembuyan, at catalina@thepixelproject.net if you’d like to do so.

In the meantime, do enjoy our third e-Newsletter and do feel free to share it around! And if you prefer to get breaking VAW news from us in real time, please follow us on Twitter (http://twitter.com/PixelProject).

With best regards,

The Pixel Project team

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General Violence Against Women
Terrorism that’s personal: 12 haunting images of acid attack survivors in Pakistan – a set of pictures that moved thousands around the world.

Afghan Women Among Worst Off in terms of Human Rights.

Islam Online: Afghanistan’s Forgotten Women.

Afghanistan: Life Still Grim for Vast Numbers of Afghan Women.

Canada: Events nationwide mark the anniversary of the Ecole Polytechnic shooting.

Canada: Killer Lepine did not destroy hope at Polytechnique, survivors say.

Canada: 14 women, 20 years – Canada remembers its worst case of violence against women, the Ecole Polytechnic Massacre.

Canada: What was the impact of the Montreal Massacre?

Canada: Survivors reflect on the Montreal Massacre, 20 years later.

Canada: Gun control issue reveals a changing Canada, as Canadians remember the Ecole Polytechnic massacre.

Canada: Amendments to gun laws ‘a slap in the face’ for victims of the Ecole Polytechnic massacre.

Canada: Untangling a violent web – “If we’ve learned anything in the 20 years since Marc Lepine massacred 14 women in Montreal, it’s that violence doesn’t happen out of the blue…we know enough about the precursors of violence that we have the tools to prevent it, raising resilient kids with coping skills instead of breeding sociopaths”.

Canada: Twenty years on, little has changed.

Canada: Speech presented last year by Megan Leslie, survivor of the Ecole Polytechnique shooting.

Ghana: Peace FM shares the statistics of gender violence against women.

Indonesia: Government urged to review shariah-based by-laws, many which are discriminating against women.

Rwanda: For the past fifteen years, in parts of Central Africa, women have been raped and mutilated as part of a deliberate and coordinated strategy to destroy civilian communities…gender-based violence is not limited to war zones…girls and women are targeted because of their sex at every point of their lives. This violence is not ‘cultural’, it is criminal.

United Arab Emirates partakes in workshop in Tunisia concerning violence against women.

United States: A paid escort is a ‘date’ under New Jersey gender violence act.

United States: MTV handles the episode of reality tv show Jersey Shore when a girl gets punched by a man, to highlight on dating violence.

Domestic Violence
Domestic violence charges dropped against Bebe Winans.

A documentary that aims to inspire victims of domestic violence to escape the cycle of abuse premiered in Sydney.

Saturday Night Live criticized for airing Tiger Woods domestic violence skit while Rihanna on show.

Reader responses to Patrick Stewart speaking up on domestic violence.

Canada: Calgary police are teaming up with social workers to form new squad geared at tackling family violence.

Kenya: Women’s rights NGOs oppose the government’s move to start local breweries, as alcoholism has been known to increase chances of violence happening in the household.

Kyrgyzstan: 1,765 cases of domestic violence in 2009, 83% of women faced domestic violence from a survey of 1,600 Kyrgyz women.

Lebanon: Pleas to end domestic violence fall on deaf ears – no statistics of domestic violence exist in Lebanon, where the issue is heavily stigmatized.

United Kingdom: Reese Witherspoon speaks out against domestic violence, calls it a ‘global pandemic that knows no barriers’.

United States: Experts say dating violence a problem in West Virginia.

United States: DC salon provides pampering for survivors of domestic violence currently residing in shelters.
Rape
“It’s not like offenders are grown at 20. They start offending at 10, 11, 12.”—boys charged over gang rape in Australia, all minors.

India: Goa may soon get ‘rape capital’ tag.

Iran: Opposition supporters faced torture and rape.

Iran: Amnesty International details abuse of protestors, inclusive of rape.

Ireland: Women who have been raped tell in their own words of the experience of the attack, and of what followed – first hand accounts of why women did or did not report being raped.

Ireland: Alarm at rape conviction rate; only 7% of all cases end in criminal sanctions.

Nigeria: A Nigerian feminist remembers Grace Ushang, a recent victim of murder and rape in the country.

United States: Judge sets 2011 trial date for case of American woman who was raped by military co-workers in Iraq.

Zimbabwe: Group claims evidence of Mugabe-led rape campaign.

Zimbabwe: How Mugabe’s men used rape as a weapon – women, as young as infants or as old as ninety, were raped and tortured ‘near death’ for being supporters of the opposition.

Sex Trafficking
Highlight on Katie Ford and her drive to end sex trafficking.

Lindsay Lohan to be part of documentary on sex trafficking.

Lindsay Lohan volunteers to help end sex trafficking, tweets: “Over 40 children saved so far. Within one day’s work. This is what life is about. Doing this is a life worth living!”

Europe continent: 115 child sex offenders held after two-year Europol probe across 19 countries – five children have been identified as victims, between ages 4 to 12, and 221 suspects have been identified.

India: Legal stamp to drive up sexual slavery: does legalization of prostitution work to prevent sexual slavery, or result in the opposite effects?

Israel and Palestinian territories: Palestinian organization reveals ground breaking report of forced prostitution in Palestine.

Kenya: Womankind Kenya, a Kenyan NGO, warns that the country is used as a conduit for sex trafficking, especially of Somalian women.

United States: Former US sex trafficking victim shares plight.

Honour Killing
India: Police suspect a fresh case of honour killing.

India: Supreme Court lightens the sentence of a man convicted of honour killing, requests for sympathy for killer’s ‘caste anguish’.

India: Honour killing – India’s continual shame, a letter to the editor.

Jordan: Queen Rania of Jordan decides to make a stand against honour killing.

Jordan: Man stabs pregnant sister to death in honour killing, makes the 21st case of honour killing in Jordan this year.

Jordan: Man jailed for only fifteen years for calculated murder of own daughter.

Pakistan: Art exhibition ‘No Honour in Killing – Making Visible Buried Truth’ to highlight honour killing.

Pakistan: More on the art exhibition and dialogue – ordinances like the Qisas and Wadiat are highly flawed; “We have to have a clear stance that no system can allow a woman to be killed for honour”.

Forced Marriage
South Africa: Senior church officials deny their involvement in forced marriage, accuse teenage girls of ‘not telling truth’.

South Africa: An article on forced marriage in South Africa – “children are literally being sold, almost to the highest bidder”.

South Africa: Poverty in South Africa – 3 cows and a forced marriage, or ukuthalwa, a look into the custom that creates forced marriages among the country’s lower income groups.

United Kingdom: Legal firm which secured the country’s first ever order banning a forced marriage encourages more victims to come forward.