Welcome to The Pixel Project’s VAW e-News Digest!
India continues to grapple with issues of violence against women as the gang rape of a photojournalist in Mumbai seizes national headlines and a foreign student shares her personal story of sexual harassment in the country. To address the rate of violence against women, rape survivors can lodge a report without needing to go to the police station in some parts of the country and fast-track courts are designed to ease trials concerning sexual assault, but change may require more than the introduction of official measures.
In Switzerland, drive-in boxes for sex are established in hopes of reducing the cases of violence against women in Zurich. Installing these boxes reignite the debate on whether legalized prostitution is useful or even necessary to reduce violence against women in the sex trade.
In South Asian countries like India, Bangladesh, and Nepal, activists have received a US$ 23 million boost to help eradicate child marriage. Teenagers fearing forced marriage in the United Kingdom have been advised to hide cutlery in their clothing to trigger metal detectors and delay flights.
Internet-based activism has shown to be effective in creating real-life changes when global outcry and an online petition that gathered 2 million signatures managed to deter the lashing of a rape survivor in Maldives who would have otherwise been sentenced for ‘fornication’.
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Best regards,
The Pixel Project Team
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Violence Against Women-General News
- EUROPE (ITALY AND UKRAINE) – European women want more than legislation to combat violence against women
- AFGHANISTAN – Karzai: a legacy of failure on Afghan women’s rights?
- INDIA – (editorial) How the West sees violence against women in India
- INDIA – India is taking acid attacks more seriously
- NEPAL – It takes more than legislation to deal with violence against women
- TURKEY – Turkey’s religious head refuses UN funds for project addressing violence against women
- UNITED STATES – Hotel chain ‘The Standard’ accused of trivializing violence against women in an ad
- UNITED STATES – How the Violence Against Women Act empowers and protects domestic and sexual abuse victims
Domestic Violence
- AUSTRALIA – Disabled gets help to escape domestic violence
- INDIA – Renowned Bollywood actor Om Puri charged with domestic violence
- ITALY – Femicide in Italy: domestic violence persists despite new laws
- RUSSIA – Victims of domestic violence face uphill battle for protection
- SAUDI ARABIA – Saudi Arabia passes law against domestic violence
- SOUTH AFRICA – Documentary ‘Home is Where the Hurt Is’ to expose issues of domestic violence in South Africa
- UNITED KINGDOM – Home secretary Theresa May to demand police improve domestic violence handling
- UNITED STATES – Justice court docket feature: a domestic violence charge does not require physical contact
Rape and Sexual Assault
- CHINA – Teenage son of a singer for the People’s Liberation Army arrested for rape, creates outrage
- INDIA – Survivors of rape can make report without stepping into a police station
- IRELAND – Council criticized over rape of toddler in one of its crèches
- PAKISTAN – ‘Two-finger test’ deters rape victims from seeking justice
- SOUTH AFRICA – South African women live in fear of rape
- UNITED KINGDOM – MP calls down on crackdown on suspected sex offenders’ travel outside of the country, including suspected rapists
- UNITED STATES – New book ‘Redefining Rape’ tackles the case of how sex crimes oppressed women and blacks during the ages of suffrages and segregation
- UNITED STATES – Judge sentences high school teacher charged with rape of 14-year old girl to a 31-day jail sentence
- ZIMBABWE – Probe into horrifying campaign to rape opposition supporters in 2008 is currently underway
Human/Sex Trafficking
- CANADA – Public Safety Canada to study trade of women for sex in aborigine communities
- INDIA – Of human bonds: between sex work and trafficking
- ITALY – Italy leads Europe in sex trafficking statistics
- MALAYSIA – Country still lagging in fight against human trafficking
- SERBIA – 30 victims of human trafficking found in Serbia over the first 7 months of 2013
- SWITZERLAND – In new experiment to make prostitution safer for women, Zurich installs drive-in sex boxes
- UNITED KINGDOM – Sex trade should be legalised to stop traffickers
- UNITED STATES – CNN feature on sex trafficking in Miami
Female Genital Mutilation
- INDIA – Interview with the director of ‘A Pinch of Skin’, a documentary on FGM in India
- KENYA – 2000 schoolgirls risk FGM in Pokot and Marakwet areas
- KENYA – Cases of FGM dropped from 38% in 1998 to 27% in 2011
- TANZANIA – Tanzanian campaigners warn that FGM still persists in secret
- SENEGAL – Fighting female genital mutilation, one household at a time
- SUDAN – In Sudan, anti-FGM campaign avoids using the term
- UNITED KINGDOM – Fighting female genital mutilation with our keyboards – feminist statement on FGM launched today
- UNITED STATES – Raelian cult offers surgery to restore sexual sensation to survivors of FGM
Forced Marriage and Honour Killing
- GLOBAL: Plan UK says ‘Forced marriage is a global problem’
- SOUTH ASIA – Child marriage campaigners in India, Bangladesh and Nepal receive US$ 23 million boost in funds
- SOUTHEAST ASIA – Southeast Asia’s biggest dilemma: what to do about child marriage?
- INDIA – Protests in Kerala over forced marriage of minor girl
- INDIA – Police in Ghaziabad are giving security to couples facing threat of honour killing
- KENYA – 16-year old girl rescued from forced marriage
- PAKISTAN – Honour killings on the rise, fourteen reported in February
- UNITED KINGDOM – Teenage girls who fear forced marriage are hiding spoons in their clothes to set off airport metal detectors and delay their flight
Street Harassment
- INDIA – In response to the article about the sexual harassment of a foreign student in India, an Indian woman shares her story about harassment
- INDIA – Debate reignites as student chronicles trauma from sexual harassment in India
- UNITED STATES – Hollaback smartphone app in New York allows women to report street harassment
- UNITED STATES – New book on feminism includes information about street harassment
- UNITED STATES – Opinion: the profound misogyny of a popular defense of sexual harassment
Activism
- CANADA – Comics With A Cause creates candid conversation about violence against women
- CHINA – Artist’s take on sexual abuse turns ugly
- INDIA – Organization called Sikh Youth of Punjab holds road show to express anguish over drugs, criminalization of politics and violence against women
- INDIA – UNICEF India launches Time to Sound the Red Siren initiative, which tackles violence against children with a special focus on girls
- MALDIVES – Rape victim spared punishment of being lashed 100 times for fornication after global outcry and an online petition
- SWEDEN – Women in Sweden wear a hijab to protest
- UNITED KINGDOM – Teen writer Rita Williams-Garcia tackles the subject of FGM
- UNITED STATES – ‘Adopt-an-Apartment’ program helps domestic violence survivors
- UNITED STATES – Kym Worthy and the fight to investigate Detroit’s 11,000 rapes