Saudi Women Who Fought for the Right to Drive Are Disappearing and Going Into Exile

On the evening of September 26, 2017, 28-year-old Loujain al-Hathloul sat at home in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, eyeing her smartphone. A stream of notifications cascaded down the screen as her social media feeds erupted with messages of shock, joy, and speculation. Moments before, an ordinary Tuesday had turned historic: King Salman al-Saud took to state-run television to issue a stunning royal decree: Saudi women, at long last, would be granted the right to drive. The abrupt announcement, orchestrated in concert with a simultaneous press event in Washington, D.C., and a warm commendation from U.S. President Donald Trump, had sent millions of Saudis reeling. For decades, the government had remained intractable on the issue of women’s right to drive, siding invariably with conservative clerics who justified the ban on religious grounds. Human rights groups viewed the ban — unique the world over — as an emblem of a broader oppressive stance toward women, and had long called for its repeal. Yet even the most earnest advocates would have thought such a reversal unthinkable mere hours before.

'Stolen Sisters' Invites National Reckoning on Missing Women

When Emmanuelle Walter moved to Canada from France five years ago, she thought she was moving to one of the human rights capitals of the world. That vision was soon shattered.

"I came across an article about the United Nations [wanting] to do an investigation about missing and murdered indigenous women in Canada, and I was shocked," Walter said in a phone interview with The Tyee from her home in Montreal. "After that I became obsessed with the topic, and at the end I decided to write the book."

How US Working Women Are Being Run Over

The gender gap has not closed for most women at work, and "leaning in" won't fix this. In Under the Bus, Caroline Fredrickson details the inequities faced by temporary and part-time workers, immigrant women, farm workers, small business employees and domestic workers - in other words, the majority of working women. Click here to order the book now with a contribution to Truthout!

Also see: Financial Exploitation of Women in the Workplace Is the Canary in the Coal Mine

Families of missing and murdered indigenous women give police a failing grade

Police departments across Canada get a failing grade for their efforts at solving cases of missing and murdered indigenous women, according to CBC interviews with more than 110 family members.

CBC News has embarked on an exhaustive search for families who have lost a relative either to an unsolved killing or whose loved one still remains missing.

Hundreds of expert recommendations on violence against Indigenous women and girls go unimplemented

An alarming study released today shows that governments in Canada have repeatedly ignored expert recommendations to stop violence against Indigenous women and girls.

Researchers with the Legal Strategy Coalition on Violence Against Indigenous Women reviewed 58 reports dealing with aspects of violence and discrimination against Indigenous women and girls, including government studies, reports by international human rights bodies, and published research of Indigenous women's organizations. The reports cover a period of two decades. Shockingly, researchers found that only a few of more than 700 recommendations in these reports have ever been fully implemented.

"How many Indigenous women and girls would have been found or would still be alive if governments had acted on more of these recommendations?" asked Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, President of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs. "This is yet another piece of irrefutable evidence that governments in Canada have breached their fundamental moral and legal responsibility to ensure the safety of all women, without discrimination."

Women Still Can't Walk Alone Without Being Harassed

Nearly every woman I know has a self-defense strategy when she has to walk alone at night. A popular one is the key trick: you slide a key between two of your fingers and it serves as a makeshift pocketknife. Or more specifically, something you can quickly ram into your assailant's eye. To be extra safe, clutch your keys for the whole walk.

I've been lucky. I haven't been assaulted; or rather, not on the street...yet. Too many friends haven't been as lucky.

No Thanks From an Ungrateful Nation: The Surge of Female Vets Living on the Streets

The female veteran had been raped twice in the service. The first time was at the Twentynine Palms Marine training center in Southern California. It happened again in Iraq. “It was extremely difficult,” she said. On top of that, she was stressed from combat and, after her discharge, experienced depression. “For a year, I only woke up to eat and drink whiskey. ... Not till later did I realize it came from sexual trauma.”

Sexual assault is a major reason for the growing number of homeless female vets. In this particular case, the homeless woman was able to rebuild her life. I heard about it when I talked to her and two other female vets recently at a home provided by New Directions, a Los Angeles organization that offers substance abuse and mental health treatment, as well as transitional housing for homeless veterans or those at risk of ending up on the street.

Some Countries Spend More On Domestic Violence Costs Than On Primary Education: Report

A report out this week from the World Bank Group examined some of the challenges facing women around the world and uncovered some unequivocally devastating finds. As shown in the map below, a significant share of women, especially in Africa and South Asia, have experienced physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner during their lifetime.

Battered women morally entitled to kill abusers, U of O professor asserts

OTTAWA — Battered women are morally entitled to kill their abusive partners, even those who are passed out or asleep, says a respected University of Ottawa law professor.

Elizabeth Sheehy raises the provocative idea in her new book, eight years in the making, called Defending Battered Women on Trial. It will be published Dec. 15 by UBC Press.

“Why should women live in anticipatory dread and hypervigilence?” she writes in the book’s concluding chapter. Would it not be just, Sheehy asks, “to shift the risk of death to those men whose aggressions have created such dehumanizing fear in their female partners?”

Aboriginal leader Shawn Atleo warns of 'grave' human rights crisis

Canada is facing a "grave" human rights crisis, warned the National Chief for the Assembly of First Nations Shawn Atleo during a rally to honour and remember the lives of missing and murdered aboriginal women and girls on Parliament Hill Friday.

Canadians are rallying in over 200 locations across the country at Sisters In Spirit rallies, an event organized by the Native Women’s Association of Canada annually for the past eight years on Oct. 4.

Canada's rejection of inquiry into violence against Aboriginal women is a national disgrace

In 2009, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva conducted a Universal Period Review of Canada's rights record and concluded its need to address the concerns of indigenous populations -- particularly, Aboriginal women.

During that year, fifty submissions slammed Canada on topics from labour rights to foreign policy and highlighted the country in the worst way among the 192 UN member states. According to a report by the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE), Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada, Alex Neve said: "The Canadian record of upholding the rights of indigenous peoples is a real disgrace and a source of national shame... These are not political, economic or natural resource matters. These are issues of human rights."

Canada blocking UN efforts to address sexual violence against women

OTTAWA/GENEVA, June 7, 2013 – Governments and civil society are calling into question the leadership of the Canadian government on the theme of Violence Against Women at the 23rd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC).

In previous years, the Canadian government, which chairs the negotiations of the annual HRC resolution on violence against women, has played a leadership role in helping to create advances seeking to protect women from violence. Yet this year, a number of concerns have been raised regarding Canada’s approach to the new resolution on the theme of ‘sexual violence’. The concerns in question are the very proposals that Canada itself is putting forward which are regressive and represent a serious attack on women’s rights and the health and wellbeing of survivors of sexual violence.

Terrorism against women: The war that never ends

In September 2005, Emory University Professor Erica Frank came to a none-too-startling conclusion: that investments in basics like disease prevention and research would save far more lives than the hundreds of billions spent in the "war on terror." Citing one example, Dr. Frank noted that in September 2002, New York State spent $1.3 million to reduce heart disease (the leading cause of death in the state) while the state budgeted $34 million for bio-terrorism preparedness (the latter an issue rooted largely in the netherworld of speculation).

Explosive new report alleges widespread RCMP abuse of Indigenous women and girls

A new report by Human Rights Watch alleging widespread abuse by the RCMP against Indigenous women and girls was the subject of fierce debate Wednesday in Parliament. The 89-page report "described abusive treatment by police officers, including excessive use of force, and physical and sexual assault."

"Those Who Take Us Away" details police failure to protect Indigenous women and girls in northern British Columbia in and around Highway 16 (known as the "Highway of Tears"), documents allegations of RCMP violence and abuse against Indigenous women, and calls on the government to convene a national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women.

Gender Pay Gap Widened In 2012, Back To 2005 Levels

Women have made huge strides in the workplace but still are falling short when it comes to pay.

New data from the Labor Department reveals that in 2012, women made only 81 percent as much as male workers, on average. Women made less than men in all but two occupations, according to the available data.

The gender pay gap actually widened last year (women made 82 percent as much as men in 2011) and now has returned to 2005 levels, according to the Labor Department.

The latest push to end the gender wage gap is coming from President Barack Obama, who on Tuesday night made another push in support of a bill that would seek to ensure paycheck fairness.

Original Article
Source: huffingtonpost.com
Author: Bonnie Kavoussi

Canada: Abusive Policing, Neglect Along ‘Highway of Tears’

(Ottawa) – The Royal Canadian Mounted Police in northern British Columbia has failed to protect indigenous women and girls from violence, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Women and girls Human Rights Watch interviewed also described abusive treatment by police officers, including excessive use of force, and physical and sexual assault.

Ten Things to End Rape Culture

Rape culture exists because we don't believe it does.  From tacit acceptance of misogyny in everything from casual conversations with our peers to the media we consume, we accept the degradation of women and posit uncontrollable hyper-sexuality of men as the norm. But rape is endemic to our culture because there's no widely accepted cultural definition of what it actually is.  As Nation contributor and co-editor of the anthology Yes Means Yes Jessica Valenti explains, “Rape is a standard result of a culture mired in misogyny, but for whatever reason—denial, self-preservation, sexism—Americans bend over backwards to make excuses for male violence.” But recent headline-grabbing instances of sexual assault, from Steubenville, Ohio, to Delhi, India, are prodding Americans to become self-aware about the role we play in propagating a culture that not only allows but justifies sexual violence against women. Activists Eesha Pandit, Jaclyn Friedman, filmmaker Nuala Cabral and The Nation’s Valenti believe that we can end rape culture. They’ve suggested the following "Ten Things" to end our collective tolerance for violence against women and create an environment that empowers both men and women to change the status quo.

India rape suspects reportedly tried to run over victim

The men in India accused in the brutal sexual assault and death of a 23-year-old student threw her off a bus after raping her and then tried to run her over, according to reports citing police notes on the incident.

The Indian Express newspaper says those details of the assault in New Delhi are contained in a 1,000-page charge sheet to be presented in court on Thursday, when police are expected to file formal charges against the suspects.

Delhi gang-rape: look westward in disgust

There's something uncomfortably neocolonial about the way the Delhi gang-rape and subsequent death of the woman now known as Damini is being handled in the UK and US media. While India's civil and political spheres are alight with protest and demands for changes to the country's culture of sexual violence, commentators here are using the event to simultaneously demonise Indian society, lionise our own, and minimise the enormity of western rape culture.

Afghanistan Women's Rights Abuses Prevail Despite New Law, U.N. Says

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan women are frequent victims of abuse, despite some success by authorities in prosecuting rape cases, forced marriages and domestic violence under a 3-year-old law, according to a report issued Tuesday by the United Nations.

The report came out a day after gunmen shot and killed the head of the women's affairs department for eastern Laghman province. Afghan officials said Najia Sediqi, who took the job after her predecessor was killed in a bomb attack in July, was on her way to her office when she was shot dead.