A woman says she has been left trapped in a “loveless and desperately unhappy” marriage after senior judges refused to allow her to divorce her husband of 40 years on the grounds of unreasonable behaviour.
The highly unusual ruling by the court of appeal triggered calls from divorce lawyers for parliament to introduce “no fault” divorce and warnings that the decision would force separating couples to make more aggressive allegations to justify marital breakdown.
Several White Ribbon members who attended the IWD forum in Hobart last week expressed concerns about White Ribbon’s current resistance to confronting male violence to women in the sex trade. White Ribbon Australia continues to fall behind on best practice policy on stopping all violence to women.
In keeping with the spirit of International Women’s Day, it is time for White Ribbon Australia to stand in solidarity with their international partners who have joined the growing global movement against the global sex-trade and in support Nordic Model laws on prostitution.
http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?%2Fweblog%2Farticle%2Fdissent-in-white-ribbon-starts-to-bite%2F
Empress Wu Zetian (also known as Empress Consort Wu, Wu Hou, Wu Mei Niang, Mei-Niang, and Wu Zhao, 624-705 CE, r. 690-704 CE) was the only female emperor in the history of China. She reigned during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE) and was one of the most effective and controversial monarchs in China’s history.
Although modern historians, both east and west, have revised the ancient depiction of Wu Zetian as a scheming usurper, that view of her reign still persists in much that is written about her. The woman who believed she was as capable as any man to lead the country continues to be vilified, even if writers now qualify their criticisms, but there is no arguing with the fact that, under Wu Zetian, China experienced an affluence and stability it had never known before. Her reforms and policies lay the foundation for the success of Xuanzong as emperor under whose reign China became the most prosperous country in the world.
While it would be tempting to write off the exchange as simple rudeness, this brand of slight is familiar to most women. Perhaps it happens when you go to buy a car and the salesperson only speaks to your male partner. Or when you meet someone at a work event and they only introduce themselves to the male colleague beside you.
Or, if you’re Angela Merkel, maybe the notoriously misogynist president of the United States refuses to shake your hand or even deign to look at you during a press conference.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/21/trump-did-to-merkel-what-men-do-to-women-all-the-time?
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2017/03/17/angela-merkel-donald-trump-handshake/99310398/
“If I quit, everybody’s going to believe women can’t do this.”
That’s the thought that latched itself into Kathrine Switzer’s head when a male official tried to push her off the course of the Boston Marathon in 1967
Perhaps the most significant of Switzer’s achievements was her role in having the women’s marathon added to the Olympics in 1984 — almost 90 years after the men’s event.
Scientists are working to find answers — but, although it is as common as asthma and diabetes, endometriosis is allocated only a fraction of the millions of dollars they each receive in research funding.
Human rights lawyers have voiced their grave concerns about the government’s continued relentless push to privatise essential specialist domestic violence services for women by awarding contracts to religious and other for profit agencies. The latest service facing possible closure, is Rape and Domestic Violence Services Australia (RDVSA) – a vital service first established by the Women’s Liberation Movement in 1971.
A Brazilian soccer player who had his mistress murdered and fed to dogs claims he is “starting over.”
In his first major interview since being released from prison, 32-year-old Bruno Fernandes de Souza said: “What happened, happened. I made a mistake, a serious one, but mistakes happens in life – I’m not a bad guy.”
“People tried to bury my dream because of one mistake, but I asked God for forgiveness, so I’m carrying on with my career, dude,” he said,
NPIP is founded on the recognition that the prison system does not to function primarily in the interest of public safety, as we are lead to believe. Reoffending rates are high, and prisons are violent, not rehabilitative, institutions. They do not reduce crime rates – if that was their purpose, indigenous women would not be incarcerated at a higher rate than any other demographic.
Yet recently, NPIP’s activism has focused heavily – disproportionately, even – on transgender inmates. In 2015, NPIP successfully campaigned to move Jade Follett, a male who identifies as transgender, into a women’s prison after he was sentenced to 21 months for stabbing – it took just hours for the government to comply. Several NPIP spokespeople identify as trans themselves, and four of their abolitionist demands are specific to incarcerated people who identify as trans.
These demands seem to supersede any concerns NPIP has for women either in or outside of prisons. For instance, NPIP calls for the government to “End the practice of incarcerating trans people”, while it makes no mention of ending the incarceration of women, even though men who identify as transgender still exhibit the same pattern of violence against women as the general male population, and women commit only a fraction of all violent crime.
NPIP also calls on the government to “Allow for the immediate placement of all trans prisoners in a prison of their choosing”, with no concern for how this might affect women in (overcrowded) women’s prisons. Should Alex Aleti Seu, who committed sexual assault repeatedly, really have access to a women’s prison? Surely women in prison for “crimes” like benefit fraud should not be lumped with the extra punishment of sharing space with male sex offenders like Seu – just because those males might prefer it?
https://reneejg.net/2017/03/23/transactivism-in-prison-abolition/
The Northern Territory has decriminalised abortion and widened access for women, including use of the RU486 termination drug.
After a years-long public campaign and failed attempts during the previous administration, the Labor-led parliament voted 20 votes to four on Tuesday in favour of a bill to amend the NT Medical Services Act and the criminal code. Labor members were given a conscience vote.
http://www.ntnews.com.au/news/northern-territory/ru486-abortion-drug-laws-pass-in-northern-territory/news-story/17be5725f4eb9ce6a11b09821678abe0?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-21/nt-abortion-debate-hears-from-all-sides-of-parliament/8374464?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/22/abortion-decriminalised-in-northern-territory-after-long-campaign?
