‘I felt like one of my father’s songbirds, let out of its cage’: driving as a woman in Saudi Ara bia

In 2011, as the Arab spring brewed, I began a campaign to allow women to drive in Saudi Arabia, mobilising them via Twitter and Facebook.

Saudi women rarely wear anything but black abayas in public. When I saw Wajeha in pink, I giggled, thinking that she was even more fearless than me. No doubt, she was thinking that if we got arrested, at least she would look stylish.

I drove neither fast nor slowly, but I could feel myself looking at the familiar streets and buildings that I had never seen from a vantage point other than the passenger seat. I couldn’t help glancing in the direction of the police station as we passed. It was the same place where two days later I would be detained.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/jun/12/i-felt-like-one-of-my-fathers-songbirds-let-out-of-its-cage-driving-as-a-woman-in-saudi-arabia?

Congratulations Cate Blanchett, but too few women recognised (again)

Once again, we’re still hunting for the women on an honours list.

It’s our twice-yearly tradition. Done at the beginning of the year on Australia Day, and then less than six months later on the Queen’s Birthday long weekend.

On today’s Queen’s Birthday honours list, women make up even fewer of the recipients of the general division honours, than in previous years. Just 30.6% of the general order gongs went to women, or 206 of the 673 recipients recognised, below the 31.4% average from the past five years.

Blanchett was the only woman to be appointed an AC, awarded for eminent achievement and merit of the highest degree.

https://womensagenda.com.au/latest/congratulations-cate-blanchett-women-recognised/
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Swelling UK solicitor ranks becoming more diverse

“Increasing diversity in the solicitor profession is a powerful force for good and a cause for real celebration. . . . However, he said that there is still a diversity gap in the higher ranks of the profession. “[M]ore than 40% of male solicitors become partners – compare that to less than 20% of women and just over 20% of BAME solicitors.”

https://www.australasianlawyer.com.au/news/swelling-uk-solicitor-ranks-becoming-more-diverse–study-237295.aspx

Addressing financial domestic violence

Economic abuse (also known as financial abuse) is a pattern of behaviour where the abuser ‘maintain[s] power and control over their partners’ economic resources’. This action reduces the victim’s capacity to support themselves and they are forced to depend on the perpetrator financially.

Despite the progress made during the women’s human rights movement in the 1990s (including the 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women), financial domestic violence has not received the attention it deserves.

There has been success for victims of domestic violence more generally who have brought cases before the CEDAW Committee under the Option Protocol. In A.T. v Hungary, the first domestic violence case before the committee, the committee clearly stated that failure to protect women from domestic violence is a form of discrimination and human rights violati

Thus, this case defined the state’s due diligence obligation to end domestic violence under international law. Although A.T. concerned violent physical abuse, and based its analysis on General Recommendation 19, on violence against women, there is no reason in principle why this due diligence obligation should not apply to FDV.

https://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/biglaw/21235-addressing-financial-domestic-violence?

Hope and help for family violence victims in Victoria

According to Victoria Legal Aid (VLA), an alarming 80 per cent of all its cases that come before the family courts feature some form of family violence.

Now a new holistic program aims to help people work through violent family situations with targeted legal assistance and social support.

In addition to legal advice, the new Family Advocacy and Support Services (FASS) program offers VLA clients risk screening, safety planning and social support and referrals.

https://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/wig-chamber/21234-hope-and-help-for-family-violence-victims-in-victoria?

Campaign to restore specialist domestic violence women’s refuge in Taree

A campaign to bring back a community-based specialist domestic violence refuge, run by women for women, in Taree, is underway.

Leonie McGuire is leading the fight and has called a meeting at Club Taree on Thursday, June 8 with the aim of forming a steering committee of women to champion the cause.

Speakers will include principal of the Feminist Legal Clinic in Sydney Anna Kerr as well as Leonie, who was a founding supporter of the Taree women’s refuge 35 years ago and manager between 1992 and 2004.

http://www.manningrivertimes.com.au/story/4701880/campaign-to-restore-specialist-domestic-violence-womens-refuge-in-taree/