Category: Domestic Violence

OB-GYN Murdered at Exchange & How a Modern Matriarchy Will End the Crisis

Dr. Gwendolyn Riddick, an OB-GYN, was murdered by her ex at a local North Carolina park last Sunday during a custody exchange. This slaughter took place in public in front of her three year-old son and park goers. Dr. Riddick’s ex had assaulted her on multiple occasions previously. She was seeking sole custody of her toddler.

Another mother halfway across the country in Texas met the same fate last week during a custody exchange of her toddler. It is not uncommon for women and children to be harmed, or even murdered as these mothers were, as a result of having to share custody.

When you back up and think about it, it is insane that a mother is forced to do this, to hand over her baby to a violent perpetrator, or, actually, to any man. Women who give life, nurture children and are the primary bond should not have to fight legally to keep or protect them. But that is what happens in a patriarchically-organized society.

It’s been so many millennia that men have had this power, it’s like fish in water. Women don’t recognize that it is the patriarchal order that underpins this insanity and that it is just not natural or normal or right. Or, if they do, they cannot envision a way out of the patriarchal swamp.

Fortunately, a network of European women, experts in matriarchies of the past and present, have a vision for how “egalitarian matriarchies” provide for mothers keeping their children with them, as well for a better society at large.

There is no traditional marriage in a modern matriarchy. Marriage has served as a means of male control and subjugation of women. Women are not given, symbolically or otherwise, by their fathers to husbands. Instead, women stay connected with their maternal clan and are free to leave the biological father without him retaining any control if the relationship does not work out.

Source: (100) OB-GYN Murdered at Exchange & How a Modern Matriarchy Will End the Crisis

DV Qld: Victim ‘fobbed off’ by ministers with ‘generic responses’

A Queensland domestic violence victim harassed, manipulated and followed by her abusive ex-partner was told by the Attorney-General’s office to call a helpline when, fearing for her life, she begged for help.

The woman, who The ­Sunday Mailhas named Vanessa, wants magistrates to receive intensive training about coercive control after problems with her ex-partner, who continues to either be fined or put on good behaviour bonds for more than 40 breaches of his domestic violence order. 

It’s the second time in a matter of weeks the lack of knowledge about coercive control has been evident in Queensland courtrooms.

Vanessa has been made to feel like a nuisance for reporting breaches and says the burden of documenting unrelenting abuse is, at times, a full-time job.

Source: Couriermail.com.au | Subscribe to The Courier Mail for exclusive stories

Urgent reforms needed to protect women and children from violence in custody battles: UN expert | OHCHR

GENEVA (23 June 2023) – Deeply embedded gender bias that pervades family court systems across the globe is placing women and children in situations of immense suffering and violence, a UN expert said today.

“The tendency of family courts to dismiss the history of domestic violence and abuse in custody cases, especially where mothers and/or children have brought forward credible allegations of domestic abuse, including coercive control, physical or sexual abuse is unacceptable,” said Reem Alsalem, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences in a report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva yesterday.

. . .

Alsalem’s report also provides recommendations for States and other stakeholders to reverse the long-lasting harm done to individuals, families and societies. She urged the international community to bring the human rights dimension of multi-layered violence that many mothers and children are experiencing at the hands of family courts into its collective conscience.

“The protection of women and children from violence, a victim-centered approach, and the best interests of the child, must take precedence over all other criteria when establishing arrangements for custody and visitation rights,” she said.

Source: Urgent reforms needed to protect women and children from violence in custody battles: UN expert | OHCHR

Sisters taking on the Hague: Gina and Rebecca talk challenging international law, domestic violence, and The Voice | Free Listening on Podbean App

Sometimes laws are created with the best of intents but end up causing disadvantage and harm. Gina and Rebecca are sisters, Gubbi Gubbi Wakka Wakka women, strong feminist women, women taking on international conventions. Gina and Rebecca’s passion, drive, determination, and care for making the world a better place is so evident in this episode. If you’re looking for some inspiration, here it is.This podcast was developed with support from the Queensland University of Technology.

Source: How to academia: a School of Justice Podcast – Sisters taking on the Hague: Gina and Rebecca talk challenging international law, domestic violence, and The Voice | Free Listening on Podbean App

The UK’s femicide epidemic: who’s killing our daughters? | Crime | The Guardian

In the latest part of our End Femicide campaign, we examine how stalking, coercive control and pornography lie behind so many of the killings of 272 young women in 10 years. Will the domestic abuse bill, due to become law this week, do enough to keep women safe?

Source: The UK’s femicide epidemic: who’s killing our daughters? | Crime | The Guardian

Refusing to fund your partner’s gender transition could be domestic abuse, says CPS| The Telegraph UK

Spouses who refuse to fund their partner’s gender surgery may be domestic abusers, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) says in new guidance.

The CPS has listed nine types of behaviour which could amount to abuse of trans or non-binary people by their partners or members of their family.

These include “withholding money for transitioning,” which would include either spouse refusing to pay for gender surgery, counselling or other treatment in a way that amounted to coercive control or abuse.

Other behaviours could be “criticising the victim for not being ‘a real man/woman’ if they have not undergone reassignment surgery,” or “threatening or sharing pre-transition images,” or refusing to use their preferred name or pronoun.

The guidance has, however, been criticised by the Women’s Rights Network (WRN), which campaigns for the sex-based rights of women.

Heather Binning, founder of WRN, said: “How on earth can reluctance to pay for elective, unnecessary surgery from family finances be cited as an example of domestic abuse by anyone, let alone the CPS?

Source: Refusing to fund your partner’s gender transition could be domestic abuse, says CPS

Artist Klara Jones examines complex nature of motherhood in thought-provoking exhibition Our Mother – ABC News

Much of Klara Jones’s work is indicative of the juggling act of motherhood — the mental load of household, the management of children, the appeasement of partners and a life taken up by the needs of family.

Source: Artist Klara Jones examines complex nature of motherhood in thought-provoking exhibition Our Mother – ABC News

US Supreme Court Will Take Up Case On Domestic Abusers’ Right To Own Guns

The Supreme Court said Friday it will hear a case next term on whether or not people with domestic abuse restraining orders against them can own guns, in what will surely be a closely watched case examining the Second Amendment.

The court released its order list Friday, revealing it would hear a case challenging a federal law that bans people with domestic violence restraining orders from owning guns.

Source: Supreme Court Will Take Up Case On Domestic Abusers’ Right To Own Guns

Erin told a family court report writer her father abused her. She was then forced to live with him full time – ABC News

Under Section 121 of the Family Law Act report writers cannot be identified in individual court cases.

Dr Karen Williams, a Consultant Psychiatrist who specialises in trauma, says report writers need to be subject to the same level of scrutiny and oversight as any other medical professional.

“That is the biggest downfall, there is no review or complaint process, you have non-experts providing ‘expert opinion’ on issues without any consequences if they get it wrong.”

She says some report writers fail to take signs of abuse at face value and instead see them as evidence of lying and manipulation.

One psychiatrist — who can not be named under family court laws — has been repeatedly accused of downplaying and ignoring allegations of abuse in a number of cases, recommending children reside with allegedly abusive parents, where they claim to have suffered serious physical and sexual abuse.

That psychiatrist was the subject of a dozen complaints to the Health Care Complaints Commission, but no action was taken.

Further complaints to the Federal Attorney General and the Medical Council also resulted in no action and the psychiatrist continues to practice today.

Courts’ failures to consider allegations of abuse in parenting disputes has been recognised at the highest levels.

Last Thursday, the United Nations Human Rights Council released a report, which highlighted the damaging consequences when abuse allegations aren’t believed by courts.

The report found concerns from a number of countries, including Australia, that children were removed from the primary carer and compelled to reside with the perpetrator parent.

The report’s author, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women Reem Alsalem, said the tendency of family courts to dismiss the history of domestic violence and abuse in custody cases, especially where mothers or children have brought forward credible allegations of abuse was unacceptable.

An amendment bill currently before the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee seeks to allow the government to set standards and requirements for report writers.

Source: Erin told a family court report writer her father abused her. She was then forced to live with him full time – ABC News