Category: Domestic Violence

Women, men and the whole damn thing

Since the beginning of recorded time, most cultures worshipped some version of the goddess. In ancient Mesopotamia, the vulva of Inanna, the Sumerian goddess, was a sacred site and Sumerians sang hymns to her “lap of honey”. Agrarian societies honoured their female deities, as menstrual cycles were interconnected with the lunar-based agricultural cycles. The earth was Gaia, the ancestral Mother of life. She was inherent to all of Nature. She was nature, until the rise of patriarchal religions began declaring goddess worship and female sexuality the devil’s work. Nature and woman needed to be tamed.

At the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival, writer and director Jill Soloway (Transparent) offered an intriguing insight into this when they (Soloway prefers “they” to the gender-specific he or she) said: “Five thousand years ago cavemen saw women getting their periods and bleeding, and they bled in time with the moon, and they didn’t die when they bled. And so prehistoric man thought that women were magic and they got scared. So they created language to just fuck with us.”

Man has been fucking with Woman for a long time … and not just through language.

“Family violence is mostly a man choosing to use violence against his partner. Violence is almost exclusively the domain of men. Who’s doing the vast amount of killing? It’s men. Who picks up the pieces, and fights to hold families together? It’s women.

“Women build life, while we are adept at destroying it. Unless, as men, we begin to look at what it is in the male psyche, in the versions of masculinity we’re born into and enforce upon each other, and begin actively engaging each other to become the solution to this issue, we’ll be having the same conversation 500 years from now.”

http://www.smh.com.au/good-weekend/the-great-sexual-reckoning-how-did-we-get-here–and-what-happens-now-20180124-h0npcc.html

Why domestic abusers thrive in Trump’s White House

It’s no secret that Trump respects men who keep women in their place: “You have to treat ’em like shit.” Perhaps that’s why top White House staffer Rob Porter got a hero’s goodbye this week, even as a picture of his ex-wife’s battered face was splashed across the news.

Porter, accused of assaulting both of his ex-wives and a former girlfriend, gave his resignation but “was not pressured to do so”, according to press secretary Sarah Sanders. In fact, Sanders lauded Porter as having the full confidence of the president and Gen John Kelly, and took the time to read Porter’s statement, in which he called the accusations “vile” and a “smear campaign”.

This came less than a day after Kelly called Porter “a man of true integrity and honor” in response to the allegations. So much for women being “sacred”. As it turns out, the White House knew for quite some time about Porter’s history of domestic violence – he couldn’t get security clearance because of it – but continued to rally behind him. In fact, Kelly promoted Porter soon after finding out about the abuse.

The truth is that Porter’s history of abuse allegations is less of an anomaly than a feature of this administration.

This is an administration overflowing with men who hurt women. Even so, we can’t become jaded as to how incredibly remarkable this all is. The White House, knowing that Porter abused multiple women, called him a man of integrity. They looked at a picture of his battered wife and defended him, still. He left the administration not in shame or disgrace, but honored.

“You have to treat ’em like shit” is no longer an embarrassing old Trump quote. It’s a mandate.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/09/why-domestic-abusers-trump-white-house?

Women Seeking Safety: BWSS Forum on Violence against Women, Children and the Law

The assumption that there is value in shared parenting time even if a father is abusive is a dangerous one and can have fatal consequences.

“Women are hesitant to use the family court system to expose his violence in the fear that she will be punished by shared parenting time and decision, that she will be viewed as speaking ill of the father or trying to limit his access to the children, or on occasion accused of alienating the children from the father. When in reality her only goal is to protect her children from an abusive man. Yet the court, in particular the family court, has the authority and ability to air on the side of caution to believe the women and restrict or deny his access to the children. Instead what we hear over and over again is although they believe there was violence in the home directed to the mother, this should not dictate his ability to be a parent to his children. YES, it does mean he should not have access to his children. Yes it does mean he is not capable of being a good father to his children. And this 100 percent means that shared parenting time not only continues to put her safety at risk but the safety of her children is also at risk. Men who resort to hurting or killing their children do so because they have lost control over hurting her and therefore will hurt, what is most important to her, her children”, Summer Rain Bentham, BWSS Manager, Indigenous Women’s Program.

“At present time, the false notion of gender neutrality has lead to the belief that both parents are equally situated and share equal parenting abilities. Men have power in society and this is reflected in their power over women. Women continue to be the primary caregivers of children. After separation and divorce, many women are relegated to a position of relative poverty which is held against them as it is demonstrated repeatedly through our experience that the legal system will hold women accountable to patriarchal standards but are unwilling to hold fathers to female standards when it comes to parenting. Gender neutrality and standards based on it may appear to be democratic and fair but in reality, this concept pretends that social inequalities between women and men do not exist” , Angela Marie MacDougall, BWSS Executive Director, BWSS Open Letter to Minister Eby.

https://www.bwss.org/women-seeking-safety-bwss-forum-violence-women-children-law-2/

Family violence rates rise in Kimberley towns with cashless welfare

Domestic violence has increased significantly in the East Kimberley since the introduction of the cashless welfare card, casting doubt on the government’s claims of its success.

Melbourne University researcher Elise Klein, who has studied the card’s impact in the Kimberley, said the data showed there was no clear evidence to support making the card permanent.

Klein lodged the freedom of information request for the police data. She said the information had taken too long to be made public.

She believes there is a link between the card, financial hardship, and family violence.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jan/12/family-violence-rates-rise-in-kimberley-towns-with-cashless-welfare?

Family lawyer responds to ‘landmark’ step forward on DV matters

The previous law meant that DVOs issued in Queensland and elsewhere were not automatically recognised in other states or territories, meaning that the victim wasn’t protected if they decided to cross the border where their DVO was issued.

Under the new law, domestic violence victims will still be covered if they cross state or territory borders, resulting in much greater protection.

“Existing state and territory laws to protect victims and affected family members from domestic violence have not changed. Local police will still enforce the conditions regardless of where the DVO was issued.

“However prior to 25 November 2017, DVOs applied only in the state or territory where they were issued. Now they automatically apply everywhere.”

(Ed: About time!)

https://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/sme-law/22538-family-lawyer-responds-to-landmark-step-forward-on-dv-matters?

Why Hasn’t the UK Ratified the Most Important Violence Against Women Treaty?

Twenty-six countries have ratified the Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, including Germany, France and Italy. So why is the UK dragging its feet?

Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is one of the most serious human rights issues in the UK. Every week, two women in England and Wales are killed by their current or former partner.

The Istanbul Convention is a comprehensive legal framework that sets out the minimum standards for countries to adhere to in combatting violence against women and girls.

It requires governments to:

  • prevent violence against women and girls, through the recognition that it’s a result of gender inequality;
  • provide support and protection services to victims;
  • effectively prosecute and rehabilitate perpetrators; and
  • co-operate with other states to eliminate violence globally.

While the Convention has high-level obligations such as “promoting changes in social and cultural patterns of behaviour that are based on the idea of the inferiority of women or on stereotyped roles for women and men”, it also requires states to provide practical things such as 24/7 helplines.

https://rightsinfo.org/hasnt-uk-ratified-important-violence-women-treaty/

Here Is How Your State Or Territory Is Doing On Human Rights

Australia scored an F for women’s and girls’ rights, partly because of the nation’s patchy record on reproductive rights. Abortion is still a crime in two states and the minister for women, Michaelia Cash, recently crossed the floor to vote in support of Cory Bernardi’s anti-abortion motion. The federal government also dropped domestic violence off the Council of Australian Governments’ (COAG) agenda.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/ginarushton/here-is-how-your-state-or-territory-is-doing-on-human-rights?utm_term=.vv4a5LlLl#.okArnXEXE

Activists meet Opposition Leader to discuss restoration of refuges

Marion Hosking and Leonie McGuire have come away from a meeting with the Leader of the Opposition encouraged about the restoration of women’s refuges across the State, including Taree.

“He was giving us a sense that they want women to be safe and they want to restore women’s refuges,” said Leonie.

Marion added that Mr Foley was obviously impressed by the work of the NSW Coalition for Women’s Refuges.

http://www.manningrivertimes.com.au/story/5121683/activists-meet-opposition-leader-to-discuss-restoration-of-refuges/

‘Obscenely high’: how family court costs are destroying parents and their children

Norton says as well as the repeated letter-writing, the case also involved multiple court applications and aborted legal mediations – all of which cost to launch and respond to.

It amounted to a form of financial abuse, she feels, and one that was able to happen in the current court system.

“As the family court system falls apart, all of the unethical, unscrupulous, bottom-feeding lawyers converge to extract money from the carnage,” she says.

Sarah Henderson, who sat on a parliamentary inquiry into the family violence and family law, told the ABC on Monday the inquiry found “many people were falling through the cracks”.

“The safety of children and child protection were key issues,” she said. “Some of the key recommendations were that family violence must be determined early in the proceedings. This ensures the right orders are made to protect children and too often that is not happening.”

Henderson said they recommended an initial assessment be made before any custody decisions and that shared equal parental responsibility should be abolished because it was being applied improperly and led to unsafe outcomes.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/dec/20/obscenely-high-how-family-court-costs-are-destroying-parents-and-their-children?

Workplaces can be safe spaces for women at risk:

Our report, Safe Spaces: A study on Paid Family/Domestic Violence Leave, is published today in the lead up to 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, starting tomorrow (Saturday 25 November).

As we recently found interviewing Jenny (not her real name) regarding her experience of domestic violence, a lack of support and understanding from a superior or boss can put women at serious risk. In Jenny’s case, when she requested to work from a refuge while waiting for an intervention order, she was told she needed to be in the office. Jenny felt no choice but to quit her job for the sake of her own safety, leaving her unemployed for over a year.

The vast majority of respondents to our online survey (84%) said paid family/domestic violence leave is important in mitigating family violence in Australia.

https://womensagenda.com.au/latest/workplaces-can-safe-space-women-risk-research-paid-familydomestic-violence-leave/
https://womensagenda.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Safe-Spaces-Domestic-violence-leave.pdf