Women can’t look out windows or talk to each other, while men get to travel the world and play sport. What kind of planet is this?
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Use #BoycottAfghanistan on social media to find your friends, and local activism.
Women’s cricket in Afghanistan has effectively been outlawed since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021. Further restrictions have included banning the sound of women’s voices from being heard in public.
Most of us want to live in peace and safety. Yet violence is in epic proportions, particularly towards women and children.
Every day, a new atrocity blares from the radio or across huge screens in gyms, railway stations and homes, causing widespread fear, feelings of powerlessness, and despair.
Is this violence just human nature, and inevitable?
Politicians repeatedly urge us to “change the culture” of violence. But what exactly does this mean? How can it be achieved? And don’t governments send mixed messages when they spend far more on nuclear submarines, weapons and fighter planes than on violence prevention?
In 2016, actor Matt Damon visited Australia to shoot a violent, gun-filled Jason Bourne film, featuring an Anglo hero out to rid the world of a psychopathic Venezuelan. While here, he said he wished the US could have gun laws like Australia’s, seemingly unaware his films almost certainly reinforce and spread US gun culture.
Histories and museums can glorify war and patriarchy, or commemorate effective nonviolent movements such as the suffragists.
Australia has more war memorials than any other nation. They’re often in the middle of towns (like the War Memorial in Sydney’s CBD), making them a central part of our lives. “Remembrance Driveway”, the highway between Sydney, Australia’s economic powerhouse, and Canberra, the nation’s capital, has 24 rest stops dedicated to Victoria Cross war heroes. All were men.
Our new and former parliament houses are in line with the avenue to the Australian War Memorial. There’s no shortage of funding for upgrades to the War Memorial, including more than $830,000 from arms manufacturers in three years, meaning its histories are unlikely to be objective or anti-war.
The militarisation of Australian history means other stories go untold. One under-recognised figure is Wiradjuri resistance leader Windradyne, who in 1824 led a delegation to Parramatta to call for peace. He addressed the governor, calling for an end to the killing, wearing a hat with “peace” written in English on it.
There’s no major road or museum in Australia recognising the effectiveness of suffragists and nonviolent movements, often led by women, for land rights, social justice, the environment and peace.
Ninety per cent of movies contain violence. Even children’s stories, such as Peter Rabbit, The Cat in the Hat, Peter Pan and the Tintin adventures, are often made violent or more violent when adapted for the screen, even though their original authors, such as Dr Seuss and Hergé were increasingly pro-peace.
Violent films often glorify weapons and make people more fearful – and likely to accept the narrative that armed violence is necessary and more effective than nonviolent action, despite strong evidence to the contrary. This narrative is actively pushed by the military-industrial complex, (the individuals and institutions involved in the production of weapons and military technologies), and by the media and entertainment outlets it influences and supports.
Militaries want films like Top Gun because they make the armed forces seem glamorous, exciting, social and sexy. So they often give filmmakers cheap or free access to billions of dollars worth of taxpayer-funded jet fighters, aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines. In return, the movies serve as sophisticated, enticing forms of recruitment propaganda.
The military-entertainment complex supports such movies because they encourage a favourable view of militarism, “defence” spending and the purchase of their products. As psychiatrist Emanuel Tanay observes, “what we call entertainment is really propaganda for violence”. He continues: “If you manufacture guns, you don’t need to advertise, because it is done by our entertainment industry.”
Arms dealers also do this through the media companies they own or influence. General Electric, which has ties to Mobil, owned the NBC TV network until 2013. Disney Entertainment, which owns the American Broadcasting Company, collaborated with Boeing to create flying X-Wings to soar over their Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge theme park in California’s Disneyland Resort. Inevitably, the editorial leanings of military-linked media are pro-war, biased and critical of peace activism, if they cover it at all.
Media can also be influenced by think-tanks sponsored by arms companies and “defence” departments. For example, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, which has numerous arms-related sponsors, was behind the Red Alert series of front-page articles in Australia’s Nine newspapers, which argued for more military spending to resist a supposedly imminent war with China.
The military-industrial complex, with its “revolving door” relationship with governments, is gaining influence in universities and schools. The University of Melbourne trumpeted the arrival of a new laboratory in partnership with Lockheed Martin, the world’s biggest and wealthiest arms corporation, with a history of bribery and corruption.
Wars and violence are neither inevitable, nor an inherent part of human nature. The power to reduce violence is in our hands, words and TV remotes.
Source: Friday essay: are wars and violence inevitable, or is there another way to live?
The high court judge who banned the media from reporting the names of the fellow judges who oversaw three sets of family court proceedings relating to the murdered schoolgirl Sara Sharif, on Friday night refused permission to appeal against his decision.
The reporting restriction protecting judges’ identities that was made by Mr Justice Williams on Monday is thought to be unprecedented in relation to family court proceedings.
Two reporters who specialise in reporting on the family justice system – the authors of this piece – lodged the first press application in September 2023 for court documents relating to child protection concerns for Sara Sharif.
Related: Inexperienced social worker did not identify Sara Sharif’s father as posing any risk
The papers released to the press show that one judge presided over all three family court cases, which included two sets of care proceedings brought by Surrey county council, and one private law application made by Urfan Sharif asking the court to agree that Sara and her sibling could live with him.
In a democracy, it is the norm that judges are named in relation to cases over which they preside and the decisions they make.
Scrutiny and accountability for judges is not restricted even in cases that concern highly sensitive political issues, terrorism allegations and organised crime, where there may be a perceived risk to judges.
Source: Moves to appeal after court upholds ban on naming judges who presided over Sara Sharif hearings
Men are killing themselves on the roads in large numbers. Currently, policymakers fail to recognise the different ways men and women use roads, and the resulting ways they are killed or injured.
The road toll is largely a male problem. In Australia in the 12 months to the end of October 2024, 1,295 people were killed on our roads, of whom 989 were male. Between January and September 2024, males were 81% of the drivers killed on the roads, but only 50% of the car passengers. Men were 96% of the motorcyclists and 90% of the cyclists killed on the roads.
Of the women who died in cars, only 52% were the driver (compared with 81% for men). The statistics for serious injuries on the roads are similar.
Even considering that men tend to drive more often and longer distances (and most cyclists and motorcyclists are men), these figures are startling.
The road fatality statistics do not show who was at fault in each case, but we should interpret them in conjunction with other research that shows men are more likely to speed, to drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and to not wear seatbelts. All these factors significantly contribute to deaths and injuries on the roads.
Advertising companies have long understood the link between traditional masculinity, powerful cars and dangerous driving.
The love of large, fast cars is associated with our perceptions of masculinity. A lot of movies and car advertising encourage antisocial masculine behaviours, such as driving fast in powerful cars.
The traditional male dominance of the trucking industry and the masculine associations of large utes and four-wheel drives fuels this connection between masculinity, driving and speed (and sometimes drink driving).
State-supported car racing only entrenches these associations and encourages speeding.
In Australia, government policy fails to question this love of large, fast cars.
Source: Many more men are dying on Australian roads than women. It’s time we addressed it
A trans-identified male serving a life sentence for murder who was quietly transferred in to a women’s prison is now sharing a shower with female inmates, causing them to feel “violated.”
Bradley Richard Sirvio, 53, was transferred into Minnesota women’s prison MCF-Shakopee at the end of last year after claiming to identify as transgender and adopting the name “Aurora.”
Source: EXCLUSIVE: Female Inmates Forced to Share Shower with Trans-Identified Male Convicted Of Murder
Alicia was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2017, but ten years on from her startlingly brutal crime, she has been given ‘special leave’, temporarily departing the maximum security prison to attend IVF appointments.
It’s a decision that has shocked the nation. How could a convicted murderer, one who took a mother’s life, be given a “second chance at being a mother”?
And what on earth will happen if she is successful in falling pregnant while in jail, knowing that she has five more years of her sentence to serve?
This situation will proceed due to a Supreme Court ruling back in 2010.
Jacinta Allan, the premier of Victoria, said that the historical case provided a pathway for someone in Alicia’s circumstances to expand her family from jail.
The case in question was of Kimberley Castles, who was 45 when she was locked up for committing social security fraud, per Human Rights Law Centre.
Kimberley was just five months away from the cut-off for IVF (which is 46 in Australia), and had been doing IVF treatments before she was apprehended.
[S]he argued that she had the right under the 1896 Corrections Act, which states that prisoners have ‘access to reasonable medical care and treatment necessary for the preservation of health’.
Source: Murderer Alicia Schiller approved for IVF in prison.
A police officer has walked from court after being found guilty by a jury of the manslaughter of 95-year-old Clare Nowland, whom he Tasered as she held a knife in her regional NSW nursing home, with a judge to consider whether he should be taken into custody ahead of sentencing.
Source: Kristian White guilty of Clare Nowland’s manslaughter
Her memoir, Long Yarn Short, imprinted on my mind and heart. In a warm, inviting voice, this proud Bundjalung Widubul-Wiabul woman paints an unflinchingly honest picture of her life as a child stolen by the state, at just ten years old, in the mid-2000s. She describes being “tucked up in bed” by her dad and “about to close [her] eyes” when it happened.
“There was no reason why Mum could not take me,” Turnbull-Roberts writes. Her mother’s mental illness had been “used against her to justify the removal” of the first of her three children, Turnbull-Roberts’ eldest brother. Since Turnbull-Roberts was conceived, her mother had feared her being taken as well. “In my world, she was my mum, my everything,” Turnbull-Roberts writes.
She chooses her words carefully and poignantly, never buying into the euphemisms and lies of a system built to destroy her connection to kin and culture. They aren’t “case workers”, they are “kidnappers”. They aren’t “removing” her, they are “kidnapping”.
As I read, Turnbull-Roberts never let me forget she was ripped away from community, family and warmth, to be neglected and abused by a system that proclaimed it saved her from neglect and abuse.
While Turnbull-Roberts educates readers about the racist foundations these institutions are built on, the book never becomes dry or academic. Instead, she personalises these facts, showing how pathologising Indigenous parenting and culture results in unfair judgements of neglect and abuse. She points out: “if a kid from a wealthy family has dirty clothes, they had a fun day; however if a child from a poor family has dirty clothes, they must be neglected.”
She also describes some of her foster carers taking children for the payments they bring.
At the same time, the system unfairly judges people like her parents. First Nations culture, mental health issues and poverty struggles are all deemed “failures” that families must be punished for.
Turnbull-Roberts highlights our society’s thirst for punitive measures when anyone we deem “less than” struggles. Her book is a chilling reality check on our skewed view of “justice” and “support”.
The sex offender now known as Barbie Kardashian is a 22-year-old Irishman who was placed in the women’s section of Limerick Prison in 2022. Kardashian, born Gabrielle Alejandro Gentile, suffered extreme abuse at the hands of his violent father, who, among other things, forced him to rape his own mother. He spent much of his life in various juvenile detention centres for his threats of violence and actual violence against women. In one case, he ripped the eyelid off a female social worker who was driving the car in which he was travelling. He described that woman’s screams as “music to my ears”.
He is currently serving a six-year sentence for threatening to torture his mother to death. He told his social care managers, “If I got into (my mother’s) house I would run towards her and put the knife into her body and her genitalia; the thing is, I would want to prolong my mum’s suffering for as long as possible. I’d want to put her through lots of torture, fear, and humiliation.” When Barbie Kardashian (henceforth BK in this article) was sent to prison for that offence, his solicitor informed the court that his client had now become a woman and had obtained a gender recognition certificate to prove it. Accordingly, the court decided to send this violent, woman-hating man to a women’s prison.
Source: Barbie Kardashian and the Gaslighting of the Irish Public — Genspect
New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reveals one in seven adult Australians have been stalked in their lifetime: one in five women and one in 15 men.
The most common methods are unwanted communication (by phone or digital media) and unwanted contacts (such as following someone or loitering nearby).
Threats of violence and assault occur in at least a quarter of cases.
Stalking that persists for more than two weeks is more likely to continue and cause significant harm.
Ex-partners account for just under half of all stalking cases and many more women than men are stalked by an ex.
Stalking in this context is a type of intimate partner violence and it receives by far the most attention and response.
Physical violence is much more common in cases of ex-partner stalking, with the ABS survey and earlier research finding half of intimate partner stalkers used physical violence.
However, there is one relatively straightforward thing the federal, state and territory governments could do right now to help: establish a national stalking helpline that can provide specialist information, advice and advocacy for all victims.
Such a helpline was established in the UK in 2010 and has supported more than 65,000 people.
Source: Stalking rates in Australia are still shockingly high – one simple strategy might help
