Category: Violence

Saudi Women Who Fought for the Right to Drive Are Disappearing and Going Into Exile

Sarah Aziza for the Intercept writes:

Beginning on May 15, 2018, just weeks before the end of the ban on female drivers, the government began a series of arrests targeting prominent activists. . . Simultaneously, photographs of the women began to circulate on local media and online, accompanied by state accusations of treason and collusion with foreign governments.
[T]he Saudi state’s efforts to suppress dissent appear to extend far beyond the nation’s borders. . . (Since 2015, three Saudi princes who had criticized the royal family also disappeared while abroad, and are believed to have been forcibly returned to the kingdom).
Earlier this year, Human Rights Watch reported a rapid increase in arbitrary detentions, with over 2,000 new cases between 2014 to 2018.
[S]aid one activist, now living abroad. “It’s very disheartening.” She continued, “The cost has become too high for most of us — there’s a sense that anything could happen if the government decides to target you. We see human rights groups pointing the finger at Saudi after each arrest, but nothing happens. Saudi Arabia is even on the Human Rights Council!” — a reference to the kingdom’s seat on the U.N. body. “With no outside pressure, why would the government change?”
https://theintercept.com/2018/10/06/saudi-arabia-women-driving-activists-exile/




	


	





	

		
		
Nobel Peace Prize for anti-rape activists Nadia Murad and Denis Mukwege
	


	
	
	

		
BBC News reports:

The 2018 Nobel Peace Prize has gone to campaigners against rape in warfare, Nadia Murad and Denis Mukwege.

Ms Murad is an Iraqi Yazidi who was tortured and raped by Islamic State militants and later became the face of a campaign to free the Yazidi people.

Dr Mukwege is a Congolese gynaecologist who, along with his colleagues, has treated tens of thousands of victims.

Earlier this week the Nobel prize for physics was awarded to Donna Strickland, only the third woman winner of the award and the first in 55 years. The Canadian was honoured along with Arthur Ashkin, from the US, and Gerard Mourou, from France.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45759221



	


	





	

		
		
Hundreds of arrests made as anti-Kavanaugh protestors pack Capitol Hill
	


	
	
	

		
Sophie Tatum of CNN Politics reports:



Nearly 300 protesters were arrested at a US Senate building on Thursday afternoon as crowds of activists descended on Capitol Hill while lawmakers reviewed the FBI’s report on the allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

The Women’s March, a liberal organization that originated as a grassroots movement in opposition of President Donald Trump, was one of multiple groups tweeting from the protest at the Capitol building.

Comedian Amy Schumer was seen being arrested, and model Emily Ratajkowski tweeted that she had also been arrested.

“Today I was arrested protesting the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, a man who has been accused by multiple women of sexual assault,” Ratajkowski wrote. “Men who hurt women can no longer be placed in positions of power.”

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/04/politics/kavanaugh-protests-us-capitol/index.html

https://www.npr.org/2018/10/04/654515122/we-believe-survivors-demonstrators-throng-capitol-hill-to-protest-kavanaugh



	


	





	

		
		
The Shock Collar That Is Misogyny
	


	
	
	

		
Regan Penaluna for Guernica writes:



Manne tosses out the common thinking that misogyny is equivalent to despising all women, and instead offers that it’s a way to keep women in their place. Misogyny, she writes, is “the system that operates within a patriarchal social order to police and enforce women’s subordination and to uphold male dominance.” Like a shock collar used to keep dogs behind an invisible fence, misogyny, she argues, aims to keep women—those who are well trained as well as those who are unruly—in line.

Misogyny is the stuff that women face that destroys them in some instances. “Himpathy” is part of the explanation of why we don’t see it, because we’re identifying with “him” and seeing “him” as the good guy, or worrying about “his” future. We don’t see him as taking a life. We see him as asserting his masculinity or defending himself, or as a poor pathetic character, or as vulnerable. Sometimes these things are true, that he is pathetic and vulnerable, but let’s focus on the women.

There’s a general myth about prejudice, that it’s going to be leveled toward any and every member of a certain historically subordinate class, rather than that it’s something that comes out as a method for enforcing and policing social hierarchies.

I think silencing is a big part of it. And silencing can mean replacing anything unpleasant to the patriarchal collective consciousness with pleasantries—like saying, “He’s a good guy.” And it can mean not speaking out, or defending him, as well as not testifying to his misdeeds.

https://www.guernicamag.com/kate-manne-why-misogyny-isnt-really-about-hating-women/



	


	





	

		
		
Women Move From Samba’s Sidelines to the Center of the Circle
	


	
	
	

		
Shannon Simms for The New York Times writes:

With astonishing speed, female musicians in Brazil have begun breaking into the male realm of samba circles, taking a seat at the table both literally and figuratively. Just a few years ago, the musicians playing in a samba circle jam session used to be almost all male.

Another part of the movement is spurred by a newfound sense of revolt among female musicians against the lyrics of some of the traditional samba circle anthems, which make light of serious crimes such as domestic violence and sexual assault.

But as Brazilian women and female musicians in particular have called out the traditional samba circle’s culture of machismo, the blowback has been very real.

But samba circles weren’t always male dominated. In 1930s post-slavery Brazil, Ms. de Oliveira notes, women were the orchestrators of what are now known as samba circles.

Afro-Brazilian religions like Umbanda and Candomblé, which have been historically persecuted for their perceived connection to “black magic,” burnished the cultural role of the powerful female “auntie” — nicknamed a Baiana in reference to the state of Bahia, the geographical center of Afro-Brazilian religions in Brazil. The women inhabiting these leadership roles, which are somewhere between a mother figure and a wise queen, became the de facto hostesses of the very first samba circles.

Mr. Gustavo recently sat in as a guest at one of the new samba circles made up mostly of women. When he started playing one of the more offensive old songs — about beating women (without thinking twice, he claims) — the female musicians one by one stopped playing.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/08/world/americas/women-samba-musicians.html



	


	





	

		
		
Russian Feminist Blogger Charged With Inciting Hate Toward Men
	


	
	
	

		
The Moscow Times writes:

A Russian feminist blogger has been charged with inciting hatred toward men on social media, less than two weeks after she told rights organizations she was being investigated for extremism.

A self-described radical feminist, Lyubov Kalugina warned the SOVA Center anti-extremist group in late August that she was subject of a pre-investigation check into her social media posts after an anonymous man had complained that her posts insulted him as a male.

Kalugina faces up to 5 years behind bars under Article 282, which bans the “incitement of national, racial or religious enmity.”

https://themoscowtimes.com/news/russian-feminist-blogger-charged-with-inciting-hate-toward-men-62781



	


	





	

		
		
The woman who founded the 'incel' movement
	


	
	
	

		
Jim Taylor at BBC News writes:

When Alana started a website for lonely people struggling to find love, she had no idea it would become linked to a community of hate and anger directed at women, which would ultimately lead to the deaths of several innocent people in her home city.

“It definitely wasn’t a bunch of guys blaming women for their problems. That’s a pretty sad version of this phenomenon that’s happening today. Things have changed in the last 20 years.”

Alana abbreviated “involuntarily celibate” to “invcel”, until someone suggested that “incel” was easier to say.

“The word [incel] used to mean anybody of any gender who was lonely, had never had sex or who hadn’t had a relationship in a long time. But we can’t call it that anymore.”

Nearly 15 years later, Alana was in a bookshop reading a feminist magazine when she saw a small story about a man named Elliot Rodger.

The 22-year-old had killed six people in a shooting and stabbing spree in Isla Vista, California, before turning a gun on himself.

Before his death, he had distributed a 141-page document exploring his deep-rooted loathing of women, fuelled by an intense frustration over his virginity.

Now Elliot Rodger was being seen as a hero by some in the incel community.

There was worse to come. In April 2018, a man from Toronto called Alek Minassian posted on Facebook: “The Incel Rebellion has already begun… All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger!”

Shortly afterwards, he drove a van down a crowded street, killing 10 people.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-45284455



	


	





	

		
		
'Stop the name-calling!': anger unites March for Men protesters
	


	
	
	

		
Some 150 or so protesters eventually assembled on the forecourt of the SBS building where they were welcomed by veteran anti-Muslim agitator Avi Yemini, a habitual associate of Blair Cottrell, Neil Erikson and other luminaries of the local fascist right.

“We are going to show the Victorian socialist state that there is still hope,” Yemeni said. He led the crowd in a chant of “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi”, before explaining that he wasn’t interested in hating women.

“I bloody love women,” he said. “This is about empowering men, about giving men a voice.”

Later, the marchers heard from veteran men’s rights activist Robert Brockway, who complained about the cruelty of terms like “mansplaining”, “manspreading”, “manflu” and “man babies”.

“It’s time to stop the name calling!” he pleaded.

Yet Brockway’s sensitivity about such indignities (he also objected to “man child” and “deadbeat dads”) sat rather strangely alongside the priorities of other attendees, such as the members of the Infidel Brotherhood, the fascist Antipodean Resistance and Blair Cottrell’s Lads Society.

The white T-shirts being sold by the organisers raised funds, Yemini said, for “Dads in distress” while the event attracted a sizeable contingent from the Australian Brotherhood of Fathers.

“It’s OK for you to stand up,” Watson said, “to have your rights listened to, to have your issues addressed.”

Yet even as speakers spoke of male fragility and the legitimacy of men’s feelings, a contingent from the Australian Proud Boys loudly denounced the 100 or so supporters of the rival Campaign Against Racism and Fascism (Carf) as “soyboys”, “cucks” and “manginas”.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/aug/26/stop-the-name-calling-anger-unites-march-for-men-protesters?



	


	





	

		
		
Nauru self-harm 'contagion' as 12-year-old refugee tries to set herself alight
	


	
	
	

		
Another young refugee on Nauru is critically ill after refusing to eat and drink, and rejecting medical care for weeks, while a 12-year-old girl has been taken to Nauru hospital after reportedly attempting to set herself on fire.

“Before she got sick, she was the best-performing student. She had a dream to be a doctor in Australia and to help others. Now, she is on food-and-fluid refusal and begging to die as death is better than Nauru.”

Also on Wednesday, a 12-year-old refugee girl attempted to set herself on fire. Family and friends intervened, but she has reportedly sustained some injuries. She is being treated at the Nauru hospital.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/aug/23/nauru-self-harm-contagion-as-12-year-old-refugee-tries-to-set-herself-alight?



	


	





	

		
		
Malta car bomb kills Panama Papers journalist – "One-woman Wikileaks"
	


	
	
	

		
The journalist who led the Panama Papers investigation into corruption in Malta was killed on Monday in a car bomb near her home.

Daphne Caruana Galizia died on Monday afternoon when her car, a Peugeot 108, was destroyed by a powerful explosive device which blew the vehicle into several pieces and threw the debris into a nearby field.

A blogger whose posts often attracted more readers than the combined circulation of the country’s newspapers, Caruana Galizia was recently described by the Politico website as a “one-woman WikiLeaks”. Her blogs were a thorn in the side of both the establishment and underworld figures that hold sway in Europe’s smallest member state.

Her most recent revelations pointed the finger at Malta’s prime minister, Joseph Muscat, and two of his closest aides, connecting offshore companies linked to the three men with the sale of Maltese passports and payments from the government of Azerbaijan.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/16/malta-car-bomb-kills-panama-papers-journalist