Back in 2009, the Afghan government approved an Elimination of Violence against Women (EVAW) Law that criminalises child marriage, forced marriage, the selling and buying of women under the pretext of marriage, giving females away to settle disputes, forced self-immolation and various other acts of violence against women. However, Ingibjorg Gisladottir, director of UN Women in Afghanistan, expressed concern that only a small percentage of cases under the law involved violence against women. Most such cases were neither registered nor investigated.
Tag: domestic abuse
Living Memories – Ellen Malos’ Archive, Bristol
A key figure in the Bristol Women’s Liberation Movement, Ellen Malos and her work were recognised by Bristol University in 2006, with the award of an Honorary Doctorate. Then, on 12 June 2007 the Next Link Women’s Safe…
CSW 57 – UN Women on Draft Agreed Conclusions
By adopting this document, governments have made clear that discrimination and violence against women and girls has no place in the 21st century. They have reaffirmed their commitment and responsibility to undertake concrete action to end violence against women and girls and promote and protect women?s human rights and fundamental freedoms.
CSW 57 African Women’s Caucus Statement
Women’s Human Rights are non-negotiable and in this regard, we reaffirm the commitments made by UN Member states in the Beijing Platform for Action; the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; the United Nations General Assembly Resolution to Ban Female Genital Mutilation; United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security and its supporting resolutions; and those reflected in African regional instruments such as the Maputo Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa and the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa.
Aboriginal First, Woman Second – Part 1
… Health problems were, and remain, many. Heart disease, liver disorders, middle ear infection, malnutrition, alcoholism. Overcrowding in the ten small cottages well below standard was as high as twenty-five to one house – a conservative figure. The women were obviously the stronger of the two sexes. The families were kept together with the best know-how possible on the women’s part, but to see the hardship was saddening and frustrating. I was humbled on many occasions …
There’s a Snake in My Caravan – Part 2
… 1972 had been an extremely traumatic year. Separated from my children, I was often in despair. When meetings closed, usually in the early hours of the morning, I was left alone to cry myself to sleep: no future, no place to go. Too ‘working-class’ proud to ask for charity, I fed the baby sugar-water while humourously describing my latest battle with welfare. During the first nine weeks I received only two $10.00 food vouchers. Few women at the meetings noticed. I understand, but still resent, the pressures put on me to ‘move on’. Three or four weeks is insufficient time for a woman in crisis to get back on her feet.
East End Campaigner – Edna Henry, Factory Worker
Edna was one of the first black women to work at the factory, and from her earliest days at Tate & Lyle she learned that she would need to fight in order to be treated fairly. When a promotion went to the sister-in-law of a supervisor, even though Edna had longer service and better time-keeping than the other girl, she bravely knocked on the door of the forelady’s office and demanded that the managers reconsider their decision. After checking her service record, they were forced to acknowledge that the job should have been hers, and reluctantly gave her the promotion.
Katherine Cecil Thurston – From a Will to a Death
If middle-class women lived humdrum lives, it was clearly a relief to read about the sensational. But the one among Thurston’s novels that became notorious in the light of its author’s end was The Fly on the Wheel, whose Irish heroine, torn between two men and hemmed in by the restrictions of being a woman, commits suicide by poison.
Policing Marriage
From the early nineteenth century, newspapers began to report on the operation of the local police and magistrate courts. The reportage of such cases uncovered the daily operations of the local court, as well as providing insight into working-class life…