Take Back the Night

On Saturday evening, this is what I am going to be doing, marching through the streets of London with women in the Amnesty International local Islington and Hackney group to ‘Take Back the Night.’I recall my first experience with this event at Hope College over seven years ago. There were clotheslines of t-shirts made by women who had suffered violence or been raped or who were close to someone who had. There was a candle light vigil and a women only walk through campus. This is what I remember. The pain and suffering as well as the courage and strength in the face of each woman, in the message on each t-shirt.

Back then, I hadn’t had any experiences with violence against women. But after Katie’s attack, I seem to have taken it upon myself to get as involved as possible to help stop violence against women.

Below is an article about the March I will be attending with over 1000 women on Satuday as well as a brief history of where it originated in Britain. I’ve included the link to the site as well as the complete article.

Marching to freedom

Thirty years after the first Reclaim the Night march, the event is now being revived by a new generation of young women who are speaking out against violence. Julie Bindel reports

Wednesday November 22, 2006
The Guardian

In 1977, when the first Reclaim the Night march was held in Leeds, I was just 15 and remember watching it on the news with a growing sense of excitement and political conviction. The Yorkshire Ripper was still terrorising the north of England and the police had been advising that, to avoid attack, women should stay inside after dark. The march responded directly to this warning (placards read “No curfew on women - curfew on men”) and hundreds of women shouted about their anger at being kept off the streets - the supposedly public highways, after all - by the threat of male violence. Marches occurred simultaneously in 12 English locations, from Manchester to Soho.

And the marches continued for more than a decade, becoming a fixture in towns and cities worldwide (in the US they termed them Take Back the Night) before the British version fizzled out in the 90s. It wasn’t until 2004 that a group of women decided to revive the event. That first year wasn’t hugely promising, just 30 women turning up to march through the London streets. The following year, though, numbers swelled to almost 1,000 women. And this Saturday - the International Day to End Violence Against Women - well over 1,000 women are expected to troop through the capital, starting at Trafalgar Square and ending at the University of London Union on Malet Street. There will also be marches in Oxford, Cornwall, Cardiff and Leeds. Organisers say they have been inundated with inquiries from all over the country.

And despite regular pronouncements that feminist activism has long since curled up and died, that it has become a turn-off and an irrelevance to young women more interested in glamour modelling, the Reclaim the Night movement is being spearheaded and bolstered by younger women. The woman largely responsible for Reclaim the Night’s revival, for instance, is 29-year-old Finn Mackay, a long-time political activist and founder of the London Feminist Network (LFN), a women-only networking and campaigning organisation. Why did she decide it was time to renew these street protests? “I think women have had enough misogyny and violence, and young women are aware of the early feminist battles and know they are far from won,” she says.

She has a point. In Britain, it is estimated that one in two women will experience domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking during their lifetime, and rape convictions are at an all-time low - just 5.6% of all reported rapes end in a conviction. Every week, two women die at the hands of a former or current partner and new cases of child sexual abuse are reported weekly.

And the idea that women should protect themselves by staying inside after dark seems to carry as much weight as ever. Recent coverage about women being “irresponsible” if they drink to excess and then report rape has given the distinct impression that the streets are only safe for very well-behaved, sober women, and then only if they venture out in daylight hours. Police still routinely warn women to “be careful” when out late at night, an approach that puts the onus on women to protect themselves, rather than pinpointing their would-be attackers. (It’s strange, isn’t it, that if a man is physically attacked on the streets after dark, there is never any question of blaming him or branding him irresponsible?) A recent survey in a magazine aimed at young women found that only 5% of women feel safe on the streets at night. Two thirds admitted they worry about being raped, and almost half said that on occasion they choose not to go out because they fear for their own safety.

Growing up with a feminist mother, Rebecca Mordan, a 30-year-old actor, spent many weekends as a child at Greenham Common peace camp and was influenced by older generations of protesters. “I was a feminist from four years old,” she says, “and refused to play with Barbie dolls because of that.”

As an adult, Mordan became involved in feminist activism when she “got fed up with the so-called ironic rise in ‘laddism’”. Tired of seeing sexualised images of women and children within popular culture, and particularly those featured in magazines for young men, such as Nuts and Zoo, she began to feel “unsafe around men”.

“I remember someone saying to me, ‘If you go out on the town, you have to expect to get your tits grabbed,” says Mordan. “I couldn’t believe it. We are supposed to have made progress, but sexual assault was being seen as inevitable.”

Gemma Ellis, 28, a children’s charity worker, has been “passionate about women’s rights” since primary school. At university she did her dissertation on child sexual abuse and prostitution, but became inspired to campaign against sexual violence when she volunteered for the organisation that stages the one-woman play, the Vagina Monologues. There she heard about the 2005 Reclaim the Night march and decided to go along.

“I was with a friend who had been arguing with me about pole dancing, saying it was empowering for women,” she says, “but after the march, having spoken to several inspiring young feminists, she changed her mind.” The friend has since become an active campaigner against male violence.

Ellis says that she is constantly persuading her friends that it is “OK to be a feminist”, disabusing them of the stereotype of man-hating, hairy lesbians. “What’s wrong with hairy lesbians?” Mackay interrupts with a sardonic glint.

The women on the 1977 march were visibly angry, shaking their fists at men, demanding they “get off the streets”. Will the women on the march this year be as angry? “I would love to be able to say no,” says Ellis, “but the truth is, I face at least one major irritation every day, whether it is the sight of pornography on TV or some stupid comment from a man.”

What do they think puts some women off the type of radical feminism these women subscribe to? “This false notion of choice, which is increasingly used to justify the oppression of women,” says Ellis. “We are constantly told that prostitution is a positive choice for women, as is wearing the veil and becoming a lap dancer. Feminists are accused of denying those ‘choices’ to women.” Rather, she says, only feminism offers women the choice of liberation and equality.

The organisers say that most of those on Saturday’s march will not have been directly involved in feminist campaigning before. What about the accusations of man-hating that are often levied at women who rage against men’s violence to women? The table erupts in protest. “Men are the ones raping, beating and killing and yet we are accused of hate?” says Mackay.

Although the march is women-only, men are welcome at the Reclaim the Right to Party rally afterwards, which includes live music, DJs and dancing. “Feminists do fun really well,” says Mordan. “The image of the humourless feminist is far from the truth.”

The London march is not the only one planned for Saturday. Events to mark International Day to end Violence against Women are being held from Scotland to Devon, and in many countries worldwide. In the two years since its formation, the LFN, the main organiser of the march, has achieved much, and members are energised rather than jaded. Last year it organised protests against the screening of the pornographic film Deep Throat, worked with Trades Unions to encourage good practice in dealing with harassment in the workplace, and is planning a major feminist film festival for next year.

As the final preparations for the march get underway, Mordan tells me she is looking forward to seeing, “some of the most famous roads in London being closed for us women, so that everyone around will be forced to take notice of what we are demanding”.

For Mackay, today’s radical feminism amounts to basic common sense. “I believe the march will grow and grow,” she says. “I want to see double the number of marchers next year, and double that the year after. By focusing that anger constructively, together as women, there are no limits to what we could achieve”.

· Reclaim The Night 2006, Saturday November 25, assembling in Trafalgar Square (next to Nelson’s Column) at 6pm for women-only march.

Women Go 'Missing' by the Millions

An article by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

As I was preparing for this article, I asked a friend who is Jewish if it was appropriate to use the term "holocaust" to portray the worldwide violence against women. He was startled. But when I read him the figures in a 2004 policy paper published by the Geneva Center for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, he said yes, without hesitation.

One United Nations estimate says from 113 million to 200 million women around the world are demographically "missing." Every year, from 1.5 million to 3 million women and girls lose their lives as a result of gender-based violence or neglect.

How could this possibly be true? Here are some of the factors:

In countries where the birth of a boy is considered a gift and the birth of a girl a curse from the gods, selective abortion and infanticide eliminate female babies.

Young girls die disproportionately from neglect because food and medical attention is given first to brothers, fathers, husbands and sons.

In countries where women are considered the property of men, their fathers and brothers can murder them for choosing their own sexual partners. These are called "honor" killings, though honor has nothing to do with it.

Young brides are killed if their fathers do not pay sufficient money to the men who have married them. These are called "dowry deaths," although they are not just deaths, they are murders.

The brutal international sex trade in young girls kills uncounted numbers of them.

Domestic violence is a major cause of death of women in every country.

So little value is placed on women's health that every year roughly 600,000 women die giving birth.

Six thousand girls undergo genital mutilation every day, according to the World Health Organization. Many die; others live the rest of their lives in crippling pain.

According to the WHO, one woman out of every five worldwide is likely to be a victim of rape or attempted rape in her lifetime.

What is happening to women and girls in many places across the globe is genocide. All the victims scream their suffering. It is not so much that the world doesn't hear them; it is that fellow human beings choose not to pay attention.

It is much more comfortable for us to ignore these issues. And by "us," I also mean women. Too often, we are the first to look away. We may even participate, by favoring our sons and neglecting the care of our daughters. All these figures are estimates; registering precise numbers for violence against women is not a priority in most countries.

Going forward, there are three challenges:

Women are not organized or united. Those of us in rich countries, who have attained equality under the law, need to mobilize to assist our fellows. Only our outrage and our political pressure can lead to change.

The Islamists are engaged in reviving and spreading a brutal and retrograde body of laws. Wherever the Islamists implement Shariah, or Islamic law, women are hounded from the public arena, denied education and forced into a life of domestic slavery.

Cultural and moral relativists sap our sense of moral outrage by claiming that human rights are a Western invention. Men who abuse women rarely fail to use the vocabulary the relativists have provided them. They claim the right to adhere to an alternative set of values - an "Asian," "African" or "Islamic" approach to human rights.

This mind-set needs to be broken. A culture that carves the genitals of young girls, hobbles their minds and justifies their physical oppression is not equal to a culture that believes women have the same rights as men.

Three initial steps could be taken by world leaders to begin eradicating the mass murder of women:

A tribunal such as the court of justice in The Hague should look for the 113 million to 200 million women and girls who are missing.

A serious international effort must urgently be made to precisely register violence against girls and women, country by country.

We need a worldwide campaign to reform cultures that permit this kind of crime. Let's start to name them and shame them.

In the past two centuries, those in the West have gradually changed the way they treat women. As a result, the West enjoys greater peace and progress. It is my hope that the third world will embark on this effort. Just as we put an end to slavery, we must end the gendercide.

25 November - International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

More information as well as books to read on the topic here: UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

Also, a campaign organised between UNIFEM and the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign, Not a Minute More

Sixteen Days of Activism: Sixteen Days of Hope
*Gender-based violence is one of the most pervasive of human rights abuses. It covers a range of injustices – from gender abuse to systematic rape and from pre-birth sex selection to female genital mutilation – that affect as many as one in three women. *Ending gender violence will take action on many fronts every day of the year. But *16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence *is a start. This worldwide campaign begins on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and ends 10 December with International Human Rights Day. It provides NGOs, international organizations, governments, individuals and the media an opportunity to mobilize for women's rights and against impunity for perpetrators. This year's theme *For the Health of Women, For the Health of the World: No More Violence*, focuses on the link between HIV and violence against women and girls.

16 Ways UNFPA Addresses Gender-based Violence

1. Providing alternatives to ‘survival sex'
In the capital of Haiti, which is plagued by political and social unrest, 11- and 12- year-old girls trade sexual favours for spending money. A drop-in centre offers them other options.

2. Speaking up for millions of missing girls
Discrimination against daughters, leading to pre-birth sex selection or even infanticide, has left parts of China and South Asia with severe sex ratio imbalances.

3. Speaking out against unacceptable practices
Half of the murders of women in some Arab countries are so-called ‘honour killings', often committed by family members with impunity.

4. Treating and supporting survivors of extreme sexual violence
In the Great Lakes countries of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, an epidemic of brutal rape wreaks havoc on the lives of survivors and continues to demoralize communities and destabilize the region.

5. Training police to deal with domestic violence
In many countries, UNFPA supports training of police officers to assist abused women by taking their cases seriously, informing them of their rights and sometimes even providing victim protection.

6. Highlighting the high costs to women and society
Chapter 7 of the 2005 State of World Population report documents the high social, emotional and economic costs of gender-based violence.

7. Calling attention to a new form of slavery
UNFPA works closely with governments to address the ever-widening threat posed by human trafficking and supports women and girls in their recovery and return.

8. Partnering to stop sexual violence in armed conflict and disaster settings
At a landmark conference chaired by UNFPA, a broad coalition of partners agreed to strengthen collaboration at all levels to end sexual violence in situations of conflict, post-conflict, displacement, and natural disaster settings.

9. Implementing UN Security Council resolution 1325
UNFPA plays a vital role in protecting women against gender-based violence, during and after times of conflict, as called for the UN Security Council.

10. Assisting survivors of domestic violence
Most violence against women occurs in the home. But women often stay with abusive partners because they have no other place to go. UNFPA-supported shelters offer an alternative.

11. Providing a safe haven for girls escaping coerced marriage
In many countries, forced child marriage robs girls of their human rights and subjects them to violence. UNFPA-supported shelters provide a haven for young girls trying to escape a cruel fate.

12. Addressing the needs of women in refugee camps
Refugee camps are intended to be safe havens – but displaced women often face many forms of gender-based violence. UNFPA has partnered on an interagency field manual that includes guidelines for addressing sexual and gender-based violence in refugee camps.

13. Taking concerted action to address domestic violence
An Indonesian NGO is tackling violence against women by raising awareness of the issue, providing shelter, seeking peaceful reconciliation, and when that doesn't work, taking perpetrators to court.

14. Promoting legislative reform and the enforcement of existing laws
UNFPA works with parliamentarians and monitors legislation in both Europe and the developing world having to do with domestic violence, gender equality and sexual exploitation and offences against minors.

15. Involving men
Ending gender-based violence will require the full engagement and participation of men. UNFPA seeks to involve them in many ways.

16. Supporting local activities in countries around the world
Many of UNFPA offices throughout the world have planned activities to mobilize support for the 16 Days of Activism.
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