3-31-16 Central African Republic abuse: UN looks into 'bestiality' report
Central African Republic abuse: UN looks into 'bestiality' report
UN officials say they are investigating "extremely troubling" claims of sexual abuse by peacekeepers in the Central African Republic (CAR). Last year, there were 69 allegations of child rape and other sexual offences by peacekeepers from 10 missions. One advocacy group says it has passed on new reports to the UN that a soldier made four girls have sex with a dog. The UN said it was looking into the "exact number and nature" of the claims.
3-30-16 Shandra Woworuntu: My life as a sex-trafficking victim
Shandra Woworuntu: My life as a sex-trafficking victim
Shandra Woworuntu arrived in the US hoping to start a new career in the hotel industry. Instead, she found she had been trafficked into a world of prostitution and sexual slavery, forced drug-taking and violence. It was months before she was able to turn the tables on her persecutors. Some readers may find her account of the ordeal upsetting. (Webmaster's comment: Read it! The ugly story of a very abused women but also a true heroine.)
3-25-16 Jian Ghomeshi trial rattles sexual assault survivors
Jian Ghomeshi trial rattles sexual assault survivors
Former radio personality Jian Ghomeshi has been found not guilty of all charges against him in a sexual assault trial that riveted the nation. Advocates say the verdict and the trial have had a chilling effect on sexual assault survivors across Canada. Journalist Ashifa Kassam explains why. "I've been through a criminal court as a survivor of sexual assault," says O'Neill. "And I found it to be the most excruciating and painful experience I've ever been through, aside from having been sexually assaulted." The ruling affirmed some sexual assault advocates' worst fears - that it was the women who were truly on trial, not Ghomeshi. For many, what they saw was profoundly disappointing, revealing a deeply flawed system in which the odds seem to be stacked against the complainants.
3-24-16 Jian Ghomeshi: Canadian not guilty of sex assault charges
Jian Ghomeshi: Canadian not guilty of sex assault charges
Jian Ghomeshi, who was once one of Canada's top broadcasters, has been found not guilty of sexual assault and choking his victims. Three women had accused Mr Ghomeshi of attacking and sexually assaulting them. Mr Ghomeshi, 48, had denied the charges, describing the encounters as consensual "rough sex". The judge said that the three complainants' stories had been inconsistent and said reasonable doubt existed in this case.
3-18-16 Dental care for Domestic Violence victims
Dental care for Domestic Violence victims
A group of Toronto dentists offers free dental care for survivors of domestic violence. Founded five years ago by Dr. Tina Meisami, Project Restoring Smiles has provided more than $200,000 worth of treatment, mostly to women living in shelters. “As a surgeon, I wanted to fix their oral and facial pain,” Meisami said. “As a woman, I felt as though I needed to stand up for their rights.” One of her patients, who asked to be identified as Sam, broke down in tears after Meisami repaired her damaged teeth. “[She] has changed my life, saved my life, and I am forever grateful for this.”
3-14-16 Female scientist fights harassment with Wikipedia
Female scientist fights harassment with Wikipedia
Targeted harassment of women online is all too common. One woman has decided to create a Wikipedia page for a woman scientist every time it happens to her. Emily Temple-Wood was not even a teenager when she started editing and writing on Wikipedia. Only a few months later, she received her first harassing messages. "I think before they realised I was 12, they just realised I was a women," says Temple-Wood, now a 21-year-old science student. It was the beginning of a barrage of messages that included anonymous comments about her body, demands for sexual favours and plenty of profanities - especially when she ignored earlier messages. But Temple-Wood has stuck around on Wikipedia, becoming an administrator and developing two collaborative projects aimed at closing the online encyclopaedia's "content gap" - including one that adds and improves articles about women scientists. After a some particularly vicious harassment a few months ago, Temple-Wood decided she need to "focus her rage" and chose to respond by adding a female scientist to Wikipedia for every harassing or sexist comment she received online.)
3-12-16 Morality according to sports commissioners: An investigation
Morality according to sports commissioners: An investigation
Apparently, smoking pot is way worse than beating a woman, if you play sports. In a rapidly changing and increasingly complex world, there are questions the average American must face. Is smoking marijuana acceptable now? Am I allowed to cheat a little to get ahead in my highly competitive workplace? Is it OK to shove my girlfriend against a wall, choke her, and then fire eight gunshots in the garage to let off some steam? By these measures, smoking pot is all right, unless you kinda suck at baseball, in which case smoking pot two times is almost doubly bad as assaulting a woman. Taking performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) just once is almost three times as bad as assaulting a woman, whether you're good at baseball or not. And if you are good, like say Alex Rodriguez, being suspected of using PEDs can get a 211 game suspension without even failing a test. Got it?
3-11-16 After USA TODAY NETWORK investigation, rape-kit reforms flood state legislatures
After USA TODAY NETWORK investigation, rape-kit reforms flood state legislatures
At least 20 states are pursuing reforms to the inconsistent ways rape kits are handled by law enforcement agencies after a USA TODAY NETWORK investigation last year revealed tens of thousands of rape evidence kits went untested nationwide. Legislatures have been flooded with a total of about 50 different bills in recent months — most introduced since the beginning of this year as lawmakers returned to statehouses for 2016 sessions — dealing with various aspects of how rape kits are handled by the criminal justice system. The proposals range including new funding for testing rape kits, audits of long-stored evidence and reducing the discretion police departments or officers have in deciding whether to submit rape evidence for testing by standardizing requirements, including setting time limits for submission to crime labs.
3-11-16 Too timid to count the assaults
Too timid to count the assaults
Political correctness will be the death of Europe, said Jiri Dolezal. Every week brings another sexual assault on European women by Muslim migrants. We’ve seen a mass groping in Cologne on New Year’s Eve, the rapes at a Stockholm music festival, and now an assault by Afghan refugees on two German teenagers—14 and 18—at a public swimming pool. We can’t know exactly how many women have been attacked by migrants, because in all European Union countries “it is forbidden to collect statistics on criminal offenders by ethnicity.” Our leaders take pains to point out that the attackers make up only a minority of all asylum seekers. That’s surely true, but so what? Criminals are a minority among Europeans too, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t worry about crime or try to prevent it. The simple fact is that men “from cultures where women go dressed in a tent” are unable to comprehend “that a woman wearing a bikini is not automatically receptive to sex.” It is entirely foreign to them that women have rights. That is the key problem in integrating these asylum seekers, and pretending it doesn’t exist will not help us solve it. Our leaders fear a backlash against migrants, but they will get a backlash against their own parties.
3-11-16 South Sudan: Women raped 'as reward for fighters'
South Sudan: Women raped 'as reward for fighters'
DMilitias allied to the South Sudanese army have been allowed to rape women in lieu of wages while fighting rebels, a UN report says. Investigators found that 1,300 women had been raped last year in oil-rich Unity State alone, it said. The army operated a "scorched earth" policy to deliberately target civilians for killing and rape, which amounted to war crimes, the UN said. The government denies its army targeted civilians but says it is investigating.
3-8-16 Has life got worse for Tunisia's women?
Has life got worse for Tunisia's women?
Tunisia's revolution is seen by some as the only success story of the Arab Spring. But the BBC's Sally Nabil reports from the capital, Tunis, that five years on, life could be getting worse for one group - women. Even though Tunisia has the most progressive laws on women's rights in the region and always set an example for other Arab countries, patriarchal values still persist here. The most recent government study, from 2010, says that nearly half of Tunisian women are subjected to various kinds of gender-based violence, being either physically, sexually or verbally abused. (Webmaster's comment: In the United States it's only one-third of women, maybe even more, so it's so much better here?)
3-8-16 International Women's Day: Five pictures that reveal how women are treated
International Women's Day: Five pictures that reveal how women are treated
Photographs and videos shared on social media can sometimes reveal more than intended - not just about the people pictured, but also about society. Five BBC journalists share images that reflect how women are often treated in their parts of the world.
3-8-16 International Women's Day: Sexism rife in textbooks, says Unesco
International Women's Day: Sexism rife in textbooks, says Unesco
Sexist attitudes are "rife" in school textbooks used in developing countries, according to Unesco. The United Nations agency, marking International Women's Day, says negative stereotyping undermines the education of girls. It says too often female figures are represented in textbooks as "nurturing drudges" in domestic roles. This is a "hidden obstacle" to gender equality, says Unesco's Manos Antoninis.
3-8-16 International Women's Day: Are Saudi women really that oppressed?
International Women's Day: Are Saudi women really that oppressed?
Would you want to live as a woman in Saudi Arabia? Based on what you hear, probably not. Life for women in the Arab kingdom is often painted as one of repression, after all they are forbidden from driving and are restricted by male guardianship laws which deprive them of their independence. And BBC Trending has covered several stories that have gone viral that show how these restrictions affect women's lives. (Webmaster's comment: Ya, they really are!)
3-8-16 International Women's Day: Why women can thrive in sci-fi
International Women's Day: Why women can thrive in sci-fi
Female characters are often given a raw deal in action films - simply fulfilling the role of love interest or assistant - but the flexible rules of the science fiction setting can empower and liberate female protagonists. Twenty years before Jurassic World's heroine, with impractical high heels, would inspire eye rolls around the world, Laura Dern's no-nonsense paleobotanist responded to moralising about the dangers of cloning dinosaurs in science fiction blockbuster Jurassic Park with two simple sentences: "Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth." Beyond the joke of a utopian all-female society, a recent viral meme repurposed the memorable scene with a reference to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and its protagonist Rey, by suggesting that "woman inherits the franchise". May the force be with her.
3-7-16 US reporter Erin Andrews wins $55m over secret nude video
US reporter Erin Andrews wins $55m over secret nude video
US sports broadcaster Erin Andrews has been awarded $55 million (£39m) after she was secretly recorded nude in her hotel room by a stalker. After a day of deliberations, a jury found the stalker 51% to blame, leaving two hotel companies to pay about $27m. Ms Andrews, 37, a Fox Sports reporter, was filmed in 2008 through her hotel door peephole by Michael David Barrett, who released the video online.
3-7-16 Arrests after India woman jumps from balcony to escape rape
Arrests after India woman jumps from balcony to escape rape
Three men have been arrested after a woman jumped from a two-storey house in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata (Calcutta) to escape rape, police said. The woman attended a party at the house, where the three men allegedly attempted to rape her after spiking her drink, reports said. She was rescued by neighbours after jumping, and is recovering from a head injury in hospital. Police told BBC Hindi that one of the men arrested was the woman's boyfriend. The woman had not yet registered a complaint, police said.
3-7-16 Porn ring behind Kenya Project X 'sex party'
Porn ring behind Kenya Project X 'sex party'
An international pornography ring was behind a controversial sex party that was planned for Saturday in Nairobi, Kenya's film board has said. The party, called Project X, has attracted attention after a publicity poster was circulated, declaring "no one goes back home a virgin". Film board head Ezekiel Mutua said the party was organised so people people could make pornographic films.
3-6-16 The rising cost of a Chinese bride price
The rising cost of a Chinese bride price
A shocking, albeit unverified, story has been making the rounds on Chinese social media, highlighting concerns over the traditional practice of paying a bride price. It was a tale that resonated with many Chinese people. A local station ran a story about a man who wanted to marry his pregnant girlfriend. But when he wasn't able to afford a payment of more than £20,000 (about $30,000), the woman's father put an end to any talk of a prospective wedding - and forced his daughter to get an abortion. It's unclear whether there's any actual truth to the story. The man wasn't identified by the station and attempts to contact him or find out more have been unsuccessful. But the strong reaction to the story online points to a larger issue anxiety over the rising cost of bride prices in a country where there's a marked shortage of women.
3-4-16 UN sex abuse scandal: Rise in allegations against peacekeepers
UN sex abuse scandal: Rise in allegations against peacekeepers
Allegations of sexual exploitation or sexual abuse by United Nations peacekeepers rose by a third last year, according to a UN report. There were 69 claims against peacekeepers in 2015, up from 52 in 2014 was 66 in 2013. Almost a third of the 2015 claims were made in the Central African Republic. For the first time, the report has also set out all the countries whose soldiers are reportedly involved under a new "name-and-shame" policy. Overall, 10 peacekeeping missions were subject to allegations in 2015.
3-2-16 China bans domestic abuse: 'I woke up to my husband's fist'
China bans domestic abuse: 'I woke up to my husband's fist'
New China law bans domestic violence. China's first law prohibiting any form of domestic violence against women came into effect on 1 March. The issue has often been ignored to avoid bringing shame on the family, but rights groups say about a quarter of women have suffered violence in their marriage. Mrs Jin, who says she suffered terrible physical abuse by her husband for more than 10 years, told BBC News how hard it was to make her husband face justice.
3-2-16 US TV reporter Erin Andrews 'humiliated' by secret hotel nude video
US TV reporter Erin Andrews 'humiliated' by secret hotel nude video
US sports broadcaster Erin Andrews has told a jury that a nude video secretly taken of her by a stalker and posted online devastated her life. The reporter was testifying as part of a $75m (£53m) suit against her stalker, Michael David Barrett, and a Nashville hotel where the video was recorded. Barrett, who spent more than two-and-a-half years in jail, has said the video was taken so he could make money. The video was shot through a peephole in 2008 and went viral on the internet.
3-1-16 RK Pachauri: Ex-UN climate head charged with sexual harassment
RK Pachauri: Ex-UN climate head charged with sexual harassment
The former head of the UN climate change panel (IPCC), Rajendra Pachauri, has been formally charged in an Indian court in a case of sexual harassment. A female employee at the environmental think-tank The Energy and Resources Institute (Teri) had accused him last year of harassment. Accusations by a second employee last month caused widespread outrage. Mr Pachauri, who has denied the allegations against him, stepped down from the UN panel last year. In February, he was forced to go on indefinite leave by Teri after the latest accusations.
