Thursday 30 January 2014

Stop abusing detainee refugee women

Letter to:

Theresa May, British Home Secretary

Every year, hundreds of women who come to this country to seek safety from persecution are being detained in Yarl’s Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire. Research by Women for Refugee Women shows that the majority of these women say they have experienced rape, sexual violence and torture in their home countries.

The impact of detention on women is devastating. Many become depressed and suicidal. These women have not committed any crime, and yet they are being locked up indefinitely.

We are asking you to ensure the government stops detaining women who have come to this country to seek asylum. Women’s asylum cases can be considered while they live in the community. We are also asking you to ensure that no male staff are employed at Yarl’s Wood detention centre in roles where they come into contact with women, and that allegations of abuse made against staff are properly investigated.

It’s possible to create an asylum process which treats women who have survived rape and torture with dignity and humanity.

They deserve a fair hearing and a chance to rebuild their lives. Thank you.

Please sign Meril's petition.

http://www.change.org/petitions/theresa-may-british-home-secretary-end-the-detention-of-women-who-seek-asylum?share_id=tSmurPgKyp&utm_campaign=signature_receipt&utm_medium=email&utm_source=share_petition

Wednesday 29 January 2014

Everyday homelessness

Guest post by Alex.

​The situation described below happened in an internet shop on Camden High Street where I work.

On the 7th of November in the evening, a customer came in to use a computer, he could hardly speak English and after a while I discovered he was Polish, being Polish myself, we could easily communicate.

He asked me to help him with benefit registration and told that he lost all his documents and money 2 weeks ago. He ended up being evicted from his potential house due to inability to pay the deposit (by the time we met he managed to organize a copy of his passport from the Polish Embassy). Due to the above, he had been homeless for last 2 weeks with no more than £7 in his pocket. He emigrated from Poland three weeks before,  leaving his wife and 3 year old daughter to seek a better paid job so he could send money back to his family. He was 23 years of age, brought up in an orphanage back in Poland.

I advised him to find a shelter/hostel rather than benefits as a first move, which he was doing as advised by random people he had spoken to.

Farah is a regular client of the internet cafe, it is near her office in Camden. I was advised by Farah to call an emergency line for homeless to find out about available places around Camden. After a good 40 min on the phone we managed to get through to a consultant, who gave us a phone number to arrange for a Polish speaking interpreter.

We tried to call the help line several times but it was impossible to get through. Every call took at least 40 min to an hour to go through automatic dial and at the end we still hadn't manage to be put through to a consultant. We have tried calling from a mobile phone as well as phone box but unfortunately situation was the same – no answer. We kept calling until 8.00 pm when as we were warned – lines were closed.

The person we tried to secure a safe night for, gave up and walk away for another homeless night on the street…

That chair and Roman Abromovich's girlfriend

From Women's views on the News

Guest post from writer, activist and feminist Louise Pennington.

This is the question currently doing the rounds on social media and in countless columns and articles. There is only one answer to this question:

Yes.

There really is no other way to answer this question, not if you have even a cursory knowledge of history and the legacy of misogyny, colonialism, colonisation and racism.

Bjarne Melgaard’s piece, which features the white editor-in-chief of [bi-annual art and fashion magazine] ‘Garage’, Dasha Zhukova, sitting fully clothed on the body of a Black mannequin, is being defended as “art”. Apparently, it was created as a criticism of gender and racism. Unfortunately, this is not how criticism of gender and racist tropes functions. Criticism requires more than replicating images which are common in mainstream pornography. Using the body of a woman to create an object is neither shocking nor thought-provoking art.

Melgaard’s piece is based on an earlier ‘chair’ by Allen Jones, which featured a white woman in bondage. This piece was itself misogynistic. ‘Art’ using the bodies of women as objects isn’t new; nor is it shocking. It is nothing more than the continual replication of patriarchal constructs of women as not-human. Women’s bodies have always been sites of objectification and sexualisation for centuries. Our bodies have continually been used to debase and dehumanise us.

Bjarne Melgaard’s chair does nothing to invert or question this construction. But, as Karen Ingala Smith makes clear:

“the objectification of white and black women is not the same.  Black and white women are rarely treated the same in pornography, depictions of black women are rarely free of racial stereotypes.”

In using a Black mannequin as an object, Melgaard has reproduced racialised stereotypes of hyper-sexualised Black women as seen in pornography, advertising, music videos and the media. Racism is endemic in our culture. In many ways, though, pornography is the only industry in which racism is actively encouraged. This isn’t to suggest that racism doesn’t exist in other industries but that mainstream pornography creates and maintains racism in a way that other industries are legally prohibited from doing.

Without knowing anything about Melgaard, the image is distressing and shocking. Not because it questions our constructions of gender and racism but because it so clearly replicates them without question.  What is even more distressing is the defence of Melgaard’s sculpture from within the art community. Leigh Silver at Complex Art and Design suggests the chair only became racist when a “Russian socialite sat on it”, a stance which simply ignores the history of racism. Melgaard, himself, says this:

“Race and sex are intertwined. I think racism is a form of sexuality. It is all about a sexual jealousy and a sexual threat.”

This statement ignores the reality of misogyny and racism in women’s lives. Reducing racism to sexuality ignores the Black women raped for the crime of being born Black. It ignores the babies who died on the slave plantations when their mothers were prevented from caring for them. It ignores the children sold into domestic and sexual slavery now because they are not seen as human. Suggesting race is a form of sexuality erases Black women from their own lives.

Gavin Brown, Melgaard’s New York gallerist, goes one step further and silences the Black women speaking out by suggesting they should focus on something else; a tactic all women know too well:

These Bjarne Melgaard sculptures, based on the Allen Jones originals, exist to destabilize and unhinge our hardened and crusty notions of race and sex and power. These sculptures, made by a self professed ‘homosexual’, expose the latent and residual self hatred in a culture where the inhuman and overpowering presence of violence and catastrophe is imminent. Our tragedy is so evident in our daily experience that Melgaard has nothing left to portray but society in its utter decay. We see this photograph to be extraordinary. We see this debate to be a distraction from the true challenges that face us. We applaud both the sitter and the seated. To fault the sitter, now in the age of the Anthropocene, in the midst of enormous and REAL obscenities that threaten our actual existence, reflects a civilization that is not dying but already dead. Turn your outrage upside down.

The irony of a white man silencing women criticises  a racist, sexist sculpture which features a Black mannequin wearing a gag has gone unnoticed by Silver, Melgaard and Brown. A Black body in a sexualised position common in mainstream pornography isn’t questioning the treatment of Black women in our culture. It’s maintaining the same racialised sexism which harms Black women.

On a side note, referring to Dasha Zhukova as “Roman Abromovich’s girlfriend” then you aren’t criticising the misogyny properly. A woman is never a possession of a man, even when they are in a relationship with a billionaire. The image was part of a publicity article for Zhukova’s magazine Garage. She is a business woman who has participated in a photo shoot which is both racist and misogynistic. That should be the focus of the story, not Zhukova’s personal relationships. It is deeply ironic that in the rush to condemn this image as misogynistic, journalists are replicating the same construction of woman as object that they are claiming to challenge.

There is only one answer to the question: Is Bjarne Melgaard ‘s chair racist? And that is yes.

Sunday 26 January 2014

Polly Neate on domestic violence, from the Crimestoppers website


Women’s Aid grew out of the women’s liberation movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. As women came together, the issue of violence in the home as well as other forms of sexual and interpersonal violence to women became highlighted.


The first Women’s Aid federation was set up in 1974, providing practical and emotional support as part of a range of services to women and children experiencing violence.
Here, Polly Neate, the Charities Chief Executive, talks about the role Women’s Aid plays and what to do should you think someone is experiencing domestic violence?

Domestic violence is controlling, coercive, or threatening behaviour in a relationship or between family members. It includes psychological, sexual, emotional, financial, and physical abuse. It is behaviour designed to make a person feel inferior or dependent by isolating, exploiting, humiliating, depriving, and regulating them.

The majority of domestic violence is made up of a pattern of controlling behaviour, and women are significantly more likely to be affected than men.

Around 89 per cent of those who experience four or more instances of domestic violence are women [1], one in four UK women will be affected in their lifetimes [2], and two women are killed per week by partners or ex-partners, compared to many fewer men [3].

Women are also much more likely than men to experience multiple types of domestic violence, and to experience sexual violence. Large numbers of children are also affected by domestic violence: three-quarters of a million children witness domestic violence every year, and in 80 per cent of cases they are in the same or the next room as the violence [4].
Domestic violence can affect anyone, regardless of age, socio-economic status, race, disability, or lifestyle. It’s often thought that a strong, professional, or confident seeming woman can’t experience domestic violence, but many women are very adept at hiding what’s happening to them. Perpetrators also rarely fit the stereotype of a ‘wifebeater’, but are often very charming and good at hiding their controlling behaviour.
Leaving a violent relationship isn’t simple; perpetrators often get more violent and dangerous when a woman tries to leave. Women are at greatest risk of being killed when they leave or after they’ve left a violent partner. Many women reasonably fear their abuser, who may have threatened to hurt them or their loved ones if they try to leave. Many feel the violence is their fault, that they deserve it, or that they wouldn’t cope on their own.
There are many services for women and children experiencing domestic violence, including refuges, outreach services, counselling, and advocacy. A refuge is a safe house where women experiencing domestic violence can go with their children to stay safe. There should be enough space at refuges for any women who needs it, but Women’s Aid know that because of recent funding cuts, that isn’t always the case. In some places women have to wait for up to four weeks before a refuge space will become available for them.
The Freephone 24 Hour National Domestic Violence helpline, run in partnership between Refuge and Women’s Aid provides support, information, and a listening ear to women experiencing domestic violence and their children. The helpline is staffed by fully trained female support workers and volunteers and can refer women on to other sources of help and information where appropriate.
What should I do if I think someone I know is experiencing domestic violence?
Abusers often isolate a woman and make it difficult for women to seek support from family and friends. They also often try and make women feel the abuse is their fault. So it’s important to try and keep the lines of communication open and let her know she can come to you if she needs you. If possible, try and have an open, non-judgemental conversation to talk about what domestic violence is and where a woman can get help. You can let her know about the National Domestic Violence Helpline and other support services. This will allow a woman to make her own informed choice about whether to seek help.
Never confront a perpetrator – you could put yourself at risk, or you could risk isolating the woman further. You might also put her at further risk of harm when you are no longer there. If you see an incident of abuse or think someone is at immediate risk, call the police. You don’t have to wait for violence to take place before you call, and if in doubt you should ring them. Never intervene in a physical attack – you could put yourself at serious risk.
Where to get help:
0808 2000 247 Freephone 24-hour national domestic violence helpline run in partnership between Women’s Aid and Refuge
www.womensaid.org.uk – website with further information about domestic violence and how to get help
www.thehideout.org.uk – website for children and young people with information  and support around domestic violence
[1] Hester, M (2009) Who does what to whom?
[2] ONS (2013) Focus on: Violent Crime and Sexual Offences, 2011/12
[3] ibid
[4] DH, (2002)  Women’s Mental Health : Into the Mainstream

Saturday 25 January 2014

Shattering the Silence


Shattering the silence: a performance and book fight back against the UK's non-compliance with   CEDAW

PRESS RELEASE: 30 December 2013
WomeThe State (UK) seeks case studies and evidence to support an inquiry into state noncompliance with the UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)The book will focus on abuse against women perpetrated by the state or its agencies in its devolution of responsibility to protect women and safeguard their rights, particularly in the private sector due to financial retrenchment disguised as austerity.  This book gives a voice to those who have been damaged by cuts and inequality across all classes and social strata, across all areas which affect women.
Anna is a Nigerian woman who was trafficked into the UK as a sex slave and fled her captors to seek asylum in 2010. She and her young son have been forced to move fivetimes in six months as a result of the failure of a G4S subcontractor to pay their rent, electricity and utility bills. Privatisation is just one way the state removes risk and its responsibility for the most vulnerable, sometimes using financial retrenchment disguised as austerity, as the excuse to monetise social services and capitalise on trauma.
Anna told The Guardian recently, "A lot of people are going through the same thing but they are scared to speak up. It's not right to treat people this way but no one listens to you if you are an asylum seeker."
Marion, running a billion dollar hedge fund is told that getting pregnant was not included in her employment contract and fired, with no recourse, for being unfit to do her job.
A woman who is a former escort publishes a high profile book about partying and taking cocaine with some of our most powerful and prominent politicians. Her home is raided at dawn by 30 policemen, and the published book is heavily censored, removing embarrassing photographs of a senior minister taking cocaine.
A new project, Women v The State (UK), is gathering the stories of women like Anna, Marion and others – failed by the very systems that exist to protect them. Theirs are the stories behind the headlines, the stories of women let down by the state, which has so far failed to adopt CEDAW’s mandate to mainstream gender equality. Economists have found that women, particularly single parents and pensioners, suffered more than men from cuts tobenefits and public services, particularly because women’s services are often the first to go.
Women v The State (UK) is the first focus of Kazuri Minds, a new social enterprise think tank set up to examine and influence government and corporate policy and how it impacts women. The book covers state inadequacies in fulfilling CEDAW mandates across sectorssuch as health, employment, education, representation, social and economic benefits, sex role stereotyping, trafficking, and marriage and family law. It will shatter the silence aroundstate abuse towards women across all social strata, particularly those who are marginalised for other societal reasons, such as race, religion, age, social class, or colour.
Creative Director, Farah Damji, believes it is vital to reveal the stories of women who have been traumatised as a direct result of the actions of the state and its entrenchedinstitutionalised inequality. The increasing monetisation of social services is, in many cases, not only failing to protect traumatised and vulnerable women from further harm, but also frequently inflicting further trauma upon victims, survivors and their loved ones." says Farah.
Women v The State (UK) asks women and frontline organisations across the UK to come forward with their experiences of such failures, including in the criminal justice system, exile, secure hospitals, mental health services, the asylum system, children’s homes, and sexual assault referral centres (SARCs). A recent report showed that there are still severe gaps in the provision of services to help women escape and recover from violence and abuse. This is to be expectedsince 2010, 31% of funding to the domestic violence and sexual abuseservices sector was cut.
Editor Nanki Chawla said, “We want to collect as many stories as we can for Women v theState (UK), which is a powerful way of highlighting the failures of the state in mainstreaming gender equality. We will make sure all stories are presented anonymously to protect the identities of the women involved and to make sure they do not experience further distress.
The Women v The State (UK) boasts a foreword by the former Chairman of the Criminal Bar AssociationMichael Turner QC, and will be launched at the House of Commons in March 2014. An enactment of several stories from the book for Women of the World 2014, written and produced by renowned writer, playwright and activist Farrukh Dhondy who wrote the groundbreaking film Bandit Queen will be directed by Penny Cherns, senior tutor at LAMBDA.  Finally, we hear the voice of these women's inconvenient truths subdued by the patriarchal hierarchies which suppress a woman's dignity, her choices and her humanity.
Sarah Cheverton, co editor emphasises "Given the repeated failings of the state in mainstreaming gender equalityit is important to raise awareness of the deep-rooted patterns of gendered abuse in the UK. We need to look at safer options which take into account the health and wellbeing of our community and our economy and get away from thisspiralling race to the bottom.    ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
1.
Contact details
Creative Director, Farah DamjiFarah@kazuri.org.uk  07512 320 700
Editor, Sarah Chevertonsarah@kazuri.org.uk
Editor, Nanki ChawlaNanki@kazuri.org.uk 07543 638 786
2.
Book details
Editors – Sarah Cheverton and Nanki Chawla

Creative Director – Farah DamjiKazuri

Language / English

Pages / approx 120
3.
Submission details
We are looking for true accounts which showcase experiences of abuse at the hands of the state, andit’s lack of adherence to CEDAW regulations – these can be asylum seekers, refugees, domestic violence survivors, human trafficking survivors, offenders or ex-offenders, or indeed, any woman who has suffered injustice. The submissions can be in any form: prose, poetry, lyric, interview transcripts, case studies etc. These can be written and sent in via email or post, or we are happy to conduct interviews to collect stories.

Closing date for submissions January 30 2014

All stories will be told anonymously to protect identities and prevent further distress to those involved.

Submissions should be around 500 – 2,000 words however we are happy to entertain any other thoughts, ideas or possible submissions.
To send in a case study for Women v the State (UK), please contactNanki ChawlaNanki@kazuri.org.uk 07543 638 786 http://womenversusthestate.blogspot.co.uk/ 

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Monday 20 January 2014

Abuse and telling the truth, from the Church of England

 Statistics
Although numbers vary, some reports show that about 1 in 4 girls, and 1 in 9 boys are abused in childhood.  Key research in 21 countries found varying rates from 7 to 36 per cent of women and 3 to 29 per cent of men reporting they had been sexually abused as children.  One of the most rigorous UK studies found that 12 per cent of women and 8 per cent of men reported they had been sexually abused before the age of 16.There is some evidence that there is considerable under-reporting from boys and men.

Effects of abuse
Some survivors cope well with life and are able to live apparently ‘normally’. Some, however, although they present a ‘normal’ face to the world, may well be suffering and sometimes be unable to say what their problem is – or even to know why they feel ill at ease and unable to feel a sense of peace and joy.
Some may show a range of symptoms such as

●  repeated bouts of depression
●  exhibiting anger and hostility – or being unable to connect at all with feelings;
●  behaving like a victim – low self-esteem and putting themselves down and constantly apologizing;
●  inability to get close to people, or wanting to be inappropriately close;
●  disturbed sleep, nightmares and so on,
●  tending to ‘space out’ (cutting off from reality)
●  exhibiting fears, phobias and anxiety;
●  self-harming (this is a way of coping, not something done ‘to get attention’); 
●  tending to feel an inappropriate amount of guilt and shame; 
●  sometimes relying on smoking, drugs, alcohol or medication; 
●  experiencing hallucinations and/or ‘flashbacks’ of the abuse; 
●  sometimes moving from one abusive relationship to another. 
  • Loss of trust
    Adults and children who are abused can lose trust in those around them, especially if the abuse was within the home. (Most abuse is carried out by people known to the victim.) The loss of trust will profoundly affect the life of the survivor. They may decide (often unconsciously) never to trust anyone ever again – and this is likely to affect their faith and relationships.

    Why didn’t you say so at the time?
    Many survivors say nothing about the abuse for many years. Some have buried their memories so deeply within themselves that they have ‘forgotten’ what happened – especially if the abuse happened when they were very young.
    Memories may be ‘triggered’ in a range of ways, for example:
    • ●  hearing about abuse on television;
    • ●  being in another abusive situation such as finding difficulties with a domineering employer;
    • ●  being in a situation where they feel powerless;
    • ●  feeling vulnerable, ill, under stress, or suffering from burnout;
    • ●  the death of their abuser or of one of their carers; 
    • ●  the birth of their own child. 
    • Few victims can report their abuse close to the event and so often reported abuse is about events of years ago, leading to difficulties with finding any proof of what happened. It is 
    • often one person’s word against another, and the likelihood of the survivor getting justice is slim. However, some cases do go to court, but the experience can be devastating for both children and adults and they are likely to need considerable support.

    Pastoral  care of survivors
    An adult (or indeed a child) disclosing abuse is in a vulnerable state. Above all they need someone to listen to them – and also to believe them. They may need to be ‘heard’ in different contexts and over several years.
    If there is a complex pastoral situation when an adult discloses abuse (e.g. a young person in their twenties accusing a church worker of sexually abusing them), it would be appropriate to find some support for the different parties involved, such as another survivor to support the person making the allegations.


    There is no quick fix for healing from abuse and it is crucial that survivors: Are not pushed into forgiving too early. Forgiving their abuser/s is a 

Wednesday 8 January 2014

Letter to a Universal Inner Child

Ted Hughes on the Universal Inner Child, in a Moving Letter to His Son.

“The only calibration that counts is how much heart people invest, how much they ignore their fears of being hurt or caught out or humiliated.”

“The analogy between the artist and the child is that both live in a world of their own making,” wrote Anaïs Nin in her diary in 1945.

When I came to Lake Victoria, it was quite obvious to me that in some of the most important ways you are much more mature than I am. . . . But in many other ways obviously you are still childish — how could you not be, you alone among mankind? It’s something people don’t discuss, because it’s something most people are aware of only as a general crisis of sense of inadequacy, or helpless dependence, or pointless loneliness, or a sense of not having a strong enough ego to meet and master inner storms that come from an unexpected angle. But not many people realise that it is, in fact, the suffering of the child inside them. Everybody tries to protect this vulnerable two three four five six seven eight year old inside, and to acquire skills and aptitudes for dealing with the situations that threaten to overwhelm it. So everybody develops a whole armour of secondary self, the artificially constructed being that deals with the outer world, and the crush of circumstances. And when we meet people this is what we usually meet. And if this is the only part of them we meet we’re likely to get a rough time, and to end up making ‘no contact’. But when you develop a strong divining sense for the child behind that armour, and you make your dealings and negotiations only with that child, you find that everybody becomes, in a way, like your own child. It’s an intangible thing. But they too sense when that is what you are appealing to, and they respond with an impulse of real life, you get a little flash of the essential person, which is the child. Usually, that child is a wretchedly isolated undeveloped little being. It’s been protected by the efficient armour, it’s never participated in life, it’s never been exposed to living and to managing the person’s affairs, it’s never been given responsibility for taking the brunt. And it’s never properly lived. That’s how it is in almost everybody. And that little creature is sitting there, behind the armour, peering through the slits. And in its own self, it is still unprotected, incapable, inexperienced. Every single person is vulnerable to unexpected defeat in this inmost emotional self. At every moment, behind the most efficient seeming adult exterior, the whole world of the person’s childhood is being carefully held like a glass of water bulging above the brim. And in fact, that child is the only real thing in them. It’s their humanity, their real individuality, the one that can’t understand why it was born and that knows it will have to die, in no matter how crowded a place, quite on its own. That’s the carrier of all the living qualities. It’s the centre of all the possible magic and revelation. What doesn’t come out of that creature isn’t worth having, or it’s worth having only as a tool — for that creature to use and turn to account and make meaningful. So there it is. And the sense of itself, in that little being, at its core, is what it always was. But since that artificial secondary self took over the control of life around the age of eight, and relegated the real, vulnerable, supersensitive, suffering self back into its nursery, it has lacked training, this inner prisoner. And so, wherever life takes it by surprise, and suddenly the artificial self of adaptations proves inadequate, and fails to ward off the invasion of raw experience, that inner self is thrown into the front line — unprepared, with all its childhood terrors round its ears. And yet that’s the moment it wants. That’s where it comes alive — even if only to be overwhelmed and bewildered and hurt. And that’s where it calls up its own resources — not artificial aids, picked up outside, but real inner resources, real biological ability to cope, and to turn to account, and to enjoy. That’s the paradox: the only time most people feel alive is when they’re suffering, when something overwhelms their ordinary, careful armour, and the naked child is flung out onto the world. That’s why the things that are worst to undergo are best to remember. But when that child gets buried away under their adaptive and protective shells—he becomes one of the walking dead, a monster. So when you realise you’ve gone a few weeks and haven’t felt that awful struggle of your childish self — struggling to lift itself out of its inadequacy and incompetence — you’ll know you’ve gone some weeks without meeting new challenge, and without growing, and that you’ve gone some weeks towards losing touch with yourself. The only calibration that counts is how much heart people invest, how much they ignore their fears of being hurt or caught out or humiliated. And the only thing people regret is that they didn’t live boldly enough, that they didn’t invest enough heart, didn’t love enough. Nothing else really counts at all."