Is rape worse than other violent crime? (Radio 4)

Yesterday morning I caught part of this debate from the Jaipur Literary Festival, while in the car. There were some very interesting comments made and the debate was carried out in such a way that everyone had their say with no one shouting, interrupting or insulting anyone.
Michael Sandell - BBC Radio 4's public philosopher chaired the debate/ asked questions etc.

The Public Philosopher: Is rape worse than other violent crime? and other questions.
Of course this is in the context of some of the violent sexual assaults that have recently happened in India, but applies anywhere, I think.

Among the points of view I heard, were the following - I emphasise that I have summarised these and have not yet listened to the whole programme:

Rape should not be considered as more debilitating than having your hand cut off. I am more than my vagina. I need my hands to do many more things in life.

Unfortunately at present in India rape involves shame for the entire family - this attitude needs changing.

From a man - rape of a woman or a man is degrading because it involves physical penetration of the body.

How to protest against violence on women

There's been a lot of talk about protests against the pandemic of violence against women in the last few days, what with February 14th being celebrated worldwide as V-Day, and Eve Ensler (author of The Vagina Monologues) calling for a billion women (and those who love them) to rise up in the streets and dance to demand an end to sexual violence and all forms of repression of and violence against women. (On the same day, South African lawyer,  model and campaigner for empowerment of women, Reeva Steenkamp was murdered, apparently by her athlete boyfriend.)

At the same time there have been more direct, forceful (and arguably more effective) protests all over the world, notably in Egypt (where women, some wielding knives or acting as bodyguards, organised demonstrations to end the epidemic of street harassment and sexual assault that sadly accompanied the Arab Spring-inspired revolution of the last couple of years), India (where women's protests against the government and police's unwillingness to put an end to the rape culture in the country often turned violent themselves) and Ireland (where the needless death of a young woman brought the campaign to legalise abortion once more to the fore, and the institutional violence against thousands of women in church-run "refuges" has caused public outcry).

Journalist Laurie Penny has reported on some of these protests (e.g. in this Guardian article comparing them positively to Ensler's campaign), and characterises them with the opening line, "I'm sick of being ashamed." Other voices (including Fatihah, here, and many others on Twitter) have lambasted the Billion Rising dance as a "public dance-off", as a "feel-good exercise", as "playing into the vilification of women's anger by being nice", and as "steeped in privilege". Foxvertebrae added, "Protesting violence against women in a way that makes men and the government still feel comfortable is not a protest."

If any women I knew had been interested in taking part in the dance-off, I'd have liked to go along to support them, but I do appreciate that it would have been more useful and probably more effective if it had involved knives.

UN Dispatch on Helping Women and Girls Face the Challenges of Post Earthquake Haiti

The UN Dispatch website today podcasts an interview on the subject of the challenges faced by women since the earthquake in Haiti nearly one year ago. Just as the treatment and the equality of opportunity of women improves as a country becomes more prosperous and safe, so we see that when a catastrophe like the Haitian earthquake leaves a huge number of people in desperate poverty and physical danger, women suffer the effects disproportionately. From poor healthcare, lack of access to contraception and family planning education, poor security and the increased prevalence of sexual violence, things are pretty bleak (Haiti has the highest maternal mortality rate during childbirth in the western world). The director of women and population at the UN Foundation explains in this interview what her organization is doing to improve the situation for women in particular in the huge homeless camps across Haiti.

European Women's Forum in Cadiz

This opened in Cadiz on Feb 3 2010, concentrating on combatting Violence against women. Calling itself Beijing +15. Co-hosted by Harriet Harman and Spanish Minister for Equality, Bibiana Aido, and also proposing regular meetings, and measures to encourage high-level participation by women.

I can't find a reference in normal UK press, so - http://7thspace.com/headlines/333670/uk_and_spain_co_host_unprecedented_european_womens_summit.html

Otherwise I found it on Canal Sur info page:
http://www.canalsur.es/informativos/noticia?id=100436&idCanal=713

It's a pre-forum for the UN meeting on 1 - 15 March 2010.

Suffering of women in Haiti

From the Amnesty International blog today:

In 2008 Amnesty produced a report highlighting that sexual violence against women and girls in Haiti is particularly rife and that the government should pay greater attention to stopping these abuses. With the quake shattering Haiti’s already fragile infrastructure, the risk of sexual violence being carried out with impunity may well increase.

The post ends:

The situation for women and girls is often forgotten about in times of disasters and crises and yet it's these people who are often the hardest hit. The international community cannot simply keep tacitly accepting this. Let's hope that for this crisis, the rights of women and girls are central to Haiti’s reconstruction and development efforts.

Many links in the original post worth following for background and opinion. We should not be picking on Haiti at the country's lowest point, of course, but this is an issue that is bigger than any one country. When a people suffer, their women suffer most.