is there a general thread about the horrific violence against women in the news this last week?

[CheeseBored]

Just that really.
Sudanese woman sentenced to death for being a Christian.
Pakistani woman killed in honour killing.
And now two Dalit teenagers gang raped and then hanged (or did they kill themselves?)

Am reeling from it really and want to vent.

What is going on?

[CaptChaos]

They have been covered generally in a couple of other threads, but it's a good idea to have all of them in on lump of awfulness.

Vent away, you'll be in good, if appalled company.

[weatherall]

Tbh I'm finding it too distressing to watch.

[LoveSardines]

The news is horribly upsetting.

I have a thought that might help though.

I think that in the last 5 years or so there has been more media attention on "women's issues" (although frankly they should be people's issues shouldn't they it shouldn't be that only women are expected to care about stuff like in the OP and of course everyone cares). Anyway. i think we are seeing more of this in the media not because it is happening more, but because now it is being reported.

So from that perspective, at least if people know and there is outrage something is more likely to be done about it over time. Hopefully. the world is coming to accept that it is wrong to treat women and girls as second class citizens or worse.

[Greythorne]

Just chilling.
The news this week makes me fear for for daughters.

And makes me shudder when I read on other threads on the feminism board that there are mothers out there who worry for their sons' futures just in case one day they get accused of rape.

RIP all those girls and women killed this week at the hands of their families and the authorities.

[grimbletart]

It makes me incandescent with rage - and when you add to these specific acts the "missing women and girls" - through sex selective abortion, infanticide, not counting the the chucking acid over girls who dare to exist, FGM - I have to say that, for me, the word "culture" is one of my most hated words. It's their culture say the apologists. No - it's their ignorance and their lack of humanity mixed in with a hefty dose of misogyny bred by patriarchal societies. Plus of course stupid religious beliefs.

As for honour killings, my arse. Why do the media still refer to them as that? And no, even putting quotation marks round the word, does not make it better. Start calling them what they are - murder.

That's without mentioning the crap that still goes on in western societies either.

Yet turn to message boards, blogs and newspaper articles you find MRAs, some otherwise decent men, and God forgive them, even some women saying feminism has gone too far. The truth is that it has barely scratched the surface in most of the world and has made limited headway elsewhere.

[noddingoff]

Felt a bit sorry for the husband of the woman stoned to death by her family outside the courtroom in Lahore. Till he explained that he wanted to marry her so much, that he strangled his previous wife to get rid of her.

Feel like slapping the police who were contemptuous of the female journalists covering the rape and hanging of the Dalit girls, as in "What's your problem? Do you feel unsafe or something?" (no they are just shocked by human beings in their own country being raped and killed, and don't view the victims as nothing just because they were female and low caste).

Feel awful for the sister of the girl killed by acid burns from her parents (mummy and daddy helpfully explained the motive - that she looked at a boy on a motorbike- twice- and thus obviously deserved it and it was her "destiny" to die that way). Good luck to the sister growing up in that family...

For a subcontinent that has produced a lot of entrepreneurs, scientists and otherwise go-ahead enlightened people....jeez its attitude to women (and poor people) is fucked up.

The more I've read over the past 2 weeks the more I began to hope to discover that it's all some big internet fake designed to wind people up. But sadly, not.

Btw, what's with the acid? Do the honour-obsessed families just keep a vat of the stuff standing by to fling over the female members if they lift their eyes off the ground or push a head covering back past one ear? Or do they have to order it in specially? ("Oh yes, DD is grounded till Wednesday when the acid order arrives and we can burn her horrifically then")

[rosabud]

Out in the car earlier and the 1 O'clock News on Radio 4 consisted of:

1. Christian woman in Sudan sentenced to death and giving birth in shackles.
   
2. Body of missing Bounemouth nuse found, 2 men knwon to her arrested.
   
3. Girls raped and hanged in Pakistan.
   
4. Shirley Williams asking for closure on the Lord Rennard sexual harrassment allegations as he's apologised now and it was all blown out of proportion anyway. Isn't it the victims who are meant to look for 'closure'?
   

My 11 year old son was in the car with me so he got the full force of my ire. And they still haven't found those kidnapped Nigerian girls. And there was that American bloke shooting women for not going out with him.

But, calm down, dears we are listening to the distorted voice of feminism and taking everything out of context and none of the world's men can stand up and call for an end to this whole scale global violence because......because......answers on a postcard please, anyone?

[Greythorne]

Well said, Rosabud

[FloraFox]

I found it particularly shocking that the husband of the Pakistani woman who was murdered by her family had previously strangled his own wife so he could marry this woman and had paid off her family.

The depths of hatred towards women is astounding.

[LoveSardines]

He strangled his previous wife?

Jesus christ.

[scallopsrgreat]

Yes the poor woman was probably dead whichever way she turned.

The woman in Sudan is apparently going to be released. Thank fuck. However, I'll reserve my relief for when she's free and hopefully out of the country never to return.

It has certainly been a shit few days .

[FloraFox]

It's jaw dropping loves, isn't it?

[LoveSardines]

There was me thinking oh that poor man, but he's just a part of the problem isn't he.

FFS.

[meringue33]

Did anyone find out if the girls in India were murdered by their rapists or their family? The Observer put that in almost as an afterthought, after an article premissed on the bereavement of one father.

[HelenHen]

There were another couple of stories that shocked me.

In Texas a petty criminal gave birth in a jail cell on her own while guards and the nurse ignored her calls for help. The baby was born with cord around its neck and died waiting for the ambulance.

In Victoria, Australia, a mum complained that her daughter's armpits were shaved by her teacher without her permission as its on the school curriculum!

Its been a shocking and depressing couple of weeks

[scallopsrgreat]

Two women have been beheaded by their parter/ex-partner in London in the last two months. Truly gross violence that really does make a statement. Hope this is not going to develop into a trend.

[basgetti]

Another woman has been raped and murdered in India and had acid poured over her so she couldn't be identified.

An 15 year old girl in Mauritius has been gang raped by 38 men. 13 men have been arrested so far, including a father and his two sons.

All these cases on this thread are just horrific.

[HelenHen]

A father and his two sons? What the fuck?