niyad
niyad's JournalAbortion Bans Are Empowering Abusive Men--and Prominent 'Pro-Life' Activists Are Representing Them (trigger warning)
Abortion Bans Are Empowering Abusive Men—and Prominent ‘Pro-Life’ Activists Are Representing Them (trigger warning)
5/8/2024 by Jill Filipovic
Murder is a leading cause of death for pregnant women. The anti-abortion movement wants to hand more power to abusive men anyway.
Anti-abortion activists (including a monk from the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal) are confronted by abortion rights protesters in front of a Planned Parenthood clinic on June 3, 2023, in New York City. (Robert Nickelsberg / Getty Images)
This story originally appeared on Jill.substack.com, a newsletter from journalist, lawyer and author Jill Filipovic.
The way abortions bans are designed and written allow for all kinds of horrors: women losing their organs, women bleeding out without help, women losing their lives. But they’re also written to empower abusive men. After all, the very foundation of an abortion ban is an assumption that a woman’s body does not belong to her. Abusive men agree.And so it’s perhaps not a huge surprise that several men have indeed taken advantage of these laws in an effort to control their ex partners. And it’s also not particularly surprising—although it is appalling—that they’ve found support and legal representation from some of the most powerful people in the U.S. anti-abortion movement.
One man in Texas sued his wife’s friends for allegedly helping her to get abortion pills (she was trying to leave him, saying that, duh, he was abusive); Jonathan Mitchell, an anti-abortion lawyer who wrote the Texas abortion bounty law and also represents president Donald Trump, represented him. Another Texas man murdered his girlfriend after she traveled to Colorado for an abortion. And now, a third Texas man found out his ex-girlfriend was planning to travel out of state to end her pregnancy, and he also hired Jonathan Mitchell to help stop her. Mitchell has splashed her name all over public court filings, and even though she has not actually broken the law—since traveling out of state for an abortion is perfectly legal—he’s seeking to depose her and any of her “accomplices” in what can only be described as a blatant campaign of harassment and abuse, on behalf of an nauseatingly controlling man.
. . . .
In the United States, it is legal to cross state lines for medical care, including abortion. But the anti-abortion movement wants this long-standing legal allowance to end. The Texas woman who planned to leave the state for an abortion no more broke the law than a person who lives in New Jersey but goes to the doctor in New York. Abortion opponents, though, want to make abortion a special category—and by extension, want to make pregnant women a subcategory of citizen who are, unlike everyone else, disallowed from seeking healthcare in places where it is perfectly legal.
. . . .
The ideology that underlies this abuse is both insidious and common—and it underlies the anti-abortion movement more broadly. The idea seems to be that, by impregnating a woman, a man has laid claim to her body, and has ownership over it. Should she remove the pregnancy, she hasn’t just made a choice that involves her and a fetus or embryo, but she has violated his rights—his right to have her body used for the end he desires. This is the logic of the anti-abortion movement, of every rapist everywhere, of every abusive man. And so it’s no wonder that the anti-abortion movement is going to legal bat for these abusers, as they also write abortion laws without rape exceptions and use the law not to protect children, but to punish women.
*********It’s not about protecting life. It’s just about abusive misogyny. And these cases could not make that truth more clear.*********
https://msmagazine.com/2024/05/15/meet-the-anti-feminist-womens-group-leveraging-their-independence-to-convince-americans-to-vote-republican/
Meet the Anti-Feminist Women's Group Leveraging Their 'Independence' to Convince Americans to Vote Republican
FUCK ALL THE GODDAMNED WOMAN-HATERS!
(disturbing, important read)
Meet the Anti-Feminist Women’s Group Leveraging Their ‘Independence’ to Convince Americans to Vote Republican
5/15/2024 by Ansev Demirhan
The anti-feminist Independent Women’s Voice/Forum, backed by billionaires and anti-abortion zealots, is poised to use its leaders’ identities as women to convince voters that the GOP will protect Americans’ rights and freedoms.
Kellyanne Conway, former advisor to former President Donald Trump, previously sat on IWF/Vs board. (Drew Angerer / Getty Images)
The anti-feminist Independent Women’s Voice/Forum (IWF/V) has officially launched its 2024 election agenda. An internal fundraising document provided to True North Research shows one way it is putting that agenda into action is by continuing to try and blunt the horrific repercussions of the Supreme Court overturning Roe, while deploying their veneer of independence to sway centrist and independent voters. The document details a two-phase plan and a budget that is almost twice the amount it proposed in its 2022 midterm fundraising documents, as reported by The Washington Post. Despite claiming to take no position on abortion, IWF/V launched a PR campaign ahead of the 2022 midterms—the first election cycle following the Dobbs decision—which included advertising trying to convince younger women that reproductive rights were less important than other issues the group listed.
One way IWF/V’s agenda for this election cycle stands out from its previous midterm action plan is its emphasis on reassuring women that access to contraception is not in jeopardy—despite key voices in the anti-abortion movement making it clear otherwise. The group is a member of Project 2025, a MAGA blueprint that includes detailed plans to attack contraception access, promote the rhythm method, deploy the CDC to increase “abortion surveillance” and data collection and much more. IWF/V also has a long history of undermining contraception access, though the group has a talking point about supporting over-the-counter availability of the contraception pill.
. . . . . .
IWF’s Ties to Anti-Abortion Power Brokers
IWF/V has received more than $6.8 million in funding from Leonard Leo, the anti-abortion powerbroker who engineered the Supreme Court capture, and his network since 2014. IWF/V’s legal arm, the Independent Women’s Law Center (IWLC) recently filed a lawsuit against the Biden Administration for making Title IX more inclusive. The law firm representing them is Consovoy McCarthy. One of the firm’s partners, Tyler Green, is one of only three trustees listed for the Marble Freedom Trust—a $1.6 billion trust given to Leonard Leo in 2020 by anti-abortion billionaire Barre Seid. IWF/V also played an active role in supporting Supreme Court nominees that were hand-picked by Leo, aiding in his engineered ‘Court capture.’ They helped ensure Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court and viciously attacked Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, the Stanford psychologist who credibly accused Kavanaugh of attempted sexual assault, even though Kavanaugh denied it. IWF/V’s leader, Heather Higgins, even took credit for teaching Senator Susan Collins and FOX how to navigate the Kavanaugh controversies. IWF also rallied behind Amy Coney Barrett during her nomination process, including staging an “I’m with Her” event outside of the Supreme Court.
Additionally, Erin Hawley, of Alliance Defending Freedom fame—the legal team responsible for creating the Mississippi legislation that ultimately allowed the Supreme Court to overturn Roe—was on staff at IWLC at the same time she was working to eliminate federal protections for abortion access. IWF/V, backed by billionaires and anti-abortion zealots, is poised to use its leaders’ identities as women to convince voters that the GOP will protect Americans’ rights and freedoms, like access to birth control and the ability to choose if and when to have children. IWF/V’s past positions, the known agendas of their funders and their membership to Project 2025 belie their true intentions.
Lisa Graves, director of True North, and Alyssa Bowen, director of True North’s Equality Project, contributed to this story.
https://msmagazine.com/2024/05/15/meet-the-anti-feminist-womens-group-leveraging-their-independence-to-convince-americans-to-vote-republican/
Kazakhstan jails former minister for 24 years over wife's torture, murder (trigger warning)
Kazakhstan jails former minister for 24 years over wife’s torture, murder (trigger warning)
United Nations says about 400 women die from domestic violence in Kazakhstan each year, but many cases go unreported.
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Kazakhstan's former Economy Minister Kuandyk Bishimbayev attends a court hearing in Astana [File: Turar Kazangapov/Reuters]
Published On 14 May 202414 May 2024
Warning: This article contains details of violent domestic abuse that some may find upsetting.
Kazakhstan’s top court has sentenced a former economy minister to 24 years in prison for torturing and murdering his wife, following a widely watched trial that many saw as a test of the president’s promise to strengthen women’s rights. Kuandyk Bishimbayev, 44, was found guilty and sentenced by the Supreme Court on Monday. His trial, which has been broadcast live over the past seven weeks, has been seen as an attempt by authorities to send a message that members of the elite are no longer above the law.
Surveillance footage played during the trial showed Bishimbayev repeatedly punching and kicking his wife, 31-year-old Saltanat Nukenova, and dragging her by her hair, near naked, into the VIP room of a restaurant owned by his family in Astana. As she lay dying in the suite with no security cameras, covered in her blood, Bishimbayev phoned a fortune teller, who assured him his wife would be fine. When an ambulance finally arrived 12 hours later, Nukenova was pronounced dead at the scene. Videos were also found on Bishimbayev’s mobile phone in which he insulted and humiliated the visibly bruised and bloodied Nukenova in the hours before she lost consciousness on the morning of November 9 last year.
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This June 2017 photo provided by Aitbek Amangeldy shows a selfie taken by his sister, Saltanat Nukenova, in Astana [Courtesy of Aitbek Amangeldy via AP]
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has said he wants to build a fairer society including improved rights for women. The case has helped rally public support behind a law criminalising domestic violence, which parliament passed last month. Days after Nukenova’s death, her relatives launched an online petition urging authorities to pass “Saltanat’s Law” to bolster protection for those at risk of domestic violence. When the trial began, more than 5,000 Kazakhs wrote to senators urging for tougher laws on abuse, according to local media reports. Government data show that one in six women in the Central Asian nation has experienced violence by a male partner. According to the United Nations, about 400 women die from domestic abuse in the country each year. These figures could be higher as many cases go unreported.
. . . .
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Kuandyk Bishimbayev, the country’s former economy minister, is escorted into court in Astana, Kazakhstan. [File: The Kazakhstan Supreme Court Press Office Telegram channel via AP]
Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/5/14/kazakhstan-jails-former-minister-for-24-years-over-wifes-torture-murder
I am going to present a little, true, story about clerks/cashiers and counterfeit money.
Many, many years ago, when I was in Lake Tahoe, there was a counterfeit ring that started operating at one point. Casinos were always handy targets, because of the LARGE amounts of cash that flowed through them. Several stories ran in the papers about these counterfeit bills, including pictures of some of the bills. .in black and white, on newsprint. A few days later, there were follow-up stories. . .about the newspaper pictures of those bills showing up in cash registers in the area. People just shook their heads.
A number of years later, in Reno, still another counterfeit ring hit those casinos. The cashiers I trained never got a counterfeit bill, because I had drilled them in what to look for, and how to generally have the counterfeiters avoid you. (no, mickey mouse is NOT on the $20, and Harrison Ford is NOT on the C-note!). Of course, I also trained them in the various scams that the scumbags try to pull on cashiers.
I am guessing that some things don't change very much. Are cashiers/clerks even trained in these basics these days? It would be interesting to see just how many people were affected by this little sleazoid's disgusting scam. May he reap all the consequences.
Saudi Arabia is rebranding itself as a moderate country, but what's the truth? Just ask our female activists
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/16/saudi-arabia-moderate-country-travel-ban-crime-womens-rights#img-1Women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 2021. Photograph: Ahmed Yosri/Reuters
Saudi Arabia is rebranding itself as a moderate country, but what’s the truth? Just ask our female activists
Lina al-Hathloul
Lina al-Hathloul
My sister Loujain has been placed under a travel ban and lives in constant fear of arrest. She is one of many
Saudi Arabia is rebranding itself as a moderate country, but what’s the truth? Just ask our female activists
Lina al-Hathloul
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/16/saudi-arabia-moderate-country-travel-ban-crime-womens-rights#img-1
Tue 16 Apr 2024 08.00 EDT
Last modified on Fri 19 Apr 2024 09.39 EDT
Saudi Arabia is rebranding. Since 2016, when it first announced plans to diversify its economy, it has poured billions into making the kingdom appear more progressive to outsiders. Women can now drive and work in jobs they were previously banned from. Vast sums are being invested in futuristic, architectural “gigaprojects”, such as the Line – a sprawling, desert supercity – to attract global tourism. And yet, inside the kingdom, its citizens tell a very different story. Against a backdrop of image-building projects, thousands of Saudi citizens, according to some reports, could be being blocked by the state from leaving the country with arbitrary and illegal travel bans. Their crime? Advocating for basic human rights. Among them is my sister, Loujain al-Hathloul. Loujain is a prominent Saudi women’s rights defender who led the campaign against the ban on women driving and tirelessly campaigned for the abolition of the male guardianship system.
Loujain’s brave and outspoken activism was met with repression by the Saudi authorities. In March 2018, she was abducted from the streets of the United Arab Emirates and forcibly brought back to Saudi Arabia. Once on Saudi soil, she was placed under an illegal travel ban and forbidden from leaving the country – only to be arrested arbitrarily a few months later. Her charges explicitly mentioned her human rights work, and my sister was tried under counter-terrorism legislation in the specialised criminal court (SCC), routinely used as a tool to muzzle civil society. Loujain was released from prison in February 2021 under strict conditions, including being barred from leaving the kingdom. Her travel ban was supposed to end, after nearly three years, on 13 November 2023. Yet, in February of this year, well after the expiry of the ban, Loujain was told that she remains under a permanent travel ban with no expiry date. The authorities have never provided any justification, and continue to ignore our inquiries.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/16/saudi-arabia-moderate-country-travel-ban-crime-womens-rights#img-2
The Saudi women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul on a video call with her sister Lina. Photograph: Lina al-Hathloul
This is the case not just for Loujain, but for our entire remaining family in Saudi Arabia, who found out in 2018 that they too were prohibited from travelling, without reference to any judicial ruling – and have been unable to resolve the issue since. These blatant violations of the right to freedom of movement are in direct contradiction of international law as well as Saudi Arabia’s own legal framework. Living in Saudi Arabia under a travel ban is to live in a constant state of fear, as we know the modus operandi of the authorities. Usually, as was the case with Loujain, the kingdom bans someone from leaving and then, later, they arrest them. I live in Brussels, and I haven’t seen my family in more than six years. Every day, when I wake up in the morning, I have to check whether my family is still safe. I miss them and wish I could have the opportunity, like everyone else, to go back to Saudi Arabia to see them. But I know I would be trapped there too if I were to go back.
. . . .
This is a systemic issue that will not go away by itself. Despite outward shows that the kingdom is becoming more progressive, the Saudi authorities routinely employ arbitrary travel bans as a tool of repression. As a result, individuals are deterred from engaging in human rights work for their own safety and that of their relatives. Since such travel bans lack legal basis, there is no way to formally appeal them. Those affected are not notified and only find out about the restrictions when attempting to travel outside the kingdom. They are unable to pursue their personal goals or visit family members abroad. As Saudi Arabia seeks to rebrand itself on the world stage as an increasingly moderate power, we must not ignore the glaring hypocrisy of the government promoting tourism while denying its own citizens the fundamental right to freedom of movement. The international community must hold Saudi Arabia to account for its egregious human rights violations – and not let sportswashing and celebrity partnerships distract from what life is truly like for the kingdom’s citizens. It is high time for Saudi Arabia to open itself up not only to tourists but also to the voices of its own people. Until then, the facade of glittering progress will remain just that, masking a harsh reality of repression and injustice.
Lina al-Hathloul is head of monitoring and advocacy at ALQST for Human Rights. She is co-author of the book Loujain Dreams of Sunflowers. Foz al-Otaibi, who also contributed to this article, is a social media influencer and a women’s rights activist who was indicted by the Saudi government for her social media activity and is now living in exile
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/16/saudi-arabia-moderate-country-travel-ban-crime-womens-rights
Female journalists under attack as press freedom falters
(Interesting that we do not hear about the woman journalist,Alsu Kurmasheva, also held in ruzzia, as we do about her male counterpart)
(there are videos at the link below that I cannot embed)
Female journalists under attack as press freedom falters
Annie Kelly
Physical and online abuse, detentions, deportations and sexual violence – a global crackdown on women in journalism is intensifying
Supported by
guardian.org
About this content
Mon 6 May 2024 08.32 EDT
Last modified on Mon 6 May 2024 08.33 EDT
https://www.theguardian.com/media/article/2024/may/06/female-journalists-under-attack-as-press-freedom-falters#img-1
Female journalists are at the “epicentre of risk” as attacks on press freedom intensify around the world. According to organisations representing women in journalism, the past year has seen an escalation of smear campaigns; racist and gendered attacks; detentions; deportations; censorship; and police violence levelled at female journalists, which is leading to a “chilling” silencing of women’s voices in the media landscape. Kiran Nazish, the founder of the Coalition for Women in Journalism (CFWIJ), said: “We have seen a crackdown on women journalists in the past year from Poland to Bangladesh to Nigeria, Turkey, Canada and the US, as political will in maintaining press freedom declines. “Women and non-binary journalists are on the frontline of an increasingly hostile environment and are most at risk,” she said.
Nazish pointed to multiple examples of individuals targeted in the past year. In Iran, the country that jails the most female journalists, Parisa Salehi became the latest to be imprisoned, receiving a five-month sentence after being convicted of “spreading propaganda against the system” in connection with her reporting.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/article/2024/may/06/female-journalists-under-attack-as-press-freedom-falters#img-2
Perihan Kaya, a Kurdish journalist in exile in Switzerland, faces imprisonment in Turkey on terrorism charges. Photograph: Courtesy of Women Press Freedom
. . . .
Referring to the dystopian, patriarchal state depicted in The Handmaid’s Tale, Prof Julie Posetti, director of research at the Washington-based International Center for Journalists, said the rollback of women’s rights across the world, coupled with the political targeting of journalists and media organisations is, was creating a situation “close to Gilead in terms of digital and real-world threats facing women working in the media combined with the global assault on women’s rights happening in parallel. Women journalists sit at an epicentre of risk across the world.”
Posetti co-authored a global report for the UN on the online threats facing female journalists in 2021. “Five years ago, we looked at the storm of online harassment, threats and intimidation that women are facing online and this has only continued with the weaponisation of social media and artificial intelligence, and there is now no boundary between the offline and online world, where attacks in the digital space are now equally as present in the real world,” she said. “We’ve seen how these experiences are seeing women moving away from public-facing roles, pulling back from on-air positions or removing bylines, or leaving journalism entirely.”
. . . .
https://www.theguardian.com/media/article/2024/may/06/female-journalists-under-attack-as-press-freedom-falters#img-3
Indian journalists in Agartala protest in support of Palestinian journalists. Three in four female journalists have experienced a threat to their safety. Photograph: Majority World/Universal/Getty
. . . .
https://www.theguardian.com/media/article/2024/may/06/female-journalists-under-attack-as-press-freedom-falters#img-5
Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American editor for the US government-funded Radio Free Europe, at a court hearing in Kazan, Russia, last month. She is accused of spreading ‘false information’ as a ‘foreign agent’ in a case seen as part of the Kremlin’s crackdown on free speech. Photograph: AP
. . . .
“In Russia, a Russian-American journalist, Alsu Kurmasheva, is locked in a five-metre cell and has been more than six months without hot water,” she said. “Her children haven’t heard from her since her unlawful detention. “During this time, we have pushed our advocacy to the White House along with other advocacy groups. Alsu’s case – from her detention to the response from her government to support her release – is symbolic of what women journalists around the world face. “Our greatest concern is that, added to this growing environment of threats and detentions, advocacy organisations like us face no support from democratic institutions, and the very citizens that these women risk their lives for look away when they are targeted.”
https://www.theguardian.com/media/article/2024/may/06/female-journalists-under-attack-as-press-freedom-falters
"Boys Will Be. . . ." Sandy and Richard Riccardi
(The poster next to Albanese (in my OP about Australia) reminded me of this song from Sandy and Richard Riccardi, two of my favourite people)
Australia's Albanese declares 'national crisis' after killings of women (trigger warning)
(I cannot embed the videos, but you can watch at the link at the bottom)
Australia’s Albanese declares ‘national crisis’ after killings of women (trigger warning)
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Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese joins a rally to a call for action to end violence against women [Lukas Coch/AAP Image via AP Photo]
By Al Jazeera Staff
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has branded domestic violence a “national crisis” amid an outcry over the rise in the number of killings of women by their intimate partners, and pledged action to tackle the issue, including new funding to help survivors as well as a crackdown on misogynistic online content. The measures, announced on Wednesday, came after tens of thousands of Australians rallied across the country, including in the cities of Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth, demanding the government declare the issue a national emergency. The protests were prompted by a wave of violence that campaign groups say has seen one woman killed every four days this year as a result of domestic violence. They also followed a stabbing attack in Sydney in April, during which a knife-wielding assailant killed six people at a busy mall. Five of his victims were women, and police said it was “obvious” that the attacker was targeting women.
Here’s what you need to know about the issue.
How dangerous is Australia for women? Campaigners called the weekend rallies following a week in which three women were killed, allegedly by men known to them. This included Molly Ticehurst, a 28-year-old mother who authorities say was murdered by her former boyfriend, weeks after he was granted bail following his detention on charges of raping and stalking her. In total, some 28 women have been killed this year by their current or former partners and members of their family, according to the campaign group Destroy the Joint.
The figure is almost double the number killed in the same period last year, according to public service broadcaster ABC.
Video Duration 06 minutes 51 seconds 06:51
Samantha Bricknell, research manager at the Australian Institute of Criminology, told the ABC that recent data suggested an increase in violence against women, with the rate of women killed by an intimate partner increasing by 31 percent from June 2022 to June 2023. Some 34 such murders took place in that period compared with the same period a year earlier, when 26 women were killed. The increase defied a longer-term downward trend in Australia. “What we’re really interested to see going forward … is, is this a sustained increase? That’s something that Australia needs to be worried about,” Bricknell told ABC. “More recent data suggests that it is going up, but hopefully we’ll see that that slight uptick turns around and continues to decrease.”
Video Duration 25 minutes 20 seconds 25:20
What kind of action is the government promising?
Following the cabinet meeting, Albanese announced that his government would invest 925 million Australian dollars ($599m) over five years to provide financial support to women and children trying to escape violence. Those eligible for the Leaving Violence Program will be able to access up to 5,000 Australian dollars ($3,300) in financial support along with referral services, risk assessments and safety planning, a government statement added. The national cabinet also unveiled new measures to tackle factors that it said exacerbated violence against women, “such as violent online pornography, and misogynistic content targeting children and young people”. These steps will include legislation to ban deepfake pornography and additional funding to pilot age assurance technologies, it said in a statement. The cabinet also pledged to explore options to improve police responses to high-risk and serial perpetrators. It added that ministers will meet again in three months to discuss progress.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/5/2/australias-albanese-declares-national-crisis-after-killings-of-women
Sexual Assault Awareness Month: Silenced No More (trigger warning)
Sexual Assault Awareness Month: Silenced No More (trigger warning)
Gwendolyn Comai | April 29, 2024
VA NOW President Lisa Sales stands for survivors at the SAAM press conference.
On Wednesday, April 24th, survivors and activists gathered outside the Alexandria Federal Courthouse for a press conference organized by Lisa Sales, President of Virginia NOW, to raise awareness about the continued prevalence of sexual violence during Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Speakers included Vice Mayor of Alexandria Amy Jackson, 56th Speaker of the VA House Eileen Filler-Corn, VA Delegate Mark Sickles, NOW President Christian Nunes, Policy Director of the VA Sexual & Domestic Violence Action Alliance, Jonathan Yglesias, author of “Harasshole” Lisa Bowman, attorney Da Hae Kim from the National Women’s Law Center, Feminist Majority Foundation President Eleanor Smeal, Kendra Sutton-El from Birth In Color, Bobbee Cardillo from Zonta USA, Joanie Hunn from the National Council of Jewish Women, Myra Smith-Jones, Representative for NAACP – Virginia, Susanna Gibson, founder of MyOwn, and Galina Varchena from Birth In Color.
During her remarks, Ellie Smeal emphasized the urgent need for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), especially to combat gender-based violence. With 1 in 3 women experiencing sexual violence in their lifetime, the ERA would provide a crucial guarantee of sex equality in the Constitution and enable Congress to take decisive action. In 2000, the Supreme Court ruled that the Violence Against Women Act cannot grant victims of gender-based violence the right to sue their attackers in federal court. The Supreme Court held that Congress did not have the authority to enforce this provision and, therefore, it was unconstitutional. However, the ERA would provide survivors this civil right to pursue justice in federal court. The legal system’s reliance solely on law enforcement to address sexual violence is evidently not enough.
To show the reality of these structural inadequacies, many speakers shared poignant accounts of sexual assault and harassment, including Lisa Bowman and Lisa Sales, both of whom bravely came forward with their stories despite facing severe backlash and a challenging legal system. Bowman recounted her experience at United Way, where she faced sexual harassment from a male colleague and was subsequently terminated for speaking out, despite following company policy and properly reporting the incidents to HR. Bowman was pushed out of United Way, while her harasser received a promotion. Bowman announced at the press conference that she is suing United Way for $12 million in damages. She has also published a book titled “Harasshole,” detailing her ordeal and the retaliation that followed. Sales shared a similar story of retaliation after her traumatic experience. She was assaulted in 2011 by her tenant Dmitry Mikhaylov, enduring severe injuries and multiple surgeries, while Mikhaylov served only a month in prison. In 2021, Sales spoke out about her assault and was subsequently fired by her employer. Sales has been fighting for justice for over ten years.
Despite an estimated 1 in 6 women being assaulted in the U.S. annually, only 5% of cases are reported, making rape the most underreported crime. Factors such as victim blaming, fear of retaliation, and the traumatic reporting process contribute to survivors choosing not to come forward. “Cases of sexual assault and harassment are not isolated, but are emblematic of normalized rape culture and permissive silencing of women,” Sales said. “It isn’t any wonder why victims choose not to report, to stay silent, but we are here today to say: We will not be silent.”
https://feminist.org/news/sexual-assault-awareness-month-silenced-no-more/
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