Study finds rape-in-marriage horror

By Adrian Lowe via The Age
The author of a report which has revealed shocking details of rape within marriage in Victoria's north-east says she believes the problem is more widespread.

The report was launched today in Benalla and author Deb Parkinson told The Age she had been surprised at what the interviewed women had been through and the brutality some had endured.

Researchers from Women's Health Goulburn North East and the local Centre Against Sexual Assault, interviewed almost 80 people over a two-year period from across the region, including victims, community workers and police.

"We had suspected that partner rape happened from some previous research we'd done but the extent of it really quite shocked us,'' Ms Parkinson said. "I think that the community doesn't recognise that partner rape exists in that way.

"I don't think there's anything particular about here that's any different. There's certainly issues about rurality but I think a lot of the findings relate equally well to women in cities, like the effects on women - why women won't seek help, why they don't want to report. What's particular about rurality is that conservativeness that often comes with it.''

Researchers interviewed one woman whose back was broken while being anally raped and another whose husband hit her around the head and then held a pillow over her face while he raped her. A third raped his wife of six weeks.

One victim told researchers she reported her rape case to her church minister, who told her to pray about it.

"It wasn't just the rape, it was hitting and verbal abuse and theft and drugs. It was a text book abusive marriage. I said to them, 'What if he kills me first?' They said, `At least you'll go to heaven','' the victim said in her interview.

The interviewed women were uneasy about the research and questioned where the line was drawn between rape and "just getting it over and done with''. They also suggested "it's just part of the compromise'' and that "you don't feel like it, but you do it for him''.

Ms Parkinson said many women were not aware they had been raped until after the event, or when they were told that their partner's actions constituted rape.

During interviews, police said many men believed they had a right to have sex within their marriage and would not describe their actions as rape. "If they had to be 100% honest they'd say, 'I did take advantage of her, but stuff it, she's my wife, it's Saturday night','' one officer surveyed for the report said.

Ms Parkinson said rape within marriage was not recognised as a problem in the community because its attitudes had not caught up with the law.

"The law was changed in 1985 to say that rape in marriage is a crime, and it's a serious crime, but as a community we're still hung up on a sense of conjugal rights that a man has - his entitlement to sex from a wife and I think that across the community that people think you can't really have rape in marriage.''

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Our 5th major campaign to Break the Silence on Domestic Violence launches on Monday, and not a moment too soon. I hope we can educate our customers that any form of rape is a crime and any form of sexual abuse including partners pressuring, manipulating, tricking, forcing or blackmailing is an inexcusable violation of human rights and unacceptable in our community. We want friends of people in abusive relationships to do a lot better than the priest mentioned in this article!

~ Adam

UN classifies rape a 'war tactic'

From the BBC


Photo: More Altitude

The UN Security Council has voted unanimously in favour of a resolution classifying rape as a weapon of war. The document describes the deliberate use of rape as a tactic in war and a threat to international security.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said violence against women had reached "unspeakable proportions" in some societies recovering from conflict. The UN is also setting up an inquiry to report next June on how widespread the practice is and how to tackle it. Human rights group hailed the resolution as historic.

'Silent war'

The BBC's Laura Trevelyan said China, Russia, Indonesia and Vietnam had all expressed reservations during the negotiations, asking whether rape was really a matter for the UN security council. But the US-sponsored resolution was adopted unanimously by the 15-member Council.

It described sexual violence as "a tactic of war to humiliate, dominate, instil fear in, disperse and/or forcibly relocate civilian members of a community or ethnic group". The document said that the violence "can significantly exacerbate situations of armed conflict and may impede the restoration of international peace and security".

During the debate in the Council, Mr Ban said: "Responding to this silent war against women and girls requires leadership at the national level." "National authorities need to take the initiative to build comprehensive strategies while the UN needs to help build capacity and support national authorities and civil societies," he added. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the world now recognised that sexual violence profoundly affected not only the health and safety of women, but the economic and social stability of their nations.

Other speakers identified the former Yugoslavia, Sudan's Darfur region, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Liberia as regions where deliberate sexual violence had occurred on a mass scale.

Deterrent?

The former commander of the UN peacekeeping force in eastern Congo, Major-General Patrick Cammaert, told the BBC he personally witnessed its impact. "It's a very effective weapon, because the communities are totally destroyed," he said. "You destroy communities. You punish the men, and you punish the women, doing it in front of the men."

In the Democratic Republic of Congo alone, some 40 women are raped every day, our correspondent says. Sometimes women are even raped by peacekeepers who are supposed to be protecting them, she adds. The question is whether those in conflict zones who use rape in war will be at all deterred by the new measures, she says.

Learn More:

• Amnesty International's Stop Violence Against Women campaign
• Related UN News Centre Article

Silent Witness

We were stoked to receive the below report from LINKS one of the beneficiaries of our Stop Violence in the Home Small Grants scheme. A heartfelt congratulations to Karyl and her team on what looks like a very successful grass-roots awareness campaign!
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There was great excitement after receiving a phone call to say LINKS had been successful in The Body Shop – Stop Violence in the Home Funding Grant. Now we had the funding needed to produce the “Silent Witness” project, LINKS event for this year’s Reclaim the Night. There was a lot of planning and work to be done.

With the help of a local builder we ordered materials needed for the life size silhouettes; ply wood, posts brackets, bolts, paint etc. We then organized the hire of power tools and equipment necessary to cut out, put together and paint our thirteen silhouettes.

Senior Constable Mick Fleming, a member on the LINKS local collective was very helpful in supplying the statistics from January 1^st 2007 - October 17^th 2007. There were 13 homicides in NSW in relation to domestic and family violence.

A number of Nyngan High School students who were keen to be involved had already put together a folder full of art work and ideas they wanted to use for the “Silent Witness” project. Paint, brushes, canvases, easels, paper etc were quickly ordered.

Victim’s stories, statistics and statements in relation to domestic and family violence and some inspirational messages all had to be printed and laminated. Along with a list of support services.

Advertising had to be organized, articles for the local paper, posters to be made and flyers sent out.

All involved were running around asking our neighbors and friends for any old unwanted boots they may have lying around. We ended up with a lot of old and not so old boots. The kids had a great time painting these boots in bright colors and designs, some with ‘Give DV the boot’ and ‘DV is not 4 me’ messages painted on them.

Barnardos Reconnect youth worker Viv Cleaver, myself and students put in a huge effort over the next two weeks to get the “Silent Witness” project completed in time for Friday 26^th October Reclaim the Night.

Music playing in the background, a cake for morning tea, and a BBQ created a positive and happy environment for all participants.

Click on the below to check out more pics from the campaign:

Silent Witness

The following letter to the editor appeared in the Nyngan Observer, 11th November 2007:

Dear Editor,
Congratulations and thank you to the co-ordinators of the Reclaim the Night event held in Davidson Park Friday October 26. Karyl Skewpeck, Vivienne Cleaver, Police Representative and young people did a great presentation creating a visual message to give domestic violence the boot. The life size figures with their written stories were depressing, however the paintings with their hopeful messages gave positive thought for reflection, and the painted shoes and boots that bordered the path were wonderfully creative and colorful. It was great to see the arts in the park and to be inspired by their messages. The works created by young people were worth visiting. There are young people in our Nyngan community volunteering to make this a great place to live.

Thank you.
Betty Taylor

2007 Values @ The Body Shop Summary!

I'm sure I've missed bits... but these are some of The Body Shop Australia's achievements for 2007. I'm so stoked we can make such a meaningful difference to social and environmental issues at the local, national and international level!

• $21,658 raised for Staying Alive Foundation and 5,000 brochures distributed through our MTV HIV and AIDS 'Spray For Change' campaign.
• Sold 10,000 shower timers at cost and signed up 6,500 customers for climate change packs as part of our 'Spoil Yourself not the Planet' campaign with ACF
  
• $11,443 raised for UNIFEM through White Ribbon Day sales.
• $80,460 raised for Children on the Edge in East Timor through the sale of tri-massagers.
• Over $90,000 raised for Amnesty International through Christmas card sales.
• Volunteered over 4,500 hours to hundreds of grass-roots charities around Australia through our Community Projects program. That's the equivalent of 1.5 full-time staff members working free for a year!
  

Stop Violence in the Home campaign:

• Launched The Body Shop Australia’s survey of community attitudes, understandings and responses to abuse in relationships 2006 Report.
• Called for Small Grant Applications to distribute $100,000 raised from Daisy Soap sales. A panel of industry experts, TBS Staff and a young DV survivor selected and, disbursed funds to 13 grass-roots organisations working in the domestic violence prevention and care sector.
• Distributed 50,000 “Let’s Air It Out” booklet with stories from DV survivors.
• Collected 4,500 t-shirts with messages written about DV by staff and customers. Were exhibited in-store during the campaign. (plan to present them to the incoming Family and Community Services Minister in 2008).

In addition at our National Retail Support Centre here in sunny Mulgrave, Victoria we:

• Sponsored 15 orangutans from Borneo for four years.
• Sent five big boxes full of Christmas presents to Berry Street.

To all staff and customers involved in helping to make these achievements happen - a massive thank you. Happy New Year everyone, I can't wait to see what we can accomplish next year !!!

Adam Valvasori - Values Manager

A Walk to Beautiful

Last night a few staffers from The Body Shop including yours truly were lucky enough to attend the opening night of the first Australian Human Rights Arts & Film Festival at the RMIT Capitol Theatre in Melbourne. All thanks to our friends and partners Amnesty International.

We saw A Walk to Beautiful. It's the story of five women who suffer from devastating childbirth injuries and embark on a journey to reclaim their lost dignity.


I was deeply moved and outraged by this movie. These women are forced into marriage and sex and child birth when they are still just children. The lack of basic rural health services (or even roads in least developed countries like Ethiopia) means some women can't get to a nurse let alone a doctor or obstetrician to help them during child birth.

There's a high percentage of easily preventable miscarriages, still-births and even maternal deaths compared to develop countries. The movie focuses on the problem of obstetric fistula - a hole in the birth canal caused by prolonged labour without prompt medical intervention, usually a Caesar section. The woman is left with chronic incontinence and, in most cases, a stillborn baby. On top of the trauma of losing their baby, fistula causes the added psychological suffering of humiliation and social alienation.


The facts:

• The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates (but as this month's Gapcast on maternal health illustrates it could be a gross underestimate) 500,000 women actually die in childbirth every year.
• More than 2 million women live with fistula worldwide.
• In Ethiopia, there are 59 ob-gyns and 1,000 midwives for a population of 65 million.
• Number of patients treated at the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital every year: 1200
• Number of obstetric fistula cases occurring in Ethiopia alone each year: 9,000
• Number of new obstetric fistula cases resulting from childbirth occurring worldwide each year: 50,000-100,000
• More than 99% of The Fistula Hospital patients are illiterate. (The hospital teaches all patients the Amharic Fideles and the Oromiyffa alphabets.)

"Fistula is the single most dramatic aftermath of neglected childbirth"- WHO

How You Can Help:

• Get informed! Next time you're at the video store or the cinemas - challenge yourself to watch a human rights related movie like A Walk to Beautiful, Lost Boys of Sudan or Hotel Rwanda every now and again. Watch a movie - it's such an easy way to learn more, become passionate and motivated to change your life and the world.
  
• Go to the Human Rights Film Festival!
  
• Join the global Campaign to End Fistula - championed by 'our own' Natalie Imbruglia.
• Donate directly to the Worldwide Fistula Fund or Hamlin Fistula Hospital featured in the movie which was started in 1974 by a doctor couple from Adelaide.
• Be outraged about human rights abuses - not just when it involves a westerner (see the current British Teacher Jailed for naming a Teddy Mohammad controversy).
  
• Join Amnesty International

Adam Valvasori - Values Manager

NO Means NO Show

Photo: tanjila

Last Thursday I had the opportunity to attend the “NO Means NO Show", presented by the Centre Against Sexual Assault (CASA) and Absolutely Women’s Health through the Royal Women’s Hospital.

NO MEANS NO is an interactive theatre program with a “whole of school” approach that aims to prevent sexual assault and create a school environment where young people will feel safe to disclose sexual assault and receive appropriate support, information and options”.

Hilariously funny at times, with the No Means No message remaining strong throughout, the realness of the show and the interaction of the school student audience with a panel of experts was at times both confronting and revealing, as to just how real sexual assault is in the lives of so many.

This show was amazing and should be a compulsory component of all secondary schools.

your body = your choice

Deb Baxter - Values Coordinator

Domestic Violence & Culture Seminar

Jayalakshmi was burned by her husband who claimed she was cheating on him with another man. The acid thrown on her has ruined her life. Now she is a leading activist in the Campaign and Struggle Against Acid Attacks on Women (CSAAAW) in Bangalore. Photo: Scott Carney.

The Body Shop Values Team (Deb and I) were fortunate enough to attend a national seminar yesterday called Blaming & Reclaiming Culture:

The Role of Culture in Responding to Domestic and Family Violence.
It was a really great opportunity to learn about the role people's culture plays in domestic violence. The take home lesson is that domestic violence is a breach in people's universal human right to peace and security and so no matter where in the world you are or come from it's still WRONG!
However, a person's culture is the lens through which we see and live our life, so it's vitally important to consider it when designing education, prevention or shelter programs. We have to be careful not stereotype cultures and remember other contributing factors like class, wealth (or lack of wealth), religion, disability or geographical isolation.

What I found interesting is this problem of domestic violence in our society seems to be left up to women to fix. There were only a few men in the room. Danny Blay, Manager of No To Violence, the Male Family Violence Prevention Association which has a specific focus of working with men to assist them to change and end their violent behaviour. Danny said the rates of violence by men towards women is the same in Australia as in other countries.

Because culture is so integral to one's identity it seems to be good advice to challenge the behaviour not the man. Never justify violence - a behaviour- for an emotion (anger, stress etc). Finally, as the keynote speaker, Leti Volpp (Washington University) said: "They burn their women over there (referring to Bride Burning in India), well we shoot our women over here!" They're both shocking domestic violence related crimes and we should continue to campaign to end it no matter what the cultural background.

More:

• BBC Report on India's Dowry Deaths
• Islamic Women's Welfare Council of Victoria
• The Domestic Violence & Incest Resource Centre (DVIRC)
• The Immigrant Women's Domestic Violence Service (IWDVS)
  

- Adam Valvasori - Values Manager - The Body Shop

And the winners are...

Stop Violence in the Home is The Body Shop's international campaign to guide and support customers and employees to get active against domestic violence. We want to tell the world about this human rights scandal and work with governments to take action. We're proud to announce that over $100,000 is being granted by The Body Shop to the following organisations to help them fight domestic violence:

• Women's Council for Domestic & Family Services (WA)
  - Through Young People's Eyes: Photovoice project providing insight into young people's experiences of domestic violence.
• Australian - Arabic Palestinian Support Assoc (NSW)
  - Youth empowerment program aimed at at those of newly arrived / refugee backgrounds in Western Sydney.
• Carrie's Place Women & Children's Crisis Service (NSW)
  - Children & mother's healing camp.
• Traveller's Aid Society (Vic)
  - "Sanctuary" program service meeting the needs of young people escaping real or threatened abuse.
• Domestic Violence & Incest Resource Centre (Vic)
  - Funding survivors of domestic violence to attend and present at conferences, educating professionals on how to better identify and respond to victims.
• Immigrant Women's Domestic Violence Service (Vic)
  - A series of focus groups held in children's own language to talk about violence within the family and a multicultural publication based on findings of the group.
• Nardine's Wimmin's Refuge (WA)
  - Residential camp for women and children.
• Linking Women with Safety Across the Community (NSW)
  - Life sized silhouettes representing a homicide either directly or indirectly related to domestic / family violence.
• Hobart Women's Shelter (Tas)
  - Information & resources for children and young people staying at the shelter who have experienced Domestic Violence.
• Windermere Child & Family Services (Vic)
  - Program to take a high risk child (victim or perpetrator) through long-term support, enhancing opportunities to become a successful contributing member of society.
• Western Women's Domestic Violence Support Network (Vic)
  - Second and third stage of family violence project aimed at young people.
• Mount Isa Combined Action Team (Qld)
  - Educate young indigenous Australians about domestic and family violence.
• McCombe House (Tas)
  - Upgrading library resources for children and mums. Development of outdoor play area for children.

We're really looking forward to hearing how these grants have made a direct impact on the lives of young people affected by domestic violence. We'll publish photos, stories, drawings or anything here so you can actually see the difference our campaign has made.

Adam Valvasori - Values Manager - The Body Shop

Soap Stops Violence

In Fight Club they made soap to finance violence and mayhem. Today I had the privilege to observe the opposite - a dedicated panel deciding how the proceeds of 30,816 Daisy Soaps* will be used to prevent Domestic Violence.

The panel included: passionate staff from The Body Shop, experts from Domestic Violence community organisations such as C.A.S.A House and WESNET, and Angela Barker, herself a survivor of domestic violence. Angela's story has helped warn thousands of students through the government's 'Australia Says No' campaign documentary.

The Body Shop was thrilled to receive over 90 applications. In the end, twelve different organisations around Australia were selected to receive grants of between $1,000 and $10,000, each had great ideas to raise awareness to prevent domestic violence or help victims.

So if you're interested in how your soap has helped protect young Australians from domestic violence stay tuned... and the winning organisations and their proposals will be published here soon.

* The Daisy Soaps had the added benefit of containing our Community Trade ingredient - Shea Butter which is fairly traded from the Tungteiya Women’s Group in Ghana.

- Adam Valvasori - Values Manager - The Body Shop