How Women in Kenya Mobilized for Peace After Surviving Violence

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How Women in Kenya Mobilized for Peace After Surviving Violence

Women are rarely represented adequately at peace negotiations yet they make up half the population of any country in conflict or at war. This remains the case despite increasing global policy awareness on how women are affected by conflict and the importance of including them in peace and security processes. For instance, the UN’s landmark framework on women, peace and security reaffirms the important role women play in the prevention and resolution of conflicts.

Women’s contributions are also underscored in African peace instruments like the Maputo Protocol and Kenya’s National Action Plan.

But how do women in conflict actually engage in peacebuilding? There is considerable academic literature on the links between gender and peace but the lived experiences of women peace builders are not well captured.

The Escalation of Anti-Abortion Violence Ten Years After Dr. George Tiller’s Murder

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The Escalation of Anti-Abortion Violence Ten Years After Dr. George Tiller’s Murder

By Jill Heaviside & Rosann Mariappuram. First published on Rewire.News

As we mark the tenth anniversary of the assassination of Dr. George Tiller, it is incredible to think that, just over a month ago, Republican Sen. Ben Sasse was really asking how “the pro-life position is in any way violent.”

Violence has been a central tenet of the anti-abortion movement since before the U.S. Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade. As activists have sought control over the reproductive freedom of millions of people—particularly women of color, low-income women and families, and queer, gender-nonconforming, and transgender communities—they have used violence as a tactic of control, abuse, and fear across the United States.

Dr. Tiller was Wichita’s only abortion provider for 40 years and was known for his deep commitment to trusting women and their families’ reproductive health decisions. Because of his work, Dr. Tiller was a target of many anti-abortion groups; before he was killed, he survived a clinic bombing and a prior shooting.

Dr. Tiller’s murder wasn’t an isolated incident. Anti-abortion extremists have killed at least 11 people since the 1990s. Their violent history includes the first recorded murder of an abortion provider, Dr. David Gunn, in 1993, and the 2015 shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, which claimed three lives and injured nine people.

India: How #MeToo Is Battling Gender-based Violence

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India: How #MeToo Is Battling Gender-based Violence

India: How #MeToo Is Battling Gender-based Violence

The #MeToo campaign has provided a gateway for Indian women to vocalise the “enough is enough” message and seek justice. Some have referred to it as revolutionary. Sadly, the reality is that the majority of women who have encountered harassment will not – or cannot – come forward and voice their stories of victimisation.

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Why Sierra Leonean Women Don’t Feel Protected By Domestic Violence Laws

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Why Sierra Leonean Women Don’t Feel Protected By Domestic Violence Laws

By Luisa T. Schneider, Postdoctoral research fellow, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. First published on The Conversation

Sierra Leone has a long history of sexual and gender based violence, dating back to the colonial era and stretching into the years of independence which began in 1961. The country’s civil war, which raged between 1991 and 2002, brought international attention to the high levels of violence against women.

In this way, Sierra Leone is similar to many young democracies in Africa with a violent history; it struggles with patriarchal attitudes and high levels of violence against women and girls.

After the war, several legal changes were made to try and address this kind of violence. One was the Domestic Violence Act, ratified in 2007. It criminalises all forms of violence – physical, sexual, emotional and economic — against women and outlines strict punishments for perpetrators.

In A Time Of Turmoil, Dr. Mukwege's Nobel Peace Prize Is A Heavenly Gift For Us All

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In A Time Of Turmoil, Dr. Mukwege's Nobel Peace Prize Is A Heavenly Gift For Us All

Introduction from Anne: Professor De Reus considered the humanitarian righteousness of awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Congolese physician Denis Mukwege in 2015, a tremendous honor that was not his that year.

AOC has a decade-long history of writing about the courageous vision of Dr. Mukwege and the horrific challenges faced by women of the Congo. To awaken on October 5, 2018 and read that Dr. Mukwege and activist Nadia Murad, a Yazidi woman once taken captive by ISIS, were sharing the 2018 Nobel prize was truly good news at a stressful time in America and around the world.

I met up with Professor De Reus in my own East Coast backyard and also watched her TEDx Talk featured at the end of her article. If you don’t know about Dr. Mukwege and his Panzi Hospital, Lee Ann De Reus shares an excellent 2015 overview.

Women In-Depth
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Just Why Does the Rape Of Women & Children Worldwide Continue?

Raping Women Worldwide

What does one say about a question in South Africa’s national school-leavers’ drama exam in which students are asked to direct a rape scene? South Africa’s Education Department defended their action in which they were asked to maximize the raping of a baby, using a broomstick and loaf of bread as props.

“Nowhere is it expected of the candidate to have to literally describe the actual act of raping a nine-month-old baby,” responded the department in a statement, arguing that the exercise was aimed “at assessing the pupils’ concept of using metaphor as a theatrical technique.”

“By the time pupils are in [the final year of high school], they have begun to be faced with the realities of adulthood, often beyond the security of their homes and the school system. They will, through media and cinema, have been exposed to many horrific images and reports,” spokesman Elijah Mhlanga said. He pointed out that high school seniors are well informed about child rape in South Africa. 

South Africa is a world leader in the raping of women and children. Just a day or two after newspaper headlines blazed with the test question, a six-week-old baby girl from Galeshwe township, west of the diamond-mining town of Kimberley, was raped by her 24-year-old uncle.

South African playwright Lara Foot wrote a play ‘Tshepang’ about the 2011 rape of a 9-month-old girl. Pressured for a response to the drama school test question, Foot released a statement saying it was “totally inappropriate and frankly appalling. Given the history and statistics of rape in this country, it is imperative that the matter is dealt with, but dealt with sensitively and responsibly.”

Tracking the rape of women worldwide is a key focus of Anne of Carversville. Charlize Theron joins a list of other prominent women and men, including Angelia Jolie and Eve Ensler, who for years have dedicated themselves to stopping the brutal rapes of women, children and men.

Charlize Theron for Dior

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Angelina Jolie Opens Girls School in Afghanistan | Jolie Visits Congo Women Ahead of G8 Meeting | Texas Title 10 $

1. Angelina Jolie opens Afghanistan girls school. Angelina Jolie inspired me to start writing AOC and she is a muse in many ways to the development of our content and philosophy. Jolie’s latest project is a school for girls she opened in Afghanistan, funding it with profits from her new Style by Jolie jewelry collaboration with Robert Procop.

The girls-only primary school is located just outside of Kabul, in an area known for resistance to educating girls. 

“The beauty of these creations is matched by the beauty of spirit behind Angelina’s most heartfelt mission — to empower children in crisis…For me it’s an honor to have the opportunity to be a part of creating this line with Angie, as we both believe every child has a right to an education.”

2. Angelina Jolie lends voice to DR Congo rape victims. On March 26, Angelina Jolie joined British Foreign Secretary William Hague in his efforts to raise commitments of G8 countries to tackle rape and sexual assault in war zones. Jolie and Hague are calling on the G8 to agree that rape and sexual violence constitute breaches of the Geneva Conventions governing warfare, as well as a new international protocol on the documentation and investigation of the issue.

“More often than not the international community looks away, the perpetrators of these brutal crimes walk free and the cycle of injustice and conflict is repeated. We have to shatter this culture of impunity,” Hague said.

Read our extensive writing about women in the Congo. 

3. Hamas seeks to educate girls separately from boys. Palestinian boys and girls in Gaza should be educated at separate schools if a new Hamas-proposed law takes effect. The new policy is more symbolic than functional, since most older children are already educated in single-sex schools. Of greater concern is that the law is another example of Hamas flexing its muscle on its insistence on a strict, traditional interpretation of Islam.

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Book | 'Dancing in the Glory of Monsters' Examines War in Congo

Book | ‘Dancing in the Glory of Monsters’ Examines War in Congo AOC Shop

Jason Stearns, author of Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa, says that Congo should be ranked with Germany, Russia and China as one of the great vortexes of recent human violence.

In 2009 CNN estimated that 200,000 women in Congo have been raped. Jason Stearns, who is widely praised for thoroughly covering this story from every angle and after endless interviews in the region where he worked for the UN, writes 500,000 women have been raped.

In February Vagina Monologue, feminist playwright lady Eve Ensler opened City of Joy Academy, saying:

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Congo General Kibibi Sentenced To 20 Yrs For Raping Women

Beyond the Veil| We are incredulous to learn that an open-air military tribunal in eastern Congo has actually convicted Colonel Kibibi of ordering the rape, pillage and plunder of the New Year’s Day rampage in Fizi.

ABC News Australia reports that Kibibi is the most senior Congolese military officer ever to be charged with mass rape — a huge problem for women of the Congo — and sentenced to 20 years in jail. Eight of Kibibi’s subordinates were also found guilty, receiving sentences between 10 and 20 years.

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Vagina Lady Eve Ensler Opens City of Joy Academy in Congo

Feminist playwright Eve Ensler has a new strategy to help Congolese women who suffer limitless sexual violence, being raped in ritualistic and sadistic ways by the armed groups of the eastern Congo.

Tired of a focus on the UN, reforming the Congolese military, giving yet more aid dollars and pushing harder to regulate so-called conflict minerals to cut off the revenue supply to rebels, Eve Ensler is taking a new approach.

“You build an army of women,” she said. “And when you have enough women in power, they take over the government and they make different decisions. You’ll see. They’ll say ‘Uh-uh, we’re not taking this any longer,’ and they’ll put an end to this rape problem fast.” via NYTimes

This weekend Eve Ensler opened her new home base in Congo City of Joy, as a campus where most of the women are rape victims. Her learning academy where only 180 women will learn skills, self-defense, trades and farming coupled with trauma therapy sessions and dance hopes that these women will return to their villages with skills and confidence.

The NYT reports that when City of Joy opened on Friday, hundreds of women, most rape victims, wore black T-shirts that read, “Stop the rape of our most precious resource.” Some danced with shovels and trowels used to build City of Joy.

Most important, the government that has done nothing to stop the rape of women in Congo sent a large delegation.  On Saturday, the women crowded around Eve Ensler before she left, honoring her with a wooden carving of mother and child.

“Why did you accept to carry us? We will never leave you to the end.”

The stories of women in the Congo are absolutely heartbreaking, as they endure a life of extraordinary cruelty. We have many stories and video of these beautiful women of the world in more of Anne’s writings below.

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Billions Invested | Nothing Gained by UN | Rape of Congo Women Continues Unabated
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Congo Rape Update | US Business Will Certify Dealings In 'Conflict Minerals'
Beyond the Veil | We have good news and bad news about the rape of women in the Congo. The devastating news is that over 150 women were gang-raped in the village of Ruvungi, in North Kivu by members of the FDLR, known as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda. The women were raped in front of children and family by two to six men, in what represents an alarming escalation in using the rape of women as weapons of war.
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New Savage FDLR Rapes of Congo Women Accompany US Reforms

Pro FDLR blog at LakeMediaBloody Escalation in Gang-Bang Rapes of Congo Women

At least 179 Congolese women were gang-raped by a mob of Hutu rebels during a weekend raid on a community of villages in eastern Congo. The events represent a new escalation of rape in the Congo, already considered the rape capital of the world.

Stefania Trassari, a spokeswoman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said Sunday that the attacks represent a new escalation of violence in the area because of the large number of victims and the fact that they were simultaneously gang-raped. (via NYTimes)

On the evening of July 30 armed men entered the village of Ruvungi, in North Kivu province, telling the population not to worry about their presence. After dark another group of 200 to 400 men arrived and began to systematically rape the population.

Most women were raped by two to six men at a time in front of children and othr family members. This further humiliation often accompanies rape in the Congo. According to Trassari, the numbers of rape victims are escalating, climbing to the latest total of 156. There is no reason to believe that more victims won’t come forward.

The FDLR, known as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, which began as a gathering of fugitives of the Rwandan genocide in 1994, has grown into a resilient and savage killing machine and an economic engine in the region.

In investigating the role of ‘conflict minerals’ being used to finance gang rape in Africa and specifically in the Congo, The Guardian reports that the Obama administration and Congress included Section 1502 in the recent financial reform package.

Much of the sexual violence in the Congo is directly related to control of conflict minerals, where rape has become a war tactic.

US Government Enacts Reforms Around Congo’s Conflict Minerals

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Nicholas Kristof Reports on Women in Congo

Nicholas Kirstof is reporting from The Congo, writing critical words for thinking people: Sometimes I wish eastern Congo could suffer an earthquake or a tsunami, so that it might finally get the attention it needs. The barbaric civil war being waged here is the most lethal conflict since World War II and has claimed at least 30 times as many lives as the Haiti earthquake. via NYTimes

The Congo is also high on our radar. 

I left this comment on Kristof’s blog:

Your work and reporting are so valuable Kristof. The lack of comments confirms your key point of how this tragedy among women in the Congo just can’t penetrate our radar.

I wrote another Congo post this week, inspired by the London Times piece on Dr. Denis Mukwege, Director of Panzi Hospital. Following up on Eve Ensler’s UK website, she’s advancing the idea that we make the Congo problem a ‘blood diamonds’ campaign.

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Question for Roman Polanski Petition Signers: Is Rape Due to Duress Also OK in the Congo?

Emma Thompson’s name will be removed from Roman Polanski’s petition this week, says Jezebel.

This is a correct move on Ms. Thompson’s part.

With a long and illustrious history of work on women’s issues, significant numbers of Emma Thompson’s fans were dispayed when she signed a petition, calling for Polanski’s release.

Especially for people supporting the criminalization of sex trafficking and numerous other women’s rights issues in nearly every country in the world, a suggestion that Roman Polanski get a pass on a crime to which he pled guilty is confusing, unsettling and indefensible.

Our readers expressed equal discomfort over Penelope Cruz’s signature on a Polanski-related petition. The first petition is housed on French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy’s website. The second petition, claiming to reject the manner of Polanski’s arrest in Switzerland, is an industry SCAD petition.

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APROSAF Midwives in Congo Fuel Lifesaving Rescues with Briquettes
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Secy State Hillary Clinton Sends Message to Women of Congo
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Janine Zacharia of Bloomberg News Sets PBS Guys Straight on Hillary and the Congo Interview

Last night wasn’t a shining spotlight for three male journalists on “Washington Week in Review”. Gwen Ifill was off.

Nor was the week a glowing one for male journalists generally — at least not in their coverage of Hillary Clinton and women’s rights abuses.

Atrocities against women in the Congo carried little interest with the guys, who make up the majority of onscreen journalists. (Note, most women bloggers weren’t interested either.)  I’ve tried to help you with the story.

I’m a regular “Washington Week in Review” watcher, and all I can say is thank goodness for the journalistic integrity of Bloomberg News Janine Zacharia, who walked the extra mile for Hillary, in the old boy’s network, last night.

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Lynn Nottage and Lisa Jackson's HRW Podcast on Women in Congo
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Women in the Congo: Imagine This Is Your Life As Hillary Clinton Visits Goma

America’s Secy of State Hillary Clinton is in DR Congo today, pleading for Congolese women, trapped in hellish lives beyond anything we Western women can imagine.

Women in the Congo: Imagine This Is Your Life

The sexual atrocities committed against women in South Kivu extend beyond rape, into sexual slavery, forced incest and cannibalism. These atrocities come at the hands of rebel groups, often those who fled to Congo after taking part in the Twandan genocide of the 1990s.

After being raped, women are sometimes shot or stabbed in their genital organs and forced to eat excrement or the human flesh of murdered relatives.

As reported in our first post on women in Congo, rape is now institutionalized as a tactic of war. In the report released on March 7, 2009 by Human Rights Watch, combatants on both sides of the civil war are committing atrocities.

Having been raped these women are frequently and “justifiably” abandoned by their husbands. Bearing the stench of incontinence, they are often ostracized by their villages. Unable to bear children, they lose their primary value as mother or wife. Keep in mind that a woman who admits to being raped bears the stigma of it for the rest of her life. She exposes herself and her children to abandonment by her husband. If she is unmarried, admitting lost virginity makes it nearly impossible to find a husband, which is essentially the only way to make a place for herself in Congolese society.

The Congolese Family Code requires women to obey their husbands who are recognized as the head of the household, even when the women are a major, if not sole source of support, for the family. Women and girls are also subordinate by custom and practice. A woman’s status depends on being married and girls tend to marry at a young age.

Women are humiliated with rape in the Congo, typically shunned socially after the incident.I will never browbeat the readers of Anne of Carversville on caring about these international crises in women’s rights. Although I’ve followed these issues my entire life, I honestly had no idea that the situation is this bad, in places like DR Congo. There is nothing more for me to say. The atrocities against women speak for themselves.

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Girl, 9, One of 200,000 Congo Women Rape Victims, Shares Her Story to CNN

American Secy of State Hillary Clinton is in DR Congo today, meeting with women who have been raped.

Congo women featured at The Wamba Family FoundationBy all accounts, DR Congo is one of the worst places in the world to be a woman or girl,” says Anneke Van Woudenberg, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch who has spent the last 10 years focusing on Congo. “These are often soldiers and combatants deliberately targeting women and raping them as a strategy of war, either to punish a community, to terrorize a community or to humiliate them.”

CNN reports on Eugene, Oregon based Sherrlyn Borkgren, leaving her day job as a wedding photographer and freelance journalist, to travel to eastern Congo after receiving a ShootQ Grant, awarding her $10,000 to pursue a project that raises awareness on important global issues.

Reviewing Borkgren’s website, she has a history of activist photography.

Borkgren met a young woman in Congo, a girl initially reporting that she was 15, when “they got me”. In truth she was 9 years old.

More rape in Congo facts,  reported in the CNN story:

* Most times the women are raped by at least 2 perpetrators.

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Harvey Weinstein Arrested On Friday Morning & Now Under Arraignment In Manhattan

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Harvey Weinstein Arrested On Friday Morning & Now Under Arraignment In Manhattan

Disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein is pictured by New York Magazine, arriving at a lower Manhattan police station early Friday, turning himself in to face a series of charges related to his aggressive sexual tactics with women.

Weinstein was immediately arrested, the NYPD confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter and then charged with rape, a criminal sex act, sex abuse, sex abuse and sexual misconduct for his behavior with two women. Arraignment will happen later today. 

A statement released by the NYPD thanked "these brave survivors for their courage to come forward and seek justice". 

France Reflects On Having No Age Of Sexual Consent, Even For A 10-Year-Old Girl Legally Raped In Many Countries

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Writing for The Atlantic, Marie Doezema zeroes in on a case in France involving an 11-year-old girl. one that 50 years later has sparked a moment of moral and legal reckoning. The event happened in April, 2017, when a 28-year-old-man met an 11-year-old girl in a park in Montmagny, a small town of 14,000 people in northern France. 

After congenial conversation with her that involved no coercion, the man said he would be happy to show the young girl how to kiss. She did go home with the man, and it's not clear from reading the reports when the girl showed the man her schoolbooks to establish her age. The victim says she did; the accused insists that she did not. 

“She thought … that she didn’t have the right to protest, that it wouldn’t make any difference,” the mother told Mediapart, a French investigative site which first reported on the allegations of the case. The accusations were of an adult raping a child—a crime that, in France, can lead to a 20-year prison sentence for the perpetrator when the victim is 15 or younger.

Facts are that the case was not proceeding towards a rape charge.  Initially, the man was charged with “sexual infraction,” a crime punishable with a maximum of five years in jail and a €75,000 fine. Under French law, a charge of rape requires “violence, coercion, threat, or surprise,” even if the victims are age 11 or 12, as the girl in the Montmagny case.

“She was 11 years and 10 months old, so nearly 12 years old,” defense lawyer Marc Goudarzian said. Sandrine Parise-Heideiger, his fellow defense lawyer, added: “We are not dealing with a sexual predator on a poor little faultless goose.”

Angelina Jolie & John Kerry Talk Women's Rights & Environmental Action In ELLE US March 2018

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Angelina Jolie & John Kerry Talk Women's Rights & Environmental Action In ELLE US March 2018

Superstar Angelina Jolie sits down with former US secretary of state John Kerry to talk March 8, International Women's Day in the March 2018 issue of ELLE US. In truth, they spend as much time talking environmental issues as women's rights, although the two intersect in so many ways. As guest editor of the March 2018 issue of Vogue Australia, Emma Watsonmakes the same point: women suffer more than men as a result of climate change.

At age 42, Angelina Jolie has devoted herself to shedding light on women’s rights and violence against women around the world. Jolie serves as a goodwill ambassador and special envoy to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, where she’s completed nearly 60 field missions, including visits to Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq. As cofounder of the British government’s Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative, Jolie's met with rape survivors in Rwanda and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Nigerian Girls Raped By Boko Haram Are Now Raped By Nigerian Security Forces 'Protecting' Them

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Nigerian Girls Raped By Boko Haram Are Now Raped By Nigerian Security Forces 'Protecting' Them

While my self-appointed Grade A feminist friends (note that I have been demoted) obsess with the injustice against the wonderful supporter of women Sen. Al Franken, who resigned yesterday, my own focus today is the dreadful lives of these poor Nigerian girls. (And beating Roy Moore in Alabama) First these innocent young girls were kidnapped from their schools and raped repeatedly for three years by Boko Haram terrorists. Many have babies. And now, having escaped to a Nigerian camp where they are supposed to be safe, these girls are being raped by the men who are supposed to protect them.

Al Franken is a fine, fine, fine man. But I object to him becoming the face of women's rights injustice against men, when women of every age are suffering around the world -- and here in America -- because we do not have body autonomy of ANY KIND. Life is not 'fair' for billions of people around the world. And it's not "fair" at all for these young women.

Angelina Jolie Criticizes UN Peacekeepers For Not Tackling Global Violence Against Women

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Angelina Jolie Criticizes UN Peacekeepers For Not Tackling Global Violence Against Women Art of Living

Angelina Jolie remains one of the strongest voices for women worldwide, and she did not hold back in addressing the UN Peacekeeping Defense Ministerial Conference in Vancouver on Tuesday with her keynote speech.

“Sexual violence is everywhere – in the industry where I work, in business, in universities, in politics, in the military, and across the world,” she said during her keynote address on Wednesday. “All too often, these kinds of crimes against women are laughed off, depicted as a minor offense by someone who cannot control themselves, as an illness, or as some kind of exaggerated sexual need,” she continued. “But a man who mistreats women is not oversexed. He is abusive.”

NYPD Taking Paz de la Huerta's 2010 Rape Claims Against Weinstein Very Seriously, Saying They Would Arrest Him In New York City

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NYPD Taking Paz de la Huerta's 2010 Rape Claims Against Weinstein Very Seriously, Saying They Would Arrest Him In New York City

Actor Paz de la Huerta accused Harvey Weinstein of two instances of rape earlier this week, alleging that twice in 2010 he forced himself on her. Although the events happened seven years ago. An important factor in the investigation of Paz de la Huerta's claims is documentation provided by her therapist, who provided a letter outlining her memories of the sessions devoted to the alleged assaults by Weinstein. TIME reports that another individual has corroborated parts of the story, and additional subpoenas have been issued.

Wall Street's Howie Rubin Named In $27 Million Lawsuit Alleging Extreme BDSM Brutality & Rape

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WALL STREET TYCOON HOWIE RUBIN AND HIS WIFE, HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL ALUM MARY HENRY. THE COUPLE MARRIED IN 1985 AND HAVE THREE CHILDREN.

Wall Street's Howie Rubin Named In $27 Million Lawsuit Alleging Extreme BDSM Brutality & Rape

Well-known Wall Street portfolio manager Howie Rubin was named in a $27 million Brooklyn federal lawsuit filed Thursday. The New York Post broke the story in which Rubin, the legendary big shot featured in best-selling books 'Liar's Poker' and 'The Big Short', is charged with engaging in brutal sex with women paid between $2,000 and $5,000 per session. 

The lawsuit alleges that the three plaintiffs -- including two Playboy Playmates -- allege that Rubin, the married father of three, gagged, tied up and viciously abused them in an $8 million penthouse in Manhattan's Metropolitan Tower with a side room fitted with ropes, chains, sex toys and other BDSM equipment. 

“I’m going to rape you like I rape my daughter,” Rubin barked during one of the alleged assaults.

In one session, he beat one of the women’s “breasts so badly that her right implant flipped,” the papers state. The former Bear Stearns trader paid her $20,000 to repair the damage.

Education Secy Betsy DeVos Announces Plans To Revise Title 9 Sexual Assault On Campus Rules

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Education Secy Betsy DeVos Announces Plans To Revise Title 9 Sexual Assault On Campus Rules

US Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced changes Thursday to an Obama-era directive regarding sexual-assault allegations on campus. Speaking at George Mason University in Virginia, DeVos said “The truth is that the system established by the prior administration has failed too many students." She pledged to replace the “failed system” with a “workable, effective, and fair system” that addresses the needs and rights for both sexual-assault victims and the accused.

“Every survivor of sexual misconduct must be taken seriously. Every student accused of sexual misconduct must know that guilt is not predetermined,” she said.

Leaving the current rules in place for now, DeVos said that a public comment period would open soon, in order to craft new rules. 

“We will seek public feedback and combine institutional knowledge, professional expertise, and the experiences of students to replace the current approach with a workable, effective, and fair system,” DeVos said.

Jordan Votes To End Its Marry Your Rapist Law | Will The Philippines Take Action Also?

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WOMEN CALLING FOR THE REPEAL OF A LAW IN JORDAN ALLOWING RAPISTS TO ESCAPE PUNISHMENT IF THEY MARRY THEIR VICTIMS STOOD OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT IN AMMAN ON TUESDAY. CREDITREEM SAAD/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Jordan Votes To End Its Marry Your Rapist Law | Will The Philippines Take Action Also?

Jordan's Parliament joined voted Tuesday to revoke a law allowing rapists to escape criminal prosecution if they marry their victims. Such laws are widespread in the Arab world as well as in the Philippines, a majority Catholic country, and have served benefit rapists for centuries. 

Proponents of the marry your rapist laws contend that they protect the female and her family from the shame of rape. Such sexual assault aggression against women is deemed to be her fault in societies where a family's honor is deeply linked to the chastity of its women. 

Bill Cosby Set To Educate Young Men About Charges Of Rape For A Simple Touch

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Just read these words. Does Cosby sound like he is a member of the alt-right? Cosby is launching a full-frontal, Trump-like assault on women, suggesting that a brush of the shoulder with a woman could get you on trial for rape. This is truly disgusting.

Looking marvelously better than during his trial, disgraced comedian Bill Cosby is hitting the road, playing the role of victim.

“Mr. Cosby wants to get back to work,” Andrew Wyatt, a spokesperson for Cosby, told a local Fox affiliate in Alabama on Thursday. “We are now planning town halls.... We’re going to talk to young people, because this is bigger than Bill Cosby. This issue can affect any young person, especially young athletes of today. And they need to know what they're facing when they’re hanging out and partying, when they’re doing certan things that they should be doing. And it also affects married men.”

Angelina Jolie Premieres 'First They Killed My Father' in Cambodia, Writes NYT Op-Ed on Refugees, Supports Turkish Series On Refugee Family

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Angelina Jolie Premieres 'First They Killed My Father' in Cambodia, Writes NYT Op-Ed on Refugees, Supports Turkish Series On Refugee Family

On Saturday February 18, Angelina Jolie traveled with her children Maddox, 15, Pax, 13, Zahara, 12, Shiloh, 10 and eight-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne to Siem Reap, Cambodia for the première of her new film 'First They Killed My Father' based on the memoir of close friend Loung Ung. 

Jolie, whose eldest son Maddox was adopted in 2002 from an orphanage in Battambang, Cambodia gave a free public screening of the memoir-based drama. The Netflix film tells the story of the war time experiences of Angelina's friend Loung Ung, a Cambodian author and human rights activist, who survived the Khmer Rouge regime. Jolie has co-written the screen adaptation with Ung and acted as producer as well as director the film.

Floodgates Of Sexual Aggression Open Against Donald Trump As Women's Stories Substantiate Trump's Own Words

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Floodgates Of Sexual Aggression Open Against Donald Trump As Women's Stories Substantiate Trump's Own Words

The final weeks of America's 2016 presidential election present a fast ride in which his "shackles have been taken off." As millions of Americans -- and especially American women have tweeted in the last week, our memories of sexual abuse, including firmly delivered sexual aggression and rape were unleashed listening to Donald Trump's Billy Bush video released last Friday by The Washington Post. 

Yesterday, the floodgates opened and rumors are that other women are coming forward. 

More stories about Donald Trump's sexism, misogyny and accusations of sexual aggression on AOC Front Page.