ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – It’s time to shatter the silence around violence against women in the Kurdistan Region. That’s the message of an exhibit that opens Monday in Erbil and is both a memorial to the women killed in 2019 and a tribute to the people working on the front line helping Kurdistan’s women.

“We don’t talk about rape. We don’t talk about honour killing. We don’t talk about violence, because it’s taboo,” explained artist and activist Dashni Morad, the driving force behind the HERStory exhibition.

That taboo comes from the culture, Morad believes. “For decades, especially in an Islamic-dominated region… the honour of the woman is the honour of the family, the brother, the father.” If a woman does something deemed damaging to the family’s honour, “there’s an unspoken code of ‘take care of it’” and the community will turn a blind eye to the crime, she said. 

A Birmingham uncle has been jailed after trying to force his niece into a marriage in Pakistan – where she was “kept prisoner” for over a year.

The victim, now 21, was ubjected to savage beatings at the hands of her relative and one occasion had a gun put to her head.

She eventually managed to flee from Pakistan after she was clandestinely smuggled back to the UK.

The 55-year-old uncle, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was previously found guilty of arranging a forced marriage and two charges of cruelty.

He was today sentenced to seven years in jail.

Data from 11 frontline services shows forces failing to use legal powers, says group

Police are “systematically failing” to protect victims of domestic and sexual violence, according to campaigners in the second super-complaint made to a national watchdog.

The Centre for Women’s Justice (CWJ) has accused police forces of failing to use existing powers to deal with domestic abuse, harassment, stalking and rape.

In a super-complaint to HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, the group makes four key claims focusing on bail for rape suspects and failures linked to non-molestation, domestic violence and restraint orders.

“Centre for Women’s Justice has become concerned that the various legal measures intended to provide protection to women are not being applied properly on the ground,” the document says.

“This super-complaint addresses four legal powers available to the police in detail and explores the extent to which, and the reasons why, they are not being used adequately. When all the failures are taken cumulatively, CWJ believes that there is a systemic failure to meet the state’s duty to safeguard a highly vulnerable section of the population.”

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/mar/20/police-failing-to-protect-and-abuse-victims-says-super-complaint

Domestic abuse victims will receive a wide range of new measures to protect them in what ministers say will be landmark legislation.

New laws will for the first time create a legal definition of domestic abuse, to include economic abuse and control.

The long-awaited legislation will also ban abusers from cross-examining victims in family courts.

Campaigners say the measures are a “once in a generation” opportunity to combat the impact of abuse.

Government experts estimate domestic abuse cost society £66bn in 2016/17 and it’s hoped the changes will improve the response.

The draft bill going before MPs will also:

• Create new powers to force perpetrators into behaviour-changing rehabilitation programmes
• Make victims automatically eligible for special protections when they are giving evidence in criminal trials
• Set up a national “domestic abuse commissioner” tasked with improving the response and support for victims across public services
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46939735

Campaigners tell Sky News a “massive burden” has been lifted, after Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt intervenes.

Victims of forced marriages brought back to the UK will no longer be asked to take out a loan to repay the cost of their rescue.

A woman who was found on fire in a garden is being treated for life-threatening burns after neighbours came to her aid.

Neighbours said they wrapped the woman in cling film after putting out the flames.

Cleveland Police said they were called to the incident on Acklam Road in Middlesbrough at about 12:40 GMT.

A man is also in hospital with serious burn injuries although they are not life-threatening, a spokeswoman said.

One man, who did not wish to be named, told BBC Tees he heard shouts for help.

“My neighbour was on fire in a garden,” he added.

“Me and my other neighbours helped put her out.”

The man said they also put out a fire in the house and he reported seeing a canister on fire.

Horrible’

He said another neighbour, who is a first-aider, “did the majority of putting her out” before wrapping cling film around the woman.

The neighbour said the pair were “completely covered in burns” and had “very serous injuries”.

“It was horrible to see,” he added.

The woman was taken to James Cook University Hospital before being transferred to the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle.

The man is being treated at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough.

A police spokeswoman said officers are working to determine the cause of the injuries.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-46201239

A Derby man who murdered and tortured his partner at their home was today jailed for life and must served at least 32 more years in prison.

Atual Mustafa murdered Sohbia Khan at their home in Pear Tree Crescent in Normanton.

On Tuesday, a jury needed just 45 minutes to convict him.

The court heard that, after Mustafa met “confident, intelligent, bubbly” Ms Khan, originally from Bradford, he “lured” her to live with him in Derby.

But, he became controlling and then subjected her to “domestic violence on a savage scale”, inflicting horrific injuries which eventually killed her.

He was today sentenced by high court judge Mrs Justice Sue Carr at Derby Crown Court to life in prison and must serve 32 more years as a minimum. She sentenced him to a minimum term of 33 years but went on to explain that he had been in jail on remand for 339 days so his final minimum term was 32 years and 26 days.

https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/derby-news/derby-murderer-atual-mustafa-sentenced-1527480

Ms Khan, founder of forced marriage and honour based violence charity, the Halo Project, said: “The world can feel different, depending on your gender – gender can affect how safe we feel, where we go, what job we feel able to apply for and other people’s expectations of us.

“The challenges around gender stereotypes and inequality limit all of us and puts pressure on us to conform to outdated, traditional values which are out of sync with todays Wales.”

Former chief crown prosecutor for North West England, Mr Afzal, added: “This is the first stage in a campaign to raise awareness of the underlying reasons for violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence, in order to challenge those ideas and behaviours and help build a society which does not tolerate these abhorrent acts.”

For more information or to join the conversation about stereotypes, search for or post under the #thisisme hashtag on social media platforms.

http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/15903286.Campaign_launched_to_tackle_gender_stereotypes_and_prevent_abuse/

As Welsh Women’s Aid marks 40 years of campaigning to end violence against women, Sarah from Monmouth reveals how living with an abusive partner made her question her own sanity.

It sounds such a cliche, but when I first met my ex-partner, he was the perfect gentleman.

We were friends for two years, having met through our young children. Both widowed, both lonely. Everyone, including family, thought it a perfect idea that we get together and, in October 2009, we did.

By the January we were engaged, and four months later, we went on our first holiday abroad with the children.

But while we were there, he saw me talking to an elderly man, and afterwards, back in the hotel room, he hit me for the first time, accusing me of spending too much time with him.

I was stunned, of course.

I said: “You will never do that again to me”, and the next morning, caught a taxi to the airport with my daughter to catch a plane home.

But there was a cruel twist of fate.

Due to a technical failure at check-in, all flights had been cancelled that day.

So instead of fleeing, I returned to the resort.

When he realised, he wooed me, apologising so profusely that It was impossible not to forgive him.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-42779339