Media Diversified
Foregrounding marginalised voices
‘Reviewing media coverage of violence against women and children, we’ve found an overt victim blaming tone in many of the news reports. Men are described as being unable to ‘help it’. They are ‘driven to it’. They kill their children (and sometimes themselves) and it is a ‘tragic isolated incident’. They murder their children and it is because of a ‘difficult divorce’. They rape children because she was ‘drunk’ or ‘out at 4am’ and so ‘asking for it’. They rape girls who are so drunk that they cannot stand up, yet these men claim sex is consensual. There are so many excuses that we’ve read recently – none of them considering that the abuser has choices. All the choices are around women (and children) behaving differently in order to avoid being abused.’ via http://everydayvictimblaming.com/ Twitter: @EVB_Now
by Chimene Suleyman We are not allowed to feel concern for three young girls who have joined a horrifying terror group. There must be no unease around three minors who have made such a horrible decision that it is their lives — not ours — that will be traumatised. That capacity you have for humaneness:… Read More
by Judith Wanga In yesterday’s Independent online The Evening Standard’s restaurant critic and ex-Guardian soap opera reviewer, Grace Dent, gave us the gift of her deep understanding of wider society, this time opining that the teenagers in the news who have left the country, apparently to join ISIS in Syria, should not be allowed to… Read More
by Rubab Zaidi She woke up next to him every morning with a terrible feeling in the pit of her stomach, dreading what the day would bring. He would wake up every morning making every effort to not even look in her direction. She’d watch him with his back towards her and wonder what she… Read More
by Rubab Zaidi Recently hashtags related to domestic violence were trending on Twitter, #WhyILeft and #WhyIStayed, asking women to come forward with their stories about why they chose to leave or stay in an abusive relationship. I thought it was incredibly brave of people to tell their stories like that – something I have not… Read More
by Jesse Bernard Being a black man over the past couple of weeks has been interesting, as it always is. I’ve stood in solidarity with the citizens of Ferguson, Missouri – both virtually and in a march at Notting Hill Carnival. There is a long history of black women leading movements for change and the… Read More
Honour-Based Violence is part of a spectrum of violence against women that all too readily has become associated with certain cultures. Drawing from her research and activism Dr Aisha K. Gill *[1] tackles the racialisation of HBV and women’s complicity with it Violence against women and girls (VAWG) committed in the name of ‘honour’ is attracting increasing attention around the world.… Read More
by Antoinette Scott My Dearest Son, “DON’T TELL YOUR DAUGHTER NOT TO GO OUT. ASK YOUR SON TO BEHAVE AND RESPECT” When I read these words on a campaign placard pictured on the Southall Black Sisters (SBS) website, I felt compelled to learn more about the group. As I read on, I started wondering whether… Read More
The Noise of the Unsaid by Amna Iqbal Trigger warning: The article contains interviews with anonymous victims of child sexual abuse, framed by the writer’s own story following her previous article on being raped. I was about eleven when my mother asked me in hushed whispers if what my little brother said was true. He… Read More
by Greta Solomon The unspoken practice of female genital mutilation is undermining efforts to create safe motherhood in the developing world. Amber (not her real name) was officially welcomed into her Ethiopian community at the age of eight, when her mother pinned her down and instructed a professional circumciser to slice off her genitalia. Battling… Read More
by Amna Iqbal The difference between noise and sound; the former numbs your senses and the latter makes you listen. ‘Rape’ – The word is noise. Cloaked in the din of a media screaming match, the word has been stripped off the anguish, the trauma, the physical and mental scars that it engenders. And here lies… Read More
Media Diversified 
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