Speakers for 2010

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Anna Travers
Mothers Against Violence
Cath Elliot
Trade union and feminist activist, blogger
Eleanor Lisney
Disability Awareness in Action
Jennifer McDermott
Cassandra Learning Centre
Judith Adorkorach
CARE International, Northern Uganda
Leila Parnian
8 March Women's Organisation (Iran-Afghanistan)
Michelle Daley
Trainer and consultant in disability equality and diversity issues
Patsy McKie
Mothers Against Violence
Suswati Basu
Student, writer, activist
Vivienne Hayes
Women's Resource Centre

To find out more about each speaker, click on their name.

Cath Elliot, trade union and feminist activist, blogger

Sisters, I bring you greetings today from the women of Unison, the UK's largest public service trade union. For those who don't know, Unison has more than 1.3 million members; and with just over a million of those being women members, with women making up over two thirds of the union membership — we are in fact the biggest women's organisation in Western Europe. And I'm proud to say we've been supporting Million Women Rise since its inception in 2008. Indeed, many of us are here today, and we'll be here with you next year, and the year after that, and the year after that, marching with you in solidarity, our voices united with yours in calling for, no demanding, an end to violence against women.

Sisters, as some of you know, I had my own personal experience of male violence recently, just a few months ago, when my oldest daughter, who unfortunately wasn't able to make it here today, but who sends her support and her love, was attacked in her workplace by a man she'd never met before. Physically assaulted by a random stranger, by a man who suddenly came from nowhere while she was busy working away in a public library and who decided, that on that day of all days, with my daughter stood in front of him, that it was his right to exercise his power, that it was his right to let off a bit of steam, to exercise his temper, on the body of a young woman he didn't even know.

I'm so relieved to be able to tell you that she's fine. And I'm pleased to tell you that the perpetrator of the assault, despite his defence council trying to minimise what he'd done by saying, and I quote: 'It's not the most vicious assault you would ever see,' I'm pleased to say that the perpetrator was convicted and sentenced for what he did. To 7 days in prison.

But as some of you may also know, I'm a writer. And when this happened to my daughter I wrote about it on my blog. I let out on there what I like to think of now as a howl of rage. And I said

'It wasn't meant to be like this.

We were supposed to build a better world for our daughters. A safer world. A nicer world. We were supposed to change the world, so that when our daughters stepped out into it they wouldn't have to be afraid. They wouldn't have to know the fear that so many of us have known.

We were supposed to stop the rape and the murders and the sexual assaults and the physical assaults and the forced marriages and the sexual exploitation and the domestic violence and the FGM and the so-called honour crimes. We were supposed to make it right for all the women and girls who came after us.'

And I ended it by saying

'But we've failed.'

And I know that that was just my own frustration coming out, my own sense of failure, that as a mother I hadn't been there, or been able to protect my own daughter. That as a mother, despite all my years of campaigning against and speaking out about violence against women, when it came down to it, I hadn't managed to make the world a safer place for my children.

But I also know that I'm just one person, and no one person alone can change the world. No one person alone can stop the violence.

You won't be surprised to hear that when I wrote all that I was then inundated with responses. Women from all over contacted me, via email, Facebook, Twitter, and on my blog. And I wanted to share with you today one of those messages. It was from our very own Sabrina Qureshi. Sabrina read about what had happened and she emailed me, and in her email she wrote:

'I promise I won't rest till this violence against us and our loved ones ends...I will do all that I am made of.'

And that sisters is what this is all about. That's what today, and International Women's Day, and every other day of the week is about.

Because none of us can do this alone, but when we all stand together, when the women of Iraq and Iran, the women of Palestine, Israel, France, the UK, America, when women all over the world stand together and say 'we won't rest till this violence against us and our loved ones ends...we will do all that we are made of.'

Sisters, when a million women rise, we can and we will end violence against women.


Charlotte, singer songwriter

 

Eleanor Lisney, Disability Awareness in Action

Fiona Pilkington caught the headlines when she killed herself and her disabled daughter by setting fire to their car — she had been unable to get help against constant abuse and intimidation from local youths but there are many, many disabled women who are abused, violated and within their own homes. We want you to hear some of those voices from a recent report on Disabled women and domestic violence.

'Oh yes, he would drag me along the floor because I couldn't walk or get away that was how it would start, the way it always went. He'd insult me with all those names, 'you spassy' and so on, 'who'd want to marry you?'

And he smashed me against the wall, shouting insults, you cripple, all that sort of thing.'

'Because I can't feed myself and he would go out in the evenings deliberately and I wouldn't have eaten anything for a twenty-four hour period or more. So that wouldn't have happened to anybody that could feed themselves.'

In the evenings I'd be exhausted. And being deaf is hard work you know, you have to concentrate so much harder and it's tiring. And he'd be furious and slap me and kick me awake. And he used to like: 'Don't you fall asleep on me, I want a wife, a real wife not an old woman'. And you know it was sex all the time, twice a day and he would shout at me and then hold me down and I hated it, I hated it.'

You know refuge provision is scarce, and accessible refuge provision is almost non existent and many women believed they could not be accommodated according to their needs.

Disabled women are also more vulnerable to sexual assaults in places such as care homes and by their carers. James Watts, sexually assaulted four disabled women at the care home where he worked as a mini bus driver. He was found guilty after one of his victims testified by blinking yes or no to questions from the police.


Femi Otitoju, Black lesbian activist

 

Jennifer McDermott, Cassandra Learning Centre

Sisters: I am so honored to have been invited to speak at such an historical event.

Today's March: - Is about the instrument of oppressions that has happened for many generations, the oppression against our grand mothers, against our mothers and now against our daughters: We havecome along way and we give thanks to the eneration of women before us who has suffered in extreme silence.

Since the beginning of the million women rise we are beginning to break the silence and we are speaking out and we are saying no to violence against women and girls.

We need for every corners of the world to join force to a global campaign against violence against women and girls.

And in addition a global recognition form politicians' that violence against women and girls has become a social disease that needs to be eradicated fromour society so that we, I, my children and grand children can move around knowing that we as women are safe.

I would like to know that when women are fleeing violence and seeking help from organizations they are not rebuffed by the male person on the front desk, who often claim that their applications is a sham and assume each applicant is making a falseclaim of DV as a vehicle to obtain accommodation.

For the policy makers who do little to nothing to assist woman in dangers with - No recourse to public funds and the local authority who use bully tactics with threats against these women to remove their children and

Place them in care when they fail to secure safe accommodation for them.

I would like to see more resources for agencies supporting women and girls.

Sisters I call upon each and everyone here today to join in solidarity and as mark of respect and unity, let's join hands together and remember the women who have perished at hand of this war and the victims who have survived. These casualties shall never be forgotten.


Judith Adorkorach, CARE International, Northern Uganda

Good afternoon sisters, I bring you greetings from the Democratic Republic of Uganda.

My name is Judith Elsie Adokorach and I work for CARE International in Uganda as the Gender Program Advisor. I am very privileged and honored to be amidst you today and collaborate with you in this global struggle to end violence against women.

CARE International is a Non Government Organization that is committed to defending dignity, promoting social justice and reducing poverty. I would like to re —emphasise that Violence against women continues to be a pervasive human rights violation that affects women around the world. The experience of violence against women is shaped by the intersection of gender with factors such as race, ethnicity, socio economic status, culture, religion, age, class, sexual identity, disability and citizenship. The prevalence of violence against women constitutes a global human rights and public health crisis and is an obstacle to equality, development, security, peace and women's empowerment. For this reason addressing it remains CARE's priority agenda and we stand together with you in your campaign for an end to all violence against women.

Violence against women, in the form of sexual and gender based violence, gets worse in conflict situations where girls' and women's bodies becomes battle grounds. 'It is more dangerous to be a woman than a solder in modern conflict.' And yet the high rate of violence against women during conflict also has long term impacts on women. Norms shift; violence increases during conflict and becomes more acceptable. In addition law enforcement is often weak and there is lack of effective justice systems. Women are exposed to sexual and gender based violence in camps, on the streets and in their homes.

Without clear measures to bring perpetrators to justice and reconstruct the social tissues of society in the post conflict period, violence against women finds its way into civil life and continues to exist as a more acceptable phenomenon. Yet this is not a priority agenda in most post conflict reconstruction programs.

Impunity — or the failure to bring perpetrators to justice — including family and community members remains a primary obstacle in addressing violence against women and in achieving meaningful accountability of governments, the UN system and local communities. This lack of accountability, in turn allows for entrenchment of community attitudes and cultural values that permits- instead of punish- violence.

Addressing violence against women therefore needs a robust and coordinated effort by all stakeholders. Here in the UK, the government can play a vital role in improving the situation for women in countries such as Uganda. CARE is calling on all political parties in the UK to put ending violence against women at the heart of their foreign policy priorities. The international community also needs to live up to its commitments to protect women who live in conflict zones.

I have said this for and on behalf of the women and girls whose lives are at continuous threat and risk as a result of violence.

Leila Parnian, 8 March Women's Organisation (Iran-Afghanistan)

I want to thanks the million women rise and all of you that gave me this opportunity to talk briefly on the violence against the women in our country Iran and express my sympathy and solidarity with the women who fight violence, discrimination and inequality all over the world.

Many of you may have heard of what the Iranian women have gone through in the last 3 decades since the founding of a religious regime, the Islamic republic of Iran.

The Iranian women not only have been the victim of the various domestic and social violence just as their many sisters all over the world but the Iranian women and some other countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and many countries in the Middle East live under a religious regime.

What we the Iranian women have learnt and experienced with our flesh and blood is that a religious regime means the harshest possible oppression and suppression against the women.

For last thirty years the regime has used all kinds of violence, force of gun, prison, rape, lashes, beating, to force women to cover their head and body. They have strengthened their oppression by the reactionary and anti-women laws.. That has strengthened the cruel male chauvinism and domestic violence against the women.

Here I just want to remember the memory of hundreds of women who were stoned to death because their crime was to love the wrong man, to choose their own man.

To remember those who spent years under the brutal violence of torture, rape in prison and finally many of them were executed by the regime.

I want to remember thousands of women like Atefeh the teen age girl who was abused by the men including the judge who sentenced her to death.

I want to remember the women who are the victim of honour killing and other backward relations and traditions, the relation and traditions that have been strengthened in the last 3 decades under the Islamic republic rule.

However among all these there is good news that I want to tell you all, the good news is that the women of Iran never gave in to this all atrocities and never stopped fighting back from the beginning.

This is more evident in the recent uprising of the Iranian people against the reactionary anti-women regime who are fearlessly taking part in the struggles against the Islamic regime of Iran this is a reply to 3 decades of state violence and oppression against the women.

I mainly talked about the women's situation in Iran, but the reality is that the women's oppression is not limited to Iran and all sorts of discrimination and oppression and violence affected the women on a world scale.

So the women all over the world should fight and are fighting for a common cause and the fight of the women anywhere in the world belongs to all women and should be fully supported.

To sum up we fight for a society that the religion is separated from the state and a society in which no more woman will be the victim of state and domestic violence.

Michelle Daley,

Disabled women continue (even as we speak) to experience physical, mental and sexual abuse. The sad reality is, our voices continue to go unheard by those key services that are set up to assist and support women in vulnerable positions.

Sister, in order for you to really appreciate the seriousness of our situations experienced by disabled women you must recognise and understand the barriers we experience which can worsen the problems.

For this reason it can be difficult for us to report our abuser or challenge them especially if we are dependent on them for support. What worries us is that many disabled women are forced to continue to experience brutality and suffering from their abuser. This is a sad and worrying reality.

Also we must not forget about the experiences of disabled women with multiple identities. For many of us we continue to experience multiple discrimination from within the disability movement, other women, community and society.

Being here today for both of us is about raising the voices of our disabled sisters. It is also about ensuring our recognition within this struggle for human rights. We close by saying that we all have a responsibility to ensure disabled women are recognised and respected as equals within this struggle for all of our voices to be heard - 'we are women too!'.


Justice Hotep, artist, actress, film director

 

Patsy McKie, Mothers Against Violence

To stand against violence to women perpetrated by men. We rise to celebrate Women every where on this "World Women's Day". For without women men would not have been born.

Acts of violence towards women has a history and this behaviour became accepted and traditional over the years this must stop. We must look backwards before we can successfully move forwards to challenges this established behaviour.

We must consider the reason for abnormal behaviour- it is bourne out of fear and failure. Men who abuse women as a way of controlling there their behaviour must recognised that they need help and seek the help they need.

As a woman we have a duty to speak out against such behaviour our families and society depends on us. We must rise to the challenges that comes as a way of stopping us from moving forward to stop this violence against women.

My words to men who use violence as a way of control is, you will not succeed there are consequences to your behaviour others will suffer because of your behaviour.

We must exemplify non violent acts towards others in all its form verbally physically emotionally sexually and psychologically. Women let us rise to non violence in our homes and communities all across the nation. Men must hear this message starting from the men in our families. Men who abuse women must acknowledges there failure to value and respect women in their families.

Sarah Bennett, singer

 

Suswati Basu, student, writer, activist

I have a right to wear whatever I want
I have a right to go wherever I want
I have a right to walk home tonight free from fear
And I have a right to live my life free from violence

Only 5% of young women feel safe in Britain today. Without a doubt, some young women will be victim of objectification, being treated merely as an instrument of someone's sexual pleasure. This may be an underhand comment passing on the street, to a serious sexual assault. Male violence against women comes in many different forms. In the last year we have seen universities from all over the country protesting against the Miss University Pageants. This is yet another instance of discrimination that young women have to face, being objectified and put in our place as second class citizens; being divided amongst each other and according to gender, sexuality, age, race, and disability, despite being part of a professional institution. Both young men and women have equally attained their place at university, so how is it that we are still being treated differently?

To defend our rights and our safe space policy, University Women's Societies throughout London rallied together to create a counter activist group 'Mind the Gap: London Student Feminists.' The 'Miss-Ogynist University of London' was created under this guise to tackle the growing number of businesses commodifying young women. Already we have seen dozens of rallies take place, solidarity within the women's groups and better still; the National Union of Students priority campaign will be commissioning research to show the links between objectification and violence against young female students. Beauty pageants promote the dehumanisation of women, leading them to be seen as subordinate in society, encouraging and legitimising the exploitation of young women.

The Women's groups actively support various other campaigns such as the annual Reclaim the Night march as well as this one, Million Women Rise as we believe it is important to show solidarity amongst all women, whatever age or race, and that women are not silent victims.

'We do not accomplish anything in this world alone.'


Vivienne Hayes, Women's Resource Centre

 

Anna Travers

I was an unfortunate victim of street prostitution who exited the streets 11 years ago this year, my life has been in the balance for the last two years as a result of my past and this has made me see things very differently..I am due brain surgery on Thursday because of this I questioned the kind of world I would be leaving my kids in if I was to be taken away from them..(Not that that is going to happen as I have too much to do )I have carried around a stigma with me since my days on the streets and have been called many a name..Little did I realize I had actually been in training to take on a major games company and its evil gamers who are never short of insults..Especially to the "likes " of me

These facts in mind I have decided to take on The games company Rockstar games...Working with mothers against violence as a mother who has been fortunate enough not to have lost my son, has taught me first hand how much pain and torture a death of a child can bring.

The game I speak of is desensitizing our young both male and female and creating a huge divide and conquer at a time when we need united as one. It is affecting them mentally and spiritually and something has to be done. We have been forced to become complacent and our arguments have often fallen on deaf ears, we have been blamed for letting our kids play the games when the truth is its everywhere and impossible for us to control. I banned my own child from the evils only to find he could download it on the free computer he received from the government!!!!

We live in a world that no longer prioritizes or protects out children's well being and safety and this will never without each one finding the courage and commitment to be their voice.

As mothers it's our duty to mobilize and gather strength. We need to make sure the Health, Education, mindset and safety of EVERY child not just a privileged few is protected.

We need to talk to each other, shout out in the streets and scream from every rooftop. If we don't do this we will never be heard...

I have written a poem about how I see the game that I would like to share with you...

Women being murdered
By children 'just for fun'
Beaten with a baseball bat
Set on fire, shot with a gun

Young man on a rampage
Poison in his brain
Left to his own devises
Slowly he goes insane

He beats up a police man
And sells drugs to a user
Drags people out of their cars
Innocence lost now an abuser

He'll fling you out of your car
And then run you down
Turning people into skittles
As he runs wild thru town
He stops to roll a joint
After stabbing somebody in the back
Pays for sex, sells drugs
Then take his money back
The city he is running
They call it liberty
But with this level of brainwashing
This boy will never be free
He will walk around oblivious
Life hanging on a thread
It won't be long before this street soldier
Will end up dead.
Together we must stop this
And fight for what is right.
In unison it's possible
So women Rise and help me fight !!!!!



To find out more about each speaker, click on their name