Is the #MeToo movement making any difference? It would certainly appear to be affecting America, but what about the rest of the world?
Egypt's #MeToo moment targets street harassment
By Heba Afify
Egyptians gather during a protest against sexual harassment in Cairo, Egypt, 14 June 2014.
Cairo, Egypt (CNN) Gehad al-Rawy beamed with joy as she emerged from an Egyptian courtroom last September. She had just won a sexual harassment case, with the judge sentencing her harasser to two years in prison.
It was a rare victory in a country where, according to a 2017 survey by UN Women and Promundo, nearly 60% of Egyptian women have been sexually harassed. In a 2017 Thomson Reuters poll that surveyed experts in women's issues, Cairo was named the most dangerous city in the world for women.
But in 2018, Egyptian women came out with a flurry of accusations against their abusers. Activists call it Egypt's #MeToo moment, catalyzed by the global outcry against sexual abuse in 2018 and leading to major shifts in the conversation around harassment.
It is not unusual for gang-rapes to occur in the middle of a crowded Tahrir Square.
Last Eid al-Adha, Rawy and her friend, Rozana Nageh, were subjected to an onslaught of catcalling by two men as they walked through Cairo's Tahrir Square. The women say they were determined to bring the harassers to justice.
They grabbed onto one of their harasser's hands, they say, and tried to drag him to the police station.
Rawy, a 28-year-old researcher and feminist activist, and Nageh struggled to hold on to the man who was writhing and kicking, they tell CNN. As they waited for the police to arrive, a crowd of around ten people attempted to free him from their grip, according to Rawy.
"For 15 minutes, we were beaten, insulted and harassed because we insisted not to let him go," Rawy recalls. By the end of the impasse, bruises and scratches covered her body.
Rawy and Nageh's story is among half a dozen high-profile stories on harassment to surface in recent months. In November, some A-list celebrities called for an end to sexual harassment in a video campaign launched by the Egyptian National Council for Women.
"MeToo moved the world and Egypt is part of that," says Intisar al-Said, a lawyer who has worked with survivors of sexual violence for over a decade.
'Take action'
"Why do we always blame the women for the harassment so that she is both the victim and the condemned" says actress Menna Shalaby in the video campaign.
Because you are Muslim, silly!
It features re-enacted scenes of women being groped and brushed against on the street and in public transport. The tagline reads: "Fight harassment. Stand with her and not against her." In the same video, singer and actor Hany Adel implores viewers to "take action against the harasser."
Amnesty International activists protest against sexual violence against women and against the bloodshed in Egypt, in Berlin, Germany, 19 August 2013.
The movement is a far cry from the aftermath of Egypt's uprising in 2011. Mass protests unseated long-time dictator Hosni Mubarak but triggered a surge in sexual harassment.
Videos surfaced of mass sexual assault and gang rape in Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the uprising, and sent shockwaves through Egypt.
In 2014, Egypt criminalized verbal and physical abuse. But street harassment appeared to have persisted, buoyed by a widespread culture of victim-blaming. Al-Said says she has observed an increase in reported harassment since 2014, though it is unclear whether the rise in complaints is due to a greater willingness to report the harassment or an actual increase in the incidents.
Religious backing
Last August, Menna Gubran, a woman in her 20s, posted a video on Facebook of a man who made repeated advances in an East Cairo suburb. She was waiting for a bus to work when, she says, he circled around her in a car three times, repeatedly calling out invitations to coffee.
At first, the video appeared to have backfired. A deluge of comments on social media accused Gubran of being an attention-seeker. Her detractors questioned her choice of dress and her morals. Shortly after that, her boss laid her off.
Her harasser, egged on by supporters online, posted comedy spoofs of Gubran's video. "I didn't do anything wrong. When she said that I was bothering her, I apologized and left," the alleged harasser, who identified himself as Mahmoud Soliman, said in a Facebook video.
Soliman did not respond to CNN's request for comment.
But shortly after that, Al-Azhar, the country's highest Sunni Muslim religious authority, weighed in on the debate about sexual harassment. In an August statement, Al-Azhar called for harsh penalties against sexual harassers and decreed that a woman's clothing should never justify harassment.
It was a blow to those who cited religious dress codes as a rationale for harassment.
"We have been following what the media and social media networks have been saying about sexual harassment cases lately," the statement said. "It's an issue that is completely unacceptable and impossible to be silent about."
Abdallah Sarhan, Dean of Higher Education at Al-Azhar University, tells CNN that the institution--considered by some to be one of the most important Sunni institutions in the Muslim world--was determined to strip harassers of any moral ammunition.
"Although Al-Azhar never accepted any justification for harassment ... this time we are determined to cut the road to harassment completely. We have deprived them of any justifications for their shameful actions."
Leading the charge
While civil society has mobilized on behalf of victims in the past, nowadays, survivors of harassment are leading the charge, al-Said says. But laws to protect harassment claimants from retaliation remain absent and women continue to fear speaking out, she adds.
"Women who report sexual harassment are not only stigmatized and chastised by their families, but sometimes the accused retaliates with a counter lawsuit," al-Said says.
This August, journalist May el-Shamy filed a lawsuit against her editor, Dandarawy al-Hawary, of the pro-government Youm7 newspaper, alleging sexual harassment. The prosecution dismissed the case, and Youm7 reported that Hawary planned to sue her. She was fired. Hawary declined CNN's request for comment.
"My feelings are a mix between my conviction that I can't forgive when it comes to my body whatever happens, and being scared of losing everything," el-Shamy tells CNN.
"I lost my job, and now I'm just staying in my house with no income and no outlet for my energy. I know I'll sink into a deep depression. I'm still scared that any harm could reach my husband or my family," she adds.
Rawy, who won her harassment case, paid for justice with bruises on her body and a two-day wait at a police station. Later, a judge reduced her harasser's sentence to six months.
She doesn't believe she will always be up for the fight. "It depends how many times you're prepared to go to the police station," Rawy says. "Women face harassment every day, and each time you decide what you're capable of doing today."
She’s on a #MeToo Mission in China,
Battling Censors and Lawsuits
Zhou Xiaoxuan, 25, at her home in Beijing. She has emerged as a hero of China’s fledgling #MeToo movement, a symbol of hope for young women tired of a patriarchal culture. Credit Iris Zhao/The New York Times
By Javier C. Hernández, NYT
BEIJING — On a sleepless night last summer, her siamese cat Star at her feet, Zhou Xiaoxuan, a 25-year-old screenwriter in Beijing, took out her cellphone and began writing furiously about the day that had haunted her for years.
In 2014, as a fresh-faced intern at China Central Television, the state-run broadcaster, she was asked to bring fruit to the dressing room of Zhu Jun, a famous anchor. It was there, she said, that Mr. Zhu began forcibly kissing and groping her. (Mr. Zhu has denied the accusations.)
Ms. Zhou’s essay about the experience, which she posted online in July, was an impassioned plea for women’s rights in China — and a daring rebuke of the status quo.
“It’s important for every girl to speak up and say what she has suffered,” she wrote in the essay, which totaled more than 3,000 Chinese characters. “We need to make sure society knows that these massacres exist.”
Soon, after a friend of a friend reposted Ms. Zhou’s essay on Sina Weibo, a microblogging site, it quickly spread across the Chinese internet and inspired women to come forward with their own stories of abuse. It became so popular that the Chinese government intervened, blocking comments and banning the state-run news media from covering her case.
Chinese ostrich syndrome - bury your head in the sand and pretend it never happened!
Ms. Zhou was overwhelmed. In a matter of days, she had emerged as a hero of China’s fledgling #MeToo movement, a symbol of hope for young women tired of a patriarchal culture. But she had also become a target for hate, receiving hundreds of threatening messages.
Then Mr. Zhu, 54, fired back. In August, he filed a lawsuit against Ms. Zhou describing her accusations as “blatantly fabricated and viciously spread.” He asked for about $95,000 in damages, saying Ms. Zhou had harmed his reputation and caused emotional distress.
Zhu Jun, the television host, in 2014. In August, he filed a lawsuit against Ms. Zhou describing her accusations as “blatantly fabricated and viciously spread.”
Credit Reuters
Ms. Zhou, who is known in China by a nickname, Xianzi, thought about retreating. Instead, she became emboldened, filing a lawsuit of her own against Mr. Zhu claiming damage to her dignity. “Let’s get ready to fight,” she wrote online.
Since then, Ms. Zhou has become a leading feminist voice in China, setting out to push the limits of China’s #MeToo movement, which has struggled to gain footing in the face of censorship and reluctance by the authorities to investigate cases of sexual harassment and assault.
Ms. Zhou has helped abused women seek justice, accompanying them to police stations to file criminal reports. She has criticized the government and society at large for not doing more to protect women against domestic violence. And she has meticulously chronicled her legal battle, publishing a diary about her triumphs and setbacks.
Ms. Zhou acknowledges that women in China face many obstacles, including vaguely defined laws on rape and harassment and a culture that often blames women, not men, in cases of sexual abuse. But she says she is optimistic that attitudes will change.
“Once you light the spark that starts a fire,” she said recently at her home in east Beijing, “it will have an impact on people’s hearts.”
Growing up in Wuhan, an industrial city in central China, Ms. Zhou watched as many families in her hometown seemed to value sons over daughters, a practice going back hundreds of years. Her own parents, worried that as a woman she might face harassment or violence, forbade her from taking public transportation until she was 13.
It was not until the summer of 2014, during her internship at China Central Television, or CCTV, that Ms. Zhou says she fell victim to China’s male-dominated culture.
The internship at CCTV, working on Mr. Zhu’s signature show, “Artist,” was a prestigious job for Ms. Zhou, then a college junior who aspired to work in the film industry.
Mr. Zhu is CCTV royalty, a former singer, actor, dancer and clarinetist for the People’s Liberation Army with an illustrious 25-year career at the network. He is best known as a host of the annual Lunar New Year gala, a program that is viewed by more than 700 million people. On “Artist,” which ended in late 2017, he was famous for asking emotional questions that prompted his guests to cry.
On the day she says she was forcibly kissed and groped by Mr. Zhu, Ms. Zhou and another intern were invited to interview the famed anchor in his dressing room. When the other intern stepped out of the room, she says, Mr. Zhu turned to Ms. Zhou, grabbing her hand and telling her he could read fortunes. He then dragged her toward him and start kissing her, she says, even as she resisted. She ran out of the room when a guest arrived at the door.
Mr. Zhu’s lawyers and CCTV did not respond to requests for comment. In court filings, he said Ms. Zhou’s accusations were “made out of nothing and a severe misrepresentation.”
Mr. Zhu is also suing Xu Chao, a friend of Ms. Zhou’s who first reposted her essay and Sina Weibo, the microblogging platform that published the essay.
After the dressing room incident, Ms. Zhou ran to the police.
But the officers urged her to drop her complaints, she said, arguing that Mr. Zhu was a force for good in society and warning that she might endanger the jobs of her parents. (Her father worked as a civil servant and her mother at a state-owned firm.)
For years, Ms. Zhou stayed silent, telling only her parents and closest friends about the incident, fearing she would be misrepresented.
“People are not allowed to show their pain and wounds,” she said. “Many women worry they will be seen as whining.”
In July, while eating dinner with friends, she saw a #MeToo post by a childhood friend who had been assaulted. She was moved to tell her own story as a show of support to her friend and to let her male friends know that sexual misbehavior was widespread. She stayed up all night writing, posting her essay shortly after 5 a.m.
“I wanted to let my friends know, through this post, that #MeToo was very close to them,” she said.
Advocates for women’s rights say that Ms. Zhou’s example has made it easier for other women to share their stories of abuse. While China’s #MeToo movement is small, complaints by women over the past year against college professors, tech executives, religious leaders and nonprofit executives, among others, have drawn wide attention.
“More young people are willing to stand up and speak,” said Huang Yizhi, a lawyer in Beijing who specializes in gender discrimination cases. “They are no longer afraid.”
No, I think they are still afraid, but their anger is greater than their fear.
Ms. Zhou says she considers herself lucky, not courageous, because her case earned wide attention in the news media. Many women in China struggle to be heard, she said, noting that some victims wait in line for days at police stations, only to be ignored.
“The obstacles that other women experience is beyond my imagination,” she said. “It’s almost impossible for their cases to be resolved.”
On her Weibo page, she offers a mix of inspirational slogans (“the light will come”) and reflections on her own struggles. In one recent post, she recounted how she disliked a photo taken by a journalist because it made her look like a powerless victim.
“I am in a cage, lacking courage, insignificant, flinching and escaping, just like this photo,” she wrote. “I hope that girls can get more protection and that when they face the camera, they can laugh openly.”
On a smoggy October day, Ms. Zhou strode into a courthouse in northwest Beijing for her first appearance in Mr. Zhu’s lawsuit. During the proceedings, she was asked to provide evidence of the assault and to recount what had happened.
After the court session ended, Ms. Zhou, nervous and frightened, said she felt so tired that she wanted to vomit.
At a sidewalk news conference, a journalist asked if she felt she was under pressure. Ms. Zhou paused for a moment, taking stock of her ordeal.
“This is something I must tackle,” she said. “I don’t have a choice.”
You are strong and courageous. God bless you.
BUSINESSMAN ADMITS RECORDING SEXUAL ENCOUNTER WITH WOMAN DUE TO ‘FEAR’ OVER #METOO MOVEMENT
‘I was extremely anxious that any sexual activity, irrespective of consent,
could be used against me,' Varun Patra admits
Sabrina Barr, Independent
An Indian businessman has admitted to making a secret audio recording of a sexual encounter he had with a woman, because he was afraid of the #MeToo movement and being charged with sexual misconduct.
Varun Patra, co-founder of youth media company Homegrown, has been accused of sexual harassment by a woman he met in November 2018.
The woman, who has chosen to remain anonymous, gave her account of the series of events through a Facebook post shared by artist Priyanka Paul.
In the open letter, she explained how she met Mr Patra for dinner before going back to her home and having sex.
She also alleged that he performed an sex act on her without consent - a claim he has strenuously denied.
Afterwards she said she noticed him stopping an audio recording on his phone.
Challenged on the matter, she said he confessed making a recording of their encounter, without her knowledge. She added that he admitted to also recording sexual encounters with other women in the past.
“In that moment, my body was hollow, I was numb,” she wrote. “I couldn’t process what happened, but I knew this creep needed to go.”
After Mr Patra had left her home, the woman called a friend who came round to her home straight away. Once she had explained the situation to her friend, she was told the incident had been “sexual misconduct at best, sexual assault at worst”.
Alongside her open letter, the woman shared screenshots from a Whatsapp conversation which she claimed was between her and Mr Patra. He appears to admit that he started recording sex with women “since this MeToo thing”.
She then makes the point that his Homegrown company celebrates “sex positivity and feminism” and Mr Patra has a reputation as a “progressive feminist”.
It is unclear whether she has contacted the police about the incident.
In a statement to Rolling Stone India, Mr Patra said: "At no point did we engage in sexual activity without protection and without consent”.
But he admitted to recording their encounter.
“I put my phone on audio recording and here, I want to be clear that I completely understand that this is not ok,” he said. “It came from a place of fear and uncertainty of how to navigate sex with somebody who I had not known for very long in the atmosphere of MeToo which I had already been introspecting on a lot.
“I was extremely anxious and fearful that any sexual activity, irrespective of consent, could be used against me.”
The official Twitter account for the #MeToo movement in India has commented on the situation, tweeting: “So worried about a hypothetical violation, that he commits a real one in recording a sex without partner’s consent. Unbelievable.”
The British Council in India, who recently announced a partnership with Patra’s company Homegrown, has also stated it’s investigating the allegations.
Homegrown is yet to release a statement regarding the accusations.
#MeToo: Sotheby’s India head Gaurav Bhatia quits
weeks after harassment allegations
He had gone on leave of absence in November
pending an inquiry into the allegations
A file photo of former Sotheby's India Managing Director Gaurav Bhatia | Gaurav Bhatia/Facebook
Gaurav Bhatia, the managing director of auction house Sotheby’s India, resigned in December, a month after allegations of sexual harassment were made against him, PTI reported. Bhatia had gone on leave of absence in November, pending an inquiry into the allegations. At least four people had shared accounts of sexual harassment and in one case, physical assault by him.
The allegations include inappropriate touching and forcibly trying to kiss someone. The allegations were shared anonymously on the Instagram account ‘Scene and Herd’.
Bhatia’s profile, which is still on the auction house’s website, described him as the South Asia operations head and the driving force behind “Boundless: India”, Sotheby’s maiden auction in the country. He reportedly resigned on December 20.
Bhatia, in a statement, said he had decided to move on from the company. “After two enriching years and the stellar opportunity to launch Sotheby’s inaugural auction in Mumbai, I have decided to move on,” PTI quoted him as saying. “It has been a pleasure working with the great team we have built, and I will enjoy watching them continue to build Sotheby’s future in India. I wish them the very best.”
He was among the major names in the Indian art world against whom accusations of sexual harassment were made during the #MeToo movement. Artists Jatin Das, Riyas Komu and Subodh Gupta were some of the others.
Argentine actress’s #MeToo story provokes
national outrage
By Allison Herrera, PRI's The World
A woman with a sign A woman holds a sign that reads, "The strength of women," during a protest against femicides and violence against women, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, June 3, 2017. Credit: Marcos Brindicci/Reuters
It started with a video that Argentine actress Thelma Fardin posted to her Instagram account.
He was 45; She was 16
The camera is close up on Fardin’s face as she sobs. She describes being sexually assaulted when she was on tour in Nicaragua with the TV show, "Patito Feo," or, "Ugly Duckling." Her alleged attacker: popular actor Juan Darthés. He was 45 years old at the time. She was 16.
Fardin accuses Darthés of throwing her on the bed and raping her while she shouted "no." She says she was able to get away when someone knocked on the door of the hotel room.
That was nine years ago. Fardin says she tried to forget about the attack, but when she read that three other actresses had also accused Darthés of assault, she went public.
Since she posted that video in December, it’s received more than 1 million views, and it’s still circulating — with the hashtag #Miracomonosponemos, or, "Look at what you’ve done to us." That’s a turn on the phrase that Fardin says Darthes used when he forced her to touch his erection: “Look at what you do to me.”
Darthés has denied her accusations.
But it has provoked outrage in Argentina. And the reaction has become part of a broader women’s rights movement, says Sol Prieto, a feminist activist and sociologist in Buenos Aires.
“The women's movement in Argentina started with the #NiUnaMenos movement, [meaning] 'Not one less,' which was created in 2015 to combat femicide and gender violence,” Prieto said.
#NiUnaMenos was sparked by the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl named Lucía Pérez.
Then last summer, hundreds of thousands of women took to the streets to support legislation that would legalize abortion there. The bill failed, but the movement gained steam.
Prieto says Fardin’s accusations, and the overwhelming response to them, are starting to change the way people in Argentina talk about sexual violence.
“Argentine society is beginning to frame the problem of sexual violence as the centerpiece of patriarchal power,” Prieto said.
That patriarchal power is difficult to change, says Frances Jenner, the editor-in-chief of Argentina Reports. She has written about Fardin’s accusations.
“There is a huge culture of impunity within the justice system in Latin America and across in Argentina and Latin America. And I think that also permit societies, I think, that they do think that they can get away with it,” she explained.
In the past, Jenner says, there were rarely consequences for men accused of sexual assault.
“And there are many stories of women denouncing reporting sexual abuse and men turning around and calling them 'sluts' and calling them "liars" and opening cases for defamation because they think that they're lying," Jenner said. "They can get away with that. Whereas, now, the women's movement is strong and has such a huge backing from women, from men, from local people across the country.”
One tangible result of that growing support — legislators are now required to get training in recognizing sexual harassment. Still, Jenner says laws have their limits.
“You can't just make some new laws and change how people think about women,” she said.
In the meantime, there has been some movement in Fardin’s case. Her accusations are being investigated in Nicaragua, where the alleged attack took place.
And in Argentina, a former government aid was inspired to come forward with her own allegations of sexual assault against her former boss, a senator.
Fardin says that even if her video prompted only five women to come forward, she would be happy. But online, the number is already in the thousands. And it’s growing.
#METOO TO MEAT: NO MORE SOJU CALENDARS WITH NEARLY NUDE WOMEN IN SOUTH KOREA
BY CRYSTAL TAI
Forget the bare bottoms and topless women – South Korean diners at local eateries will now have their meals accompanied by wall-hung images of barbecued pork belly and other meat dishes.
For years, photos of nearly nude Western women in a variety of artfully obscured poses have graced the pages of annual calendars distributed by Hite-Jinro, the world’s largest maker of soju – a popular rice-based spirit in South Korea.
But this year, the firm’s calendars have taken on a new G-rated theme – food – in a country known for its highly patriarchal and otherwise conservative society.
Another maker of alcoholic beverages, Oriental Brewing, also ended its practice of “sporty” calendars featuring Korean models in miniskirts and short shorts for its beer brand OB. The firm’s 2019 calendars feature landscapes and scenery instead.
While Hite-Jinro representatives vaguely attributed the decision to discontinue making nude photo calendars to the “current social atmosphere”, Korean media cited “feminist trends” as the main reason for both firms’ termination of their respective calendars.
South Korea saw the explosive rise of its own high-profile #MeToo movement last year, led by a series of national protests against illegal spy-cameras, sexual assault and violence. Meanwhile, feminism – previously regarded as a taboo term – has become a major topic of debate everywhere from mainstream media to conversations in restaurants and bars.
The controversial calendars, handed out to bars and food establishments by alcoholic beverage makers at the start of each year, have long been criticised by the public as outdated and sexist for their objectification and commodification of female bodies.
“The first time I saw posters of half-naked women [many years ago], I was at a barbecue restaurant with my family,” said a 26-year-old female women’s studies academic who asked not to be named. While she added that she was too young at the time to understand the sexual context of the imagery, she said the posters “instantly made me feel uncomfortable and embarrassed”.
Caucasian models are depicted in the buff on such calendars, while Korean models are usually clothed.
“I think it’s perhaps easier to over-sexualise Western women because of their relative anonymity,” said the academic. “Korean women in the drink posters are usually celebrities and the subtleness is usually what sells their images more. It’s the tantalising [notion] that Asian women are sexier when they are coy about sexual stuff.
“But regardless of whether they are foreign or Korean, one woman’s degradation is an attack on all women.”
Although dining establishments also target women and families as their clientele during the daytime, they serve a largely male crowd in the evenings.
Korea can be described as an extremely homosocial society, with many unspoken but strongly defined separate spaces for men and women, noted James Turnbull, an academic and Korean pop-culture specialist based in South Korea.
“Korean women still struggle to retain their jobs after childbirth, and those that succeed in keeping their jobs often have to leave mandatory after-work drinking gatherings early to look after their children while their male colleagues continue drinking elsewhere,” he said.
“The atmosphere in bars and restaurants that sell a lot of soju can sometimes feel very off-putting for anyone that isn’t a middle-aged Korean man.”
“The places that hang ‘sexy’ calendars are usually bars that young men and women wouldn’t want to go and drink at,” said Yoon Won-jin, a Seoul resident in his early 30s. “Older men drink, smoke and talk loudly in these places, and they want pretty, young women next to them, even if they aren’t real.
“Alcohol companies make two calendars each year: one nude one, and the other features a famous female celebrity for ‘family-friendly’ bars. But this year, the feminist movement has become so powerful that they cannot continue [this practice] – especially if this affects their soju sales.”
And while the era of nude soju calendars may be over, soju, beer and spirits posters featuring female celebrities and models are ubiquitous not just at bars, but in most local eateries serving alcohol. Critics argue that widespread sexualisation and objectification of women in the Korean advertising and media need to be addressed as a whole.
A 2015 Asia-wide study conducted jointly by scholars at City University of Hong Kong, St Margaret’s Junior College in Tokyo, and Hallym University in South Korea found that women were 5.9 times more likely than men to not be fully dressed in Hong Kong television ads, 22.89 times more likely in Japanese ads, and 56.83 times more likely in South Korean ads.
Feminists and scholars question whether such advertising has any place in the context of today’s Korean society, not to mention whether such ads have any real influence on their targeted consumer’s choices.
“In my own experience, men’s tastes in soju tend to be very regional,” said Turnbull, referring to the varieties of soju found in different parts of the country. “They tend stick to the same brands throughout their lives. And assuming that pictures of nude women are all that is required to change their minds is just patronising and insulting.”
“These soju posters aren’t particularly any more sexually objectifying of women than Korean advertising in general, because that is already pervasive in the industry. By no means are soju ads the main culprit.”
Painful gynaecology stories unleash
#MeToo tide in the Balkans
In Croatia, the parental advocacy group RODA has gathered around 400 written statements from women about painful and humiliating experiences during gynaecological procedures. (Photo: AFP)
Agence France Presse
ZAGREB: A tide of #MeToo testimonies about painful gynaecological procedures and abusive medical staff is rippling across the Balkans, where women are breaking taboos in patriarchal societies to share their traumatic hospital experiences.
The outcry was sparked by one female politician's emotional account of an agonising treatment she received after a miscarriage, shocking many in a region where sexual health is rarely discussed in the public sphere.
"They tied my arms and legs and started a curettage without anaesthesia... these were the 30 most horrible minutes of my life," Croatian MP Ivana Nincevic-Lesandric told a male-dominated parliament in October.
"I could tell you about every second as each was lasting an eternity," she said, of the surgery that involves scraping tissue from the uterus and is often performed after a miscarriage or abortion.
"Do you plan to change this and when?" she challenged Health Minister Milan Kujundzic.
Arguing that "this is not how Croatian hospitals proceed," the minister pledged to investigate the case, while the hospital where she was treated rejected her claims.
But Croatian women came to her defence, with hundreds offering testimonies of similarly painful and humiliating experiences during gynaecological procedures.
"You did not cry when you had sex, so shut up," one woman recalled a doctor telling her during a biopsy when she was whimpering in pain.
"They held me by my hands, legs and head, and the doctor said I was spoiled for crying," wrote another, who said she was denied an anaesthetic during a curettage after a miscarriage.
NO OPTION TO DECIDE
Those testimonies were collected by the parental advocacy group RODA, together with around 400 other written statements from women in Croatia.
The stories were read aloud publicly in several towns by activists and handed over to the health ministry, which said the number of women was "relatively small."
It nevertheless admitted there were "differences" in how anaesthesiology services were provided in hospitals and that there was a need to "improve communication" between medical staff and patients.
"Women are not given an option to decide what will be done to them, and they are not informed properly about procedures or medications, which is a sort of violence," said Daniela Drandic, of RODA, which launched a "Break the Silence" campaign for the first time in 2014.
"Women are not given an option to decide what will be done to them, and they are not informed properly about procedures or medications, which is a sort of violence," says RODA's Daniela Drandic. (Photo: AFP)
The testimony of the MP Nincevic-Lesandric marked a turning point as it pushed the issue onto a national stage.
"A woman said it in the parliament where such things are not expected. Our women politicians do not talk about reproductive health in such a way," Drandic said.
Activists say women in the region have faced abusive medical treatment for decades and that globally, women's pain is often perceived differently from men's. They cite numerous studies showing how women are less likely to receive painkillers in various medical scenarios.
In Croatia, a recent survey showed that one-third of women underwent gynaecological interventions such as miscarriage curettages, biopsies, and other IVF treatments without anaesthesia.
BALKANS' #METOO
The outcry in Croatia inspired a wave of similar grievances across the region. In neighbouring Bosnia, the Natural Birth NGO received more than 300 testimonies from women on painful gynaecological procedures in just 10 days.
"Maternity wards are the last places of institutional violence against women," the NGO's president, a Sarajevo doctor Amira Cerimagic, told AFP.
She likened the regional response to a Balkan version of the #MeToo movement, a US-turned-global campaign launched in response to accusations of sexual abuse and harassment by powerful men in the entertainment industry and other sectors.
That original #MeToo campaign has yet to make any significant waves in the Balkans, where a strongly patriarchal culture endures.
"We are shining a light to everything that is happening behind closed doors... it has been lasting for generations and it must be changed swiftly," said Cerimagic.
The stories are similar in Serbia, where "women enter maternity wards mostly frightened and leave very often with traumas," Jovana Ruzicic, of Belgrade-based Center for Moms told AFP.
A 2015 survey showed that 10 per cent of Serbian women "do not want to have another child ever due to a traumatic hospital experience with the first child," she said.
More than 60 per cent of those surveyed said they did not feel protected at childbirth, with many women saying they are not kept in the loop about what doctors are doing to their bodies.
"Women are treated like they do not exist," Ruzicic said.
In Zagreb, Nincevic-Lesandric said she did not expect such a strong response to her testimony.
"Women have managed, unfortunately due to traumatic experience, to raise awareness of the problem to the level that every woman knows her rights and what should not happen to her," she told AFP.
#MeToo: A failed movement in Pakistan?
SHABANA MAHFOOZ
Bringing justice to victims of harassment in Pakistan seems further than ever. What's holding up accountability?
It’s been a year since #MeToo. The fact that it progressed beyond accusations and has resulted in arrests, resignations and serious questions over unacceptable behaviour, both past and present, speaks of the volume of change #MeToo has brought and the potential it has for more.
Change in Pakistan, however, is still evolving. - Not sure I would use such a dynamic word as evolving.
Here, #MeToo seemed to be an answer for women suffering in a taboo-stricken and tradition-bound society. The movement began when famous actress Meesha Shafi accused her fellow colleague Ali Zafar of sexual harassment on multiple occasions. Both had their own supporters who stood by them.
What was missing however was a thorough analysis of unchecked behaviour, often protected under the guise of performance requirements, and the need for measures to ensure the entertainment industry is safer for women.
As a result, there are ongoing proceedings in court with Zafar and Shafi still performing, with no clear outcome visible.
In 2018, after a two-year investigation, Professor Sahar Ansari, a famed literary figure in Pakistan, was found guilty of harassing his female colleagues at a top university.
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| Ali Zafar |
But far from being shunned by society, Ansari continues to garner accolades and reverence, even attending events at the university from which he was barred following harassment allegations.
Female journalist Urooj Zia, in a series of tweets, accused Faisal Edhi, son and heir to Pakistan’s largest philanthropist, of harassment during her interactions with him regarding a welfare project.
The allegations, hardly seconded, received deafening silence and no investigation. Comedian Junaid Akram, who unlike Edhi, faces multiple anonymous accusations, continues to provide comic relief to his undeterred audience.
In local newspaper The Dawn, Xari Jalil, reported on Tanzeela Mazhar, an anchorwoman for state-owned Pakistan Television, writing: “[She] stayed on in PTV for about a decade trying to fight against the sexual harassment she had faced but eventually resigned in 2017. The man [against whom Mazhar had filed a harassment complaint] was still there though, with all his power.”
Jalil cited various incidents in which female journalists –in both print and electronic media– have faced harassment from male colleagues, both young and old, in the form of verbal comments, suggestive messages or even threats.
Speaking out poses a major challenge, simply due to lack of evidence. In many cases, instead of the work organisation involved beginning an investigation, many question the authenticity of an allegation.
Women, especially those belonging to the lower middle class, who work to support their families or their own education expenses, prefer to stay quiet for as long as they can bear it, in order to keep their jobs.
Whether it’s #MeToo or the law -the 'Protection Against Harassment of Women in the Workplace Act' was the first of its kind in South Asia- female employees do not feel confident that their pleas or complaints will be taken seriously and try to maintain their dignity by avoiding troublesome situations or people.
Women who share stories of harassment that happened years ago, are not only snubbed with the question ‘why now?’, but trolled, slut-shamed and accused of attempting to make personal gains, to name a few.
The women still find it difficult to explain that these cases are genuine, and again, stay quiet fearing backlash, loss of their jobs, family upheaval or even social boycott.
The dismal response in Pakistan to even high profile allegations points to an entrenched misogyny as well as the fear of isolation among women, even when they are wronged.
As evident in the cases of Ali Zafar, Professor Ansari, Faisal Edhi and Junaid Akram, in countries like Pakistan, the accused roam free with bared chests and heads held high with impunity due in their knowledge that no serious probe will look into their behaviour.
A lack of camaraderie among women in Pakistan has also put men at an advantage. Women generally either fear lending support to others or deem it wise to stay quiet in order to keep their own jobs or relations intact. Those who suffer believe that it is something shameful and should be hidden from society.
However, a growing number of working women are seeing harassment as a punishable crime, thanks to the awareness brought about by #MeToo. Courage-building may be slow, but it’s evolving and gaining momentum. Women are lending each other support, and newly-established large-scale organisations are trying to take up sexual harassment cases in accordance with the relevant laws.
It is when allegations are not taken seriously, such as the case of Edhi, or when professional excellence is given priority, in the case of Ansari, that the movement suffers a blow.
Moreover, in small-scale companies, where there may be no checks and balances by any authority, men have historically been able to take advantage of the subordination of women, lurking behind ever-newer victims, confident they will never be threatened.
Society in Pakistan, although very receptive to technological and occupational advancements, is still bound by tradition and taboos.
Any change which attempts to shake up the patriarchal structure is almost immediately shunned as a Western or even un-Islamic agenda.
Change however, eventually does come, particularly when it is a matter of prestige and honour.
In today’s awakening of Pakistani women, a change, even if it is late, is bound to come.
ALEX GILADY WITHDRAWS #METOO LIBEL LAWSUIT
AGAINST TWO FEMALE REPORTERS
BY AMY SPIRO
Jerusalem Post
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| (photo credit: REUTERS) |
Former Keshet president Alex Gilady has withdrawn a NIS 2 million libel lawsuit against two female reporters who accused him of sexual harassment.
Almost exactly a year ago, Gilady filed a suit against two journalists, Oshrat Kotler of Channel Ten News and Neri Livneh of Haaretz. The lawsuit claimed that the two women accused Gilady of sexual harassment in order to "'hitch a ride' for their own personal gain."
In a statement on Wednesday, Channel Ten News said Gilady had withdrawn the lawsuit
"after a mediation proceeding between the two parties." The statement said that Gilady "does not remember the events of 1994 that Kotler described on air." It also quoted Gilady saying that "such behavior is not in his character" and he had no intention of harming Kotler.
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| Oshrat Kotler |
Haaretz reported Wednesday that the lawsuit against Livneh was also dropped. Both women expressed satisfaction that the case would not be moving forward in the legal system.
In November 2017, Gilady stepped down from Keshet after multiple accusations of sexual harassment and assault. At the time he said the move was temporary and that he will "fight to prove my innocence of these baseless accusations."
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| Neri Livneh |
Kotler was the first to make a claim against Gilady, live on air on Channel Ten, that he made an indecent proposal to her and tried to pressure her into sleeping with him when she was applying for a job. Several days later, Livneh published a column in Haaretz alleging that Gilady exposed himself to her during a professional meeting. And a third woman anonymously alleged on Channel Ten that Gilady raped her about 20 years ago.
Gilady is also a member of the International Olympic Committee - the only Israeli - and has been since 1994. He is also the vice chair of the Tokyo 2020 Coordination Commission, and the IOC said after the allegations that it had no intention of removing him.
What? Seriously? Leave him in a position of power over other people? Does that make any sense?
Separately, on Wednesday a Channel Ten staffer made a complaint to the police that Kotler trapped her in a room and threatened her. Kotler wrote on Facebook Wednesday afternoon that nothing of the sort "ever happened," and that they merely had a heated conversation which she apologized for the next day.
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