On March 3, sometime after 9.30pm, Sarah Everard went missing. The 33-year-old woman had been walking home through Clapham Common, a well known public space in the south of London. She was never seen again. Ten days later, her body was identified and a serving police officer was arrested.
This gruesome and heartbreaking tale spurred over the past fortnight an outpouring among women about the experiences of simply being a woman in the public space, and the constant and pervasive fears about being out on the street, going about nothing more than our ordinary business. It has been a tsunami of everything from self-restriction, worry and anxiety to experiences of verbal, physical and sexual assault. Like #MeToo, seemingly every woman has had a story to tell.
A survey by UN Women recently found that 80 per cent of women of all ages in the UK said they had experienced sexual harassment in public spaces, rising as high as an astounding 97 per cent for those aged 18 to 24. “This is a human rights crisis,” said UN Women’s executive director Claire Barnett. Having to live with the threat of harassment means living a life that is limited.
Everard went missing while walking home from a friend’s flat in south London on March 3. EPA
Perhaps predictably, large numbers of men on social media have responded defensively with the hashtag #NotAllMen, claiming that renewed conversation about violence against women risks vilifying men. Some have also pointed out that men are frequently the victims of violent crime. But this distracts from the immediate point, which is about women, by hijacking it to talk about men. No wonder many women have reacted with rage.
When women want to talk about their experiences, why are they deflected and shut down? Why can’t their experiences be talked about and addressed on their own terms? In truth, when women raise issues about their experiences, myriad deflections, denials and diminishments are used to undermine them.
It is worth mentioning that while all of these men are busy reminding women of the obvious point that “not all men” commit violent crimes, most women are regularly worrying about which man, of all the men we do not know, will try to cause us actual harm. The author Margaret Atwood once made the point very clearly: “Men are afraid women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.”
Last Saturday, March 13, a large crowd of women went to Clapham Common to lay flowers in Everard’s memory. Reclaim These Streets, an activist group, had earlier cancelled a planned vigil due to Covid-19 restrictions, but hundreds of women went anyway. As night fell, police moved in to disperse the crowds. The images that came out of the incident were ugly: pictures of women being pinned down, flowers and other tributes being crushed and women being handcuffed. It simply reinforced the conversation about how women’s bodies and voices are restricted in the public space.
Demonstrators have protested at Parliament Square, London, following the arrest of attendees at a public vigil honouring the memory of Sarah Everard. Reuters
At a debate in the UK Parliament’s House of Lords on Wednesday, Jenny Jones, a baroness and member of the Green Party, elicited outrage from men when she made a “not entirely serious suggestion”, in her own words, that men not be allowed out after 6pm. Baroness Jones was being intentionally provocative, but the double standards of those who lashed out at her are stark. Men imagining living under restrictions is an intolerable idea, but women’s lives are just one long curfew.
Without a shred of irony, women are often asked: “If it really is so bad, then why don’t women speak up?”
Leaving aside that this whole conversation is being had precisely because women are speaking up, they probably don’t speak up even more because the problem is so widespread that it is almost unimaginable that things could be different. A study by Britain’s Trades Union Congress and the Everyday Sexism project about sexual harassment at work found that of the women who reported it, three quarters said that nothing changed afterwards. Sixteen per cent said they were treated worse as a result.
Often, whatever we say, or whatever we do, our emotional expression is “wrong”. There is never a right way to express ourselves.
We must begin the fight back by believing that we can create a world where women are not afraid to go out, and do not need to change their behaviour out of fear. The first and most important step towards this brave new world is that our stories and needs are not dismissed. Instead they must be heard, listened to and believed.
Shelina Janmohamed is an author and a culture columnist for The National
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
Innotech Profile
Date started: 2013
Founder/CEO: Othman Al Mandhari
Based: Muscat, Oman
Sector: Additive manufacturing, 3D printing technologies
Size: 15 full-time employees
Stage: Seed stage and seeking Series A round of financing
Investors: Oman Technology Fund from 2017 to 2019, exited through an agreement with a new investor to secure new funding that it under negotiation right now.
LAST-16 FIXTURES
Sunday, January 20
3pm: Jordan v Vietnam at Al Maktoum Stadium, Dubai
6pm: Thailand v China at Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
9pm: Iran v Oman at Mohamed bin Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Monday, January 21
3pm: Japan v Saudi Arabia at Sharjah Stadium
6pm: Australia v Uzbekistan at Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
9pm: UAE v Kyrgyzstan at Zayed Sports City Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Tuesday, January 22
5pm: South Korea v Bahrain at Rashid Stadium, Dubai
8pm: Qatar v Iraq at Al Nahyan Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Founded in 1985 by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, the Central Veterinary Research Laboratory (CVRL) is a government diagnostic centre that provides testing and research facilities to the UAE and neighbouring countries.
One of its main goals is to provide permanent treatment solutions for veterinary related diseases.
The taxidermy centre was established 12 years ago and is headed by Dr Ulrich Wernery.
Tamkeen's offering
Option 1: 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 30% in year 3
Mazen Abukhater, principal and actuary at global consultancy Mercer, Middle East, says the company’s Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index - which benchmarks 34 pension schemes across the globe to assess their adequacy, sustainability and integrity - included Saudi Arabia for the first time this year to offer a glimpse into the region.
The index highlighted fundamental issues for all 34 countries, such as a rapid ageing population and a low growth / low interest environment putting pressure on expected returns. It also highlighted the increasing popularity around the world of defined contribution schemes.
“Average life expectancy has been increasing by about three years every 10 years. Someone born in 1947 is expected to live until 85 whereas someone born in 2007 is expected to live to 103,” Mr Abukhater told the Mena Pensions Conference.
“Are our systems equipped to handle these kind of life expectancies in the future? If so many people retire at 60, they are going to be in retirement for 43 years – so we need to adapt our retirement age to our changing life expectancy.”
Saudi Arabia came in the middle of Mercer’s ranking with a score of 58.9. The report said the country's index could be raised by improving the minimum level of support for the poorest aged individuals and increasing the labour force participation rate at older ages as life expectancies rise.
Mr Abukhater said the challenges of an ageing population, increased life expectancy and some individuals relying solely on their government for financial support in their retirement years will put the system under strain.
“To relieve that pressure, governments need to consider whether it is time to switch to a defined contribution scheme so that individuals can supplement their own future with the help of government support,” he said.
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cylinder petrol
Power: 154bhp
Torque: 250Nm
Transmission: 7-speed automatic with 8-speed sports option
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
