Two quick news hits ~
“’Harassment is a culture,’ says Khadra, a 24-year-old graduate student at the University of Jordan in Amman. Physical, verbal and cyber, harassment happens in the streets, in parks, on public transportation, and at schools and universities.
Despite its prevalence, official research and statistics on street harassment in Jordan do not exist, according to Asma Khader, secretary general of the Jordanian National Commission for Women (JNCW). Manal Sweidan, head of the gender statistics division at the Jordanian Department of Statistics, confirmed that the department did “not have … any official data regarding sexual harassment.” Khader estimated offhand that 80 percent of women face harassment, and “it is increasing.” The lack of formal data makes quantifying and addressing the issue difficult.”
“In February the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea published its report. Its findings included large-scale sexual abuses, mostly directed at women, across all sectors of society.
“Witnesses have testified that violence against women is not limited to the home, and that it is common to see women being beaten and sexually assaulted in public,” the report officially said.
Regardless of who you speak to about North Korean women – researchers, activists, journalists, academics – one thing is clear: North Korean women are subject to abuse on a monumentally large scale.
This is not a new phenomenon in North Korea; rather this long-standing history of silent persecution of women’s sexuality is based on the strong foundations of a patriarchal system where women are expected to overcome any challenge at work or home with absolute loyalty towards the Great Leader, as mothers of the nation.
The social expectation and pressure exerted on these women, particularly in the post-famine period where the private economy has seen women enter into new realms of society, has created new problems and threats both in the home and workplace.”
