No More Violence Against Women Campaign – Please complete the survey

Posted on December 1, 2008
Filed Under England, Northern Ireland, Prostitution, Reseach, Scotland, Trafficking Asylum, Violence Against Women, Wales, Women's Group | Comments Off

We need your help with new research to show violence against women touches all communities.

The WI held a conference in London (25 November) to raise awareness of violence against women and launch a new research project with Bristol University into violence against women in rural areas.

Members attending heard from Harriet Harman MP, Minister for Women and Equality, who asked members around the country to check whether their local newspaper carried adverts for sexual services from trafficked women.

The NFWI also released a survey showing that almost half of WI members have experienced violence themselves or know someone who has experienced a form of violence in their lifetime. A third of these cases were domestic violence and almost a quarter were rape or sexual assault.

Fay Mansell Chair of NFWI said: WI members come from all walks of life. This survey shows that violence can affect any woman and is not just confined to women in poverty or on the fringes of society. For too long, women have been suffering in silence, afraid and often ashamed to seek help. We need to show them that they are not alone.

Three million women across the UK experience rape, domestic violence, forced marriage, sexual exploitation or another form of violence each year. As the issue is still swept under the carpet in many communities, little is known about the nature and extent of violence experienced by women in rural areas.

What you can do

1. Fill out our online survey on rural violence against women

Today, the NFWI is launching the start of new research with Bristol University comparing and contrasting violence against women (VAW) in rural and urban settings. It is hoped that the findings will help to tackle stereotyping of VAW (for example, that it does not happen in rural areas and if it does, its only domestic violence) and also show what kind of support services are needed there.

How can we fill it in?

The survey has been specially designed to be filled in easily online. Please find it here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=_2boN6N_2fdbHbhJ0gVoWqN4vA_3d_3d

If you do not have easy access to a computer, you can ask for paper copies of the survey from the Public Affairs Team. Please call: 020 7371 9300 ext 234

Is it only for members in rural areas?
No. We want all members to fill out the survey – as well as other women in the community. We need information from women living in both rural and urban areas.

When do the surveys need to be completed by?
The deadline for completed surveys is 14th February 2009.

When will the research come out?
We will launch the results in Spring 2009.

2. Check your local newspapers for adverts selling services from trafficked women

Harriet Harman, Minister for Women and Equality has called on WI members to check if their local newspaper has adverts for women who may have been trafficked and forced in to prostitution.

There are estimated to be 4000 females currently living in the UK who have been trafficked in to work as on street and off street prostitutes. Many of these woman, some in their early teens, have been tricked and abducted from their home country and forced into lives of exploitation and cruelty once they arrive in the UK.

Earlier this year, the Newspaper Society issued guidelines to all papers to reduce the advertising of sexual services of women trafficked into the UK. We want you to check if this has been followed by your local press.

How can we do this?

Please see the downloadable documents which explain the issue and include a survey form which we would like you to fill out and send back to the Public Affairs Department.

This survey will give us a national picture of which newspapers are still carrying advertisements for trafficked women. It will be helpful if you also include cuttings of any advertisements that you find. Fill in a survey for each of your local papers and separate surveys for newspaper websites.

If you have found adverts offering sexual services, it would be worth writing letters to the newspapers concerned.

For more information about the NFWI work within the End Violence Against Women coalition, please see the latest campaign leaflet, downloadable via the link below.

http://www.thewi.org.uk/standard.aspx?id=13492

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