What’s Current: Irish women rally to stand with Belfast rape trial victim

  • Irish women rally across the country in support of the victim in the Belfast rape trial, following the acquittal of all four defendants, and have expressed their support online with the hashtag #IBelieveHer.
  • Following the UK High Court reversal of the decision to release John Worboys, known as the black cab rapist, the chair of the Parole Board, Nick Hardwick, has resigned, saying that things should change throughout the Ministry of Justice. Sonia Sodha writes at the Observer that the Worboys case reveals a system seems set against victims. Julie Bindel writes:

“The board ignored the police’s conclusions, following their investigations published in a public report, that Worboys may have raped more than 100 women. Worboys is a highly skilled manipulator. That is how he managed to dupe so many women to take a drink with him in his cab. Should a parole board not have the skills to see through such tactics?”

  • Swedish preschools push children to challenge sex stereotypes, putting boys in charge of the play kitchen and making girls practice shouting “No!”
  • A new book, A Lab of One’s Own: Science and Suffrage in the First World War, explores the role of the women who worked in science and medicine during WWI.
  • The Australian Senate has released a report following an inquiry into vaginal mesh implants that left some women with a range of injuries that included “rotting pelvises.” They recommended the implant be a “last resort.”
Natasha Chart

Natasha Chart is an online organizer and feminist living in the United States. She does not recant her heresy.