Sisters Uncut

When doors close, we die: Domestic violence is an LGBT issue.

Monday, November 23, 2015

Domestic violence is first and foremost about power and control. In a sexist society that teaches us heterosexual relationships are the norm and that men are only properly masculine if they exercise control and dominance, it is no surprise that in the overwhelming number of cases of domestic violence the survivor is a woman and the perpetrator a man. Domestic violence is fundamentally gendered. However, being LGBT can be a further risk factor when it comes to abuse at the hands of family members or partners.

When when we look closer at the statistics around  domestic violence and sexuality we notice some harrowing dynamics: around a third of all LGBT people, regardless of gender identity, experience domestic violence. This can be broken down further: 36% of LGBT women, 39% of gender non-conforming people, 51% of disabled people or people with long-term illnesses, 44% of bisexual people and 64% of trans people reported experiencing domestic violence in a 2007 study.

A significant portion of this abuse is perpetrated by family members, meaning young LGBT people living in the family home can be highly at risk. It is no coincidence that the rates of homelessness for LGBT teenagers are particularly high (research by the Albert Kennedy Trust states that 40% of homeless teens are LGBT.) Being on the street is then a further predictor of abuse. Lack of refuges and social housing is condemning many LGBT people to continued violence and abuse.

When it comes to sexual violence, we know that bisexual women are particularly at risk. Not many statistics are available for the UK, but we know that in the US nearly half of all bisexual women will experience rape in their lifetime, and are twice as likely to experience abuse by both people they know and strangers. A culture of sexualisation and objectification of bisexual women may contribute to dynamics of sexual violence against them within and outside intimate relationships. The lack of social support and high incidence of poor mental health among bisexual women further undermine their abilities to leave abusive relationships.

There are also unique issues around partner abuse within same gender relationships. Because same gender relationships, particularly between women, make up such a small minority of all relationships (and oppression often means same gender relationships need to be kept hidden) the dynamics that cause domestic violence in such relationships tend to be invisible in the usual statistics and narratives around domestic violence.

Even within same gender relationships power dynamics can exist along lines of ability, class, gender identity, sexuality, race and migration status that enables a partner or ex-partner to exercise power and control.

Harmful myths surrounding domestic violence in same gender relationships* helps to minimise the experience of LGBT survivors and often reinforces the tendency for LGBT people to remain silent about domestic violence.

Some of these myths include:

Myth: Domestic violence within lesbian relationships is not as bad as in heterosexual relationships because the perpetrator is a woman and women don’t have the same societal power as men, so, can’t be as violent.

Reality: Intersections of ability, class, gender identity, sexuality, race and migration status mean that women can, and do, exercise power and control over other women in relationships. Women in relationships with each other do not necessarily have equal levels of power just because they are both women. To argue this is to assume there are no intersections of power beyond gender. Huge power differentials can exist between, for example, cis and trans women in relationships: where cis women can use positions of power granted to them by transphobia to exercise control over their partners. Biphobia can play into abusive dynamics where one partner is monosexual and the other bisexual.

Our narratives around domestic violence should never erase these intersections of power and oppression.

Myth: Domestic violence in lesbian relationships is received less by the survivor because the perpetrator is a woman.

Reality: Abuse is abuse and suffering is not quantifiable in this way. Abuse by someone that is supposed to care about and love you is painful and harmful regardless of gender.

Though domestic violence exercised along lines of power granted by sexism and misogyny is common this does not mean domestic violence exercised along other intersections of power such as sexuality, race, class, ability, gender identity, migration status etc are less painful and harmful.

Myth: It is only ‘butch’ women in lesbian relationships who abuse their partners.

Reality: Some lesbians do adopt a type of masculinity that prides itself on exercising power and control over femme-identified women. However some lesbians also exercise homophobia, power and control in order to force their butch partner to ‘act more straight’ and ‘fit in’. Butch women in lesbian relationships can be survivors as well as perpetrators.

When talking about domestic violence it’s important to emphasise that emotional violence as well as physical violence is used to exercise power and control. LGBT people disproportionately go through difficult things such as homophobic/transphobic harassment, dealing with homophobic/transphobic family and friends, coming out, passing etc. Perpetrators in same gender relationships often use the social conditions of homophobia and transphobia to emotionally abuse their partners. Mothers may be threatened that their sexuality will be used to remove access to their children.

Homophobia and transphobia means that many same gender relationships between women are secret; for some coming out can often be too daunting. Perpetrators often use a relationship shrouded in secrecy to make survivors utterly invisible and dependent on them. Internalised homophobia and transphobia means perpetrators often force their partners to come out or not come out, ‘act straight’ or pass as a way of controlling their partner. Biphobia and prejudice around bisexuality is often used by perpetrators as a way of undermining and belittling the sexuality of their partner.

Busting these myths and recognising the dynamics at play in same gender relations is crucial to a feminism that seeks to liberate all women at every intersection from domestic violence.

Homophobia, biphobia and transphobia means that LGBT people are already more likely to be homeless, under and un-employed and have poor mental health. This makes LGBT people more vulnerable to domestic violence and makes it that bit harder for us to leave. Transphobic feminisms dominant in some refuges means that domestic violence services are often not open to trans women: forcing more women and girls to remain in abusive relationships or family homes.

LGBT people often fear the homophobia and transphobia they might face when accessing domestic violence services and this often forces them to stay in abusive situations. People are less likely to report abuse if this means coming out to institutions like the police who have a history of institutionalised homophobia and transphobia.

The Conservative government’s austerity agenda will disproportionately affect LGBT people which will reinforce the reality that LGBT people are amongst the most vulnerable in society. So while the Tories may have brought in gay marriage, the lives of ordinary, working class LGBT folk in Britain is worsening under them. Austerity is homophobic and transphobic to the core. The economic violence of austerity and cuts is helping to make LGBT people more vulnerable to the interpersonal violence of domestic abusers by making it harder for us to escape and live independently. Violence in the home and in our relationships cannot be separated from the violence of the state in a sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic capitalist society.

In January Broken Rainbow (one of the only LGBT specific domestic violence services in the UK) announced that its helpline faced closure due to government cuts. Thanks to a very public and broad campaign, the Home Office was forced to provide Broken Rainbow with funding for another 12 months. But life-saving domestic violence services should not have to exist on annual life-lines.

Domestic violence services should never face closure: when those doors close, we die. Domestic violence is an LGBT issue and it is for specialist LGBT services that we will be marching for on the 28th November. Join us.

*we are focusing here on same gender relationships between women, but many analogous dynamics are at play in same gender relationships between men

Domestic Violence and Gender, or ‘What about the men?’: 5 Myths, Debunked

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

‘What about the men?’.  It’s the refrain any feminist campaigning against domestic violence will be confronted with, because it’s two women a week who are killed at the hands of their current or former partners, not two men, so it’s on trying to prevent those deaths that we focus our energies.  And that should be a more than adequate response to ‘what about the men?’, not what gives rise to the question in the first place.

Unfortunately though, a lot of misleading information about domestic violence and men gets peddled.  Here, we’d like to debunk five of the most common myths we’ve come across:

1.  ‘Women are as likely to perpetrate domestic violence as men’.  This one came up in the recent BBC documentary about ‘The Rise of Female Violence’, though to its marginal credit, the beeb only claimed this for ‘low level domestic violence’.  First of all, we shouldn’t assume that if women perpetrate domestic violence, it’s always against men — some women have relationships with people of other genders too (and we don’t celebrate violence in those relationships either, especially as there is a real dearth of specialist service provision for survivors of domestic violence who are LGBTQ— which are also in fact the services that men experiencing domestic violence are most likely to need [1]).  Furthermore, when women do commit ‘low level domestic violence’, it’s usually either self-defence or ‘co-violence’ — women are sole perpetrators in less than 4% of reported incidents [2].  This leads on to the next myth that needs to be debunked.
2. ‘Violence against men, especially by women, is taken less seriously than the other way around’.  ‘The Rise of Female Violence’ showed bystanders confronting a male actor after a staged incident of domestic violence in which he played the perpetrator, but failing to do so when the roles were reversed.  There are several problems with this popular stunt.  First of all, had the incidents been real, confronting the perpetrator could have put the woman at greater risk later: she could have been ‘punished’ for ‘making’ her partner lose control in public. Research has also shown that in fact, one in three reported incidents of domestic violence with a woman perpetrator lead to arrest, compared to one in ten incidents with a male perpetrator [3].  And that’s despite the fact that, as we’ve pointed out, when women commit violence in their relationships, it tends to be ‘low level’ and not place men at high risk of serious harm or murder in the way that domestic violence against women does – you can bet that if two men a week were being murdered by their female partners, we’d definitely know about it. When a woman is reported for trying to defend herself from domestic violence, that is itself a form of domestic violence.  When she is arrested for it, that is a form of state violence.
3. ‘Domestic violence is worse for men, because it makes them feel emasculated’.  It’s not possible to quantify suffering, but the assumptions at play here are really telling.  If we think being on the receiving end of domestic violence is an affront to men’s sense of masculinity, why don’t we think it’s an affront to women’s sense of femininity?  Probably because if it’s an affront to men’s sense of masculinity, it’s something we think of as inherently feminine — part of a woman’s lot, you might say.  This may desensitise us to domestic violence when it’s perpetrated against women; it does not make it ‘worse’ when it happens to men.  This myth is also dangerous, because it leads to the assumption that men are less likely to report domestic violence, making it easier for those men who are in fact perpetrators of domestic violence to compound their violence with state violence, by having their partners arrested for self-defence, as described above.
4. ‘Most violent crime overall is committed against men’.  This is the picture created by conventional crime statistics (although in that picture, most of the violence is still committed by men [4], and feminists cannot be expected to save men from themselves).  The thing is, conventional crime statistics are also actually skewed  towards capturing the male experience of violence (almost as if we live in a sexist society where ‘male’ is considered the default or something).  So for example, in the Crime Survey of England and Wales, the number of times one person can be counted as the victim of violent crime is capped at five.  Any additional violence committed against that person won’t be counted.  But as we’ve pointed out before:
   

   In a world where, on average, a woman will be assaulted 35 times before going to the police [5], this cap means that not only is domestic violence under-reported, when it is reported, government statistics have placed an arbitrary limit on recurring violence. Professor Sylvia Walby, of Lancaster University, took the 2011/12 CSEW and calculated that the capped number of estimated violence against women at 839,000 would increase to 1,417,000 if the cap was removed, a rise of just over 68% [6]. Add to this the estimated 65% of domestic violence that isn’t reported, and the numbers start to become so high as to be unimaginable: a silent epidemic of gender-based violence.

   Because the kind of violence women are likely to suffer is usually of a recurring kind, like domestic violence, most violence against women is left out of the conventional picture of violent crime altogether — because it’s different from the kind of violence men suffer and we live in a sexist society.

5. ‘Female violence is rising’.  If this is true, it should hardly be surprising given some of the facts contained here: there is a silent epidemic of violence against women, and women are all too often reported and arrested for trying to defend ourselves against it. 

What we are campaigning for at Sisters Uncut — for the funding that has been cut from domestic violence services to be restored in full, and ringfenced at a national level for specialist providers — should be considered a form of collective self-defence.  We must remember the history of these services: they were not benignly handed to us by a government, they were fought for and built by women who had had enough of their sisters dying, of living under the threat of male violence with nowhere to run, and decided to take matters into their own hands.  We have lost over 30 specialist domestic violence services under the current and last governments [7], primarily services set up by and for women of colour.  Generic services, run on a shoestring, will not compensate us for this loss.  Sisters are stepping into the breach, to win back what has been robbed from us.

It is our duty to fight for our freedom.  It is our duty to win.  We must love and support one another.  We have nothing to lose but our chains.  Join us on the 28th.

***

[1] https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/181867.pdf (US source).

[2] http://www.nr-foundation.org.uk/downloads/Who-Does-What-to-Whom.pdf

[3] Ibid. 

[4] http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171776_352364.pdf

[5] http://www.refuge.org.uk/get-help-now/what-is-domestic-violence/domestic-violence-the-facts/

[6] http://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/72272/4/Violence_Society_Research_briefing_1.pdf

[7] http://www.womensaid.org.uk/page.asp?section=0001000100100029&sectionTitle=APPG+on+Domestic+and+Sexual+Violence (download report).

Growing Up With Domestic Violence

Sunday, October 11, 2015

This week, Sisters Uncut made headlines storming the red carpet of the ‘Suffragette’ premiere in Leicester Square to highlight the government’s devastating cuts to domestic violence services. Here, a Sister explains her experience of growing up with domestic violence, and why she’s fighting with us against the cuts.

When I was young my mum taught me a secret code: when I needed her to drop everything and come get me, I had to ring and ask her to buy me some sweets from the shops; when I needed her to call the police I had to ask her to buy me some chocolate.

1 in 7 children and young people under the age of 18 will have experienced living with domestic violence (1), and yet time and time again we are failing both single women and those with families by a lack of refuges and resources to help them escape the cycle of fear and violence. Domestic violence and associated abuse, both sexual and emotional, are often complex issues that require specialised, long-term interventions to ensure that we are getting women and women with families to safety as soon as possible, and supporting those not yet ready to leave their partners. Yet on just one day in 2014 112 women and 84 children were turned away from refuges because they could not be accommodated (2).

I was never one of those children, and my mother was never one of those women: we are not included in any statistics – we are a proportion of the population that women’s rights campaigners and charities can only guess at: the number of women subjected to domestic violence and abuse who never report it, or whose reports go unheard.

The Crime Survey of England and Wales caps the number that each person can be counted as a victim at 5. In a world where, on average, a women will be assaulted 35 times before going to the police (3), this cap means that not only is domestic violence under-reported, when it is reported government statistics have placed an arbitrary limit on recurring violence. Professor Sylvia Walby, of Lancaster University, took the 2011/12 CSEW and calculated that the capped number of estimated violence against women at 839,000 would increase to 1,417,000 if the cap was removed, a rise of just over 68% (4). Add to this the estimated 65% of domestic violence that isn’t reported5, and the numbers start to become so high as to be unimaginable: a silent epidemic of gender-based violence.

Despite the millions of women and children suffering at the hands of their partners or ex-partners, despite the 61 acts of violence against women that have occurred in the time it has taken for you to read this article (6), the current government continues to push a political ideology that has a disproportionate affect on women (7), and to cut services that save lives. Since 2010, 32 refuges have been shut-down; charities that provide vital services to LGBTQ+ and Black and Minority Ethnic women, such as Apna Haq, are in danger as councils move towards cheaper, non-specialist services; and those services which do remain do not have long-term funding, as budgets are not nationally ring-fenced.

1 in 3 women will experience violence within their lifetime: we are women you work with and your next-door neighbours; we are children you smile at in the street and those you pass sat in classrooms; we are friends, acquaintances and strangers. We are sat next to you right now.

I never used my sweet-sounding code: I knew he’d kill her if I did.

1. Radford, L; Aitken, R; Miller, P; Ellis, J; Robert, J & Firkic, A, (2011)
2. http://www.womensaid.org.uk/page.asp?section=00010001001400130005&sectionTitle=Women%27s+Aid+Annual+Survey
3. http://www.refuge.org.uk/get-help-now/what-is-domestic-violence/domestic-violence-the-facts/
4. http://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/72272/4/Violence_Society_Research_briefing_1.pdf
5. http://www.refuge.org.uk/get-help-now/what-is-domestic-violence/domestic-violence-the-facts/
6. based on an average of 12.9 million acts of violence against women a year, Walby & Allen (2004)
7. http://wbg.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Plan-F_WBG-Parties-briefing_Sept-2013_final.pdf

Dear Kev: a letter from a survivor

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

We were contacted by a survivor of domestic violence who wanted to share this letter that she wrote to the perpetrator of her abuse. We’re so grateful to her for sharing her powerful words with us.

In solidarity and sisterhood, Sisters Uncut.

(Content note: descriptions of domestic and sexual violence)

Dear Kev

Yes it maybe you reading this one day. You may not know this is meant for you it maybe another Kev reading it and some may ring true! It may be one of your family or our children reading it wondering if it’s you and me that is being spoken of.

When you met me I was inexperienced, young, troubled, and most of all vulnerable. You took me and you made me feel things I had never felt. I really was in love with this man I knew all of a sudden that this was where I was meant to be! I felt each time you quarrelled with your dad, I had quarrelled with mine a lot especially during my teen years! I was unaware that each day I just walked further and further into your trap! You started stripping away every single layer there was of any self-respect I ever had. You would use any diversion to stop me seeing your ugly side. Until it was far too late. Pregnant and alone away from my family, my home, no friends near me and allowed but you and your twisted mum n dad I was easy prey.

You then began to make my life the nightmare it became. Little to no sleep no help what so ever constant criticism no support expected to cope with what I did before and a baby and yeah you hit me you would take the baby n while he screamed for me you would tell me how crap I was how I was dirty cause I never got time to bathe, we had no running hot water n had to heat from a twin tub. You refused to look after him so I could do any personal care and I could not leave a baby on their own! I had most of clothes ruined where you would not buy me any maternity wear then you would not buy me anything after and when you ripped it throwing me around you would tell it was my fault and I was a tramp! The hoarding you insisted on had near every bit of the house full of your crap, getting up to work everyday hours before you getting shaken awake cause my exhaustion made me fall asleep in front of you. Screamed at all my stuff destroyed ripped up n broken but no never yours! You would strangle me screaming in my face! You would hold knives to my throat and breasts and you would force yourself on me knowing it would make me bleed and then you would say sorry.

Hitting me while I held our son and screaming at me! Telling me I was ugly fat and worthless and telling that to your family! Threatening to murder me telling me ill never be found after what you would do to my body! Then yes I had a second baby! Who you never accepted as yours. You would tell me he was someone else’s!??? We lived out in the sticks I had no transport but no argument I had ever met yours did it! They got worse and worse but every now and then the nice guy would come out . We would “take” the kids to the beach but spend it watching you fish and you would go buy bikes for you to ride while we were clothed from charity shops and boot sales. We would pretend it was ok to live in limited parts of our house and I had to keep the kids quiet and away from you!

Then one day I started asking if I am so ugly why are you not with a pretty girl!? If I am so fat why did you not find a skinny girl? If I am such a bad cook why don’t you cook or find someone else who can cook? If I am so bad why are you with me why don’t you show me how to look after the kids? If I am such a whore why do you touch me ? why do you make me have you when I don’t want you? If I am so stupid why do you ask me anything at all? And if I am so stupid why do you leave me to do everything? If I am so lazy why do you make me take the kids to school, make me make t and clean what I can get to in my house to clean and do the washing oh while you yeah hold on you get up at lunch and I cook your breakfast I make your coffee and fetch your beer, I sort out your clothes and watch you play your damn game for hours while I play with and teach the kids fetch their drinks clean their mess and do their homework. I must be soooo damn lazy why do you put up with that?

If I am the aggressive one why is it you that breaks everything and why is it me with the bruises! If I am the one that’s so screwed up why can I go shopping without arguments and not getting us banned from supermarkets but there is always trouble when you go? If I am just so god damned crap why are you with me go on I dare you to answer!?

You never could because you were the one that was crap! You were crap at giving me anything and respect and any sort of thought or life! Your control was crap your needs were overwhelming and your idea of what’s right and wrong were warped!

Well you gave me two weeks and I would be crawling back to you! Kicking you out was the best thing I ever did! And its 13 years since you last left my door as my partner this august and I swear to you that I refuse to be unhappy because of you! I have never ever lived under a man like you since and I never would I am no longer shot down day in and day out I suffer no mental cruelty or physical violence! I have no one telling me I am fat or stupid or crap! I have no threats of being killed or raped and I have no one to worry about except myself! I was not the lazy or stupid one I was not the crap one you were! I was not the horrid partner I was not useless I was trapped by your lies and your aggression and your cruelty! Your parents helped you and they are just as screwed up as you are!

I hope that you never treated another person the way you treated me but I know you can’t help yourself you are a bully and you are stupid! Your pathetic to tell me I was all those things and make my life so tough because you lost the best thing you ever had you made me pity you! You will never smile like I can you will never be happy like I can you will never know love like I can you will never have peace and success like I can! You will never ever get my forgiveness and you will never know me because you don’t see me for who I am you see me for the version of me you tried to make! But she don’t live here anymore and she never actually existed!

How can she leave if she has nowhere to go? Housing and domestic violence

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Around 7 years ago I started working on a helpline to support women experiencing domestic violence. A woman called early evening desperate to leave a violent and abusive man – he had assaulted her and left the house, she wanted to go, right there and then, to pack a bag, to get to safety, away from him.

We began to run through her options: Are you injured? Yes, but I am ok. Are you in immediate danger? Yes. Can you get out? Yes. Is he likely to come back? Yes. Is he locked out? Yes. Do you have anywhere to stay tonight? No.

I looked online for refuge space but after-hours cover is patchy and women have to travel out of their local areas to get to a safe space. I called the local authority’s emergency line to report that I was supporting a woman who needed emergency accommodation until we could find her a refuge the following day. I was told the local authority’s duty worker would call me back.

45 minutes passed until the phone rang: ‘I hear you have a woman crying so-called “domestic violence”? Why is she calling us? Why doesn’t she call the police? We can’t house her here, we house women out of borough. Is she single? Single women don’t get priority.’ The accusations, the blame, the disregard continued. The man on the end of the phone had a cold disbelief, a view that a woman who had bravely picked up the phone, who was prepared after years of serial abuse to leave everything she knew, was lying in order to get housed.

This was one of my early experiences with housing. It was just after the economic crash but before the coalition. In the last seven years, I have seen housing support for women diminish, a narrow pool of social housing slowly eroded, and housing become one of the major barriers to women’s access to support and safety.

Around 13% of all homeless acceptances are related to domestic violence (1) and research indicates that in up to 40% of cases, domestic violence is the main cause or a contributing factor towards women becoming homeless (2, 3). Those seeking safety are stuck between a rock and a hard place – many are sent to bed and breakfasts, forced to wait in crap temporary accommodation that does not meet their needs or make them feel safe.

Austerity has made this situation worse. It has decimated housing: social housing is not being built and right to buy has eroded what social housing is left – women are being thrown onto the mercy of the market. Caps to housing benefit are limiting options and making safe accommodation a luxury item. In turn, the Localism Act has made it difficult for women fleeing violence – refuges are provided by local authorities for women from other areas – the policy of localism works against the interests of women seeking safety.

Even if women are able to access a refuge, their ability to move on to a long-term home is, quite frankly, shit. Some women have been in a refuge for a year, then temporary accommodation and then been moved into the unstable private rented sector, where huge deposits, short-term contracts and steep letting agents’ fees are the norm.

For women experiencing multiple and intersecting oppressions, the offer of safe and suitable housing is even further out of reach. Many women who experience violence and abuse will report mental ill-health, will have PTSD and might be using substances to cope (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12) yet due to funding cuts, refuges are often ill-equipped to support women with mental ill-health or using substances (13) and homeless services are rarely designed with women in mind (14).

Young women are at high risk of violence and exploitation yet housing benefit is being stopped for the under 21s. Women with disabilities are twice as likely as their non disabled counterparts to experience assault or rape, yet there is limited specialist housing for this group (15). Black and minority women are facing brutal cuts to services and there is little to no housing provision for women with no recourse to public funds (16).

Housing is an overwhelming struggle for women fleeing domestic violence, and the situation is just getting worse.

And austerity has done something insidious: it has demonised help-seeking, pushing those who find themselves reliant on state services into the bracket of scrounger, a horrendous throw back to a Victorian model of undeserving poor. The state enables perpetrators – it permits a language that women are worthless, failures, at fault, to blame, a problem.

In the last 7 years I’ve seen the housing situation get worse for domestic violence survivors: I’ve sat in housing offices desperate to get women accommodation only to be turned away. I’ve seen women choosing between a violent partner and the streets, or experiencing further violence and abuse while sofa surfing or taking rooms in strangers’ houses – you only need to look on gumtree to see the precarious choices open to women: streams of adverts offering a free room to an attractive woman. I’ve seen women who, without safe accommodation, support, or a feeling of safety, return to the ‘order’ of the violent relationship. Because at least they have some idea of what will happen to them there.

Every day I am astonished when women get to a stage where they seek help and support for the violence they experience – the energy, strength and determination of survivors is nourishing, powerful and impressive. But it is often thwarted because their housing needs are not met: women are worn down, tired, exhausted and without sanctuary.

Women deserve a safe place to call home. Women deserve social housing. Women deserve security on their own terms. Women are being failed and the government should be made to feel ashamed: they should be told every day that by refusing women’s rights, they are perpetrating violence against them.

Housing is a right, safety is a right – not a privilege.

Join the Sisters Uncut bloc at Focus E15’s ‘March Against Evictions’ on Saturday 19th September.

1 Quiglars and Pleace (2010)
2 Crisis (2006)
3 Shelter (2002)
4 Humphreys & Regan (2005)
5 Oram et al (2013)
6 Barron (2005)
7 Campbell (2002)
8 Dutton et al (2005)
9 Rees et al (2011)
10 Walby (2004)
11 Department of Health (2003)
12 Herman (1992)
13 AVA, Case-by-Case, (2014)
14 St Mungo’s, Rebuilding Shattered Lives (2014)
15 Magowan (2004)
16 Women’s Aid, A Growing Crisis of Unmet Need (2013)

We need more than refuges: why #budget2015 fails women at risk of domestic violence

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

They Cut, We Bleed: Sisters Uncut protest at Westminster after #budget2015

George Osborne would like you to think that his budget will help victims/survivors of domestic violence, but he is lying. “I am determined domestic violence victims get the help they need” he said, as he announced £3 million of funding for domestic violence refuges as part of the Emergency Budget. Sounds good, doesn’t it? This money is desperately needed by refuge services and will make a difference in ensuring that specialist refuge provision is able to remain open for the time being. However we should not be fooled into thinking that Osborne’s budget is good news for victims/survivors of domestic violence.

Austerity is an ideological project that has already directly harmed victims/survivors of domestic violence and will continue to do so. There is no certainty of funding for community domestic violence services, children who have witnessed violence are increasingly unable to access specialist support, and cuts to legal aid mean that victims/survivors are less able to seek justice and safety.

Here are just some of the specific ways in which survivors will be harmed by the measures announced in today’s budget.

Benefit cuts

Benefit cuts will push even more women into poverty. Cuts to tax credits, including reducing the rate of working tax credits for those on the lowest incomes and placing limitations on child tax credit, which is mainly claimed by women, will disproportionately affect women. Women will also be severely impacted by the further reduction in the benefit cap.

We know that a lack of economic resources makes it much more difficult for women to leave abusive relationships, and can leave them feeling trapped if they are financially dependent on an abusive partner. We also know that the fear of being unable to provide financially for their children as a single parent can stop women from taking the steps to leave. The lower the rate of benefits that single mothers are able to claim, the harder it will be for many of them to leave their partners and move to a place of safety.

Continued commitment to (and expansion of) Universal Credit

By committing once again to their project of Universal Credit, the Conservatives have chosen to overlook its inherent risks. Not only are women affected by the aforementioned cuts in welfare but increasingly – with the phasing in of Universal Credit – abusive partners will be able to claim all benefits entitled to both of a couple. As the government’s own guidelines state: ‘if you live with your partner and both claim Universal Credit you’ll receive a single payment that covers you both.’  This measure is intended to “streamline” benefits and reduce “benefit fraud” but, alongside costing dramatically more than was forecast, it will make victims/survivors of domestic violence significantly more vulnerable to economic abuse and financial dependence on their partners.

When challenged on this, ministers have stated that in cases of domestic violence, victims will be able to request to have their claim separated from their partner – this shows an astonishing lack of understanding on the part of the government about the dynamics of abusive relationships and the risk to the victim/survivor that may result from such a request.

Disability and ESA

The rate of Employment and Support Allowance, a benefit for people unable to work due to sickness or disability, is going to be significantly reduced for people in the “Work Related Activity Group”. Reductions in disability benefits will also put women at further risk. Let us not forget that disabled women are twice as likely as non disabled women to experience domestic abuse. Again, any further restrictions to income will make it even harder than it already is for disabled women to access life saving services.

Housing Benefit

Most refuge places are funded through housing benefit. The announcement that 18 – 21 year olds will no longer be eligible to claim this benefit will be devastating for young women trying to leave violent relationships, who may find themselves unable to access funding for a refuge space as a result. It is predicated on an assumption that those in this age bracket can take refuge in their family homes, with no recognition given to how these homes can often be spaces of violence and abuse, and that, even when they are not, the effects of austerity and poverty reduce families’ capacities to support their children into adulthood.

This is especially concerning given that over half of women age 18 – 21 have reported experiencing at least one incident of abuse from a partner. The budget states that exceptions will be made for vulnerable young people, but gives no assurances that victims/survivors of domestic violence will be classed as vulnerable, and these exceptions only apply for six months whilst the vulnerable young person “looks for work” – what about young women for whom escaping and recovering from abuse takes longer than this? And what about those who cannot “prove” their abuse to the standards demanded by government-run bodies?

Sisters Uncut are a feminist group taking direct action for domestic violence services. We demand no more cuts to specialist domestic violence services. More than this, we recognise that there are a range of ways in which domestic violence victims/survivors are being hurt by austerity.

Domestic violence does not happen in a vacuum and tackling it is about more than just safeguarding specialist services. Domestic violence victims/survivors, like many other vulnerable groups in society, are being hurt by austerity from numerous directions. Austerity does not harm people just with individual cuts, but in the fatal combination of the many cuts, caps and scrappings that it entails. Making women poorer makes them more vulnerable to violence and abuse and makes it harder for them to escape it.

If George Osborne really wants to give domestic violence victims “the help that they need”, he must stop his ideological cuts to the welfare state that can provide a safety net for women and give them the chance of a safe and violence free future.

Solidarity with Bahar Mustafa: the need for safe spaces

Friday, May 22, 2015

Sisters Uncut stand in solidarity with Bahar Mustafa, student diversity officer at Goldsmiths who is being targeted by a petition calling for her expulsion from the university and the revocation of her degree. Her supposed crime? Promoting safe spaces and expressing legitimate rage and resistance to white male supremacy.

This vitriolic petition is symptomatic of the entitlement that underscores white male privilege. Sisters Uncut believe this entitlement should be challenged at every opportunity if we want to live in an equal world.

The petitioner accuses Bahar of ‘stirring up racial hatred’, because she:

1) Wanted to create a safe space in her meetings, so posted on Facebook:

“If you’ve been invited and you’re a man and/or white PLEASE DON’T COME just cos I invited a bunch of people and hope you will be responsible enough to respect this is a BME (Black and Minority Ethnic) Women and non-binary event only,”

The petition’s claims are ludicrous. In the white supremacist patriarchy that we live in, safe spaces are vital to liberation movements. They provide marginalized people relief from the oppression and bigotry they are forced to navigate every single day. They provide strength, validation and a supportive space for effective organising against oppression. Women and people of colour spend their whole lives being interrupted, undermined and dominated by white men. Safe spaces are the only places where their voices are not silenced, interrupted or interrogated – and where they can lead their own movements.

Sisters Uncut has a strict safe spaces policy: our meetings and actions are open to self-defining women – including trans women – as well as intersex and non-binary people. We know that in a society where women are subject to horrific rates of domestic and sexual violence, they need spaces where they feel SAFE to organize their own movement for liberation, as well as express their hurt and anger. And they have the right to do this amongst other women without being tone-policed, patronized or criticised.

We recognise the need for women-only spaces, as well as women of colour-only spaces. We are intersectional feminists who believe that oppressed voices should be front and centre of our movement. These tactics are part of the necessary work to be done; when the rest of the world is fundamentally unequal, safe spaces temporarily redress the balance.

2) She tweeted using the hashtag #killallwhitemen

Hashtags do not kill people; institutional and structural oppression – including police and male violence – do. The author of this petition fixates on the hashtag ‘#killallwhitemen’ in a context where two UK women are murdered each week by men and specialist black and minority ethnic women (BAME) refuges and services are being closed due to austerity cuts. This petty fixation is indicative of both his privilege and his ignorance. #Killallwhitemen is a tongue-in-cheek, legitimate expression of rage and resistance, and the fact that white men are using this to derail conversations about structural oppression and violence against women is laughable and infuriating, but not surprising.

It is highly improbable – in fact it barely merits mentioning – that the white male author of the petition against Bahar truly believes the use of hashtags such as #killallwhitemen stirs up racial hatred or in any way constitutes a threat towards him or other white men. If he does believe such a hashtag constitutes a threat towards him and other white men, we hope he recognises that the “risk” of being killed by a feminist is not a danger that white men have to negotiate in their daily lives. On the other hand, women, especially women of colour and communities of colour more broadly, do have to negotiate the danger of deadly violence – both in their homes, on the streets and especially when they speak out.

Women have a right to express their anger, pain and frustration at the daily racist misogyny they are forced to negotiate in order to survive in our society. Whether that pain and frustration is to the taste of oppressive groups is entirely irrelevant. Women have a right to express their resistance to oppression without white men policing their tone or de-legitimising their lived experience by demanding that the way women organise is suitable for them.

Allies know when their presence is constructive to a liberation movement and when it is not, and they respect the safe spaces we create. The people that are offended by our policies that exclude them on the basis of race and gender are not allies to liberation movements. Their criticisms are illegitimate and should not be given any attention.

Furthermore, we are alarmed by the petitioner’s comment regarding the murder of Lee Rigby, a victim of male violence who has nothing to do with this. The petitioner says that the UK is seeing “white people attacked in their own streets by radicals”. We are deeply alarmed by the claim that streets – and public spaces in general – are owned by white people. This sentiment only reinforces the all-too-common public violence committed by the police and other state agents against people of colour. As a direct action group that regularly reclaims public spaces in order to empower ourselves, Sisters Uncut believe that the streets belong to everyone and are not solely the domain of white men.

Finally: saying that Bahar’s actions would constitute hate speech is at best laughable. At worst, it invokes the same measures that the racist British state uses to criminalize, silence and commit violence against people of colour. We stand united with Bahar, and with all groups seeking to end sexism, racism and state violence.