Empowering Women Against Violence
Topic: Domestic Abuse/CSA/Rape ***Trigger Warning for Extremely Graphic Content*** My Story The Sexual Abuse Started Early I was 11 when my parents divorced. It was messy. Dad was devastated and started drinking. Mum had been having an affair and had moved in with her new boyfriend. I don’t remember feeling vulnerable but I was clearly a sitting duck, in hindsight. The …
Topic: Rape *Trigger Warning* My Story Becoming a butterfly The egg of the butterfly is hidden away, under a leaf, until the caterpillar growing inside is ready to come out. You never know how life is going to turn out. My young life was full of potential, although I didn’t know it at the time. Things happen that change your …
“Donnelly’s cartoons are the best kind of funny—sly, smart, and right on the money. [They] are great social commentary as well as great fun.” Susan Orlean, You started drawing from a very young age thanks to your mother. How did that lead to a career as a cartoonist. Why did you choose the medium of cartoons? Laughter was something that was …
Topic: Forced Marriage My Story *Trigger Warning: forced marriage, abuse, family abuse* I grew up in northern England and at the age of 14, I was presented with a picture of the man I would have to marry. Back in those days, I was a good girl (not to say I am not now!), and I did not answer my parents back. I …
*Trigger Warning: sexual abuse, sexual situations* Topic: Child Sexual Abuse My Story During the first seven years of my life, my family looked like all the other families of that time. It was the late sixties. My dad went to work at a low level office job every day and my mom stayed home with me and my older sister. When …
“Do you think Bartoli’s dad told her when she was little: You are never going to be a looker, you’ll never be a Sharapova, so you have to be scrappy and fight?” Make special note of the words used. Those words belong to John Inverdale, a commentator who handled the commentary for the finals of the 2013 Wimbledon matches. Through …
I’m not one to stomach scenes with a lot of violence in a visual medium. And so, when I watched Danaerys Targaryan eat a horse’s heart with Khal Drogo and their many other Dothraki counterparts watching on, I wanted to barf. It didn’t help that I was eating a particularly ingenious combination of cottage cheese and salsa. Nope. Never going …
Not many would remember but way back in 1996, Madhuri Dixit had done an immensely forgettable film called “Prem Granth.” The regressive tale of a rape survivor whose ordeal only begins with the incident, the movie would count as one of the most disgusting depictions of the already gruesome act and possible aftermath. From “Prem Granth” in the 90s to …
It’s 2015 and of all the alarming statistics that plague public health, very few rile me up like crimes against women. Seriously, women bring us into the world yet sexual assault, trafficking, and public health disparities seem to only be rising. You can wait for public officials, governments, and societal leaders to make change, or you can create your own movement, …
As more and more women choose to explore the world and live their lives on their own terms, a major concern for them is safety. Today an increasing number of women are living by themselves. They may be students or working women or there may be many other reasons for the same.In the more technologically advanced world of today, there …