7 h. ago 17 women and girls in hospital after 'being stung by man with syringe' at festival

Police have launched an investigation after 17 girls and women were reportedly attacked by a 'syringe-wielding man' at a music festival attended by 50,000 people in Metz, France

Politics

10 h. ago ‘We’re here to spot predatory men’: the new force patrolling Dua Lipa’s Wembley show

With reports of violence against women and girls increasing, a group of officers are guarding large-scale London events this summerIn the hours leading up to Dua Lipa’s first headline show at Wembley stadium the stifling heat was as striking as the colours. Fans resplendent in costumes inspired by their idol milled around the concourse, and groups of women took selfies, jigging with excitement.But among the jollity, specialist Met Officers interspersed in the crowd were on the hunt for something different: “We’re here to spot predatory men.” Continue reading...

Politics

28 h. ago Man arrested on suspicion of indecent exposure after women and girls allegedly targeted at beauty spot

Other potential victims are urged to come forward

Events

53 h. ago Edinburgh Powerleague clubs kick off campaign to celebrate women and girls in football

Powerleague, the original and premier provider of commercial small-sided football in the UK, has launched She’s Got Game, a new campaign designed to celebrate, support and showcase women and girls in football across Edinburgh.

Sport

54 h. ago London is the greatest city in the world for live entertainment

London is the greatest city in the world for live entertainment - that's why it must be safer for women and girls  lbc.co.uk

Politics

66 h. ago Met Police introduces patrols to protect women and girls at concerts

The operation began on June 5 at Beyonce’s concert at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Events

3 d. ago Netanyahu is using Muslim women’s 'rights’ to justify his war. What hideous, hollow hypocrisy | Mona Eltahawy

As his troops slaughter civilians in Gaza, he claims to be standing up for Iranian women’s autonomy. He is far from the first warmonger to do soThe Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has invoked the Iranian regime’s heinous women’s rights record to justify his heinous war on Iran. This is the man whose genocide of Palestinians in Gaza killed more women and children in its first year than the equivalent period of any other conflict over the past two decades.“They’ve impoverished you, they’ve given you misery, they’ve given you death, they’ve given you terror, they shoot down your women, leaving this brave, unbelievable woman, Mahsa Amini, to bleed on the sidewalk for not covering her hair,” he told Iranians in an interview with Iran International.Mona Eltahawy writes the Feminist Giant newsletter. She is the author of The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls and Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual RevolutionDo you have an opinion on the issues rais...

Events

3 d. ago UK to ban choking and suffocation porn in new violence against women and girls strategy

The UK government will ban choking in porn, as Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson says 'there is absolutely no place for violent, misogynistic and harmful content online'

Events

4 d. ago MPs vote to decriminalise abortion – what is the law and how will it change?

MPs argued in the debate that the UK's abortion law had been ‘increasingly used against vulnerable women and girls’

Politics

5 d. ago The Guardian view on violence against women and girls: the grooming gangs inquiry should be part of a wider strategy | Editorial

It is right to confront child sexual exploitation, but this week’s announcement comes against a backdrop of failureThe government’s renewed focus on child sexual exploitation (CSE) gangs is overdue, and the new national inquiry recommended by Louise Casey must deliver justice, not just headlines. All child sexual abuse is horrifying. But the extreme sexual violence and financial incentives involved in gang-based offending demand special scrutiny. So do the institutional failures by police and councils, particularly in northern England, where numerous gangs operated.Past inquiries have exposed these institutional breakdowns. They have also shown that a reluctance to inflame racial tensions played a role in the way that some complaints were mishandled. That doesn’t excuse the inaction – nor justify turning a public safety issue into a culture war. Continue reading...

Events

7 d. ago 'Safe space' for women and girls launched in East London, acting as a 'one

The Bloom Hub in Stratford is similar to a community centre, but exclusively for females aged 13 to 25

Politics

7 d. ago ‘It’s not a genuine apology’: Spanish women reject Catholic attempt to redress Franco incarceration

Many survivors believe organisation’s request for forgiveness over abuse in Women’s Protection Board centres does not go far enoughAs the members of the Catholic organisation wrapped up their speech with an appeal for forgiveness, the auditorium in Madrid exploded in rage. For decades, many in the audience had grappled with the scars left by their time in Catholic-run institutions; now they were on their feet chanting: “Truth, justice and reparations” and – laying bare their rejection of any apology – “Neither forget, nor forgive”.It was an unprecedented response to an unprecedented moment in Spain, hinting at the deep fissures that linger over one of the longest-running and least-known institutions of Francisco Franco’s dictatorship: the Catholic-run centres that incarcerated thousands of women and girls as young as eight, subjecting them to barbaric punishments, forced labour and religious indoctrination. Continue reading...

Politics

8 d. ago Georgia Harrison shares heartfelt reaction to her MBE at King's Birthday Honours

Georgia Harrison, who appeared in the fourth series of Love Island, has been a prominent campaigner on violence against women and girls after being a victim of revenge porn

Politics

8 d. ago The Ballymena violence has nothing to do with ‘protecting women’. It is racism, pure and simple | Sarah Creighton

Northern Ireland has always seen high levels of violence against women and girls. Blaming migrants is a useful way to distract from thatIn 1972, loyalist paramilitaries fired bullets into the home of a Catholic woman, Sarah McClenaghan. That night she was at home with her lodger, a Protestant, and her disabled teenage son, David. After forcing her son to get his mother’s rosary beads, proving that she was Catholic, a loyalist paramilitary raped Sarah. David was tortured. The gang then shot them both, David dying of his wounds.I thought about David and Sarah as I watched rolling news of the pogroms in Ballymena. I thought about them in light of the lie that violence against women and girls has been imported to Northern Ireland via migrants or asylum seekers. It’s always been here. Continue reading...

Events

8 d. ago ‘The risk was worth it’: All Fours author Miranda July on sex, power and giving women permission to blow up their lives

The artist and author’s hit book had so much in common with her own life that even her friends forgot it wasn’t real. How did this revolutionary portrayal of midlife desire come to inspire a generation of women?When Miranda July’s All Fours was published in May last year, it triggered what felt like both a spontaneous resistance movement and the sort of mania last experienced when the final Twilight book dropped, except this time for women in midlife rather than teenage girls. Two friends separately brought it to my house, like contraband dropped out of a biplane. Book groups hastily convened, strategically timed for when the men were out of the picture.The story opens with a 45-year-old woman about to take a road trip, a break from her husband and child and general domestic noise. She’s intending to drive from LA to New York, but is derailed in the first half hour by a young guy, Davey, in a car hire place, to whom she is passionately attracted. The next several weeks pas...

Events

8 d. ago Reality TV star Georgia Harrison ‘blown away’ at MBE for campaigning efforts

Harrison has advocated for online safety and the prevention of violence against women and girls.

Politics

9 d. ago ‘We were sinking. I let her go’: how growing numbers of women are risking all to reach Europe by boat

The tragic drowning of seven women and girls just metres from the port of La Restinga has highlighted the growing number of female migrants crossing to the Canary Islands from west AfricaThe four women and three girls were just metres from the pier in the port of La Restinga in El Hierro, one of Spain’s Canary Islands, when they drowned on 28 May. Rescue teams had begun disembarking the first people early that morning when the vessel capsized.Photos and videos of the chaotic scenes show the boat partially submerged and completely overturned, with several people struggling to swim around it and others trying to climb on to the wrecked boat. Underneath, about 15 women and girls were trapped and fighting to get to the surface. Seven would not make it. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago Diddy girlfriend says he forced women into sex with other men because he's bisexual and 'liked to watch'

Sean ' Diddy ' Combs's trial for sex trafficking and racketeering is on its fifth week on Monday in New York City.

Politics

1 week ago Diddy girlfriend says he forced women into sex with other men because he's bisexual and 'liked to watch': Live updates

Sean ' Diddy ' Combs's trial for sex trafficking and racketeering is on its fifth week on Monday in New York City.

Politics

1 week ago 'Deeply concerning' spike in attacks against women and girls on Scotland's trains

EXCLUSIVE: Hundreds of women were assaulted, harassed or faced unwanted sexual behaviour on the rail network last year prompting anger from campaigners.

Events