Feminist Writing. Fourth Wave. For Women.

This Week in Male Violence

12/23/19–12/29/19

This Week in Male Violence

This is the next installment of 4W‘s new weekly roundup, highlighting stories on male violence across the world. You can share stories with 4WPub on Twitter, or email stories to the editor at: [email protected] if you would like them included next week.

Male violence is not a problem of individual bad actors. It is a form of global terrorism against women designed to keep us in our place our of fear, in need of “protection” from men against other men.

Women’s liberation can not be achieved unless we name the problem.


Dec 23, 2019

Two men in Lisburn, Ireland accused of raping 12-year-old girl, sexually assaulting another (15)

Gerard Michael Owen McKenna (27) and Paul Sheridan (23) are accused of raping a 12-year-old girl and McKenna is further charged with sexually assaulting another (15). The men met the girls walking on a trail, and also stole alcohol and threatened to kill two men before continuing to sexually assault the girls on a train. Both girls attended a rape crisis center.

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Dec 24, 2019

Islamic extremists killed 35 civilians in Burkina Faso, mostly women

Women in Burkina Faso, via Flickr

Jihadists attacked Arbinda, a town near the Burkina Faso border with Mali, killing 35 civilians, most of whom were women. Eighty jihadists were also killed by security forces, and seven members of the security response are also dead.

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Dec 25, 2019

Service providers warn that number of girls forced into marriage and honor-based violence spikes over Christmas

By DFID on Flickr

Cases of forced marriage and honor-based violence may increase as much as 57% during the Christmas holidays, according to NHS service providers. Honor-based violence includes female genital mutilation (FGM), assault, and even murder based on the perception that the victim has done something “wrong” which brings shame to the family.

Many girls find themselves being married off over the holidays without fully understanding what is happening until it is too late, like Farhana Raval who says she was forced into a marriage on a family holiday to Bangladesh in the summer holidays when she was just 16.

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Dec 26, 2019

Women in Mexico are taking to the streets to fight male violence

Toya Sarno Jordan for The New York Times

In Latin America, 98% of cases of violence against women are not prosecuted, and Mexican authorities have been known to be complicit in abuse against women who report sexual violence. “The number of women who die violently in Mexico is climbing,” According to the New York Times, “It has gone up to 10 killings per day this year, from seven per day just two years ago”. Women across the region are banding together and taking to the streets to protest this violence.

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Dec 27, 2019

For the first time in Nepal’s history, a man was arrested for forcing a woman to sleep outside in a hut while menstruating

A woman in a chhaupadi hut in Nepal. Tara Todras-Whitehill for The New York Times

For as long as anyone can remember, women in Nepal have been banished to face the elements when their period arives — no matter how cold it is. Every winter, women have died in “chhaupadi” huts, where they are segregated to protect the “purity” of the village. For the first time, a man has been arrested in connection to one of these deaths: the brother-in-law of Parbati Budha (21), who died from smoke inhalation after trying to keep warm with a fire in the small hut. Officers initially refused to bring charges, but caved under activist pressure.

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Mexican Police Cheif, Fidel Alejandro Villegas, arrested for the murder of nine women and children

Herika Martinez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Villegas is the sixth person to be arrested in connection to the attack on a Mormon family, which left three women and six children dead. The group was attacked by gunmen while traveling on an isolated road. One child was reportedly gunned down while running away, and others were left in a car to burn alive. The attack appears to be related to criminal gang violence and a fight to control the region.

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Dec 29, 2019

Chinese undergraduate declared brain-dead after suicide attempt prompted by male “pickup artist”

The tragic suicide attempt of a young woman in China has brought attention to the rise of male “pick up artists” (PUAs) in China and the abusive lengths to which they will go to dominate and control their victims. The PUAs use gaslighting, emotionally abusive language, maniupaltion, and villification to undermine a woman’s confidence and to make her sexually submissive to him. There are currently thousands of websites and companies teaching PUA tactics, and one of the largest “schools” had over 100,000 students at it’s peak.

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Jeffery Beagley (34), arrested for murder and attempted rape of nine-year-old girl, found dead in jail

Jeffrey Beagley (Image: GRAND JUNCTION POLICE DEPARTMENT)

A Grand Junction, Colorodo, man who was accused of killing a nine-year-old girl when he attempted to rape her has been found dead in his jail cell. The cause of death is not yet known. Beagley was being charged for the death of the girl who was found in their home, which they shared with the girl’s mother and sister. Beagley accidentally killed the child with chloroform while attempting to rape her.

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