AWARE has officially launched the Sexual Assault Befrienders Service (SABS) after a six-month pilot period.

SABS is the first support service for survivors of sexual assault in Singapore. It comprises a dedicated Helpline, counselling, legal counselling and Befriending services.

The SABS Helpline 6779 0282 runs on weekdays from 10am to 9.30 pm. Survivors can also email us at sabs@aware.org.sg for assistance.

Find out more about SABS here.

Our response time for SABS is shorter as the needs of these women are more urgent, and we also follow up on their cases more closely. SABS clients get to see our legal counsellor within three days (depending on urgency) instead of waiting 2 weeks for our regular Legal Clinic. We can send a SABS Befriender down to the police station almost immediately, if necessary.

Our website also offers the most comprehensive information available on rape and sexual assault in Singapore:

• Rape & Sexual Assault
• Abusive Relationships
• Date Rape
• Underage Sex & Statutory Rape
• Reducing Risks Of Sexual Assault
• Help For Rape Victims
• Rape & Sexual Assault: Fact Sheet On Important Information
• How To Report Sexual Harassment On SMRT Trains

WHY SABS?

We decided to set up SABS because we had women calling the AWARE Helpline years after they were sexually assaulted. They were still suffering from panic attacks, flashblacks, nightmares and depression, as they did not have the help and support they needed after the assault to find closure and to move on.

We believe that a specialized, comprehensive support service for sexual assault survivors is needed.

Over the past six months, we received a total of 24 sexual abuse cases. Of these, 14 were rape cases. We met with 10 out of the 24 callers and provided them with counselling, Befriending and/or legal counselling services.

Some survivors talk about the trauma almost immediately and have a compounded reaction of anger, shock and fear, while others try to suppress and mask their emotions. Long-term effects include symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder, low self-esteem, eating disorders, the risk of alcohol/substance abuse and self-destructive behavior.

Having support is extremely helpful in order to deal with these emotions and trauma. Having someone supporting them during police interviews and hospital visits is also beneficial to survivors as they go through the trauma of recounting the incidence.

FINDINGS FROM THE PILOT PERIOD

Date rape

Most rape is acquaintance rape and most of these are date rapes. Date rape is especially confusing for the victim as there is some level of consent to the situation.

Even though the victim did not consent to the sexual penetration, she may have consented to meeting the accused at a late hour alone, to drinking and often to a certain degree of intimacy with the perpetrator, short of sexual intercourse. Although she is clear that she did not consent to sex, she feels partly responsible for the situation.

In date rape cases, we provide the victim with information as to how the law defines rape and consent. We help her to deal with feelings of guilt and shame, and sometimes, the adverse judgments of her family and friends.

Our role as Helpliners, Befrienders and Counsellors in the case of a date rape is to be empathetic and supportive. We say “It’s not your fault” and we work from there. These words “It’s not your fault” make a huge difference to a sexual assault survivor. They can be life-saving.

Police procedures

The Police are generally the first point of contact for sexual assault victims. When the victim first goes to the Police station, she is usually in a state of trauma and confusion. The Police thus have an extremely challenging role as they have to take a report on highly sensitive and personal matters from victims when they are at their most distressed.

A negative experience at this critical stage may re-traumatize the victim and/or deter the victim from proceeding with the report or the prosecution.

This is where the Befriender can be of enormous help to the victim and the Police. We believe that our Befrienders’ support of the victims will assist the Police in carrying out their investigative and prosecution roles more effectively while also ensuring that the victim receives the emotional support.

The Police have to be impartial fact finders. They cannot be the people to tell the victim “It’s not your fault”. But the victim is at a stage where she really needs to be believed and supported, and our Befriender can play this role.

The low rate of reporting

Of the 24 calls that came in during the SABS pilot period, only 6 victims had made police reports.

This low rate of reporting is common and stems from a few factors. In the case of date rape, victims are not sure if a crime has taken place, are afraid of not being believed, feel that they have no evidence or are too ashamed to bring it up.

Victims may also be fearful of victim-blaming – factors such as how they dressed and behaved and their past sexual history may be used against them.

When we started to research rape laws and procedures, we came across Section 157(d) of the Evidence Act, which allows a woman’s past ‘immoral’ history to be used against her. The law had in fact codified victim blaming.

We approached the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Law, Mr K Shanmugam, about this and we are very most heartened by how open and responsive he has been to our feedback in this area. We look forward to a closer engagement between civil society and the government.

This is the start of a long process. Our aim is to make sure that survivors of sexual assault know that they can turn to SABS for immediate help and support, and do not have to struggle alone with their pain for months or years.

SABS: THE NEXT PHASE

These are some of the things we are working on as we embark on the next phase of our SABS programme:

• A new counselling room and an additional social worker, to meet the needs of our SABS clients.
• More volunteers to be trained as Befrienders.
• We hope to partner with the Police and hospitals to reach out to “hot” cases (survivors who reach out to us in the first 72 hours after the incident).
• We would like to thank the Margaret Mary Wearnes Charitable Trust and the Chen Su Lan Trust for ensuring that we have funding to provide this service for a year. We will continue to work on securing funding for SABS in order to ensure its long-term sustainability.

The winners of the inaugural AWARE Awards, Singapore’s first gender equality award, and the Alamak! Award, Singapore’s first sexism award, were announced at AWARE’s fundraising gala, the Big Ball 2011, held on October 17 at the Grand Hyatt hotel.

The AWARE Heroine: Madam Halimah Yacob

As Director of NTUC’s Women’s Development Secretariat, Madam Halimah’s leadership was crucial to providing support for single mothers, lower-income women seeking employment, women rejoining the work force and women seeking leadership in various unions.

As a Member of Parliament, she has been passionate about raising issues that improve the lives of women, including anti-discrimination measures for pregnant female employees, protecting the rights of domestic workers, as well as protection against sexual harassment.

The AWARE Hero: Mr Benny Bong

Mr Bong is known for his work in the prevention of family violence and violence against women, especially in counselling male perpetrators of violence. He has made a significant contribution to dealing with gender violence at all levels, including policy, research, advocacy and training.

He advocated for criminalising marital rape and has been instrumental in initiating training programmes for police officers on family violence dynamics. He was also the joint organiser of the International Violence Against Women Survey in Singapore in 2009, for which 2006 women were interviewed to find out the prevalence of violence against women in Singapore compared to other countries.

The AWARE Young Wonders: Ms Jolene Tan and Ms Wong Pei Chi

The Young Wonder award was given jointly to Ms Tan and Ms Wong for their work in organizing the No To Rape campaign, which continues today. Raping one’s wife is still not considered rape under Singapore law, and these young women, along with other members of the No To Rape team, have been working to change this since 2009 through initiatives such as petitions, public education campaigns and discussions with the media, Members of Parliament and community leaders.

The Alamak! Award: Obedient Wives Club Singapore

The initial front-runner was Mr Desmond Choo when public voting for this award first commenced on Sept 20. Voting was extended from Oct 7 to Oct 15 due to popular demand, and by the time the 4 weeks of voting was over, Mr Choo ended up with the least number of votes.

Instead, the very first Alamak! Award goes to the Obedient Wives Club, which garnered 4,046 out of the total of 12,586 votes cast.

There were a total of 5,404 voters. Each person was allowed to vote for up to three nominees.

Mr Choo received 821 votes. The Singapore Armed Forces’ “Our Army, My Boyfriend” ad received 1,970 votes. Great Eastern’s “It’s Great To Be A Woman” campaign received 2,719 votes. The Singapore Airlines’ employment policies received 3,030 votes.

ABOUT THE AWARDS

Created this year to mark AWARE’s 26th anniversary, the AWARE Awards celebrates men and women who have broken through gender barriers and helped to nurture a culture of gender equality in Singapore.

There are three categories for the AWARE Awards: The AWARE Heroine, the AWARE Hero, and the AWARE Young Wonder (for an individual under 30 years of age).

The winners were chosen by a panel of judges, comprising AWARE board member and education entrepreneur Lindy Ong, playwright Eleanor Wong, journalist Ong Soh Chin, academic Philip Holden and ambassador-at-large Professor Tommy Koh.

The Alamak! Award was created to highlight instances of sexism in Singapore. Nominations were submitted by members of the public as well as AWARE members, and were closed on August 31. The winner was selected via online voting over a period of 4 weeks.

Due to the great response this year, members of the public will now be able to submit nominations for the AWARE Awards and Alamak! Award over the course of the next year. Make your submissions here.

Dear friends,

Thank you so much for coming for our Big Ball. It was great to catch up with old friends and meet new supporters, and we hope that you had as much fun as we did.

We are very pleased to announce that AWARE has exceeded our fundraising target of $200,000. We couldn’t have done this without your help.

Because of your support, we now have sufficient funds to carry out our initiatives for 2012, which include expanding our counselling facilities at the AWARE Centre, increasing our Helpline outreach to Mandarin-speakers, building our support services for sexual assault victims and carrying out various research and advocacy programmes.

Many of you have told us how much they enjoyed the food, wine, company and performances. A big thank you to our generous sponsors and talented performers for making this lovely evening possible.

We have also taken note of the feedback about the spotty sound quality at the venue. Please keep your comments and suggestions coming, so that we can do better next year.

Speaking of next year – we would love to hear your ideas about how AWARE can continue to improve on our fundraising initiatives in 2012. Do drop us a line if you would like to help us make next year’s Big Ball even bigger and better. We welcome your ideas and talents.

We hope you enjoyed being a part of the very first AWARE Awards. We are very excited about the road ahead for all our nominees and winners, and feel certain that they will continue to improve the lives of women and men in Singapore. We’d also like to thank the members of our judging panel for taking the time to participate in this initiative.

To encourage more sensitivity to and discussion about gender equality and sexism, we are now accepting nominations for the next AWARE Awards and the Alamak! Award. You can submit nominations at any time over the course of the next year. Simply click the Awards button on the right sidebar of this website, and fill up the nomination form.

See you again at next year’s Big Ball, where we will continue to celebrate the heroines, heroes and young wonders working for the cause of gender equality.

AWARE sent the following letter to the Advertising Standards Authority Of Singapore, the Media Development Authority, MediaCorp and London Weight Management’s parent company Ames United.

Complaint about London Weight Management Television Advertisement

We are writing to express our concern about the misleading and damaging messages about health, body image and self-esteem conveyed by slimming centre London Weight Management’s latest television advertisement (recently removed from the Internet). We strongly recommend that this commercial be withdrawn from television stations as soon as possible.

In accordance with the Singapore Code of Advertising Practice, advertisements should not:

• Mislead by way of exaggeration
• Play on fear without justifiable reason
• Misrepresent information to mislead consumers into believing any matter that is not true
• Feature testimonials or endorsements that are exceptional experiences (i.e., which do not reflect the experience that an average user of the product would ordinarily expect to have)
• Further, the section on “Advertising for Slimming Products and Services” of the Code of Advertising Practice states that “independent testimony from published journals/reports will be required as to any physiological effects claimed. Testimonials from users do not constitute substantiation”.

This advertisement is in clear violation of the above guidelines.

By dramatizing scenes of depression, contemplation of suicide and family conflicts, it seeks to exploit the fears of insecure female consumers. It also reinforces social stereotypes by perpetuating the pernicious view that a woman’s worth hinges on her looks, and that men are incapable of looking beyond appearances when interacting with their female partners.

The ad states that the story it portrays is based on the experiences of an actual client. Independent and trustworthy testimony from relevant experts is absent from the ad. The viewer has no way of knowing how closely this dramatization of a purportedly real story sticks to the truth of what happened. Even if the ad is based on the actual experience of a client, it surely does not reflect the experience of the average overweight person.

Instead, it is overtly asserted that the female protagonist in this ad was terminated from her job due to her weight and appearance. The ad also claims that the woman’s weight is to blame for strained marital relations as well as other physiological and psychological issues.

These claims are simplistic and extremely dangerous. Firing someone for being overweight is not only offensive, but may be illegal if that is the only ground for her termination when her performance was not affected by being overweight.

Depression, suicidal thoughts and verbal abuse by one’s partner are serious issues that should not be trivialized in this way. It is crucial that women who are suffering from these problems not be misled into thinking that weight loss is the answer to their woes.

It is not surprising that this advertisement has been the subject of heavy criticism (see reports here and here). Consumers in Singapore have become increasingly sophisticated and do not care for the irresponsible messages in such advertisements, be they overt or subliminal. It is disappointing that companies like London Weight Management have not kept pace with the customers they court.

We believe that more stringent advertising standards are needed in order to prevent the public airing of such misleading and harmful messages.

AWARE strongly urges the immediate removal of this advertisement. We look forward to hearing from you about this issue.

Yours faithfully,
Corinna Lim
Executive Director

Kwan Jin Yao
Chair
Food Is Not the Enemy (Eating Disorders) Sub-Committee

Read about the latest update on this issue here.

Nominate men and women you know who have defied gender barriers in Singapore.

Is there a person who has inspired you by making women’s lives better? Who has stood out and stood up for gender equality? Someone whose actions deserve attention and celebration?

We want to know who they are. AWARE wants to recognise and honour these people and hold them up as models for our society.

To celebrate our 26th year, AWARE is celebrating the men and women who have defied gender barriers and made a difference by nurturing a culture of gender equality in Singapore.
 
Nominations are now open for the inaugural AWARE Awards!
 
Tell us your picks for these three categories:
- The AWARE Award: For a woman
- The AWARE Award: For a man
- The AWARE Award: For a young person under 30 years old, of either gender

The Alamak! Awards

For those who prefer to see the glass as half-empty, nominations are also open for the Alamak! Awards.

These honours – or should we say dubious honours – will be bestowed on people who have helped to cement gender stereotypes and who have delighted in sexist practices. You can also nominate ads, corporate or public policies and acts that are anti-gender equality. Do your part for gender equality by telling us who deserves to win the Alamak! Awards!

You can nominate as many individuals as you like for both the AWARE Awards and the Alamak! Awards.

Go to this link and fill out all the required information.

All nominations must be submitted by August 31, 2011.

The winners will be chosen by our judging panel, which comprises AWARE board member and education entrepreneur Lindy Ong, playwright Eleanor Wong, journalist Ong Soh Chin, academic Philip Holden and ambassador-at-large Professor Tommy Koh.

We will announce the winners at our fundraising gala event, AWARE’s Big Ball 2011. Details for this event:

Date : Monday, 17 October, 2011
Venue : Grand Hyatt Singapore
Time : 7pm
Cost : $2,500 per table or $250 per person

For more information about this exciting event click here.
To make your reservations for AWARE’s Big Ball 2011, contact Evon at evon@aware.org.sg.

For more information regarding nominations for the AWARE Awards please see our FAQ section here.

AWARE, the Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics (H.O.M.E.), Sayoni and the Singapore Council of Women’s Organisations (SCWO) express concerns at the UN review of Singapore’s gender equality

From left: Vanessa Ho from Sayoni, IWRAW intern Karry, Malathi Das from SCWO, Braema Mathi from AWARE, Jean Chong from Sayoni, Nadzirah Samsudin from AWARE, Kelly Then from Sayoni, and Laura Hwang from SCWO. Photograph by Dana Lam from AWARE.

Gender equality experts from the United Nations’ CEDAW Committee asked more than 100 questions during an intense, five-hour Constructive Dialogue with Singapore’s State delegates at the 49th CEDAW session on July 22, 2011, in the New York headquarters of the UN.

The Convention On The Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is an international human rights treaty which Singapore signed in 1995. State signatories are obliged by a comprehensive bill of rights to guarantee women’s equality and freedom from discrimination in public and private life, as well as to report periodically on their progress.

Singapore’s civil society was represented at the session by four organisations who had submitted reports and made representations to the Committee:

• Association Of Women For Action & Research (AWARE)
• Humanitarian Organization For Migration Economics (H.O.M.E.)
• Sayoni
• Singapore Council Of Women’s Organisation (SCWO)

Notably, this is the first time that HOME and Sayoni participated.

Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports, Madam Halimah Yacob, delivered a comprehensive statement on Singapore’s progress with gender equality and the State’s decision to partially ratify two Articles (2 and 16) of the Convention. She affirmed the State’s “full commitment to the promotion and protection of human rights, in particular the rights of women”.

Civil society representatives are pleased that the CEDAW Committee recognised critical impediments to gender equality in Singapore and raised their concerns with the State in a Constructive Dialogue, as well as in the Concluding Observations. While some organisations are disappointed with the State’s stock responses, all believe that the State is committed to fulfilling its treaty obligations and welcome future progress.

Statements from each organisation follow:

AWARE

AWARE is encouraged the State has removed blanket reservations to Article 16 and Article 2 of the convention. We also commend the State’s repeated declaration of its full commitment to gender equality and its commitment to working towards the ratification of the UN Protocol on Trafficking.

But we remain concerned about the State’s reticence on its obligations to institutionalise CEDAW across the board including in Parliament, the judiciary and law enforcement agencies, schools and the media. AWARE is also troubled that the State’s avowed approach to meritocracy and Equal Opportunity is unconcerned with the other core CEDAW principles for Substantive Equality which are: Equal Access and Equal Outcomes.

Several members of the CEDAW Committee have also asked for national mechanisms such as a Human Rights Institution or Anti-discrimination law. AWARE is deeply concerned with the systemic discrimination of marginalised women in Singapore namely the sexual minority, the “foreign wife” and “foreign domestic workers” and, women with disabilities in the absence of a clear anti-discrimination mechanism.

In this respect, we urge all relevant Ministries, especially MCYS, to include in public policy consultations all Civil Society actors in addition to the three apex bodies. We also urge the State to make the Office of Women’s Development (OWD) independent of the Family Division at the MCYS and to set aside a dedicated budget for mainstreaming CEDAW through committed public education, improved data collection and temporary special measures.

Visit www.aware.org.sg for more information. For enquiries, please contact Nadzirah Samsudin at 6779-7137 or nadzirah@aware.org.sg and Halijah Mohd at halijah@halijahmohd.com.sg

H.O.M.E.

H.O.M.E. raised concern that migrant women domestic workers in Singapore do not enjoy equality before the law and in practice. They are excluded from the Employment Act and are not entitled to a mandatory rest day like other workers and are subject to mandatory deportation on grounds of pregnancy and HIV infection.

H.O.M.E. urges the State be fully committed to the implementation of international labour standards for migrant women domestic workers under the ILO Convention Decent Work for Domestic Workers. In view of the increasing numbers of victims of trafficking in the region, HOME is hopeful that the State will not further delay the ratification of the Palermo Protocol and would enact an Anti-Human Trafficking law to provide comprehensive Victim Protection Assistance and an Inter- Agency monitoring and evaluation body which provides for multi-sectoral representation including NGO partners.

Visit www.home.org.sg for more information. For enquiries, please contact bridgett.home@gmail.com

SAYONI

Sayoni was heartened that the Committee’s experts studied information from diverse sources and recognised the wide range of direct and indirect discrimination that women face as sexual minorities (e.g. lesbian, transgender). In this regard, the Committee raised questions with the State about:

• Awareness of direct and indirect discrimination
• Inclusion in interpretation of non-discrimination
• Anti-discrimination law
• De-criminalisation of homosexuality
• Media censorship
• Access for women in same-sex partnerships to public health and family planning services
• Provision in family law and domestic violence
• Shared property and inheritance rights
• Encouragement to participate in political and public life
• Consultation in policy-making
• Added vulnerability to sexual harassment at the workplace
• Grievance mechanisms

The State’s response since 2007 that there is no deliberate discrimination and its evasion of specific questions reflects weak knowledge and understanding of how discrimination is different and worse for sexual minority women. However, this creates a valuable opportunity for new perspectives. To this end, Sayoni invites constructive dialogue with the State, the media and the public.

Visit www.sayoni.com for more information. For enquiries, please contact kelly@sayoni.com and jean@sayoni.com

SCWO

SCWO was pleased to note that progress has been made on many fronts, including the elevation of the Women’s Desk to the Office for Women’s Development, which we see as being better resourced and focused to advance our nation’s progress to Equal Voice, Equal Space and Equal Worth for women.

In our reporting to the CEDAW Committee, SCWO highlighted the areas where we would like to see greater progress.

With our generally ageing population, and the longer life-expectancy of women, Singapore is facing the feminisation of ageing. We must therefore put in place measures to improve the protection of older women from social and economic marginalisation, including addressing gender disparity in retirement incomes by looking at the cause and effect of existing income disparity in the workforce.

90 per cent of women over 60 years of age have less than Secondary 4 education, and 80 per cent will be widowed by the age of 80. Improved healthcare for women at different stages of life, health infrastructure for women with disability, and skills upgrading and training with targeted interventions for disadvantaged groups, will enable these women to keep pace with the information age and maintain their health, independence and functionality. Education for reintegration of women who have left the workforce must also be a priority.

SCWO recommended the acceleration of the promotion of female parliamentarians to ministerial appointments and to enable more gender diversity in high level positions in government, boards of public organisations and public companies.

For details of the SCWO CEDAW Oral Submission, Executive Summary & Shadow Report & photo-editorial, please visit www.scwo.org.sg. For enquiries, please contact Selina Gan at 6837-0611 or selina@scwo.org.sg

“Since its formation on 25 November 1985, AWARE has been the nation’s most vibrant feminist organisation and done much to address the gender gap and to help improve women’s lives in Singapore. Twenty-five years is a major milestone for us and we would like to celebrate our successes with the community and to thank our volunteers and supporters for their commitment, dedication and tenacity to the cause” says Nicole Tan, President of AWARE.

“Given the culture and environment that we operate in, we are proud to have achieved as much as we have, and overcome setbacks and challenges that we have encountered. Over the years, we have remained the most consistently active voice in Singapore civil society. At 25, we are stronger now than ever before and filled with as much idealism and enthusiasm as when we first started to work towards a better society. We can stand up tall and say the fire in the belly is still there,” Ms Tan says.

The event, which aims to reach out to the community, combines entertainment, shopping, food, art, and an open exchange of ideas, all in a relaxed carnival-like setting. AWARE’s Executive Director Corinna Lim says the event is the perfect way to mark 25 amazing years.

Rather than a gala dinner or members-only event, AWARE chose a family-friendly fun fair held at its Dover Road centre to welcome members of the public and the community to attend. The event is called ‘Celebrate’ because there is so much for all of us to celebrate.,” explains Ms Lim.

“Women have made gains in all areas in the last 25 years. Girls have equal access to education. There are many more women in the workplace than ever before. Many policies which were blatantly discriminatory against women have been changed. It is still not a completely level playing field but at least we are very much in the game. We continue to hope that one day, we will have a female Prime Minister and every major company worth its salt will have female directors making up at least one third of their boards. When women win, the whole society benefits,” she says.

Looking back: AWARE’s Key Achievements
In the last 25 years AWARE has worked hard to achieve many breakthroughs for women in Singapore. Our valuable work over the past two decades has contributed to securing:

2007 Revisions to the penal code, including issues of marital rape
2007 United Nations recognition of how Singapore can become more compliant with the Convention to Eliminate all forms of Discrimination Against Women
2005 Equalisation of benefits for male and female Civil Servants
2004 Citizenship rights for children born overseas to Singaporean women
2003 Removing the quota restricting female intake in NUS Medical Faculty
1999 Women being allowed to sponsor their foreign spouses for citizenship or PR status
1995 Revisions to the Women’s Charter to provide more protection for victims of domestic violence.

In addition three past-presidents serve as Nominated Members of Parliament:
Kanwaljit Soin (1992), Claire Chiang (1997) and Braema Mathi (2001) .

Celebrate! AWARE’s 25th Birthday Party
A Flea, Food and Fun Fair featuring performances by Inch Chua, Lunarin, Baracuda Batucada, Like A Band and classical Indian dancer Aarthi Sankar. In addition to the flea market and tasty treats, there will also be an exciting lineup of activities such as a children’s dance competition, an “unconference conference” in the style of BarCamp and an interactive art installation.

WHEN: Saturday November 27th, 12 noon to 8pm.
WHERE: AWARE Centre and the Open Space outside Block 5, Dover Crescent.
CLOSEST MRT STATION: Dover
CONTACT: Interviews with AWARE’s Executive Director, President or Vice-President can be arranged on request. Email ed@aware.org.sg or media@aware.org.sg
WEBSITE: www.aware.org.sg/celebrate

The 60 or so men who have submitted their videos to The Because I Love Her Project Facebook page say it in many different ways, but all of them say the same thing: “Because I Love Her I pledge to never condone violence against women.”

The Because I Love Her Project, AWARE’s latest undertaking to get men in Singapore to stand up and speak out about violence against women, is AWARE’s contribution to the White Ribbon Campaign, an annual global effort that started in 1991 to get men to take a stand against the abuse of women.

Launched on 25th November, which is the International Day to Eliminate Violence against Women, the online video campaign was initially scheduled to end on 20th December. But the response has been so good that AWARE has extended the deadline and will keep accepting entries for the judge’s selection until 14th February 2011 – Valentine’s Day. A composite video compiling the best of the submissions will be released on International Women’s Day (8th March) next year.

“We’re seeing some very powerful and moving statements being made, and some pledges are really creatively done. That’s why we’ve decided to keep this campaign running for two more months. Our aim is to give good guys a space to voice their protest. From the support we’ve received so far from men of all ages and backgrounds, it’s clear there are many guys out there who would do anything to protect the women in their life from any kind of violence. These men need to be heard and that’s what The Because I Love Her Project is about,” said Corinna Lim, AWARE’s Executive Director.

At the forefront of the campaign are four Champions – outstanding, well-respected men who are acting as spokesmen for the project. The Because I Love Her Champions are US Ambassador to Singapore David I. Adelman, former Nominated Member of Parliament Siew Kum Hong, Reverend Dr. Yap Kim Hao and actor Lim Kay Siu.

Notable videos have been submitted by a wide range of guys, including 12-year-old Utkarsh Mali, who declares his mother ‘the best mum in the world’; a capella group Vocaluptuous who sing a rendition of Nat King Cole’s L.O.V.E to band member Simone and; Kirpal Singh Sidhu and his 3-year-old son, Jasdev, that men should treat women as their equals.

“While women in Singapore have made much progress in many areas, the reality is that far too many still have to deal with violence,” Ms Lim said.

The 2010 International Violence Against Women Survey, conducted by the Society Against Family Violence and NUS, found that one in 10 women in Singapore has been a victim of violence.

The Subordinate Courts report that in 2009, an average of eight Personal Protection Order applications were made by women seeking legal protection from abuse or physical threats. For every protection order taken out, there are scores of others who suffer in silence.

“We know that the majority of men are opposed to this abuse. We call on them to join our campaign and record their pledge,” said Ms Lim. “To not condone violence against women includes not keeping quiet in the face of a culture which makes jokes about rape, date rape, drunken rampages and dominating through fear and intimidation.

“It means not remaining silent when other men brag of their abuses. It means stepping in to help the women in their lives who need their support. It means stepping up and being an everyday hero simply by saying, ‘That’s not funny. That is NOT cool’.”

AWARE is also seeking partners to collaborate with on this project – companies, organisations, schools or groups who want to contribute to the project through videos, sponsorship or other forms of support are all welcome.

Singapore, March 8th 2011 – For all the progress made in the last 25 years, gender discrimination still exists in Singapore today. This was the unanimous view of the 200 or so participants at the Women’s Choices, Women’s Lives: Shaping the Next 25 Years conference held on Sat 5 March.

This discrimination must be eradicated and gender equity achieved if Singapore is to truly flourish in the next 25 years and if the challenges of the low fertility rate and the ageing population are to be tackled effectively, the conference participants agreed.

The conference, organised by AWARE and the National University of Singapore Society, was a reprise of the eponymous 1984 NUSS forum which led to the founding of AWARE. It marked both the close of AWARE’s 25th anniversary celebrations and the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day on March 8th.

Following presentations by Singapore’s leading feminists, participants took part in facilitated group discussions and drew up a gender equity wish list to present to policy makers.

The key recommendations to policy makers are:

1. A quota of 30 per cent be set for women in Parliament as recommended by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which was ratified by Singapore in 1995.

2. That an independent body (such as an ombudsman or commission) be formed to ensure equal opportunities for both women and men.

3. The Singapore Constitution be amended to prohibit gender discrimination.

4. All policies and legislation be reviewed and all gender discriminatory laws, policies and practices be removed or replaced with laws, policies and practices that promote an equitable and sustainable work-life balance for both women and men.

5. Gender studies be added to the core curriculum for all students, and in the Civil Service.

6. Budgetary allocations to health care be increased significantly so as to ensure the good health of older people.

7. Care-giving (of the young and the elderly) should be recognised as a gender-neutral skill, and the quality of, and access to, care facilities and services for children, elderly and the disabled should be improved.

Recommendations were also made for corporations, as well as individual men and women, to consider. The main ones are:

8. Employers should adopt non-discriminatory policies and practices as part of their organisations’ corporate culture, including zero tolerance of sexual harassment.

9. Employers should optimise flexibility for employees in terms of workplace and working hours, based on the understanding that productivity is enhanced by workers who are able to sustain a supportive work-life balance.

10. Individual men and women should seek to build equal partnerships in all spheres of life, including the workplace and the home, with shared responsibilities for the care of the young and the old.

The above are some of the 100 recommendations that were submitted by participants during the conference. AWARE will be reviewing these and will submit finalised recommendations to policy makers and other stakeholders.