Women for Independence

Maggie Mellon reports from the Sheriff Courts, asking some searching questions about the administration of justice and domestic abuse. 

Award-winning blogger and #WFIMediaWatch supremo Kirsty Strickland writes on last night's Scottish election coverage on the BBC. 

Earlier this week, Edinburgh Women for Indy held an all-women hustings for regional list candidates. Here, WFI National Committee and Edinburgh WFI member Selma Rahman reflects on how EWFI's hustings - done that bit differently - were such a success. 

Prior  to the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, Women for Independence (WFI) used a loosely structured listening exercise to engage with women, and to discuss their hopes for constitutional change.   This proved to be a great way of bringing women together to discuss politics in settings where they felt comfortable and free to speak.

In the run up to the 2016 Scottish Parliamentary elections, WFI repeated this Listening Exercise, asking women what they want from the Scottish Parliament.  Hundreds of women took part in discussions in Glasgow, Dundee, Angus, Edinburgh, Clydebank, Fife, Kilmarnock, Lochaber and Paisley.

This report summarises what women chose to talk about, and what they said. Inevitably, we cannot report on every point made by every woman; that would take a book, not a blog, so this report pulls out the key issues that were mentioned the most frequently, which proved to be very similar all over Scotland. 

Maggie Mellon reports back on her second visit to the courts observing justice in action.

Pat Doran was born and brought up in Dundee and moved to Edinburgh for college and then worked in the university for five years. She had her first daughter in Edinburgh twenty years ago with Martin. They have moved around the UK and now live in Perthshire with one daughter still at home and one at university. She is employed as a Community Link Worker working with children and families in Perth and Kinross.  This is her first time blogging.

Student and feminist Delilah Doe shares her own story of eating disorders, the secret that nobody seems to want to talk about. 

Maggie Mellon of the Women for Independence National Committee blogs about the launch of JusticeWatch at Edinburgh. 

Pakistan: According to figures, almost 60 percent of the 86 million registered voters cast their votes in the 2013 elections, and while detailed gender disaggregated data are not available, female participation in the electoral process is reportedly higher than in the past. Photo/DFID

Selma Rahman of Women for Independence's National Committee celebrates civilised democratic engagement! 

With huge thanks to Rape Crisis Scotland we reproduce this harrowing blog which first appeared in their special newsletter looking at the law and rape.   You can read the full newsletter here. 

Rape Crisis Scotland are a charity, and, if you can afford to, please make a donation to support their work.

The image above is from a previous Rape Crisis Scotland campaign.