Documentaries On Women's Rights Worldwide, Watchlist

Documentaries about Women's Rights

What are Women's Rights? Amnesty International summarises it well: Women's Rights

"... include the right to live free from violence and discrimination; to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; to be educated; to own property; to vote; and to earn an equal wage."

I would also include the the right to love and marry who you wish and make decisions about your own body

Women's rights: I'm utterly ashamed & forgive me, I shirked from the feminism movement - ironically because I thought they were organised by LEZZAS which, at the time - ALL gays suffered homophobia and, I was scared of homophobia.

- Women's Education: As a school kid, I just had a bizarre instinct / it was my right to go to Uni. My parents were so fabulously facilitating and proud as I was the first of my family line (Germany & Scotland) to go to Uni. My parents are in heaven. I so wished I could thank them, again and again (They supported in my PhD too).

- Women's Pay Equality In Work: Innocently, I never had any misgivings. Naively, I thought I would be treated equally. I got on ace with boys. As to pay difference - no idea as we were too BRITISH, polite to discuss. Promotions: hmm?

What changed? ...

- Violations against Women: I recall two vivid personal experiences:
- - Uni: a car following me, but I managed to get to the Cartwright Gardens (Boys) neighbouring Halls of Residence and get a gallant escort to my Halls of Residence next door. From then, on was aware.
- - 2019: after shopping in Brixton & walking home in the afternoon, I guy spoke to me by KFC, I replied politely but when his conversation became disturbing, I backtracked towards the Rizty cinema, Brixton. I pleaded with a male passerby by Broxton library to say, that this guy was following me but he was utterly SHITE and walked away! As I was approaching the doors of The Ritzy (in the hope of their security help), the rascal guy grabbed my shopping bag and said "scream" .. Bizarrely, I have never screamed in my life - I didn't think I could scream but also in my bag was a bottle of vino. From somewhere (I think of being half Scottish & Daddy being in the army) I got the strength (+ possible my M&S Pinot Grigio) to push into the Rizty door. The Ritzy were ace... after circa an hour of my weirdo stalking outside, an uber sweet Ritzy gent walked me, back streets home. True. At the time, Rizty asked if I wished to call the Police. In hindsight, I regret not reporting this to the Police.

#metoo
- I managed to dodge it by pleading with a "nice" English businessman to let me escape. While in a schickimicki pent house suite in Hotel in Hamburg where I innocently thought I was going to take meeting notes with my Boss and, an English businessman ... then entered (a nice) Reeperbahn hooker. Forevermore, I'm indebted to the English businessman and the Reeperbahn hooker for my escape. My Boss was "Nice" and didn't sack me nor mention my "disappearance".

- Babies - I so wished to have had a baby. Being a Girl friend of Dorothy, alas it is v complicated (and I'm old skool, I wished to have joint parents for balance). Regardless, as a women, I wish the right to contraception and abortion (some pregnancies are unwanted, through rape ... )

Women's Health
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- To Mothers: I would give ANYTHING, to see my so missed stellar Mummy again, who is up in heaven, and speak to her about her experiences... giving up her career dreams to raise her family (though as I sussed only in my older age, she had lost confidence - the, I always bigged her up), the menopause which holy moly she kept so secret but in hindsight I saw her suffer ... Prick up you ears and discuss your mother's feelings. Looking back, I was a tad selfish, as I always thought of myself as young at heart and that they would be there for lllllong time - I regrettably, didn't get to know them as I know my best friends :(

This compilation of documentaries of Women's Rights Worldwide, for your watchlist raises some issues across the world. As women, we can resonate and feel solidarity with - I so support herein, I hope you too.

Cut: Exposing FGM Worldwide (2017)

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is utterly unimaginably in this day and age, BUT is still ongoing horrific deliberate "procedures involving partial or total removal of the female external genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons". FGM is most often carried out on young girls aged between infancy and 15 years old. FGM is also known as: female circumcision, Sunna, Gudniin, Halalays, Tahur, Megrez and Khitan ... Why is female genital mutilation practiced? According to the UK NHS, there's no medical reason for Female Genital mutilation to be undertaken.

According to UNICEF, over 230 million girls and women have suffered FGM; Africa accounts for the largest share of the horrific FGM total, with over 144 million; Asia with over 80 million, Middle East with a further 6 million ... Source: UNICEF

Documentary Dir:John Chua

FGM: For the Love of Fatmata (2023)

Female Genital Mutilation: FGM: For the Love of Fatmata illustrates how in West Africa, Sierra Leone's secret society cuts out female genitals as part of centuries old rite of passage ceremonies.

19 year old, Fatmata Turay was asked by her mother, to come home to their village. On her return, Fatmata was initiated into the Bondo society - a centuries-old tradition involving music and dancing where young women are prepared for "adulthood". Thirty-six hours later, Fatmata was dead. Many women in Sierra Leone have had their genitalia cut! There is no data as to how many (MANY) young women have undergone this "rite" and ... died as a result.

Documentary Dir: ?

Kayleigh's Love Story (2017)

Online Grooming: 15-year-old Kayleigh Haywood Leicestershire schoolgirl was groomed online by Luke Harlow, then raped and murdered by his next door neighbour Stephen Beadman. Also listen to BBC's "File on 4 - Online Grooming"

Documentary Dir: Leicestershire Police

The Betrayed Girls (2017)

Grooming: The Rochdale child sex abuse ring: between 2008 and 2010, a “grooming gang” abused underage teenage girls in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England. Nine men were convicted of offences including rape, sex trafficking and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child in May 2012.

Documentary Dir: Henry Singer

Stopping Traffic (2017)

Human trafficking occurs when a trafficker uses force, fraud, or coercion to make another person work or engage in a commercial sex act. Every year, an estimated 27.6 million people are trafficked worldwide. Stopping Traffic investigates the crisis of human sex trafficking, particularly of minors.

Documentary Dir: Sadhvi Siddhali Shree

Surviving Sex Trafficking (2021)

Sex Trafficking: Only about 1% of Human Trafficking victims escape or are rescued. Why didn't they leave? Because of fear, shame, and violence (threats against themselves and their families). Five survivors tell their story.

Documentary Dir: Sadhvi Siddhali Shree

Too Young to Wed: The Secret World of Child Brides (2011)

Documentary Dir: Jessica Dimmock

America's Child Brides (2019)

Child Brides: In America, a legal loophole in legislation allowed (is it still allowing?) underage girls to be married off to much older men. Currently in America Child marriage is defined as any marriage where at least one of the parties is under the age of 18 except for Nebraska, where the age is 19? In the UK, under The Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Act, it is illegal for 16- and 17- year olds to be married, or enter into a civil partnership, even with parental consent.

Documentary Dir: Chloe Campbell

Samburu: The fight against child marriage (2022)

Child Brides: In northern Kenya, Samburu, GIRLS as young as 11, are married and ... often to men more than ... three times their age i.e. men in their 30s! Plus - some of these marriages are made even more traumatic because the child brides are often forced to undergo female genital mutilation the day before the wedding. This is 2020s - how can you logically justify the both of this?

Documentary Dir: Catherine Fellows

Forced Marriage Cops (2015, UK)

Forced Marriage: Forced Marriage Cops follows Greater Manchester Police investigating the 'hidden crime' of forced marriage. In June 2014 it became illegal for someone to force a person to get married, in the UK. Greater Manchester Police had reported 239 incidents of forced marriage and honour based abuse.

Documentary Dir: ?

Knots: A Forced Marriage Story (2020)

Forced Marriage: Three American young woman give accounts of their experience of forced and child marriage.

Documentary Dir: Kate Ryan Brewer

Saudi Runaway (2020)

Arranged Marriage: In 2019, over the course of five weeks a young Saudi Arabian girl films on her smartphone, the run up to her forced marriage and ... her secret preparations of her escape. Heartful - I so hope she is living life in FREEDOM & BLISS. Also watch Escape From Saudi - 18-year-old Rahaf Al Qunun hit headlines across the world when she was stopped, while fleeing Saudi Arabia, in Bangkok and barricaded herself in her hotel room.

Documentary Dir: Susanne Regina Meures

Battered (1989)

Domestic violence: An eye awakening (at the time), harrowing and trailblazing documentary in the late 80's addressing the taboo subject of domestic abuse and perhaps more poignantly, in a "developed world" & prestigious country ... America. A seed to illustrate domestic violence across the world?

Documentary Dir: Lee Grant

And So I Stayed (2021)

Domestic violence: And So I Stayed is about American survivors of domestic abuse fighting for their lives, spending years behind bars and how the legal system gets domestic violence failed them and was WRONG.

Documentary Dir: Natalie Pattillo & Natalie Pattillo

Surviving Domestic Abuse (2024)

Domestic violence: In Surviving Domestic Abuse, seven brave women tell their stories of surviving awful domestic abuse through testimony and home footage. Over a year, the documentary follows the women over to try to escape their domestic violence and seek justice against the men who abused them

Documentary Dir: Lee Grant

Banaz: A Love Story (2012)

Honour Killing: Human Rights Watch defines "Honor Killings" as: "Honor crimes are acts of violence, usually murder, committed by male family members against female family members who are perceived to have brought dishonor upon the family." Source: Human Rights Watch.

Banaz: A Love Story At age 17, Banaz Mahmod, an Iraqi Kurdish woman who lived in South London, ENGLAND, was forced into an arranged marriage with a man from the family's hometown of Qaladiza, Kurdistan Region, Iraq. Though her family were aware of the abuse (and she had a child) they forced Banaz to remain in the marriage because of the shame they feared within family's community if she left her husband - regardless if her husband was abusive and violent to her. During her (forced) marriage, she contacted the Metropolitan Police on multiple occasions regarding domestic abuse and fear of murder. After starting a relationship with someone of her own choosing, Banaz was murdered in 2006 (aged 20), on the orders of her family in an "honour killing" ... raped, tortured and killed. Banaz Mahmod's body was put in a suitcase and buried in a garden in Birmingham. National Commission on Forced Marriage UK.

Documentary Dir: Deeyah Khan & Darin Prindle

India's Forbidden Love: An Honour Killing on Trial (2018)

Honour Killing: India's Forbidden Love: An Honour Killing on Trial follows Kausalya Shankar as she testified against her parents in a trial where they faced the death penalty for an "Honour Killing" attack. On a crowded street in southern India, in March 2016, 19 year old Kausalya and her husband Shankar were brutally attacked. Shankar, died of his injuries while Kausalya survived and accused her parents of organising an "Honour Killing", because her husband was ... from a lower Dalit caste.

Documentary Dir: Sadhana Subramanian

The Push: Murder on the Cliff (2024)

31-year-old Fawziyah Javed was a talented lawyer from Leeds and, 17 weeks pregnant. She had told her parents she was very unhappy in her abusive marriage and was wishing to leave her husband. While on "holiday" with her husband and walking with him on Arthur's Seat, in Edinburgh, 2021, Fawziyah "fell" from the top of Arthur's Seat. In her dying moments, she told two witness ... her husband (Kashif Anwar) had pushed her! In the emergency, her husband called his father rather than 999 and then, claimed to a walker further down Arthur's Seat that his phone was dead and asked him to call an ambulance. The Push: Murder on the Cliff records the trial against her husband.

Documentary Dir: Tom Whitake

Stories of Our Lives (2014)

LGBT: Created by members of a Nairobi-based arts collective, The Nest Collective, the docudrama is an anthology of five dramatised true stories of LGBT life in Kenya. Stories of Our Lives was banned from distribution and screening in Kenya by the Kenya Film Classification Board, on the grounds that the film "promotes homosexuality, which is contrary to national norms and values" of Kenya.

Documentary Dir: Jim Chuchu

Welcome to Chechnya: The Gay Purge (2020)

LGBT: In Chechnya, the LGBTQ+ community lives in fear and secrecy. Since 2017, the Russian Republic of Chechnya, under the eyes of the Chechen leader and Russia, has waged a brutal cleansing war against its LGBTQ+ citizens. Countless victims have been detained, tortured, killed and hundreds more are missing.

Documentary Dir: David France

Gay Under the Taliban: UNTOLD (2022)

LGBT: Gay Under the Taliban: UNTOLD follows the story of four LGBTQ+ Afghans who are struggling to survive under a Taliban regime so brutal, it means death if they are discovered. To protect their identities, their powerful testimonies are brought to life through dynamic animation and actors.

Documentary Dir: Dan Hall

The Truth About Upskirting (2018)

Upskirting is where someone takes a photograph / video under a person's clothing without their permission. In the UK, Upskirting has been recognised as a criminal offence following the introduction of the Voyeurism (Offences) Act 2019.

Documentary Dir: Stefania Buonajuti

How One Woman Made Upskirting Illegal | Gina Martin's Story (2019)

When two men took pictures up Gina Martin's skirt at a festival in 2017, BRAVE Gina spent the next 18 months fighting to make Upskirting a specific sexual offence in the UK.

Hugest respect to Gina, for her courageous & righteous fight and galvanising this support. I can't even galvanise communal support nor Police & Council action in my fab & small Brixton forecourt, on the high road, to stop non-resident ASB: drugggies & prostitutes on our front doors steps, public urination, fly-tippping, littering, wrecking through the rubbish bins & non-residents taking up our very limited spaces (which are FREE parking).

Documentary Dir: Ministry of Justice

Spycam Sex Criminals (2020)

Molka (an abbreviation of Molrae-kamera (sneaky camera)) is the Korean term for hidden cameras / miniature spy cameras which are used to capture voyeuristic images and videos of female victims in their underwear, or up their skirts, and even using the toilet.

Documentary Dir: Stefania Buonajuti

Revenge Porn: Georgia Vs Bear (2023)

Revenge Porn: Filmed over two years, Revenge Porn: Georgia Vs Bear reveals how reality star Georgia Harrison fought a revenge porn court case against her ex Stephen Bear who had uploaded a private and intimate video without her consent.

Documentary Dir: Candace Davies

Another Body: My AI Porn Nightmare (2024)

Deepfake Porn: Another Body: My AI Porn Nightmare follows a 22-year-old American engineering student's investigation after she shockingly discovers that her face has been digitally altered by AI software to appear in online hardcore porn videos.

Documentary Dir: Sophie Compton & Reuben Hamlyn

Can I Tell You A Secret? (2022)

Cyber-Stalking: The Guardian's seven-episode podcast investigates the story of cyberstalker Matthew Hardy who terrified multiple women for more than a decade. His harassment would often start with a fake profile posing as a young woman asking a simple question: "Hey hun, can I tell you a secret?"

Documentary Dir: Sirin Kale

Stalkers - Stacey Dooley (2022)

Stalking: According to the 2019/20 Crime Survey for England and Wales, 3.6 per cent of adults have experienced stalking – equivalent to 1.5 million people, which figures show equates to 977,000 women and 526,000 men. Stacey Dooley talks to both victims and perpetrators of ex-partner stalking and stranger stalking.

Documentary Dir: Ed Kellie & Harry Smyth

Catching a Pervert: Sexual Assault for Sale (2023)

Sexual Assault Online Videos: Catching a Pervert: Sexual Assault for Sale exposes the men running a business of sexual assault targeting women across East Asia. Websites have been created to sell thousands of videos of men sexually abusing women on trains, buses and other crowded public places across East Asia. On these sites tailor-made assaults can also be ordered.

Documentary Dir: ?

Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired (2008)

Spiking: World-renowned director Roman Polanski was arrested for drugging and then having sex with a minor in 1977. Polanski pled guilty and famously fled the United States for France.

Documentary Dir: Marina Zenovich

We Need to Talk About Cosby (2023)

Spiking: In late 2014, multiple allegations emerged that, American media legend, Bill Cosby had sexually assaulted dozens of women throughout his long career. Many of the accusers said that he offered them a (spiked) drink, and they later woke to find they had been sexually assaulted by Cosby

Documentary Dir: W. Kamau Bell