Saturday, July 22, 2006

A Metaphor For Women In Chains?




(Just out of curiosity)
For anybody just passing...what's your words to this picture?
(edit read Witchy-woos' comment...chilling)

The actual title is...

US jails 'shackle pregnant women'

The US must stop shackling pregnant female prisoners when they are giving birth, Amnesty International has said.
"The routine use of restraints on pregnant women... [is] a cruel and unusual practice that can rarely be justified," the group said in a report.
Only one state currently bans leg irons on female inmates while they are being taken to hospital during labour.
*US government policy urges measures to ensure foetuses are not harmed if a pregnant prisoner is restrained.
Though these are pregnant women, they are still convicted felons, and sometimes violent
Dina Tyler, Arkansas Department of Corrections
The New York Times described the case of one pregnant inmate whose legs were allegedly shackled together during 12 hours of labour, despite requests by a doctor and two nurses that she not be restrained.
"The doctor who was delivering the baby made them remove the shackles for the actual delivery at the very end," lawyer Cathleen Compton told the newspaper.
**Shawanna Nelson had been jailed in Arkansas for identity fraud and writing bad cheques. She gave birth in 2003 at age 30, the newspaper said.
She is suing the prison and Correctional Medical Services, claiming she suffers ongoing back pain and damage to her sciatic nerve because she was largely unable to move during her labour.
The defendants deny having harmed Ms Nelson, the New York Times said, citing court papers.
Arkansas defends its policy.
"Though these are pregnant women, they are still convicted felons, and sometimes violent in nature," Dina Tyler, a spokeswoman for the Arkansas Department of Corrections, told the newspaper.
***"There have been instances when we've had a female inmate try to hurt hospital staff during delivery."

I found this picture across at Women’s Space and to quote Heart

“I think it’s a metaphor for what this nation is doing to women and girls
just in general: we are being silenced, shackled, forced to bear and care for
babies no matter what our choices might be in the matter, forced to bow to, and
submit to, the woman-hating gods of the male imagination”

* What about the woman?

** Obviously a great threat of violence (without knowing the case of course)

*** As an ex nurse, I've been confronted with violence in many instances, but we didn't scream 'straight jacket' or 'shackles'

1 Comments:

Blogger sparklematrix said...

Witchy-woo... that has given me goose bumps

5:02 pm  

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