We’ve never been in the same boat, COVID-19 won’t change that
Illustrations by Hannah Robinson I’m fed up of people saying things like ‘we’re all in the same boat’; COVID-19 has not suddenly caused inequalities to disappear. We have never been in…
Innocent until proven guilty, unless you’re the victim
Illustrations by Hannah Robinson Last week Alex Salmond, former First Minister and accused sex predator, was acquitted of 13 charges against him, including sexual assault and attempted rape. This happened during…
Level With Me: a new space for working-class students to speak
Illustrations by Hannah Robinson Amidst COVID-chaos, I’ve conducted a (telephone) interview with the founders of an up-and-coming student journal called Level With Me. This journal is specifically for working-class students to…
Working-class students need support that we aren’t getting
Illustration by Hannah Robinson Universities are complex places for a lot of minority students. The University of Edinburgh’s student union has minority officers in attempt to combat the struggles faced, though…
Iran vows “severe revenge”; but who will actually suffer?
Illustration by Hannah Robinson Following the death of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani the world has, quite frankly, gone into a spin. Three days into the new year and Trump is tweeting…
The Iranian authorities are murdering Iranian people
Illustration by Hannah Robinson Iranians have been peacefully protesting an unprecedented hike in fuel prices since November 15. Since then, protests have spiralled into desperate calls for regime overhaul, as…
Smacking your child is not a ‘right’, it’s bad parenting
Illustration by Hannah Robinson Scotland has become the first UK country to ban smacking of children. This very recent legislation has brought to the attention of many the question of…
Domestic abuse murders reach a five-year high
Boris Johnson’s suggestion that the Government are “fully committed” to targeting domestic abuse would be laughable if it weren’t something the nation has been crying out for for years. It…
Sit down love, we don’t have sexism in Parliament anymore
Jo Swinson could change everything; this is perhaps the most pivotal moment for the Lib Dems since the disastrous apologies of Nick Clegg. Whilst Tories are jumping to the yellow…
God help the Queen… and the rest of us too
In two weeks’ time parliament is to be suspended on the will of an unelected Prime Minister, confirmed by an unelected monarch. All of this in order to remove us…
The UK are losing more than just our Measles-Free status
Three years after the disease had been eradicated in the UK, we have lost our measles-free status. In 2018, UK cases of measles compared to the previous year had more…
Kentucky Fried Racial Profiling
This week racial profiling has taken a turn that, quite frankly, is a joke. The government have announced a scheme in which real stories of the effects of knife crime…
Basic Sign Language should be included in the national curriculum
Last year, the Government added a British Sign Language GCSE to the ever-growing list of things they are ‘open to considering’, following a young boy’s campaign. What progress has been…
Wearing a hijab should be a choice – removing it is not a crime
As it stands, the hijab is mandatory for women in Iran, and if they are found without one they can face a fine and up to two months in prison….
Prime Minister: an Etonian birthright?
As Boris Johnson becomes the twentieth Eton-educated Prime Minister, and joins the very comfortable majority of Oxford-educated Prime Ministers, we continue to wonder what it is about these establishments that…
Iran are using dual nationals as political pawns, and we are letting them
Nine months ago, I wrote about British-Iranian dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe being falsely imprisoned in Iran; this week, she has been moved from her cell to a psychiatric ward. Nazanin…
Branding Cancer Research UK ‘fat-shamers’ is not going to help anyone
Controversy has been sparked over a Cancer Research UK advert featuring what looks like a cigarette packet, and the words ‘Obesity is a cause of cancer too’. Is this fat-shaming?…
How white is your Journalism?
As newly appointed Editor-In-Chief of The Broad, I’ve been spending time looking at the demographics of student journalists, editors, contributors, and, largely, I have been greeted with a white wall….
Tracy Beaker aside, the rhetoric surrounding adoption must change
There are so many things wrong with the way adoption is commonly viewed, and this is becoming even more damaging, with abortion laws across the world meaning that more and…
What do milkshakes really bring to the yard?
I do not remotely hesitate in saying that Tommy Robinson deserves far worse consequences than a milkshake being thrown in his face. Would I thoroughly enjoy doing it myself? Absolutely….
We cannot ignore America’s war on the female body
Every single time abortion laws are tightened, women suffer. The lives of unborn bundles of cells are being put above the lives of living, breathing, human women, so we need…
Revenge porn and consensual sex work are very different
For the umpteenth time, there is a colossal difference between sex work and revenge porn. With the surging popularity of OnlyFans accounts, I have arrived at the point where I…
Same work, same wage doesn’t just apply to gender
As always, 1 April saw an increase in the national minimum wages, across the age brackets. Contrary to previous employers, my current workplace pays everyone the over 25 wage, and…
Marriage does not equal the overriding right to sex
‘I cannot think of any more obviously fundamental human right than the right of a man to have sex with his wife … ‘I think he is entitled to have…
UK food wastage cannot go on like this
In 2016, France devised a legislation that forced supermarkets to donate unsold food that would ordinarily go in the bin as ‘wastage’, to foodbanks. This scheme has seen huge success…
Describing someone as ‘coloured’ is a lot more than ‘clumsy’
Amber Rudd, when talking about the abuses women in politics face, described Diane Abbott as ‘coloured’. Moments later, she tweeted ‘Mortified at my clumsy language’, as though her rapid apology…
And the Oscar for making us feel unbridled emotion goes to…
I won’t pretend that last week’s Oscars didn’t leave anything to be desired, that we don’t still have a way to go regarding who and what deserves accolade, and…
Laughing at Shamima Begum is inexcusable
When I think about the complex layers of Shamima Begum’s case, it sickens me that it, and she, is becoming the butt of a national joke. Yes, she was part…
Where is the problem with children and screen time?
There is little evidence to back the theory that excessive screen-time could slow brain development, and prevent sufficient sleep in children, and I am becoming increasingly aware of the reasons…
When it comes to porn, what shouldn’t turn us on?
As of this week, the laws surrounding the production of porn in England and Wales have changed. Where previously it was illegal to own or distribute “obscene” pornography, now it…
Whose responsibility is it to stop domestic abuse?
On Monday, the UK published a new draft Domestic Abuse Bill, defining economic and emotional abuse alongside physical, and further enforcing Clare’s Law. Clare’s Law follows Clare Wood’s 2009 murder,…
Consent is more complicated than saying ‘no’
The BBC have been circulating a video this week, entitled ‘Is this sexual harassment?’ and the content of this that I found shocking and disturbing was not the depiction of…
Christmas isn’t always the most wonderful time of the year
For many people, Christmas holds the worst of the year: the busiest period of work in the service industry, the time when financial strain is brought to the forefront, childcare…
Parliamentary confidence must extend to the people’s vote
We must respect the vote of the people on Brexit, there will be no second referendum, so why did the Tories get the chance for a second vote on their…
Turkish women are not asking to be abused
Last week, an Economist article held the tagline “Some 54% of Turkish women think it is acceptable for a man to use violence if he suspects his wife is cheating…
Rapists should not be able to apply for parental rights
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the neglect of Rotherham council (and the police), towards the women who survived historic abuse there. This week, Sammy Woodhouse, one of many…
People need to stop scaremongering about the pill
The year is 1961: the contraceptive pill has just been made legal and, as such, is now regulated and available for married women exclusively. Now, in 2018, the oral contraceptive…
Collisions of law and religion cause nothing but harm
Last week, Asia Bibi was acquitted, by the Supreme Court, and escaped the death penalty in Pakistan. Bibi, a Pakistani Christian, still denies accusations of anti-Islamic blasphemy, for which she…
In Rotherham, child abuse survivors need more support
After years of emotional, legal, and community upheaval, seven men have been found guilty of sexually exploiting teenage girls in Rotherham. This is not enough. Due to significant police neglect,…
Where are you, Mr Hunt? Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe needs you
Since April 2016, I’ve completed my A-Levels, moved to Scotland, finished two years of university, and lived in three different flats. Since April 2016, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been detained in…
Growing up is scarier for women
This week, NY Times published an article about what it means to be a girl turning 18 around the world. I couldn’t help but think about how far I’ve come…
We need to talk about contraception
When you ask a lot of young girls about their contraception (as I often do, as the mum of the group), they talk to you about trust. I imagine this…
Bake Off is representing disability perfectly
Briony Williams, one of the many front-runners for this year’s Great British Bake Off, has been making me think. She has a disability that one of my oldest friends shares,…
Rape and sexual assault sentences are too short
Why is someone dubbed a ‘sexually violent predator’ only being sentenced to 3-10 years in prison? (Bill Cosby). Why did someone showing ‘no remorse for his crimes at all’ get…
Drake shouldn’t be texting Millie Bobby Brown
I doubt that I am alone in my thinking that a 14-year-old and a 31-year-old having a text relationship is a bit odd, even more so when a) the texts…
Private schools should be abolished
In a nation where education is compulsory from the age of four until we’ve completed GCSEs, then apprenticeships or A Levels at 18, how have things become so unequal? School…
Wombs are important, whether occupied or not
A few months ago, I underwent laparoscopic surgery for endometriosis, along with three other women. One of these women, who was in her 40s, expressed that she definitely did not…
Women, the world over, need free sanitary products
I’m kind of obsessed with period poverty. It baffles me that, especially in a country that boasts the NHS, such a basic medical, sanitary right has to be gone without…
Why do you care about my sexuality?
Sexuality is something so exceptionally personal, it makes no sense for people to either assume yours, or question it; unless you want to have sex with that person, why are…
By Western standards, fake tan is the new black
In the age of Donald Trump, I can’t help but think about fake tan. Why is it that a man so clearly racist, wants a skin colour unnatural to his…
The Edinburgh Fringe takes from the poor and gives to the rich
When you think of art, literature, comedy, what do you immediately relate it to? Entertainment? Pleasure? What about class? With the Edinburgh Festival in full swing, I went to see…
Stop saying you’ve got mental health problems if you don’t
Sometimes it’s difficult to pinpoint the source of a feeling: am I having a bad week? Is it the hormones in my contraception? Am I suffering from a mental health…
Addiction is an illness, not a choice
The response to Demi Lovato’s apparent addiction relapse has been dramatically polarised.On one side, people are eager to support those with addiction just as they would like to be open…
Zero hour contracts are not a ‘flexible choice’
This week, Business Minister Claire Perry made some pretty naive comments about zero hours contracts, having quite obviously never been in a position in which she would need to undertake…
Terry Crews’ fight against toxic masculinity is invaluable
Something that I find particularly difficult to process is the sad fact that one of the only realms in which we have a kind of ‘herstory’, is sexual violence. The…
