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ANNOUNCEMENT
It’s with heavy hearts that WRN announce the death of one of our own, the truly fabulous Claire Loneragan.
Claire was a fundamental part of WRN since its inception and had been key to the growth and the success of our organisation. She is irreplaceable as a WRNer and as a Director. Most importantly though, as a dear friend. We will miss her immensely.
We know that all our WRN members will feel her loss deeply, not least her ‘home’ group of Somerset and Dorset.
We send our sincere heartfelt sympathies to her husband Dave, her children, her wider family, and her many friends.
Claire had been ill for some time but maintained her typical good humour, courage (and not a small amount of ice cream) throughout.
When we have needed wisdom, hard work and application, Claire had provided these in abundance. Her hand was in everything that we did. And we all endeavoured to ‘Be More Claire’ as a result.
But more importantly than that, she was always our dear friend.
Goodbye Claire.
We love you so much xx
A running club that compared women and men campaigning for fair sport with some of the most violent organisations on the planet has been forced to rewrite its website.
WRN raised a safeguarding concern with @parkrunUK after Flag and Pole Runners published the inflammatory text on its website (which is linked from parkrun’s website). We are pleased that our concerns were taken seriously and the offending text removed.
@RRRunnersUK
We are extremely concerned at the thinly-veiled threats to women’s safety at parkrun by a group calling itself ‘Flag and Pole Runners’.
Threats to ‘give transphobes [ie women standing up for their rights] a fright’ are unacceptable. We hope that Run Directors and @parkrunUK will take this seriously on Saturday.
Women and men are allowed to campaign peacefully for fair rules at parkrun. Wearing T-shirts that state ‘Save Women’s Sport’ is a peaceful way to get our message across. Our members have been wearing this message on their running shirts since 2023 when our parkrun campaign started.
We were pleased to be invited to back Reality Rules Runners UK, set up by a group of keen parkrunners to raise awareness of the iniquitous gender policy that allows males to take female course times and records at parkrun. The new running club has well over 600 members and has significantly raised awareness of the issues around parkrun, while encouraging women to run / walk on Saturday mornings.
Parkrun is a great public health initiative. But it is not fair to categorise runners by gender instead of sex. Parkrun is in receipt of public funds running well in excess of £8 million. Some of that money has been spent on encouraging more women to become active, and yet women’s results are inaccurate because males are self-identifying into the female category.
We continue to campaign for fair parkrun and fair and safe sport for all women and girls.
The UN are clearly UNfit for women.
We are dismayed (to say the very least) that they would even consider a country such as Iran as a member of any body that plays a role in shaping women's rights.
Iran oppresses women and girls. They oppress the female sex. We'll take no lectures from the UN on the rights of women while they even entertain this.
nationalpost.com/opinion/hil…
The Women’s Policy Centre strongly opposes the appointment of the Islamic regime of Iran to key organ at the @UN shaping priorities on women's rights and terrorism prevention. We are calling on @AnitaAnandMP @MarkJCarney to reverse course. Canada can stop this travesty as @HillelNeuer rightly points out.
nationalpost.com/opinion/hil…
Female footballers who ‘look male’ are subject to intense online speculation. There’s a very simple way to end the speculation and verify if female footballers are in fact female…
A simple cheek swab test would identify players with the SRY gene which ONLY occurs on the male Y chromosome. No SRY gene = female.
FIFA could end the misery for these players and their teammates by introducing cheek swab tests for all national and international players. If these players want to represent their country at the Olympics they will require a sex test anyway so why is @FIFAcom dallying?
There are numerous suspected males playing elite women’s football, especially in the National Women’s Soccer League in the USA where players earn millions of dollars a year. Could that have something to do with FIFA’S continuing refusal to grasp the issue 🤷🏻♀️
Maggie Oliver and her foundation should be lauded for their tenacity at continuing to pick at the threads of government and authority, with one objective: the protection of children.
She has been key in ensuring that this scandal of the organised abuse of young girls has been brought out into the open. We need more Maggie Olivers.
Today is the day. David vs Goliath. Today we go to the High Court for our landmark judicial review against the Government. We have been shocked at the arguments being advanced by the Home Secretary in defence of its failure to implement key recommendations made by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA). These arguments include, that The Maggie Oliver Foundation does not have standing to bring this challenge on behalf of children, that the Government is under no obligation to implement child protection measures, and that the public at large cannot rely upon promises made by the Prime Minister and Ministers that are made in Parliament.
The Government's legal defence raises fundamental questions about public trust, accountability and whether promises made to survivors following public inquiries mean anything at all.
At the centre of the judicial review are 20 key recommendations issued by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) proposed to better protect children across the UK from sexual abuse. These include properly collecting data relating to child abusers and victims of abuse and exploitation, ending the use of pain-inducing restraint techniques on children in custody and regulation of staff in children’s homes.
We are concerned that more effort and public money appears to be going into defending a challenge designed to ensure these critical improvements in child protection are made than into implementing them.
The simplest example of this is this – if the Government had implemented the first recommendation of the IICSA, there would have been no need for a further three-year, £65 million public Inquiry (The Statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs).
WHO IS ALLOWED TO ASK THE QUESTION?
The Secretary of State is a challenging whether The Maggie Oliver Foundation and our founder and Chair, @MaggieOliverUK , have standing to bring the case at all.
This raises a deeply troubling question.
If organisations representing survivors and working every day with the consequences of child sexual abuse are not entitled to ask why promised child protection measures have not been implemented, who is?
The Government is trying to exclude from the debate the very people closest to the consequences of these failures.
For years survivors have been told to come forward. Speak up. Tell the truth. Many have done so at enormous personal cost, but now the Government says they, and those who represent them, cannot object to failures to protect children. Their voices must be silenced.
This challenge was never about politics. Governments of all stripes have let down children. It is astonishing that the Government's first argument in this judicial review is that victims can have no voice.
If organisations representing survivors, and survivors themselves, cannot ask why promised child protection measures have not been implemented, who can?
IF GOVERNMENT DOESN'T HAVE TO ACT, WHAT IS THE POINT?
A central plank to the Government's defence is that ministers are under no legal obligation to implement recommendations made by public inquiries.
If that is right, why spend hundreds of millions of pounds on public inquiries if Government is just going to ignore what they find? We genuinely struggle to understand how anyone can think that is acceptable.
Millions are spent, years of hearings are had, victims pour out their hearts, findings and recommendations are made, promises are made by Government and then broke – but when someone has the temerity to ask why those promises haven't been kept, the Government's response is we never had to keep our promises.
If that is right, the Government must be open about it, and explain to the public why they hold expensive public inquiries at all.
IICSA took seven years, heard from more than 7,000 survivors, cost more than £200 million and made twenty recommendations intended to protect children. But the Government now says, we have no obligation to fulfil its promises to implement recommendations to protect children.
CAN POLITICIANS DENY THEIR PROMISES MATTER?
We are also challenging the Government's position regarding promises made by the Prime Minister and ministers following publication of IICSA's recommendations.
Repeated assurances that action would be taken have been made by senior politicians across successive governments.
The Government's defence includes arguments relating to parliamentary privilege. In effect the Government say that The Foundation cannot rely upon ministerial promises made in Parliament, and that such promises cannot give rise to expectations about future action.
If the public cannot rely on promises made in Parliament, what can they rely on?
Survivors and the public hear ministers make promises.
They hear repeated assurances that lessons have been learned and change will follow.
They build their expectations around those promises.
Many survivors have spent years believing ministers when they said action was coming.
To now be told that those promises cannot be relied upon is not just a legal argument, it is a fundamental betrayal of the trust survivors (and children across the UK) were asked to place in the process.
Trust works both ways.
Survivors are asked to trust public inquiries with the most painful experiences of their lives.
Governments should not then be able to argue that survivors cannot rely on the promises they receive in return.
WHILE GOVERNMENT ARGUES, CHILDREN ARE STILL BEING ABUSED
Government figures show that approximately 2 million children have been sexually abused since IICSA published its recommendations in October 2022.
That astonishing number must not be lost amidst legal arguments and the Government’s technical defences. This case is about the protection of all British children.
What shocks us most is how much ingenuity and effort has gone into finding reasons not to act.
Imagine if half of the same energy had been invested in implementing child protection measures.
Imagine if the resources currently being spent defending this case had instead been spent protecting children.
How many children might already be safer?
While well paid Government lawyers argue, children are still being sexually abused.
That is the reality we cannot lose sight of.
This case was never about clever legal arguments.
It is about whether promises made to children and survivors mean anything at all.
The Maggie Oliver Foundation will not be silent on that question.
We are glad to see the women and girls of Afghanistan receive this award. They are persecuted and their rights are eradicated due to their sex. Their treatment is a human rights catastrophe.
This award not only recognises their courage and resilience, but keeps their predicament in the public eye and not conveniently hidden and forgotten. Women and girls matter.
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In a ceremony last night the women of Afghanistan were awarded the 2026 @ChathamHouse Prize in recognition of their courage and resilience in the face of systematic gender persecution, and for their determination to defend the rights and futures of women and girls.
@EliSafdari, the former goalkeeper for Afghanistan's Women's National football team, accepted the prize on behalf of the women of Afghanistan. The prize was presented by former Prime Minister and President of Chatham House @theresa_may.
As part of the ceremony, @ShaharzadAkbar, @ZahraJoya, @Orzala, Benafsha Yaqoobi and @Fawziakoofi77 spoke with @bbclysedoucet about the challenges facing the women of Afghanistan and how the international community can respond.
Watch the 2026 Chatham House Prize ceremony in full: bit.ly/4fhyiev
And our own Heather was there to see the women and girls of Afghanistan receive the award.
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xitter.twitterapi.xyz/wrnafghanistan/status/…
Delighted to be at Chatham House this evening where women of Afghanistan are being honoured for their resilience, determination and bravery. @HeatherB_WRN represents, pictured with women from @Malala_SCEMF.
chathamhouse.org/events/all/…
Women and girls are being put at risk of sexual crimes every time they try on clothes in high street retailers that only provide mixed-sex changing rooms.
🚩 Allowing males access to women and girls in a state of undress is a safeguarding failure. The majority of high street stores have now moved to mixed-sex changing rooms. Stores that do have separate women’s and men’s changing rooms often allow males into the women’s facilities. 🚩
Every single one of the sex crimes listed in this thread could have been prevented if high street retailers recognised that they have a duty of care to look after their customers.
First, a woman trying on a bikini in M&S… 1/8
A woman has told a court how she screamed when she saw a male peering at her over a changing-room cubicle in Marks and Spencer while she was trying on a bikini.
The woman, who is her 30s, said she was ‘terrified’ and quickly put her clothes back on, but feared she would be attacked if she opened the door.
The manager of the store was alleged to be the male who committed the act of voyeurism. He was arrested and charged, and appeared in court earlier this month, with an adjournment to 18th November 2026.
The safest changing room is a single-sex changing room.
Children are often the victims of changing room sex predators… 2/8
WRN's Heather discusses convicted rapist Russell Brand with @Jacob_Rees_Mogg on @GBNEWS, drawing comparisons between the enablement and celebration of his behaviour with that of other media 'personalities'.
Not so much 'hiding in plain sight' as 'boasting about it in plain sight'.
A great discussion that also covered the horrific Pelicot case and drug assisted rape. What do we need to be teaching our boys and young men to prevent more of this taking place?
“I feel there should be stronger safeguarding in hospitals for vulnerable patients, particularly around being left alone during intimate care, changing or examinations, and stronger rules around chaperones”.
We agree. How appalling that this woman, already a victim of crime, was targeted by this predatory nurse while at her most vulnerable in hospital.
There are men who will abuse their position of authority and take advantage of any apparent vulnerability to sexually assault women. We wish this woman well, and are pleased this dangerous man has been caught and jailed.
dailymail.com/news/article-1…
Russell Brand has been sentenced to 10 years and six months for rape and sexual assault.
The judge’s sentencing remarks make for queasy listening. Among the more graphic details, he described Brand as a “sexual predator” with “staggering arrogance”, whose fame and entourage enabled his behaviour.
This was a man whose public persona, treatment of women and open sexual objectification were openly, raucously played for the crowd. He was idolised, celebrated and given platform after platform. His behaviour was seen as edgy and rebellious.
This is far from the first time a celebrity has been elevated to untouchable status, only for the extent of their abuse to emerge many years later.
Brand is finally being held accountable. But what about the culture that made him a star, and the other men it continues to protect?
The women who reported Brand showed extraordinary courage. We owe them more than a conviction. We owe them a serious reckoning with the culture that allowed this to happen.
Great to see Afghan women get some recognition 🙏
Delighted to be at Chatham House this evening where women of Afghanistan are being honoured for their resilience, determination and bravery. @HeatherB_WRN represents, pictured with women from @Malala_SCEMF.
chathamhouse.org/events/all/…
Some of England and Scotland’s top male cricketers have signed up to play in the Afghanistan Premier League Twenty20 tournament despite the ECB urging them to think about their daughters, sisters or mothers.
In Afghanistan women and girls are prohibited from playing sport, one of many human rights abuses inflicted on females by the Taliban rulers. The Afghanistan Twenty20 League matches will be held in the United Arab Emirates, and while it is yet to receive the go ahead from the International Cricket Council it is very likely to be approved.
The captain of the Afghanistan women’s cricket team, Nahida Sapan, told the BBC Stumped podcast: ‘For five years, girls in Afghanistan have been denied the right to play cricket and many other basic rights. Foreign players had a real opportunity to stand with millions of Afghan women and girls by choosing not to participate.’
The men who are listed to play in the tournament are Moeen Ali, Joe Clarke, Alex Hales, Tymal Mills, Tom Moores, Olly Stone, Chris Wood, Luke Wood (England), and George Munsey (Scotland).
Women’s Rights Network supports the women of Afghanistan. Our Afghan Women merchandise raises funds for educational projects for women and girls in Afghanistan.
Link in the next post.
Link to our Afghan Women merchandise. All profits support the education of women and girls in Afghanistan.
violetvend.com/afghan-women
Brave women. What goes around comes around!
Everyone at WRN is immensely proud of these brave women, both for reclaiming the #ReclaimTheNight march for women, and for holding firm in the face of predictable male violence.
❌Shame on all those misguided and malicious ‘protestors’.
✅Thank you to @nottspolice for keeping women safe.
Last night, our members made history. We stood together in #Nottingham for the first female-only #ReclaimTheNight march the city has seen in well over a decade. In fact, this was likely the only explicitly female-only #ReclaimTheNight march in the entire country this year. 1/11
Yet again. An appalling police response to a chilling incident of stalking.
❌ Failure to take ownership
❌ Failure to take police action.
❌ Having to be shamed into it by media exposure.
Only a few days ago, we were commenting on a concerning incident involving the Darlington nurses.
We’re heartily sick of the platitudes about male violence against women and girls. We need action.
thetimes.com/uk/crime/articl…
One gym at a time… The Bridge, in Southwark, has been forced to apply the law to its women-only gym and facilities which are now female-only 👏🏼
But, it should not have taken the persistence of Dr Pam Spurr + the intervention of the EHRC and Charity Commission to achieve this. Every facility, every sports event, every recreational group, every activity that states it is women-only must, by law, be for those who are female.
🚨 Calling all TERFs: we CAN make a difference tackling a business, org or charity one at a time that's AVOIDING the law!
Excited to say my persistent challenging of The Bridge Women's Charity's women-only gym, in Southwark, means it'll now be MEN-free.
This is their new guidance (left image) & part of the CEO's email to me. (Note her pronouns 🤪)
ps amusing that in previous emails she used my title & spelt my name correctly (far right image). BUT when she had to concede defeat she misspells my name & doesn't use my title 😀)
TikTok’s Community Guidelines claim to protect young people from sexual exploitation, prohibit sexual solicitation and promote a safe environment.
So why is a speech by @Rebecca_SPaul in Parliament about safety and fairness in sports removed, even temporarily, while teen girls are exposed to algorithmically promoted content glamourising the sex industry and presenting OnlyFans as an aspirational opportunity?
Why are those trying to protect women and girls and preserve their opportunities being suppressed by a platform whose own rules claim to protect young people?
TikTok’s stated principles sound very different from the experience its users are reporting.
What does TikTok think young women’s contribution to society should be?
theguardian.com/technology/2…
Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, the male who punched women to victory at the Paris Olympics, returns to the French capital on 15th December to box against another woman, 21-year-old Clarida Sarabia.
Competing in a professional tournament means Khelif is exempt from the need to fight other men and may compete in women’s boxing.
This week a Conservative amendment to the Sporting Events Bill to ensure sportswomen’s rights to single-sex sport (changing rooms and toilets) at ALL international events held in this country was voted down by Labour MPs.
This time the boxer is fighting in Paris. Next time, it could be London because our lawmakers won’t protect the woman taking her life in her hands to fight against a man.
Olympics gender row boxer Imane Khelif to make professional debut: Algerian announces fight with 21-year-old in December... two-and-a-half years after controversial gold in Paris trib.al/msbARnd
This Bill is a wrecking ball directly aimed at caring parents. It will criminalise normal conversations by parents with their troubled children.
Don’t let this happen. Submit your evidence by 16th November. This excellent guide by @sexmattersorg explains how 👇
The Conversion Practices Bill in 2 minutes and what you can do about it
⬇️youtube.com/watch?v=bAwvchFb…
For all the warm words about male violence against women and girls, the police had to be prodded into taking action by the shame of media exposure.
This was despite a sinister threat of violence against nurses which meant they weren’t safe to attend their workplace. Shameful.
Solidarity with the @DarlingtonUnion nurses. Police forces need to wake up sharpish to the intimidation tactics and simmering violence of trans activists. Take note @NYorksPolice!
dailymail.com/news/article-1…
