UK Justice Min Dominic Raab says misogyny shouldn't be made hate crime; clarifies later

Following the kidnapping, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by serving police officer Wayne Couzens in London, new UK Justice Secretary Dominic Raab dismissed the suggestion that misogyny should be a hate crime. Raab told to the BBC that misogyny should not become a hate crime. Since his comment, he has faced backlash as a result of his misunderstanding of the term misogyny, which refers to hatred or prejudice against women.

Raab, during the interview, said that intimidation and misogyny were completely immoral whether it was a man against a woman or a woman against a man. However, he later explained that what he meant was that if people are talking about things below the level of public order offences of harassment and intimidation, it is rightly criminalised, as per the reports of Sputnik. However, according to him, criminalising things like sexist biases will not deal with the problem that they have at the heart of the Sarah Everard case.

'These remarks are an insult to the millions of women'

After Raab's statement, Liberal Democrat equalities spokeswoman Wera Hobhouse stated that it's little wonder the Conservatives are failing to confront misogyny when their Justice Secretary doesn't even appear to know what it is, according to Daily Mail. She further said that they demonstrated how out of touch the Conservatives were on the subject. The Women's Party, on the other hand, posted on social media that their government won't launch an independent enquiry solely examining police misogyny, they don't even know what the term means. 

Domestic violence and rape are the "number one issue" in policing

The Prime Minister dismissed proposals to officially recognise sexism as a hate crime yesterday, instead suggesting that existing rules should be better enforced rather than new legislation being introduced. According to Daily Mail, Mr Johnson has pledged to make domestic violence and rape the "number one issue" in policing, and has stated that the existing system for dealing with violent crimes against women is "simply not working." His remarks came amid a nationwide debate over women's safety in the aftermath of the murders of Sarah Everard and primary schoolteacher Sabina Nessa.

Image: AP