Violence Against Women

What Happens When Law Enforcement Is the Threat? Immigrant Women Are Left With Nowhere to Turn

The horrifying stories in the Ms. article, “Men Are Impersonating ICE to Attack Immigrant Women,” are not isolated incidents—they reflect a deeper, long-standing erosion of human rights and protections for immigrant communities. Immigrant women of color are disproportionately targeted and bear the brunt of the violence.

Immigrant survivors are more afraid than ever to seek help from the police or the courts. And these reports of violence committed by ICE impersonators and accounts of violence committed by real ICE and law enforcement officers—many of them now in plainclothes—show that immigrants have good reason to be afraid.

At the Tahirih Justice Center, where we serve immigrant survivors of domestic and sexual violence, we’ve seen firsthand for years the impact of dehumanizing language and actions by politicians and the media, leading to cruel policies and paralyzing fear that traps survivors in abuse. There’s no question that in the last six months, things have gotten much worse.

Now is the moment for all of us as citizens and neighbors to loudly declare that what’s happening to immigrants is unacceptable—whether through protest, contacting our representatives or walking with our immigrant neighbor as she takes her child to school so she’s not alone.

‘No More Shame!’ The Transformative Lesson of Gisèle Pelicot, the French Survivor of Mass Rape

A phone call one autumn morning from local police requesting that Dominique Pelicot, then 67, husband to Gisèle, also 67, report to the local station interrupted their daily routine. A surprised Gisèle listened as her husband told her not to worry: “It won’t be pleasant, but by noon we will be home,” he said. But the next time she saw him was at his trial.

Like many countries, France has a protective privacy act guaranteeing anonymity for crime victims. Gisèle’s lawyers warned what would happen in a public trial—the intense media attention that would surely follow every development in the case, the probable attacks on her testimony in court and possible threats to her life. Undaunted, Gisèle chose to waive her right to anonymity.

“When you’re raped, there is shame, and it’s not for us to have shame,” she told the court. “It’s for them.”

Her insistence that her trial be public surprised both her lawyers and the presiding judge—and transformed Gisèle into a feminist hero and icon.

Men Are Impersonating ICE to Attack Immigrant Women. MAGA Emboldened Them.

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Multiple men have been arrested in at least three states since President Donald Trump’s inauguration for allegedly posing as immigration enforcement officers to perpetrate sexual violence against immigrant women.

The Trump administration is emboldening and reinvigorating such violence by providing more tools to harm women of color, including both systemic tools (mass detention and deportation) and a cover for any man looking to kidnap immigrant women in broad daylight.

Biotech CEOs to FDA: Don’t Let Politics Override Science on Abortion Pill

Fifty-three biotechnology industry leaders and investors representing dozens of companies and organizations issued a letter late last month advising the U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Follow the science on mifepristone, not political ideology.

The Biotech CEO Sisterhood initiated the letter, with Grace Colón as lead author and dozens of senior biotechnology leaders signed on in support. “We are urging the agency and the department to continue to follow the science,” said Colón, who warned that political interference in drug regulation undermines both public trust and the FDA’s authority.

The Minnesota Shooting Wasn’t Random—It Was a Predictable Resurgence of Violence

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Minnesota experienced an act of devastating political violence last month: Former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, were killed in their home. State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette are recovering from life-saving surgeries after shielding their adult daughter from the gunman.

In recent years, we’ve seen attacks escalate against elected officials across the political spectrum. However, we must recognize that Hortman, Hoffman and the other targets on the gunman’s list are uniquely vulnerable because of the way that we treat abortion: We isolate abortion from mainstream care, in law and practice; and we exclude it from insurance coverage, hospital systems and routine medical training.

By treating abortion as unsafe and morally suspect, rather than as legitimate medicine, we further normalize hostility towards it, its providers, and the policymakers who uphold access to it.

U.N. Condemns Taliban’s Gender Apartheid at Security Council Meeting—But Offers No Path Forward

At a United Nations Security Council meeting late last month, diplomats delivered stark assessments of Afghanistan’s worsening crisis—condemning the Taliban’s repressive edicts, affirming support for Afghan women and reaffirming the importance of humanitarian aid. Yet beneath the layered statements and impassioned appeals was a sobering truth: The council remains no closer to articulating a unified or actionable strategy to confront the regime’s systemic gender apartheid.

The Seven Warning Signs of Testosterone Poisoning (October 1975)

From the October 1975 issue of Ms.:

“Until now it has been thought that the level of testosterone in men is normal simply because they have it. But if you consider how abnormal their behavior is, then you are led to the hypothesis that almost all men are suffering from testosterone poisoning. …

“The pathological violence of most men hardly needs to be mentioned. They are responsible for more wars than any other leading sex.

“Testosterone poisoning is particularly cruel because its sufferers usually don’t know they have it. In fact, when they are most under its sway they believe that they are at their healthiest and most attractive. They even give each other medals for exhibiting the most advanced symptoms of the illness.

“But there is hope.”

(The Summer 2025 issue of Ms. is a modern reimagining of the October 1975 issue. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox.)

Trump Is Ending Temporary Protected Status for Haitian Refugees. Here’s What That Means for Women.

The Trump administration announced late last month it will terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian refugees in the United States. As a result of this decision, thousands of Haitian immigrants with legal status will become undocumented and eligible for deportation in September.

Women and girls face the brunt of violence in Haiti. Without TPS, Haitian women will be arrested by ICE, detained and eventually returned to a country where gangs frequently use sexual violence against women and girls to terrorize communities and gain control.

In 2024, the U.N. logged more than 6,400 cases of gender-based violence in Haiti.

Americans Want a Feminist Future—But in Order to Make it Happen, We Have to Rethink Our Entire Political System  

Donald Trump has insisted that he has a “mandate” from voters to peddle his wildly unpopular policies—and, apparently, to stop at nothing to enforce them. But in reality, Americans by and large want a feminist future.

I talked to experts in gender and politics about the promise of a truly representative democracy—and what it will take for feminists to build one. The first episode of the brand-new Ms. podcast Looking Back, Moving Forward digs into the history and future of the feminist fight for both political representation and political power. The experts I spoke to for the episode reminded me that feminists have the power to redefine our democracy—and that rumors of our defeat have been greatly exaggerated.

Listen to the newest Ms. podcast Looking Back, Moving Forward—available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

The Problem With Sabrina Carpenter’s Album Cover Is Not Sex—It’s Violence 

The real discomfort with Carpenter’s controversial cover isn’t about sexual provocation. It’s about normalizing images of violence against women.

Policing women’s sexual choices should never be the goal of this discourse. Our personal sex lives are rich with context, and I hope that most people who enthusiastically interact with violent sexual acts, such as choking or hair-pulling, have felt comfortable enough with their partner to talk them through and have a truly consensual experience.

But we can monitor the way we speak about sex—especially expressions that lack that personal context, like album covers—and our tendencies as feminists to defend them in any light, no matter how troubling, for fear of restricting women as opposed to liberating them. 

We do not need to be OK with violence. Each of us has the personal autonomy to consider it, be conscious of it, oppose it, or even play with it. But when we look at an image of a woman having her hair pulled like the leash of a dog, it is only human—and important—that we feel uncomfortable.