Ruth Hall (activist)
{{short description|British activist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}Ruth Hall is a British anti-rape activist and writer. She was a founding member of the group Women Against Rape.
Biography
In the late 1970s, Hall regularly staged protests at what she thought were lenient sentences for rapists.{{cite news |last=Horsnell |first=Michael |date=9 July 1977 |title=Police evict women from ministry of defence |url=https://www.thetimes.com/tto/archive/article/1977-07-09/2/6.html |newspaper=The Times |access-date=3 December 2014 }}{{cite news |last=Lustig |first=Robin |date=3 July 1977 |title=Ministers and judges are accused of 'rape' |newspaper=The Observer}} In 1983, she threatened any MPs in the British Parliament who blocked a bill to outlaw marital rape, saying "It takes only the objection of one MP to block a bill. We will be taking note of any MP who blocks it and making sure they live to regret it."{{cite news |last=Gibbs |first=Francis |date=22 April 1983 |title=No backing for Ruth Hall motion |url=https://www.thetimes.com/tto/archive/article/1983-04-22/4/1.html |newspaper=The Times |access-date=3 December 2014 }}{{cite news |last=Hall |first=Ruth |date=1 August 1977 |title=When rape, like charity, begins at home |newspaper=The Guardian}}{{cite news |date=22 April 1983 |title=Bid to censure woman over 'threat to MPs' fails|newspaper=The Guardian }}
In 1981, Hall collated evidence on rape with Judit Kertesz. This was later published as The Rapist who Pays the Rent: Evidence Submitted by Women Against Rape, Britain, to the Criminal Law Revision Committee.{{Cite book |last1=Hall |first1=Ruth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CxWtOAAACAAJ |title=The Rapist who Pays the Rent: Evidence Submitted by Women Against Rape, Britain, to the Criminal Law Revision Committee, December 1981 |last2=Kertesz |first2=Judit |date=1981 |publisher=Falling Wall Press |isbn=978-0-905046-21-1 |language=en}} In 1985, she published the book Ask Any Woman: A London Inquiry into Rape and Sexual Assault.{{Cite journal |date=October 1985 |title=Reviewed Work: Ask Any Woman: A London Inquiry into Rape and Sexual Assault Ruth E. Hall, Review by: Brian MacLean, Allison Morris |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23637224 |journal=The British Journal of Criminology |volume=25 |issue=4 |pages=390–392|jstor=23637224 }}
After the results of a 2005 poll by Amnesty International UK, taken as part of its Violence Against Women campaign, found that more than a quarter of those polled found that in some instances women were responsible or partly responsible for their rape, Hall was interviewed by The Independent newspaper. She said that "the criminal justice system itself continues to be the obstacle to justice. It continues to display profound sexism. Rape happens every day, everywhere. If the police and prosecutors and judges won't do their jobs properly then we need to give them to those who will."{{Cite news |last=Ironside |first=Virginia |date=27 November 2005 |title=Why do so many women think rape is a woman's fault? |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/why-do-so-many-women-think-rape-is-a-woman-s-fault-329517.html |access-date=11 April 2025 |work=The Independent}}
In 2005, Hall also contributed to the development of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) Clinical Practice Guideline on the management of Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in adults and children in primary and secondary care.{{Cite web |date=2005 |title=Post-traumatic stress disorder |url=https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng116/evidence/full-guideline-pdf-6602623598 |access-date=11 April 2025 |website=NICE}}
When the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government pledged to ban the identification of men accused of rape in 2010, Hall responded that the decision was an "insult" and a backlash against the rising number of rape cases being reported.{{Cite web |last=Greenwood |first=Chris |date=2010-05-20 |title=Anger at coalition plans for rape defendants' anonymity |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/anger-at-coalition-plans-for-rape-defendants-anonymity-1978387.html |access-date=2025-04-10 |website=The Independent |language=en}}