We must start calling out abuse when we see it, minister tells audience at Sun's celeb International Women's Day panel | The Sun

WE must start calling out abuse when we see it, Sarah Dines has told the Sun's inspiring International Women's Day panel.

The minister for safe guarding joined stars including Vanessa Feltz, Kate Ferdinand, Montana Brown and Nicola Adams at today's event in London to inspire and stand up for women.



Every year on March 8 females come together to unite against prejudice, inequality and to raise awareness about discrimination. 

This year, The Sun is celebrating through a nationwide campaign called We Define It.

Along with the celebrity panel, girls from two schools were invited along to The Sun's headquarters, where they had the opportunity to ask questions.

The conversation included social media, confidence, beauty, love, and being your true self.

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Women's rights were also at the forefront of the agenda.

Ms Dines said almost everybody has witnessed a man being abusive to a women.

Shockingly, statistics reveal bad treatment of women is common.

Ms Dines discussed what she is working on within government to help protect girls and women moving forward.

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Urging people to speak out if they see signs of this behaviour, she said: "What I want to do is to make sure people have the confidence to speak out against what they see – but also to try and deter people from doing what they're doing."

The Conservative MP revealed new laws and policies are being brought in to make sure victims of rape are protected.

She also said it's important to change the way reporting the crime is handled.

She added: "We need to look at how we can help girls and boys that may have been raped or they've been spiked on a night out or they've have been stalked.

"We're bringing in new laws to protect – but not only new laws, but to enforce the stuff we've got already to make girls feel confident enough to come forward

"It's really hard in London with the issues we've had with the police, but we still must do it.

"So I'm working also on Operation Seteria which is where all forces across the country, by this June, are going to have new ways of dealing with people that have been raped.

"Lots of girls don't want to come forward if they've been raped because they're scared of the system and what people might say.

"Or that the prosecution might go into their private records.

"So one of the things we're doing is [bringing in] new rules on third party material."

The third party system will ensure nothing else is taken into consideration when a victim reports sexual assault.

STAND UP

Love Island star Montana also talked about how she was an "ugly duckling" growing up and her struggles coming out of the villa.

She said: "Once you're on a reality show it puts you into a box.

"There's a lot of confidence issues you have as a woman.

"When I went to university I never used to care about what I looked like.

"So I think coming out and seeing people judge my appearance, that was the hardest thing for me.

"I had people trolling me telling me I need this done or that done. I was really disheartened.

"I thought I needed to change everything. I went through a stage of being really insecure.

"I thought if I get this filler and this Botox then everyone will be happy and they won't judge me."

She revealed how she ended up getting a lot of filler, including in her chin, and thought it would stop the trolling.

However, she still felt insecure and people still commented on her looks.

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Montana said self-love was the only thing that helped her through.

She added: "Once you know who you are and you have that self confidence it's easier."


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