Source: The Conversation – USA – By Adeel Khalid, Professor of Industrial & Systems Engineering, Kennesaw State University
An AI system can analyze data from a drone to detect people in a forest – and determine what condition they’re in.Adeel Khalid
A combination of infrared imaging, thermal imaging and color cameras on an uncrewed drone, along with an AI system to interpret the data, can help emergency responders and search-and-rescue teams locate, identify and track people who have gone missing in the wilderness. The experimental system helps responders pinpoint where a missing person is and determine whether they are hurt or even alive.
People who get lost or hurt while exploring nature can become stranded for days. Rescue teams often use drones to look for the person or signs of their whereabouts. The small drone my colleagues and I built at my lab at Kennesaw State University flies autonomously using a grid search pattern. It sends live video and images to a ground station operated by the rescue team.
When the AI system finds a person, it analyzes images to determine whether the individual is upright or lying on the ground. It segments parts of the person’s body, identifying the person’s head and the body’s position. It then zeroes in on the forehead. It extracts forehead temperature readings, pixel by pixel, from the imaging data to estimate forehead temperature. We have two papers detailing these findings accepted for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Aviation Forum 2026 conference.
Our AI model then assesses whether the person is conscious or unconscious and identifies abnormal temperatures that could indicate heat stress, hypothermia or other physical complications, or death – all vital information for a search-and-rescue team.
In field trials we have conducted, the system has provided consistent temperature readings of the heads of volunteers from our research team who have walked out into a variety of environments, under different conditions.
Why it matters
It is critical to get accurate and timely information on the whereabouts of a missing person. The likelihood that the person will survive decreases steeply as time passes.
An AI-enhanced drone can make search-and-rescue operations significantly more efficient than sending teams of people out into the environment to search on foot, especially in poor weather conditions or under thick foliage. Rescuers who know whether a person is conscious or unconscious can also better gear up for what they need to do to retrieve the person and administer aid. Our technology could save lives.
What other research is being done
Search-and-rescue personnel use various kinds of drones, but the machines often lack the ability to positively identify humans, especially under thick foliage, in bad weather or when the person is lying down or unconscious. The AI-based technology we have developed overcomes those challenges.
Better sensors that are very lightweight, that can function at night or in rain, and can see more clearly through thick foliage could further improve our drone and drones used by others. Researchers are devising AI-powered sound recognition for detecting screams for help, advanced thermal imaging for better nighttime vision and autonomous drones that could act as first responders.
Also under development are drones that can carry heavy payloads, such as flotation devices, fly for up to 14 hours or perform real-time mapping of the ground below.
What’s next
One of our next steps is to have multiple drones fly together and autonomously coordinate search-and-rescue operations among themselves. This will allow the technology to cover a much larger area, perhaps hundreds of square miles.
We are also designing a large drone that can carry up to 110 pounds (50 kilograms) of payload and stay aloft for an hour.
The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.
Adeel Khalid receives funding from the Office of Research at Kennesaw State University.
Imagine a world without internet, email, streaming services or social media. Imagine having to write letters or call everyone on a rotary dial phone to communicate. Imagine having to drive to a store to buy anything and everything. Unthinkable, right?
You can thank fiber optics for all these conveniences and more. And while you’re at it, wish the fiber a happy 60th birthday in 2026.
As a materials scientist who has worked with fiber optics for over 30 years, I’ve seen how useful they are, and how scientists are working to improve them.
What are fiber optics?
Fiber optics are hair-thin strands of glass that confine and carry light. Information encoded on that light is how we communicate, watch movies, buy things and stay connected.
To carry information over long distances, the fiber must be extraordinarily clear. The magic behind an optical fiber’s transparency is a combination of material science and manufacturing. As the light journeys along the fiber, little by little, some scatters off the glass molecules themselves and is lost. In modern fiber optics, this loss is so small that light can travel hundreds of miles and still be seen.
Carrying information in the form of light over long distances requires the fiber to act like a mirror. This way it can bounce those bits of light around corners when the fiber is bent, as it might be when strung like electrical wire inside a building.
Optical fibers comprise an inner core surrounded by an outer layer called a cladding, both made from glass. Protective plastic layers surround these glass parts and keep the fiber remarkably strong. The core glass is made from a material that has a slightly higher refractive index than the cladding.
You can think of the refractive indexlike density. A denser material has more atoms or molecules for its size, so it takes the light longer to travel through it. The refractive index measures this slowing of light inside a material.
In such a design, light undergoes “total internal reflection,” bouncing off the core-clad interface. A remarkable feature of this phenomenon is that the glasses comprising both the core and clad are transparent, but when sandwiched together, light impinging on that interface at certain angles reflects off like a perfect mirror. So how are these special types of glass made?
Fiber optics use total internal reflection to carry light over long distances.
A simple science
In the age of quantum technologies and AI, sometimes sophistication comes best from simplicity.
The optical fibers that wire our world are predominantly made from silicon dioxide, which also makes up beach sand. However, while chemically the same, beach sand is made up of tiny crystals of quartz that have been pulverized by geological weathering and the pounding of ocean waves. These natural origins riddle beach sand with impurities that can absorb light.
Manufacturers create fiber optic silicon dioxide, called silica, by chemically reacting gases that contain silicon with oxygen, leading to an ultrapure glass. This is all done using a process called chemical vapor deposition, where the reacted gases create layers of glass that build into the form of a rod. Typically, pure silica is used for the layers that make up the core and cladding, though to get a higher refractive index in the core, researchers add small amounts of other glass components to the silica. The finished rod is called a “blank” or “preform.”
That rod, containing both core and clad, is then heated and pulled into a thin fiber. Think of pulling on a wad of gum in your mouth – that thin strand is like the fiber, except scientists slowly lower the big preform into the furnace and pull out the small fiber quickly.
Another beauty of glass is that it controllably softens with temperature. This permits us scientists to reliably pull fiber from the preform rod that already has the core and clad built into it.
Billions of miles of fiber optics have been made for global communications, and it all conforms to a diameter of 125 micrometers – one millionth of a meter – with a tolerance typically less than about one micrometer.
That level of material purity and manufacturing control makes fiber optics a modern marvel. But fiber optics haven’t always been this advanced – it took time to get to this level of purity and control.
The trivergence
Three events took place within roughly a 10-year span that paved the way for today’s fiber optics.
In 1960, physicist Ted Maiman developed the laser by building on its 1950s predecessor, the maser. In 1966, 60 years ago, experiments by engineers George Hockham and Charles Kao tested the transparency of various materials along with some light-guiding structures. They determined that a glass fiber could, in theory, carry light over the span of at least a kilometer.
While that distance might not sound too good today, other communication systems at the time were losing far more signal strength.
The trick was to make the glass clean enough. With this finding, Hockham and Kao started a global race to make optical fiber that exceeded this level of transparency.
By 1970, scientists from Corning Inc. used chemical vapor deposition to make a fiber breaking Kao’s mark. With both these highly transparent fibers and more mature lasers to create light pulses, long-distance optical communication was born.
From 1970 to today, the clarity of fiber has continued to improve, becoming over 100 times clearer now and allowing networks to connect the world. For “groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication,” Charles Kao was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in physics.
Through the looking glass
Glass lets a lot of visible light through – you can tell by looking out your window. But interestingly, it is even clearer at colors, called wavelengths, that are invisible to the human eye. Fiber optics used in communication networks operate at a wavelength of light of about 1.55 micrometers, between 50 and 100 times smaller than a human hair. At this infrared wavelength, the interaction of the light with the silica glass is disappearingly small.
Billions of miles of fiber optics have been made since the 1970s and installed globally for communications. But the technology’s small size and weight, coupled with its high strength, flexibility and transparency, make fiber optics useful for many other applications.
Today, fiber optics are used as sensors for geologic events, such as earthquakes, as monitors for infrastructure, including bridges, roads and buildings, and as conduits for imaging and laser treatments inside the body. Optical fibers are also used as the source of light within the fiber lasers employed worldwide for machining, manufacturing, defense and security – to name just a few.
It’s remarkable how something that hardly interacts with light can underpin most of our human interactions. Fiber optics use light you can’t see to enable things most people cannot live without.
John Ballato receives funding from numerous federal funding organizations including the National Science Foundation and US Department of Defense.
With the war in Iran a topic on everyone’s lips, you might have noticed an inconsistency in the way that nation’s name is said, varying between a more native-like “Ih-ron” pronunciation and a more Americanized “Ih-ran” one.
An everyday listener might just chalk this up as being the result of regional differences or the version we learned growing up, like the alternate ways Americans have of saying “data” or “roof.”
But as a linguist who studies what our accents reveal about our histories and social identities, I know that the way we pronounce things often gives off clues about who we are and what we believe in.
That appears to be the case with these two distinct pronunciations.
President Donald Trump’s Feb. 28, 2026, statement on the commencement of U.S. strikes against Iran.
The sound of politics
It’s probably not a big surprise to learn that listeners often hear certain words or accents as indicating someone’s political inclinations.
That’s because people are primed to notice patterns that mark group membership – be it a style of clothes or pronouncing “fire” more like “far.” Once they notice these patterns, people then tend to assign whatever traits are believed to characterize that group to the sounds of their speech.
For instance, researchers examined how people perceived potential political candidates with a Southern vs. non-Southern American accent. They wrote in 2018 that they discovered listeners perceived Southern-sounding politicians as more likely to be conservative and to hold right-leaning views on issues such as gun rights and abortion. All that from hearing someone pronounce “pin” like “pen” or say “bah bah” for “bye.”
This suggests that even a small difference in the way a vowel is pronounced can suggest a lot more about political ideology than you might imagine, even if that suggestion is not always accurate.
Nationalism and names
Going back to the question of what drives variation in the pronunciation of Iran, a linguistic study examining politics and pronunciation during the Iraq War offers some insight.
In analyzing 2007 House of Representatives debates about sending more U.S. troops to Iraq, linguists found that a congress member’s political party affiliation was the strongest predictor of how the “a” vowel in Iraq was pronounced.
Republicans preferred the anglicized short “a” pronunciation closer to “ear-RACK,” while Democrats preferred a more “ah”-like one, as in “ear-ROCK.” The authors suggest that the Democratic preference, approximating a more native pronunciation, was motivated by greater multicultural sensitivity.
The pronunciation of the “i” vowel also exhibited a more anglicized option, as in “EYE-rack/rock,” which was also examined. Unlike the “a” vowel, a more “eye”-like pronunciation by itself did not significantly correlate with partisanship.
President George Bush’s 2003 Oval Office address announcing the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Two later studies, in 2011 and 2018, of everyday speakers who were asked to pronounce Iraq in nonpolitical contexts discovered no significant difference by political affiliation. The biggest predictor favoring an “ear-ROCK” pronunciation was that a person spoke multiple languages, as the “ah” vowel sound is more frequent in languages commonly spoken in the U.S., such as Spanish, French and Italian.
Despite not directly patterning with politics, when people in the 2018 study were questioned explicitly about how saying “ear-RACK” or “ear-ROCK” tied into political views, the “ah” pronunciation of the vowel was indeed heard as linked with liberalism, an association particularly strong for those who used “ah” and were liberal themselves.
This suggests that people might have picked up on this pattern from hearing politicians. They were aware of the fact that this vowel variation had become, in relevant contexts, symbolic of liberal vs. conservative stances.
Respect and pronunciation
In looking more generally at the pronunciation of borrowed words written with the letter “a,” like that of “pasta” or “tobacco,” linguist Charles Boberg suggests that Americans generally follow two possible paths, either pronouncing it with the short “a” like in “bat” or with the “ah” like in “father.”
Boberg suggests that attitudinal factors play a role in the choice between the two. Since many Americans associate the “ah” pronunciation with more education and sophistication, given its connection to upper-crust British use in words like “bath” or “aunt,” there has been an increasing tendency for Americans to use “ah” in words borrowed since World War II, as with “origami” or “nacho.”
But in looking at variability in the pronunciation of Iraq, other linguists hypothesized that the “ah” vowel is only heard as more sophisticated when a source language is held in high esteem – as with the British-derived “ah” in “aunt” – or when those speaking foreign languages are well regarded.
In contrast, when there is less respect for a people or a place, the choice of an Americanized vowel rather than the more accurate native one might be preferred. This attitude difference may well explain much of the variation in politicians’ pronunciation of Iraq – and possibly Iran.
Not surprisingly, in their study of congressional variation in pronunciation of Iraq, these researchers found that, beyond party affiliation, the politician’s war stance – for or against sending additional troops – was a significant determinant of which vowel was used. If they used the “ear-RACK” pronunciation, they were more likely to favor sending more troops to the country.
Iran-born Ali Tabibnejad, who now lives in the U.S., gives instructions on the proper way to say Iran.
Trump and ‘I-ran’
While there is, as of yet, no similar study comparing politicians and their pronunciation of Iran, it is interesting to note that both President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance say the name in the more anglicized fashion, using the same vowel as in “ear-RACK” – that is, as “Ih-RAN” not “Ih-RON.”
Considering the highly contested nature of this war, this presidential preference for the anglicized version of the name may be driven by a similar politicized positioning to that found for the pronunciation of Iraq. Trump and Vance may be underscoring their “pro-America” focus by creating a linguistic and ideological distance with the named nation and its speakers.
A similar linguistic contrast was made during the Vietnam War, when “VietNAM” was commonly pronounced as having the same short “a” sound as in “bat,” including from the lips of President Lyndon B. Johnson. Now, years later, the “VietNOM” pronunciation dominates, and the “NAM” version is virtually absent in those born in more recent eras.
In the same way, Americans might eventually find a linguistic middle ground in the current pronunciation debate over Iran. But it might be a while before peace in the Middle East prevails long enough to give the next generation a linguistic clean slate.
Valerie M. Fridland does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: The Conversation – USA – By Gregory F. Treverton, Professor of Practice in International Relations, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, center, acting Commander of U.S. Cyber Command William Hartman and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, right, stand before the Senate Committee on Intelligence on Capitol Hill on March 18, 2026.AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
The administration’s inconsistent rationale for waging war was laid bare on March 18, 2026, when Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee and declined to say whether her agency had made an estimate of if and when Iran would threaten the U.S. mainland.
“It is not the intelligence community’s responsibility to determine what is and is not an imminent threat,” Gabbard said.
The statement was especially odd given that the briefing’s subject was the U.S. intelligence community’s latest global threat assessment. It’s clear to me that neither Gabbard nor other members of the intelligence community were part of Trump’s decision-making about going to war.
Besides serving as chair of the National Intelligence Council in the Barack Obama administration, I was a staff member of the National Security Council in the Jimmy Carter administration. I know that this apparent lack of a coordinated policy on Iran is a far cry from the war preparation and planning done during previous presidential administrations.
National Security Council
Typically, the National Security Council, which consists of the Cabinet secretaries of the national security agencies, does its work through its committees, including the Deputies Committee, which is made up of the top deputies in those departments. The Deputies Committee reviews plans and assesses options, usually presenting a recommendation to the principals, including the president.
In that sense, the National Security Council is seen within an administration as the honest broker, especially in balancing the roles of the two main foreign affairs departments: the State Department and the Defense Department.
To be sure, different administrations have used the National Security Council in different ways.
President Dwight Eisenhower created the modern National Security Council. His was an elaborate structure, with groups for both assessing options and overseeing implementation. It reflected his wartime experience, with careful staffing from a general staff whose responsibilities ranged from operations and logistics to intelligence and plans.
Other administrations have favored less formal arrangements. John F. Kennedy, for instance, kept discussions with the National Security Council secret during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. But all the National Security Council stakeholders were represented, and Kennedy reached out to consult outside expertise on the Soviet Union.
President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden walk away from the lectern after Obama announced a nuclear deal with Iran on July 14, 2015. AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool
Lyndon Johnson made Tuesday lunches his forum for debating decisions about U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Beginning with just his secretaries of state and defense, the lunches became a National Security Council meeting but in less formal circumstances. The CIA director, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the press secretary were later added to the group.
In the Obama administration, the National Intelligence Council I chaired supplied the intelligence support to the Deputies Committee. We provided a steady stream of intelligence assessments across various subjects. Those included pro-democracy protests during the Arab Spring in the 2010s to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
The intelligence assessments provided the information – about where wars stood and what may come next – used for discussion among the deputies. They were discussions informed by experts on the Deputies Committee and from staff on the National Security Council who specialized in the region or military affairs.
Since White Houses always want to pretend they are cheaper than they are, most staff with the National Security Council are seconded – or loaned for free – from one of the agencies. The process saves the White House money. But it also provides it with invaluable in-house expertise and exposes those seconded officials to presidential policymaking.
A friend and colleague who served as under secretary of defense quipped that every time he saw a State Department counterpart coming to a Deputies Committee meeting, he knew what was coming in substance: a request for a military solution to a geopolitical problem.
His stock answer: “Yes, we can do that, but it’ll require 100,000 soldiers and cost US$10 billion.” That answer was his quip, but the Deputies Committee provided a forum for arguing about the merits of the case.
The Trump administration in January 2025 outlined the National Security Council structure in familiar terms. But the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman and director of national intelligence, both a regular presence in debates in previous administrations, were made situational rather than regular members. They would attend as needed, not automatically.
This photo provided by the White House shows President Donald Trump talking with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles as Secretary of State Marco Rubio listens at Mar-a-Lago during Operation Epic Fury on Feb. 28, 2026. Daniel Torok/The White House via AP
“In your Cabinet with the vice president, secretary of state, what is it like, what are the dynamics when you have a big decision like Iran or Venezuela?” Kilmeade asked. “Are people speaking up and speaking their minds?”
Trump’s answer spoke volumes.
“They do,” the president said. “I let them speak their mind, and they do. And we have some differences, but they, they never end up being much. I convince them all to, let’s do it my way.”
Perhaps this casual approach to national security from the Trump administration should not surprise Americans after “Signalgate” – when administration officials in 2025 used the messaging app Signal rather than secure government modes to discuss U.S. military strikes on Yemen and inadvertently included a journalist in the communications.
But when lives are at stake, not to mention Americans’ pocketbooks and the global economy, I think the nation deserves better. Conducting a war requires a hard-headed process for assessing progress and evaluating next steps. In other administrations, the National Security Council would have provided that.
Gregory F. Treverton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Mahseer swim in the Ramganga River, a major tributary of the Ganges River in South Asia.Zeb Hogan
Hidden beneath the surface of the world’s rivers, some of Earth’s great animal movements unfold – migrations that rival, in sheer biomass, the famous mass movements of zebra and wildebeest across the Serengeti.
For centuries, fish migrations were as predictable as the seasons. Salmon, sturgeon, giant catfish and many other species moved through rivers in vast numbers, guided by rising water, flood pulses and evolved biological cues.
These species are extraordinarily diverse, ranging from beluga sturgeon – massive fish that can live for more than a century and produce the world’s most prized caviar – to giant river carp, tropical eels, gold-flecked shad and goliath catfish, all of which travel to survive, in some cases over hundreds or even thousands of miles.
The author, Zeb Hogan, holds a goonch underwater in the Ramganga River in northern India. The giant catfish was tagged and released to study its migration. Rob Taylor
For most migratory fish, movement is not optional; it is how they survive. When dams block routes, when fishing intensifies at migratory bottlenecks and when floodplains and spawning grounds are cut off or degraded, most migratory fish do not simply go somewhere else. They cannot. First the migration thins, then it falters. In some rivers, especially those blocked by dams, it disappears altogether.
A new global assessment I led for the March 2026 international meeting of parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals provides the clearest picture yet of this decline – and what’s needed to stop it.
My co-authors and I reviewed more than 15,000 species of freshwater fish, identified which of them migrate, and assessed their conservation status, or risk of extinction. We then focused on migratory species with declining populations and identified those where countries will have to work together to help them recover and thrive.
The giant barb (Catlocarpio siamensis) is Cambodia’s national fish. Its populations have fallen dramatically as they lose habitat and face overfishing. Zeb Hogan
The results are sobering.
We identified 325 migratory freshwater fish species as candidates for coordinated international conservation actions under the Convention on Migratory Species treaty. Many of the largest species, the giants that make the longest and most dramatic journeys, are in the most trouble. Among migratory fish already listed under the Convention on Migratory Species, 97% are at risk of extinction. In Asia, populations of migratory freshwater megafish have declined by over 95% since 1970.
The disappearing giants of the Mekong
For the past 25 years, I have studied the world’s largest freshwater fish as a biologist at the University of Nevada, Reno; host of Nat Geo Wild’s Monster Fish documentary series; and the Convention on Migratory Species councilor for freshwater fish.
One of these extraordinary animals, the Mekong giant catfish, grows to more than 650 pounds. It once migrated hundreds of miles along the Mekong River, supporting fisheries and cultural traditions across the region. Today it is critically endangered because dams are blocking its route to spawning grounds and overfishing at migration bottlenecks is killing the large adults that the population depends on.
This Mekong giant catfish was tagged and released as part of a long-term partnership between the Cambodian Fisheries Administration, scientists and local communities. Zeb Hogan
In Cambodia, small migratory fish known as trey riel are so significant that they gave their name to the national currency. In South Asia, one migratory shad, the hilsa, is so culturally important that it is sometimes given as a wedding gift, wrapped in ornate cloth and adorned with flowers.
Migrations of these fish, like migrations of buffalo on the American plains once did, shape ecosystems, livelihoods and culture. In the Mekong Basin alone, fisheries produce over 2 million metric tons of food each year, helping to feed tens of millions of people. When these fish disappear, people suffer.
Long migrations under threat
Declines are unfolding in other great river systems as well.
In the Amazon, some of the largest catfish on Earth migrate across much of the continent. The dorado, or gilded catfish, can reach six and a half feet (2 meters) in length and complete a migration of more than 6,000 miles (10,000 kilometers) between Andean headwaters and coastal nurseries, the longest freshwater fish migration ever recorded.
At Teotônio Rapids between Bolivia and Brazil, fishers once hung from wooden scaffolding above turbulent waters to spear dorado as they surged upstream – until the rapids were flooded by new dams. Altered river flows, barriers and overfishing are increasingly disrupting these journeys, and dorado populations in upstream Bolivia have plummeted.
The epic journey of the dorado catfish.
Across the Northern Hemisphere, migratory fish such as salmon, sturgeon and shad have suffered major losses because rivers have been dammed and polluted, while many populations were heavily overfished.
In the Columbia River basin, dam construction transformed an immense river system into a series of dams and reservoirs and blocked fish from large parts of their historical range.
In South Asia, fish such as mahseer, goonch catfish and hilsa are also declining under pressure from dams, overharvesting, sand mining, pollution and habitat loss, even as they remain central to fisheries and river cultures across the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Indus basins.
This is increasingly an international problem. More than 250 rivers and lakes worldwide cross national borders, and about 47% of Earth’s land surface lies within shared river basins. Yet freshwater fish are still too often managed at a local or national scale, as if rivers and fish movements stop at political boundaries.
That is why international agreements matter. The Convention on Migratory Species is the only global treaty specifically designed to encourage countries to work together to conserve migratory animals.
Wallago catfish are in decline in the Mekong River Basin, largely because of overfishing and habitat loss. Courtesy of Zeb Hogan
For freshwater fish, cooperation can begin with something as simple as countries sharing data and can extend to coordinated actions to reduce overharvesting, protect floodplains and spawning grounds, and keep rivers connected. The most fundamental solution is to manage rivers as connected ecological systems rather than as isolated national waterways.
Of the 325 species we identified as priorities, many could be considered for listing under the convention. Listing does not automatically save a fish, but it provides a mechanism to enable countries to coordinate monitoring, management and conservation across borders. That matters because freshwater fish remain underrepresented in international conservation policy, despite the scale of their decline.
We found that the river basins where international cooperation is now most urgently needed include the Amazon and La Plata-Paraná in South America, the Danube in Europe, the Mekong in Asia, the Nile in Africa and the Ganges-Brahmaputra in South Asia.
North America’s salmon are one example of fish whose migrations have been impeded by dams. Roger Tabor/USFWS
How to bring back migratory fish
Restoring migratory fish populations means keeping healthy rivers free-flowing, reconnecting rivers fragmented by dams and channelization, improving fisheries management, protecting floodplains and wetlands, and restoring habitats that have been drained, cleared or isolated by development.
There are examples of success. In Washington state, dam removals on the Elwha and White Salmon rivers reopened habitat that had been inaccessible for migrating fish for about a century, allowing Chinook, coho, steelhead and lamprey to return.
Restoring salmon on the Elwha River in Washington state.
The world’s great fish migrations have not disappeared everywhere, but they are fading. This new assessment offers a clearer picture of where international cooperation is most urgently needed. It is up to humanity to protect these extraordinary aquatic animals, which support millions of people enrich their lives, and make the world a more wondrous place.
Zeb Hogan receives funding from private foundations, nonprofit organizations, and state and federal government grants. He is employed by the University of Nevada, Reno and serves in a volunteer capacity as the COP-appointed Councilor for Freshwater Fish for the Convention on Migratory Species.
Imagine you’re a server at a busy restaurant that requires you to wear a form-fitting, polyester shirt as part of the uniform. When a hot flash hits, you are a sweaty mess. You really wish your employer would let you wear a cotton T-shirt instead.
If you live in Philadelphia, relief is on the way.
Beginning Jan. 1, 2027, the city of Philadelphia will prohibit discrimination on the basis of menstruation, perimenopause and menopause, and it will require employers to provide reasonable accommodations to employees for needs related to these conditions.
Recently, I’ve taken up strength training, protein shakes and needlepoint. I’m clearly leaning into my identity as a woman over 50.
I believe the Philadelphia ordinance is a model for other cities and states to provide relief for workers suffering from symptoms of hormonal cycles and changes while balancing the needs of employers.
Women’s health advocates have brought attention to the lack of training for medical professionals on the issues girls and women face resulting from menstruation, perimenopause and menopause.
In 2022, for example, a national survey of 145 OB-GYN residency program directors found that fewer than one-third of programs included curriculum on menopause. This is despite the fact that every single woman, if she lives long enough, will go through it.
To address this gap, in July 2025 Rhode Island became the first state to prohibit discrimination on the basis of menopause. Rhode Island also requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to employees experiencing menopause-related symptoms.
The Philadelphia City Council said: “Hold my weighted vest.”
In addition, the City Council amended Section 9-1128, which requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations for needs related to pregnancy, childbirth or a related medical condition. That list now also includes “symptoms of menstruation, perimenopause or menopause” – provided the employee requests the accommodation and it does not cause an undue hardship for the employer.
Experts in medicine and public health and described the physical and emotional symptoms women and girls may face during these life stages. These symptoms include abdominal or pelvic cramping, fatigue, mood changes, headaches, irregular menstrual cycles, hot flashes, sleep disturbances and cognitive changes.
One expert noted that 23% of women who are experiencing perimenopause have symptoms severe enough to “.”
Employers will not have to accommodate every symptom, only those that “substantially interfere with an employee’s ability to perform one or more job functions.” Although the new ordinance does not define “susbtantially interfere,” the intent is to require accommodations when a worker cannot perform some part of her job – for instance, if period pain is so high that a retail worker cannot stand for their shift, or if hot flashes prevent a food service worker from staying in the kitchen.
Clear and explicit protections
In light of existing antidiscrimination laws, why is such a targeted law necessary?
Federal, state and local laws also prohibit employers from discriminating against people with disabilities and require reasonable accommodations to allow them to perform the essential functions of the job.
Further, people seeking protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act for menstruation complications such as endometriosis, which occurs when tissue grows outside of the uterus and often causes severe pain during menstrual cycles, face an uphill battle. Instead of requiring employees who experience these sorts of symptoms to fit their cases into other statutes, Philadelphia’s new ordinance makes protection clear and explicit.
Reasonable accommodations
During a hearing on the proposed legislation, council member Nina Ahmad, who introduced the bill, noted that the accommodations envisioned are not costly. She and other council members gave : access to bathrooms and drinking water, brief flexible breaks, breathable uniforms, temperature control to manage hot flashes, fans or ventilation, ability to layer clothing, stocked period products and brief scheduling flexibility.
The type of accommodations necessary will change depending on the employee’s industry. Many women who experience symptoms already can decide what they wear to work, when they take a bathroom break and maybe even whether to work remotely. However, for workers in retail and service, or other workplaces with strict break policies, the ability to request a bathroom break or to drink water during a shift could significantly ease symptoms.
Just as the accommodations required will differ by job and industry, the employer’s ability to demonstrate undue hardship will also differ. Under the Philadelphia Code, undue hardship is an individualized assessment that considers such factors as the cost of the accommodations, the size of the workforce and the employer’s financial resources.
The devil is in the details, of course, but come January 2027, relief should be on the way for workers who are just trying to do their jobs while suffering from symptoms caused by menstruation, perimenopause and menopause.
Ann Juliano does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Urologists market vasectomies to their clients during March Madness, when they can watch the basketball tournament while recovering from the procedure.Lew Robertson/Stone via Getty Images
Bracket-busting upsets, Cinderella stories, OT buzzer beaters – March Madness is here! Or, as some urologists think of it, vasectomy promotion season.
This spike in vasectomies illustrates how communication about this procedure – and its perceived relation to manhood – can make a substantive shift in public acceptance of contraceptive sterilization for men.
I am a scholar of rhetoric and gender studies, and I have been studying the language around vasectomies for years. In my forthcoming book, “Stop Saying Snip! The Rhetoric of Vasectomy,” which will be published in April 2026, I show that communication plays a significant role in prompting people to welcome, seek or avoid vasectomies. In fact, I’ve found that language about fertility and communication about contraception greatly influence all decision-making around preventing pregnancy, particularly who should bear the burden of it.
Local news coverage of Vas Madness illustrates how people think about the procedure.
Gendered communication about contraception
For my book, I interviewed 17 people who rely on vasectomies to prevent pregnancies, and I asked them how they learned what a vasectomy was. Few knew for certain, and most did not remember at all.
Rather, the rhetoric around preventing pregnancy places the onus of contraception on women. Throughout their lives, women receive messages from partners, parents, friends and medical providers that prompt them to think about their fertility and to take on the responsibility to manage that fertility. These messages subtly communicate that this is the most natural or normal way to prevent pregnancies.
In contrast, men do not often get this message that they should think about their fertility and take on the responsibility to manage that fertility. For example, men are rarely prompted to explain what they are doing to prevent pregnancies. One military father of two whom I interviewed for my book said that his primary care physician never discussed birth control with him at checkups. Yet each time his wife had a baby, her doctors would inquire whether she wanted to undergo tubal ligation, the sterilization procedure in which the fallopian tubes are cut.
In fact, female sterilization is the leading method of contraception used in the U.S., even though it is riskier and less cost-efficient than vasectomy.
The very language that English speakers use to refer to men’s fertility can conflate reproductive capacity with a positive vision of being a man. This makes acceptance of vasectomy quite tricky.
In medical articles, men’s reproductive capacity is discussed as “fertility.” But more colloquially, English speakers often use very different terms, such as “potency” and “virility.”
Potency comes from the Latin word potentia, meaning “power.” In English, potency refers to “power,” the “ability to affect something,” “authority” and “influence.” It also refers to the “ability to achieve erection or ejaculation in sexual intercourse,” to which the Oxford English Dictionary adds, “Also: fertility (of a male or female).” I have yet to encounter literature or messaging involving a potent woman — other than, perhaps, to refer to her scent.
Men who can reproduce may also be referred to as “virile,” from the Latin vir, meaning “man”. This inscribes a sense of “manhood” into language about men’s fertility: The Oxford English Dictionary defines virility as “mature or fully developed manhood or masculine force,” and “the power of procreation; capacity for sexual intercourse.”
The multiple meanings of these words help to explain the misconception that vasectomy, in curtailing fertility, threatens a man’s ability to influence others, access power and perform sexually. In this way, rhetoric around men’s fertility can interfere with broad acceptance of vasectomy.
After all, undergoing a vasectomy does require a willingness to be vulnerable. It involves talking to a medical expert about your sexual and reproductive desires, allowing medical staff to see and touch your otherwise private parts, and following another’s orders for what to do. This includes returning to the doctor’s office with semen to be analyzed in order to determine if the procedure was a success – a step many men skip.
Taken altogether, undergoing a vasectomy means behaving in a way that may feel in direct opposition to dominant cultural understandings of being “a man” – someone potent, virile and always in control.
In conducting my research, I found that women’s efforts to give their partners information about vasectomies and to share the burdens they bear in managing fertility are an important driving force in many men’s decisions to have the procedure.
One 35-year-old man I spoke with had been relying on his partner to use birth control methods to prevent pregnancy, including an IUD placement that went wrong and then a contraceptive implant. After research and discussion, they decided on a vasectomy to prevent pregnancies moving forward. The man told me that his partner is “very informed about medical things.” He continued: “Any sort of trepidation I had about it, it was very easy to talk to her about it and be like, ‘OK, this really isn’t that big of a deal at all.’”
But communication from more sources, beyond seasonal urologist campaigns and the individual efforts of romantic partners, could help inspire more people to see vasectomies as a normal, needed and helpful procedure to prevent pregnancy.
In the meantime, reproductive labor continues to be, overwhelmingly, women’s work.
Jenna Vinson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Jessica Vantine Birkenholtz, Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Asian Studies, Penn State
Nepalese women participate in the ‘Swasthani Vrata Katha’ ritual.Jessica Vantine Birkenholtz, CC BY-SA
I first heard the popular “Swasthani Vrata Katha” – a devotional text – recited in Sankhu, a village on the outskirts of Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley, some 25 years ago.
The text tells the story, or “katha,” of the ritual vow, or “vrata,” that women devotees perform to earn the favor of Swasthani, a local Nepali Hindu goddess.
Every day during the cold lunar month of January-February, 100 to 200 Hindu women, dressed all in red, carry out a ritual that requires them to bathe in the local river, eat only one meal per day, remain singularly focused and worship the Hindu god Shiva at midday. In the evening, they recite the devotional text or listen to it being recited.
Women taking a ritual bath. Jessica Vantine Birkenholtz, CC BY-SA
This practice dates to the 16th century and continues today. Nepali families gather daily at their home or at a relative’s home to recite one of the 31 chapters of the text. The recitation is done even if no one in the family is participating in the ritual vow. Most devotees observe only a two-day ritual vow at the end of the month’s recitation, but some women perform the ritual vow for the whole month.
At the end of the month, devotees prepare a series of offerings to Swasthani for the concluding ritual. These include ritually specific cooked foods, fruit and flowers. After the ritual offerings are blessed by Swasthani, devotees give a portion to their husband. If there is no husband, then to their son. If there is no son, then to the son of a friend.
I have joined many families in their homes during my archival and ethnographic work over the past two decades. Like many Nepalis, I listened patiently to the Swasthani’s stories while waiting eagerly for the sweet treats that were given at the end of the nightly recitation.
As a scholar of gender and Hinduism in Nepal, I am aware of two readings of the text in Nepal: Some see it reinforcing patriarchal expectations, while many women find strength through the enduring hardships and perseverance of its female characters.
Stories in the text
The Swasthani text has a prominent place in Nepali culture. It is the only locally written work of Hindu literature that is actively read by lay Nepali Hindus. It is their primary source for key Hindu myths.
The first two-thirds of the text explain the creation of the universe and recount the most widely known myths associated with the supreme god Shiva. These are stories familiar to most Hindus.
For Nepalis, it is the last third of the text that is especially meaningful. Here, the focus shifts to the local and relatable stories of three mortals – Goma, Navaraj and Chandravati – and their devotion to the local Nepali Hindu goddess Swasthani.
Goma is married as a 7-year-old to a decrepit 70-year-old man. She dutifully endures marriage, motherhood and, too soon thereafter, widowhood. Her son, Navaraj, is obedient and dutiful. In contrast, his wife, Chandravati, is selfish as a daughter-in-law and disrespects Swasthani, leading to enormous misery for her.
Ultimately, all three experience social and economic transformation through devotion to Swasthani, which culminates in the crowning of Navaraj as a king and Chandravati and Goma becoming queen and queen mother, respectively.
Faithful wives – human and divine
Through its female characters, mortal and divine alike, the text highlights a woman’s principal role and identity as a faithful wife.
In addition to the pious, persevering Goma and flawed Chandravati in the mortal realm, in the divine realm there are the goddesses Sati and her reincarnation as Parvati. Both are known mainly for being devoted wives of Shiva. There are also wives of other lesser gods, semidivine beings and demons. They share in common unwavering devotion to their husbands but also regular subjection to the whims of their husbands or the gods.
Most notable of these other wives is Vrinda, the chaste wife of the demon Jalandhar. It is Vrinda’s chastity that protects her husband and prevents him from being killed by the gods for his brazen effort to seduce Shiva’s wife, Parvati.
To make Jalandhar vulnerable, the god Vishnu assumes Jalandhar’s form and debauches Vrinda. Her husband is immediately killed, and Vrinda is widowed through no fault of her own. She consequently commits sati, or self-immolation, on her husband’s funeral pyre – but curses Vishnu before doing so.
Patriarchy in Nepal
I have observed that in Nepal’s patriarchal culture, many women find strength in Goma’s plight and endurance. But that many Nepali feminists and youths question the treatment of women throughout the text.
Most Nepali women cannot inherit property and do not have equal citizenship rights. Child marriage remains a pervasive practice across Nepal and often results in girls dropping out of school to take on household responsibilities. According to the United Nations, one in three girls are married off before turning 18. Despite updates in Nepal’s 2015 constitution designed to remove gender discrimination, there remains a significant gap between the law and everyday lived experiences.
Marriage in Nepal is widely seen as “a woman’s destiny” and often gives the husband and his family “full authority to rule over a woman,” explains Luna KC, a scholar of global and international studies and gender studies. It is customary practice in Nepal and across South Asia for married couples to reside with the husband’s parents. As anthropologist Lynn Bennett and other researchers have demonstrated, this can be traumatic for the bride, who must leave her family and support system.
These dynamics play out in the Swasthani text and in current debates about its role in contemporary Nepali society.
Critics argue that the stories instill and normalize antiquated ideas and practices that reinforce gender inequality and impede women’s full participation in society and access to equal rights. “Our child marriage is based on this type of story,” according to a gender and human rights advocate I interviewed.
Rameshwori Pant, an independent researcher and journalist, echoes this when she describes how Goma’s story “haunted” her as a child because Pant’s own mother had also been married at age 7.
Finding hope in the text
A handwritten Swasthani Vrata Katha manuscript that dates to 1922 and is discolored from being worshipped with red vermillion by devotees. Jessica Vantine Birkenholtz, CC BY-SA
Families often have centuries-old handwritten Swasthani manuscripts that are now family heirlooms. Increasingly, many also have a newly store-bought version. With their distinctive red wraparound cover, stacks of the printed Swasthani text stand out at local bookshops leading up to the annual recitation.
For many Nepali women, the Swasthani stories they learned as young girls linger and endure into their adulthood in complicated ways. As an adult, Pant was moved to write about the sociological, economic and gender aspects of the Swasthani practice. She asks, “Why is there violence against women and gender discrimination in a story written to celebrate women?”
Through my formal interviews and informal conversations over the years with Nepali women and devotees, it is also clear that many women find fortitude in the text’s description of familiar trials the women and goddesses face.
From this perspective, the Swasthani stories teach women that through perseverance, their hardships turn into triumphs and women’s suffering turns into strength. Goma is regularly invoked in popular discourse for her determination as a dutiful child bride, wife and mother who persists in the face of repeated adversity and ongoing lack of resources. These are the daily realities for many Nepali women living in a patriarchal society.
So while the text may not advocate for women’s social, economic or legal autonomy, it still offers encouragement: For some women, it provides a road map for working through life’s difficulties. This, too, can be empowering.
As a Nepali female lawyer explained to me: “The stories of the Swasthani have different life lessons to follow and apply. Just as the Buddha suffered and in the end found enlightenment, so, too, the Swasthani characters suffered but in the end found happiness.”
Staying power in modern times
Swasthani books for sale. Jessica Vantine Birkenholtz, CC BY-SA
I see and value both sides of the debates. They reflect the varied experiences, perspectives and concerns among Nepal’s diverse population. They also reflect the challenges of translating ancient and medieval beliefs and practices in the modern period.
What is striking is the text’s staying power. Its stories are centuries old – yet they are recited by many Nepalis every winter, even as the daily recitation now competes with many modern distractions, such as smartphones and social media.
The text remains an important piece of local Nepali heritage and culture. It offers a window into Nepal’s past, while also prompting reflections on Nepali values for the future.
Jessica Vantine Birkenholtz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Cesar Chavez became a national hero for his advocacy of farmworkers’ rights. Here he gives a talk at Boston University in April 1979.Ted Dully/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
Multiple women told The New York Times that Mexican American civil rights hero Cesar Chavez assaulted them decades ago, including when some were just girls, one as young as 13. Over their multiyear investigation, published on March 18, 2026, journalists at the paper found “extensive evidence” of that abuse by poring over historical records and conducting interviews with more than 60 people.
While yearslong investigations into abuse allegations are rare, silence about abuse is common.
As a clinical psychologist who studies interpersonal trauma, I’ve seen how the dynamics of abuse can lead to silence, even over decades.
This research can help answer the question many asked when they heard about the charges against Chavez: Why didn’t the women speak earlier?
Power and trust betrayed
Among the women who disclosed abuse by Chavez, Dolores Huerta described seeing him “as my boss, as my hero, as, you know, somebody that would do the impossible.” Debra Rojas said, “I had love for him … He did his grooming very well.”
When perpetrators abuse those who trust and depend on them, the betrayal adds to the harm of trauma. Betrayal trauma theory helps explain why.
United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta looks at a mural of the late Cesar Chavez on the San Jose State University campus in San Jose, Calif., on Sept. 4, 2008. AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File
Victims who depend on the people abusing them face extraordinary pressure to minimize what is happening. Disclosure can mean losing relationships or resources that are necessary for survival. Children abused by caregivers or community leaders risk relationships that they need to get their basic needs met. Adults who disclose abuse or harassment by employers risk losing their jobs and economic security.
Adding to the harm of abuse, perpetrators commonly twist reality to keep victims silent. They might directly instruct victims not to tell others what happened. They might also tell victims that they are actually the ones to blame for causing the abuse or that no one will believe them.
Victims must adapt to this untenable situation in which they depend on the very people causing harm.
For some people, betrayal results in dissociation symptoms and memory impairment for what happened. Dissociation is a common response to traumatic stress that can include amnesia, feelings that things are unreal or feeling disconnected from what is happening. Dissociation and memory impairment can help victims maintain necessary attachments in the short run.
Shame and self-blame can make it harder to disclose what happened. Not surprising, then, victims of high-betrayal traumas are less likely to disclose what happened relative to other kinds of traumas.
When betrayal-trauma survivors do speak up, delayed disclosures can be met with blame or disbelief, even from health providers. Survivors with more severe psychological symptoms are also met with more negative reactions to their disclosures.
Betrayal also makes escaping abusive relationships, including physically violent ones, difficult. Greater dependence on the perpetrator has been linked with a greater likelihood of staying with an abusive partner a year after a police report of domestic violence.
Cultural and institutional betrayal add to harm
Women told The New York Times that they stayed silent about their abuse, which for some began when they were girls, in part “for fear of tarnishing the image of a man who has become the face of the Latino civil rights movement.”
When people in marginalized groups are abused by someone from the same group, that constitutes an additional wound. Dr. Jennifer Gómez described this as “cultural betrayal trauma.”
With cultural betrayal trauma comes even greater pressure to stay silent as well as greaterharm from the abuse.
When institutions such as churches, schools or unions fail to stop abuse or respond appropriately, that institutional betrayal can also add to the harm caused by the original abuse. In turn, institutional betrayal predicts greater dissociation and health problems, adding to the burden of abuse.
Anticipating disbelief and blame
Ana Murguia told The New York Times that she believed she would be blamed for the abuse.
Huerta, who was one of three co-founders, along with Chavez, of what ultimately became the United Farm Workers union, told the newspaper that she “feared that no one within the union would believe her.”
Anticipating disbelief and blame affects decisions to disclose. When researchers asked college women who were sexually victimized at some point in their lives why they kept what happened to themselves, they heard four common reasons. Women kept assaults private because they felt shame, guilt or embarrassment, minimized what happened, feared consequences of disclosing or wanted privacy.
Fears about negative reactions are unfortunately well founded. Research shows that when victims do disclose, victim blaming and other negative reactions are common. In turn, those negative social reactions add to psychological distress and the harm of abuse.
Connection and courage: Antidotes to betrayal
In the wake of the harm that betrayal trauma causes, healing is possible through connection and care.
Research shows that people can learn to respond in better ways to disclosures of abuse, such as connecting people to resources and expressing empathy. In addition, institutions that act with courage in the wake of abuse, such as by making it easy to report or taking actions to prevent future abuse, can help reduce harm to survivors.
Screenshot of an Instagram post by the Dolores Huerta Foundation in the wake of her revelations of abuse by Cesar Chavez. Dolores Huerta Foundation Instagram
When survivors disclose, avoiding blame, disbelief and other negative reactions can minimize additional harm. Taking steps to offer emotional support and resources can even help open doors.
That’s what my research team found when we asked sexual assault survivors about the reactions they received from service providers, such as counselors or victim advocates. When survivors received more tangible support, they were more likely to later disclose what happened in a formal report to the police.
Anne P. DePrince has received funding from the Department of Justice, National Institutes of Health, State of Colorado, and University of Denver. She has received honoraria for giving presentations and has been paid as a consultant. She has a book with Oxford University Press. She is an Advisory Group Member of the National Crime Victim Law Institute and a Senior Advisor to the Center for Institutional Courage.
Cesar Chavez became a national hero for his advocacy of farmworkers’ rights. Here he gives a talk at Boston University in April 1979.Ted Dully/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
Multiple women told The New York Times that Mexican American civil rights hero Cesar Chavez assaulted them decades ago, including when some were just girls, one as young as 13. Over their multiyear investigation, published on March 18, 2026, journalists at the paper found “extensive evidence” of that abuse by poring over historical records and conducting interviews with more than 60 people.
While yearslong investigations into abuse allegations are rare, silence about abuse is common.
As a clinical psychologist who studies interpersonal trauma, I’ve seen how the dynamics of abuse can lead to silence, even over decades.
This research can help answer the question many asked when they heard about the charges against Chavez: Why didn’t the women speak earlier?
Power and trust betrayed
Among the women who disclosed abuse by Chavez, Dolores Huerta described seeing him “as my boss, as my hero, as, you know, somebody that would do the impossible.” Debra Rojas said, “I had love for him … He did his grooming very well.”
When perpetrators abuse those who trust and depend on them, the betrayal adds to the harm of trauma. Betrayal trauma theory helps explain why.
United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta looks at a mural of the late Cesar Chavez on the San Jose State University campus in San Jose, Calif., on Sept. 4, 2008. AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File
Victims who depend on the people abusing them face extraordinary pressure to minimize what is happening. Disclosure can mean losing relationships or resources that are necessary for survival. Children abused by caregivers or community leaders risk relationships that they need to get their basic needs met. Adults who disclose abuse or harassment by employers risk losing their jobs and economic security.
Adding to the harm of abuse, perpetrators commonly twist reality to keep victims silent. They might directly instruct victims not to tell others what happened. They might also tell victims that they are actually the ones to blame for causing the abuse or that no one will believe them.
Victims must adapt to this untenable situation in which they depend on the very people causing harm.
For some people, betrayal results in dissociation symptoms and memory impairment for what happened. Dissociation is a common response to traumatic stress that can include amnesia, feelings that things are unreal or feeling disconnected from what is happening. Dissociation and memory impairment can help victims maintain necessary attachments in the short run.
Shame and self-blame can make it harder to disclose what happened. Not surprising, then, victims of high-betrayal traumas are less likely to disclose what happened relative to other kinds of traumas.
When betrayal-trauma survivors do speak up, delayed disclosures can be met with blame or disbelief, even from health providers. Survivors with more severe psychological symptoms are also met with more negative reactions to their disclosures.
Betrayal also makes escaping abusive relationships, including physically violent ones, difficult. Greater dependence on the perpetrator has been linked with a greater likelihood of staying with an abusive partner a year after a police report of domestic violence.
Cultural and institutional betrayal add to harm
Women told The New York Times that they stayed silent about their abuse, which for some began when they were girls, in part “for fear of tarnishing the image of a man who has become the face of the Latino civil rights movement.”
When people in marginalized groups are abused by someone from the same group, that constitutes an additional wound. Dr. Jennifer Gómez described this as “cultural betrayal trauma.”
With cultural betrayal trauma comes even greater pressure to stay silent as well as greaterharm from the abuse.
When institutions such as churches, schools or unions fail to stop abuse or respond appropriately, that institutional betrayal can also add to the harm caused by the original abuse. In turn, institutional betrayal predicts greater dissociation and health problems, adding to the burden of abuse.
Anticipating disbelief and blame
Ana Murguia told The New York Times that she believed she would be blamed for the abuse.
Huerta, who was one of three co-founders, along with Chavez, of what ultimately became the United Farm Workers union, told the newspaper that she “feared that no one within the union would believe her.”
Anticipating disbelief and blame affects decisions to disclose. When researchers asked college women who were sexually victimized at some point in their lives why they kept what happened to themselves, they heard four common reasons. Women kept assaults private because they felt shame, guilt or embarrassment, minimized what happened, feared consequences of disclosing or wanted privacy.
Fears about negative reactions are unfortunately well founded. Research shows that when victims do disclose, victim blaming and other negative reactions are common. In turn, those negative social reactions add to psychological distress and the harm of abuse.
Connection and courage: Antidotes to betrayal
In the wake of the harm that betrayal trauma causes, healing is possible through connection and care.
Research shows that people can learn to respond in better ways to disclosures of abuse, such as connecting people to resources and expressing empathy. In addition, institutions that act with courage in the wake of abuse, such as by making it easy to report or taking actions to prevent future abuse, can help reduce harm to survivors.
Screenshot of an Instagram post by the Dolores Huerta Foundation in the wake of her revelations of abuse by Cesar Chavez. Dolores Huerta Foundation Instagram
When survivors disclose, avoiding blame, disbelief and other negative reactions can minimize additional harm. Taking steps to offer emotional support and resources can even help open doors.
That’s what my research team found when we asked sexual assault survivors about the reactions they received from service providers, such as counselors or victim advocates. When survivors received more tangible support, they were more likely to later disclose what happened in a formal report to the police.
Anne P. DePrince has received funding from the Department of Justice, National Institutes of Health, State of Colorado, and University of Denver. She has received honoraria for giving presentations and has been paid as a consultant. She has a book with Oxford University Press. She is an Advisory Group Member of the National Crime Victim Law Institute and a Senior Advisor to the Center for Institutional Courage.
