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The women on both sides of book bans
On the side opposing the bans is Shiwali Patel, the director of safety in schools for the National Women’s Law Center, who tells Women Rule that removing books from school libraries can stifle stories by sexual assault survivors.
“We’re seeing bans on content about sexual violence often being folded into … state laws or policies that allow books to be pulled from shelves from schools that they’re considered to be ‘sexually explicit’ or ‘pornographic,’” Shiwali says.