Women and the Sky ( part two)

A review of the book ” Half The Sky. Turning oppression Into Opportunity For Women Worldwide”.  Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. (2009) USA.

“Leave your heart behind”, I told myself as I was reading chapter six. A particular section I was struggling with was the story you may have read in my earlier blog, the Prologue about Mahabouba.

If anyone dares venture into this book they need two things: first, the ability to desensitize themselves from true horror (that is fact and not fiction), and secondly, a strong and compelling interest in the human rights and dignity of woman, with a desire for change and justice. I met the second criterion easily. The first had to be soon learned, otherwise I would have never got to the end. 

Half the Sky gives you little time for polite introductions. You are transported right at the very start, into the author’s world of grimness. A compelling force of authority on their subjects which hooked me in right from the outset.

The first five chapters are fast and as dark as any Black Hole in space. The vastness of suffering and human rights abuses, involving young girls and women, which is the main focus of the book, has detailed first hand accounts and knowledge which is well argued and presented. In fact, this is what impressed me most about this work. The incredible depth, research and detail with compelling authority  these authors clearly had in their subject areas.

This is no light weight book which can require lazy reading. I think we have well established that fact already. The book, whilst easy to read in its language use, took much of your concentration and thinking. Not only because you became so absorbed in the people stories and lives but you needed to keep up with all the detail of names and events. I sometimes had to re-read certain sections.

In spite of this, the first 100 pages of the 252 was finished by the first evening of introduction. This is a ” can’t put it down book” in all of its awesome content. Those first 100 pages discussed and informed you about the types of violence against women, including sexual violence. Sexual trafficking, prostitution, rape, honour killings and maternal health was a heady and unbelievable cocktail of jaw dropping stuff. I gasped and held my hands to my forehead several times as I tried to comprehend just what I was absorbing from the words on the page.

Other subjects discussed later concentrated on what could be done to help the empowerment and emancipation of these girls and women against the violence committed mainly by men, in a world where a female has no voice and  treated as if they are little more than cattle in a market stall.

Family planning, shamefully lacking and one of the most urgent health needs of women worldwide is addressed. Education- the key to a females future and her best weapon against violence, disease and poverty is discussed in length. Micro-financing, so women could lift themselves out of poverty was another tool, and the each story told was exhilarating and uplifting, in what most readers would view, as an extremely compelling but depressing read.

Female Genital Mutilation, initially is touched upon and I thought it was going no further, to my disappointment. However, in Chapter 13 ” Grassroots and Treetops” it re-emerged with, for me, fresh and enlightening material. An in-depth analysis about how hard this extreme form of violence is to eradicate is explained in a way which totally turned upside down my perception of the subject: how off course I was. How little I really knew of a subject that I thought I had a firm grasp on. For me it was like tearing up the rule book, the thoughts, the arguments and starting all over again. (It would take another blog to explain this more fully).

I wanted to cry at the success stories, like Edna’s hospital, to admire Jane and her 34 million friends and to despair at how the rescued girl from the brothel  saved but then voluntarily returned. Why? Not because she did not want a better life, but unbeknown  to me, before I read the book ,was her addiction to drugs; given initially to break her will and to make her incapable of fighting off  rape and prostitution, which lead her back to her prison of violation.

Anyone reading this book is unlikely not to want to do something at the end. There are four main suggestions about what the reader can do and a whole host of website addresses where you can get more information. Using Kiva to help micro-financing new businesses and sponsoring a child are two important ones suggested.

“Half The Sky” (for me personally) is the best written work on human rights centered around women that I have ever read. No work has ever whipped up my sense of urgency and longing to do something with meaning and purpose in this area. In my next blog- part three, I will be writing about what I intend to do as a result of reading this book. I have enormous respect for the authors, who clearly had put their own safety at risk to visit, speak to women and girls, and to come back and a write a book that so deserved the Pulitzer Prize it received.

Finally, I urge, implore anyone out there who cares enough about the dignity and rights of women to go out with care and  a dare to read this book. You need a strong heart and a hard stomach for the job but this is a one such work that demands a read.