Monday, October 31, 2011

Powerful women

In Chinese there is a cool expression: 半边天, or banbiantian. This litterally means "half the sky", but it apparantly refers to a vision Mao Zedong had, that in the ideal society women should hold up half the sky. So 半边天 today refers to succesful women, often those who have important positions in the government or in companies. When I was 16 I got this book:


It has a female super hero on the cover, and the title "Half the sky is ours". It was a book that talked about gender issues, and why it is important to be aware of them. I have always liked this title. In Norway women have all the same legal rights as men, but as this title suggests, there is more to equality than what can be written in law books.

We might be one of the best countries in the world for women to live in, but even here women's income is only 85 % of men's income, and only 1 out of 5 executive managers are women. 2 out of 3 women are employed, but 40 % of these only work part time (the equivalent number for men being 14 %). 50 % of all 15 year old girls think that they weigh too much, when in fact only 16 % are overweight. 120 000 Norwegians have an eating disorder, and 90 % of these are women. (Sources: 1 2 3)

Right now in the Norwegian media, there is a lot of talk regarding assault rape cases in Oslo (this being in parks, alleys etc. by unknown perpetrators). 48 cases has been reported so far this year, this is a doubling of the total number in 2010, and only 7 cases have been solved. Women in Oslo are scared by this fact, and the political opposition accuses the government for not doing enough to fight the problem.

I think the author Emilie Buchwald has said something wise about this phenomenon: "A rape culture is a culture of intimidation. It keeps women afraid of being attacked and so it keeps women confined in the range of their behavior. That fear makes a woman censor her behavior - her speech, her way of dressing, her actions. It undermines her confidence in her ability to be independent. The necessity to be mindful of one's behavior at all times is far more than annoying. Women's lives are unnecessarily constricted. As a society, this one issue hampers the best efforts of half our population. It costs us heavily in lost initiative and in emotional energy stolen from other, more creative thoughts."

In Scandinavia, the problem of assault rape is worst in Norway at the moment. But of course, it is a much bigger problem in many other places in the world. In Cambodia, friends of mine warned me that I as a woman should not walk alone on the street after dark, or even live by myself (women rarely do). The risk of rape was high, they meant, and the newspaper had stories every day about both grown women and small girls being victims of this. I was told there is a superstition that if a man has sex with a virgin, he will get more "male energy" from it, become more of a man. Because of this, very young girls are often targeted. A case that was especially horrifying last year involved a 6 month old baby girl and 4 grown men, she barely survived the internal injuries. This is hard to learn about, but it's all the more important that focus is brought to the problem.
 
Refering to the Chinese expression, there is a movement called Half The Sky, started by the Americans Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. They are journalists and have won a pulitzer price for their coverage of China, WuDunn being the first Asian-American ever to win it. (She also has this very cool TED talk called "Our century's greatest injustice".) They have written the book "Half the sky - How to change the world" (2010), this was recently translated into Norwegian. I came across a review of it in the newspaper Dagsavisen, I was glad the book was given attention also here.




One of the book's many strong stories: 18 year old Bibi Aisha from Afghanistan was abused by the Taliban. Photo from Dagsavisen.

In the book we can read about several people, one of them being the Cambodian girl Srey Rath. When she was 15 she wanted to work in Thailand for two months washing dishes, so she could help her mother financially. The man who had promised her the job then sold her to a brothel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where she was transported against her will. When she arrived she first resisted the oppressors, but was then beaten and raped until she obeyed them. She worked as a prostitute for 15 hours per day without getting paid anything, until she and three other girls managed to escape. They went to the police station, but there a police officer arrested them and sold Srey Rath to another brothel in Thailand. She was finally able to escape from here too, and returned to Cambodia and her family. She was helped by an American NGO who worked with victims of trafficking, and she can now make a living by selling things off a cart by the Thai border. As many as 100 000 girls and women are kidnapped and sold to brothels each year, and most aren't as lucky as Srey Rath was.

American author Anne Rice has bragged about the book: "It’s impossible to exaggerate the importance of this book about one of the most serious problems of our time: the worldwide abuse and exploitation of women. In addition to describing the injustices, Kristof and WuDunn show how concerned individuals everywhere are working effectively to empower women and help them overcome adversity. Wonderfully written and vividly descriptive, Half the Sky can and should galvanize support for reform on all levels. Inspiring as it is shocking, this book demands to be read."

In 2009 Kristof and WuDunn also wrote "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide", which also became a best seller. Inspiring!

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