 "Photo: Rami Rotlewicz")
“Women aren’t part of the problem. They are part of the solution,” Sheryl WuDunn, a Pulitzer-winning journalist and author, said to her audience at the Fairwinds Alumni Center Tuesday.
In their book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, WuDunn and her husband, Nicholas Kristof, wrote about the abuse and exploitation women face today.
She said that the central moral challenge in the 19th century was slavery and in the 20th century it was totalitarianism, but now it is oppression of women and girls throughout the world.
One issue that women and girls face is not having an education. It’s not about the IQ points, WuDunn said. A lot of girls do not get an education because they aren’t considered worthy of going to school.
For example, a 13-year-old girl in China could not afford to attend school because her family did not think it was worth it since she was going to spend the rest of her life in the rice paddies or doing chores at home, WuDunn said.
However, after receiving monetary help, the girl attended and finished school. She worked and sent the money back to her family, who now could afford electricity and running water.
Another issue is modern slavery. Human trafficking is now 10 times greater compared to the peak of the slave trade in the 1770s and 1780s, WuDunn said.
While on a trip to Cambodia to do a report on brothels, Kristof purchased two imprisoned teenagers and took them back to their villages and helped them start small businesses, according to an article he wrote.
“Perhaps there is progress being made in Cambodia,” WuDunn said. “We are happy to see some progress being made, but there has to be a lot more.”
Allen Wilson, Siemens’ project manager, said when he goes to countries such as China and South America, he asks about the value of women in their society.
“Almost universally, they say, ‘We are the leader of women’s rights and equality,’” Wilson said. “I think that’s an interesting response because, generally speaking, I don’t find it to be true.”
Another issue women face is maternal mortality. There are three things -- being poor, being rural and being female -- working against women, giving them no attention, WuDunn said.
“Right now, there are women dying in childbirth every minute around the world,” WuDunn said. “It’s a solvable problem. We know what to do to prevent death in childbirth, but there is no political will.”
There are those who die from childbirth, but those who do not may suffer from injuries such as a fistula. A fistula occurs when it becomes difficult for a teenage girl to deliver her baby because it is too big for her pelvis. She wouldn’t be able to control her urine and feces because of a hole between her bladder, vagina and sometimes rectum, according to an article by Kristof.
WuDunn shared a story about Mahabouba Mohammed, a teenage girl in Ethiopia, who suffered from a fistula. Mohammed became pregnant after being raped by her master at 12 years old, according to Kristof’s article.
She was then sent out to deliver the baby on her own. The baby died and she was left with a fistula. She became an outcast of the village she was from and was confined in a hut away from the village. The hut’s door was removed so the smell would attract hyenas to come and attack her. Mohammed fought off the hyenas and dragged herself to the next village where she knew there was a missionary. Eventually Mohammed became a nurse at the hospital she was taken to, helping many women suffering from fistulas.
WuDunn said that lending tiny amounts of money helps women through oppression.
Saima Muhammad, who is from Pakistan, was in debt and had an unemployed husband who, out of frustration, would beat her. Besides the beating, her mother-in-law wanted the husband to marry a second wife because Muhammad bore two daughters and no sons.
Saima sought help through a microfinance institution called Kashf, which lent her $65. With that money, Muhammad opened an embroidery business, which eventually made her into a local tycoon. She hired many families to help her out when her business became a success and even employed her husband. There was no more talk of getting a second wife, and Saima is no longer beaten, WuDunn said.
Jahfre Colbert, a freshman fine art major, said he would consider giving a micro loan now that he has more faith in them. He has always been skeptical of them because of where the money actually ends up, he said.
Educating girls is another solution, which has the added advantage of lower birth rates, and the money is spent better, WuDunn said.
“When you educate a girl, later on in life, she has fewer kids and, when she does have them, she educates them both better and smarter,” she said.
2 comments