Half the Sky

Happy 1am blogging (I may or may not have totally and completely forgotten about doing this blog post until I was about to get in the shower).

My group chose Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn as our BLA assignment. Because we have awesome planning skills and because the world happened to love us on the day that we chose this book, there is a PBS documentary - with two parts - that is the legitimate Half the Sky documentary. Winning...thank you world.

This book was an interesting experience for us all. Every time we had a BLA meeting, we would arrive more intrigued, more horrified, more inspired, and more aware of the world. Has that every happened with a school reading before? Hahaha...no. We became aware of problems that we didn't even know existed - genital mutilation - and read success story after success story that inspired us to open our eyes even more.

The authors approached this book through personal testimony. As they traveled from country to country, Nick and Sheryl did interviews and participated in the lives of the women they ended up writing about. Chapter after chapter is filled with stories of overcoming abusive relationships and the restrictions on life as a woman in countries - basically those other than the United States - that don't feel women are as important as men. When reading the book, we got used to this approach. I mean, heck, every single chapter had story after story. Sure, they were all different and unique and important and inspiring in their own way, but the documentary was more successful at showing the individuals. A picture is worth a thousand words (cliche number two - at least - of tonight), but a documentary that literally follows ex-prostitutes into the brothel on a raid is worth more than two hours of my Saturday night.

I'm glad we read the book before seeing the documentary. It's like watching the Harry Potter movies but never reading the books - don't hate me - because you don't understand the movie/documentary as much as you possibly could. Going into the documentary with all the background knowledge that the book provided was key to getting as much out of the visual piece as possible.

While the book was fantastic at providing statistics, tons of stories, and background knowledge that was of great importance, the documentary was beneficial in its own ways. Actually seeing the lives of these women was phenomenal. Watching the celebrity - yeah, I had the same response - bike the seventeen-mile bike ride the girl takes every single day to go to school was more effective than describing the scary fields where anyone could be waiting to grab her. The ideas of the book were truly solidified in my mind when watching the documentary.

One of the things that really stood out about the documentary was how effectively it showed the hope these women have. Part of the way through the film, we were introduced to Somaly Mam. I vaguely recognized the name as one that could have been mentioned in the book, but her story truly impressed us. As an ex-prostitute that escaped the brothel, Somaly rescues other girls. She has an organization made up entirely of girls rescued from brothels. They then educated men - yes, they educate MEN - about the importance of condoms. They go to brothels and take the girls to medical checkups. They speak to these girls and share their stories of success, but they also share their stories of fear, abuse, and the hardships they faced inside and out of the brothel. Somaly identifies herself with these girls - she continuously says, "Their life is mine," and, "We are the same" - and has no limits as to what she will do to give them better lives. She ran a brothel raid with the local anti-trafficking agents (the police are absolutely no help when it comes to prostitution) in which they stormed the brothel. The brothel just happened to be teeming with AK-57s. No big deal. She knew this and insisted on doing the raid.

Seeing the little kids really hit home. In all of the safe houses, there were young children. Seeing the children run around laughing and playing was fantastic - proof that these organizations are doing good work and that the lives of these girls are changed forever - but there were also the children that didn't talk to or trust anyone. A three year old girl was left at a brothel because she had been raped and her family didn't want her. A. Three. Year. Old. Girl. This is a child that doesn't even know the letters of the alphabet or her colors or words beyond "Mama" and "Daddy," yet she has been raped and left for whoever wants her. Seeing these children - actually seeing them and not just reading about them - was heart wrenching.

The strength of the women was also phenomenal. Here are girls who work multiple jobs, are at odds with their parents because their parents don't want them getting an education, travel insane distances on foot or by bike every day, and are fighting to make their lives better. If I were any of them, I quite literally would have cried myself to death. Didn't sell all your lottery tickets today? Okay, I'm going to beat you. Looking for a job? I'm going to conveniently sell you to a brothel without your knowledge. Oh, you thought I was getting you a job?  Yeah, your parents sold you to me because they're seriously hungry. Biking that 17-mile trip to school? Darn, watch out for the creepy rapists. I. Would. Have. Given. Up. On. Life. Yet here are girls who face this every single day of their lives, and they haven't keeled over and given up. They're fighting for themselves and for others like them to increase their quality of life. They're fighting to get an education. They're fighting for equal rights. They're fighting to get out of the brothels and to get their sisters and friends out of the brothels. They. Are. Fighting.

That was definitely my favorite part of the documentary. Sure, the book was inspirational, but there's something about literally seeing these girls and women - and the fighters that they are - that inspires me beyond words. To see how they have healed from the injustices done to them in the past is stunning. Actually seeing these girls work to change the world left me feeling - pissed because we didn't have time to watch the next two hours of the documentary - happy. That sounds a little weird; we just watched a documentary on rape, abuse, lack of rights, lack of education, genital mutilation, and the general suckiness of life as a woman, and I felt happy? Yes, I did. Because as shitty as the world can seem sometimes, there's always something more. Watching the documentary put my life into perspective, and left me feeling grateful sad happy intrigued moved inspired. Changed.