Thanks
to my husbands mom posting a link on facebook I saw a video by PBS on Eastern
Congo, which according to the article the UN named the worst place to be a
woman.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/globalhealth/jan-june12/healafrica_03-07.html
When
I originally saw the posting I did not stop to really listen to it.
After class last week I realized that unlike what we watched in class, a
woman from Congo got to speak for herself about what happened to her.
This is a nice contrast to what we saw in class, the woman’s face was
covered because of an attack to it, somehow I think the fact that you could not
see her mouth move as she was speaking made it more powerful. I could not
understand her until the translator repeated what she said but the emotion she
spoke with came through without an actual understanding. The respect I
have gained for this woman that I have never met and most likely never will is indescribable.
Her lips were cut off after being hit in the head for not bringing her
daughter back to militia. After all she has been through she is afraid to
go to the police. This is an extreme example of the government not having
the power to stand up for womens rights or more importantly for the human right
to be safe from attack or at least be able to punish those who have wronged
you.
Personally
I feel that this PBS story did a better job at engaging you with the story as
we know exactly what country is being spoken about and we are getting stories
from people who live there as opposed to the general story with no voices from
the people who live there. It does
bring home the point that Maria Suarez made in class though, that women’s
rights are not the main concern when human rights and just living are on the
forefront.
http://www.economist.com/node/21551439
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I first heard about Heal Africa and the Lusi couple in this economist article. Lyn Lusi passed away only a few weeks after the PBS story was aired and after receiving the 1 billion dollar grant. It's a shame that she passed away. From what I have read about her, she was an amazing humanitarian. Usually, I am wary about religious organizations, but it seems that she and her husband were working with basic physical and emotional healing and I applaud their efforts.
I think what we must remember is that women's rights are human rights. In cases like Congo, where it's been war torn for decades and the international community doesn't quite know what to do, I think basic security and livelihoods of the population do take precedent, but that's not to say that human rights/women's rights need to take a back seat. I think they walk hand in hand.