Half The Sky Summary
“Global Diversity and Cultural Differences, Tools to Be Leveraged For Business Success Rather Than Obstacles to Be Overcome”
Half the Sky presents many issues in developing countries that people in developed countries normally don’t hear about, or want to hear about. These issues that are presented violate human and woman’s rights at the highest level and are common in too many countries. As Americans, we only see what happens in those countries by what’s on the news, unless we go and thoroughly research issues that aren’t on the news. Dedication to human rights is imperative. In order to prevent a human rights tragedy, we must use our voices and resources to help. It 's our job to help. When women are mistreated, men are intrinsically adversely affected. When women, who are the half of the population, are marginalized it affects adversely the entire population. Being deprived of education, money and healthcare marginalizes women. Citizens of developing countries have different outlooks on life than we, Americans, do. How they survive on a day-to-day basis is much different from how we go about our daily lives. The economies are weak and living conditions in the poor areas are hard to look at. But there is no reason why a woman in a developing country and I should have …show more content…
different levels of human rights just because of where we live. The right to choose where and how we live should be the same no matter what country you live in. “As a basic human right, women should be able to have a child safely and with good quality of care. The human rights system, laws, policies, conventions must be used to hold states accountable for obligations undertaken pursuant to treaties.” (Half the Sky, p105) The situations these women go through in these developing countries are horrific. Men in these societies don’t believe that women are equal to them, take advantage of their bodies and manipulate their minds. The women that are raised in developing countries go through horrors of sex trafficking, rape, abuse, violence, and sometimes death. “A United Nations report claims that 90 percent of girls and women over the age of three were sexually abused in parts of Liberia during civil war there.” (Half the Sky, p83) Rape is one of the biggest violations of human rights in any country. It is horrifying and psychologically damaging for women who has gone through such a tragic event. Men in these developing countries don’t even see how wrong it is to rape a woman or multiple women at that. They enjoy violating these women for fun. “Mass rape is as effective as slaughtering people, yet it doesn’t not leave corpses that lead to human rights prosecutions. And rape tends to undermine the victim groups’ tribal structures, because leaders lose authority when they can’t protect the women. In short, rape becomes a tool of war in conservative societies…” (Half the Sky, p83) It’s ultimately not fair that women that grow up in these developing countries are expected to get violated and mistreated because of how regular it is in these societies. It’s sad that these women have to live and deal with these conditions knowing they will have to raise their daughters in such horrific societies.
For most of them, they don’t see a way out and succumb to this idea of tradition, which usually is taking the abuse and living with it. “Some security experts noted that the countries that nurture terrorists are disproportionally those where women are marginalized. The reason there are so many Muslim terrorists, they argued, has little to do with the Koran but a great deal to do with the lack of robust female participation in Islamic countries…. Empowering girls, some in the military argued, would disempower terrorists,” (Half the Sky, p xxi). The solution in trying to figure out what is best for these women has always been the hardest part, because changing countries’ policies or procedures don’t always work when the government is weak. Giving women the opportunity to believe that there is hope makes a big difference in their lives. Their optimism of change sheds new light in their eyes.
The women that share their stories in this book are inspiring and courageous.
They each have been through things that are heart wrenching to read but somehow they still stand up against their nonchalant governments and local thugs. There’s this sense of empowerment that comes from each of the woman that speak up about their pasts and what they’re currently going through. Each woman fights against tradition in their communities, and turns their sorrow into action. One of those actions is to increase education by building schools and teaching the young girls of these poor communities. Investing in education empowers these women, which in return transforms beneficiaries and benefactors
alike. “Rescuing girls from brothels is important Krishner believes, but the best way to save them is to prevent them from being trafficked in the first place – which means keeping them in school. American Assistance for Cambodia focuses on educating rural children, especially girls,” (Half the Sky, p17). Frank Grijalva, a principal from Overlake School in Virginia, had that exact motive. He decided to get the students of his school to sponsor a school in Cambodia to emphasize the importance of education and public service. They built a school in Cambodia that they decided to call Overlake School as well. Grijalva then decided to have his students go to the school in Cambodia to see what their hard work went to, and to see how they are changing the lives of others that can’t necessarily help themselves. “Kim Sokkea and her family aren’t the only beneficiaries. The Americans themselves have been transformed as much as the Cambodians. And that is something you see routinely. Aid projects have a mixed record in helping people abroad, but a superb record in inspiring and educating the donors,” (Half the Sky, p20). Both the Cambodians and the Americans were affected after this project. Americans don’t usually have a first hand glimpse at what a third world country is like and how people live there. They hear stories, but to actually experience it is life changing, and gives a different aspect of life. These experiences make people who donate money to programs like these want to invest even more, even if it’s just investing time into talking to someone in one of these countries everyday by email. “After going to Cambodia my future plans have changed… Natalie plans on a career empowering young people around the world – All anyone should do is use their gifts in what way they can, and this is how I can use mine. That is the weight of how valuable seeing Cambodia was for me,” (Half the Sky, p21). Americans have the ability to help and make change because of the skills and resources that we have. We can invest time and money into programs like these because we all have the ability to make a difference in someone else’s life. “…American Assistance for Cambodia has started a program…for donors it’s a way to fight trafficking at a cost of $120 per year per girl. Their families are desperate for money, the girls are poorly educated, and a trafficker promises them a great job selling fruit in a distant city… In her own shack, with her mother sick and often crying, it is a window into a magical land where people have plenty to eat and get cured when they fall ill…” (Half the Sky, p20) Most Americans want to help other people, most just don’t know how or where or who to help. But given the opportunity of going to Overlake School changed some of these students lives that will affect them forever. Many people around the world have different ideas as to how to address these situations in third world countries. The need to want to help is great, but what usually are the outcomes aren’t always great because of the wrong approach. We sometimes forget that places like Pakistan or the rural parts of India don’t have laws that the people abide by. People do and want as they please, and that’s why so many women are taken advantage of and manipulated. “We sometimes think that Westerners invest too much effort in changing unjust laws and not enough in changing culture, by building schools or assisting grassroots movements…. Mahdere acknowledges that change has to be felt in the culture as well as the legal code…Empowering women begins with education,”(Half the Sky p66). Instead of implanting new laws or trying to force a country to stop doing what they normally do, may not always have the greatest affect. Sometimes it is better to help guide the women into a situation like school, and educating them so that they understand the normal way of thinking isn’t the best way of thinking. The women who want to break the “normal way of thinking”, and the tradition to live with the abuse do most times create the greatest changes within those third world communities. “In short, women themselves absorb and transmit misogynistic values such as men do. This is not a tidy world of tyrannical men and victimized women, but a messier realm of oppressive social customs adhered to by men and women alike…the greatest challenge is to change these ways of thinking. And perhaps the very best means of combating suffocating traditions is education, through schools like one of our favorites, in a remote nook of the Pakistani Punjab, run by one of the world’s most extraordinary women,” (Half the Sky p 69).
Mukhtar Mai is one of those women who wouldn’t allow herself to fall to tradition, and instead stand up against the people who caused her and her family much pain. She fought against the men who raped her, her brothers, and the government who kept knocking her down. “As the days passed, Mukhtar’s attitude mutated… she did something revolutionary …demanding prosecution…President Pervez Musharraf sympathized, sending Mukhtar the equivalent of $8300 in compensation. But instead of taking the money for herself, Mukhtar decided to invest it in what her village needed most, schools. - Why should I have spent the money on myself? This way the money is helping all the girls, all the children- She started a school because she believes in education. Mukhtar…her voice muffled by the scarf, … spoke passionately of her belief in the redemptive quality of education, in her hope that men and women in the villages could live together in harmony if only they had education,”(Half the Sky, p71, 72). She created a school using the money she received from the case she fought against. She believed in education, and only wanted help the young girls of her society to prevent what happened to her happen to them. She was harassed by her government because of all the world recognition she was getting that was shedding light on the horrific situations going on in her community. But the world recognition allowed her school to continue growing, and people around the world came to visit her school to see her hard work and dedication to the people of her community. Although uneducated, she stood up against any situation that she faced because of her determination to make her community safe and the girls educated. Women in these countries are not given opportunities that women in developed countries are given. They have to go out and look for help and people to support them, if they even get any. They risk their own lives to save themselves and others and they need to be recognized and honored for these risks that they take. They need to be given opportunities that will either take them out of danger, or help them create a safe environment from the women in their communities. Education is their opportunity. “But when a woman stands up, it’s imperative that outsiders champion her; we also must nurture institutions to protect such people. Sometimes, we may even need to provide asylum for those whose lives are in danger. More broadly, the single most important way to encourage women and girls to stand up for their rights is education, and we can do far more to promote universal education in poor countries. Ultimately, women like those in Kasturba Nagar need to join the human rights revolution themselves. They constitute part of the answer to the problem.” (Half the Sky, p53) If all these women could join the human rights movement themselves they would have an even stronger support background than what they have now. They already believe in nothing less than human rights. But joining a movement with the rest of the world could be ten times better for their own sakes. All these situations shed light on the fact that women and girls in these countries need education to stay out of harms way. To them, education is something that comes second to taking care of family. These women will die trying to make money for their sick parents before they try to go to school. Sometimes education isn’t even a thought in their minds. Investing in education for these countries is one of the best ways to prevent the growing number of women that are trafficked in their countries and across borders. Keeping them somewhere safe where they can learn and be able to move onto a career path in the future is the safest idea. And allowing them to be in learning environment empowers them to stand up against the “normal way of thinking”. Breaking the tradition is what is most important, and the most challenging, but education is the way to make it happen. “Some eighty nine percent Sri Lankan women are literate. Investments in educating girls resulted in women having more economic value and more influence in society….” (Half the Sky, p117).
Bibliography
Kristof, Nicholas D., and Sheryl WuDunn. Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. New York: Vintage, 2010. Print.
"Universal Declaration of Human Rights." Amnesty Australia. Amnesty International Australia, n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2013.
Half the Sky presents many issues in developing countries that people in developed countries normally don’t hear about, or want to hear about. These issues that are presented violate human and woman’s rights at the highest level and are common in too many countries. As Americans, we only see what happens in those countries by what’s on the news, unless we go and thoroughly research issues that aren’t on the news. Dedication to human rights is imperative. In order to prevent a human rights tragedy, we must use our voices and resources to help. It 's our job to help. When women are mistreated, men are intrinsically adversely affected. When women, who are the half of the population, are marginalized it affects adversely the entire population. Being deprived of education, money and healthcare marginalizes women. Citizens of developing countries have different outlooks on life than we, Americans, do. How they survive on a day-to-day basis is much different from how we go about our daily lives. The economies are weak and living conditions in the poor areas are hard to look at. But there is no reason why a woman in a developing country and I should have …show more content…
different levels of human rights just because of where we live. The right to choose where and how we live should be the same no matter what country you live in. “As a basic human right, women should be able to have a child safely and with good quality of care. The human rights system, laws, policies, conventions must be used to hold states accountable for obligations undertaken pursuant to treaties.” (Half the Sky, p105) The situations these women go through in these developing countries are horrific. Men in these societies don’t believe that women are equal to them, take advantage of their bodies and manipulate their minds. The women that are raised in developing countries go through horrors of sex trafficking, rape, abuse, violence, and sometimes death. “A United Nations report claims that 90 percent of girls and women over the age of three were sexually abused in parts of Liberia during civil war there.” (Half the Sky, p83) Rape is one of the biggest violations of human rights in any country. It is horrifying and psychologically damaging for women who has gone through such a tragic event. Men in these developing countries don’t even see how wrong it is to rape a woman or multiple women at that. They enjoy violating these women for fun. “Mass rape is as effective as slaughtering people, yet it doesn’t not leave corpses that lead to human rights prosecutions. And rape tends to undermine the victim groups’ tribal structures, because leaders lose authority when they can’t protect the women. In short, rape becomes a tool of war in conservative societies…” (Half the Sky, p83) It’s ultimately not fair that women that grow up in these developing countries are expected to get violated and mistreated because of how regular it is in these societies. It’s sad that these women have to live and deal with these conditions knowing they will have to raise their daughters in such horrific societies.
For most of them, they don’t see a way out and succumb to this idea of tradition, which usually is taking the abuse and living with it. “Some security experts noted that the countries that nurture terrorists are disproportionally those where women are marginalized. The reason there are so many Muslim terrorists, they argued, has little to do with the Koran but a great deal to do with the lack of robust female participation in Islamic countries…. Empowering girls, some in the military argued, would disempower terrorists,” (Half the Sky, p xxi). The solution in trying to figure out what is best for these women has always been the hardest part, because changing countries’ policies or procedures don’t always work when the government is weak. Giving women the opportunity to believe that there is hope makes a big difference in their lives. Their optimism of change sheds new light in their eyes.
The women that share their stories in this book are inspiring and courageous.
They each have been through things that are heart wrenching to read but somehow they still stand up against their nonchalant governments and local thugs. There’s this sense of empowerment that comes from each of the woman that speak up about their pasts and what they’re currently going through. Each woman fights against tradition in their communities, and turns their sorrow into action. One of those actions is to increase education by building schools and teaching the young girls of these poor communities. Investing in education empowers these women, which in return transforms beneficiaries and benefactors
alike. “Rescuing girls from brothels is important Krishner believes, but the best way to save them is to prevent them from being trafficked in the first place – which means keeping them in school. American Assistance for Cambodia focuses on educating rural children, especially girls,” (Half the Sky, p17). Frank Grijalva, a principal from Overlake School in Virginia, had that exact motive. He decided to get the students of his school to sponsor a school in Cambodia to emphasize the importance of education and public service. They built a school in Cambodia that they decided to call Overlake School as well. Grijalva then decided to have his students go to the school in Cambodia to see what their hard work went to, and to see how they are changing the lives of others that can’t necessarily help themselves. “Kim Sokkea and her family aren’t the only beneficiaries. The Americans themselves have been transformed as much as the Cambodians. And that is something you see routinely. Aid projects have a mixed record in helping people abroad, but a superb record in inspiring and educating the donors,” (Half the Sky, p20). Both the Cambodians and the Americans were affected after this project. Americans don’t usually have a first hand glimpse at what a third world country is like and how people live there. They hear stories, but to actually experience it is life changing, and gives a different aspect of life. These experiences make people who donate money to programs like these want to invest even more, even if it’s just investing time into talking to someone in one of these countries everyday by email. “After going to Cambodia my future plans have changed… Natalie plans on a career empowering young people around the world – All anyone should do is use their gifts in what way they can, and this is how I can use mine. That is the weight of how valuable seeing Cambodia was for me,” (Half the Sky, p21). Americans have the ability to help and make change because of the skills and resources that we have. We can invest time and money into programs like these because we all have the ability to make a difference in someone else’s life. “…American Assistance for Cambodia has started a program…for donors it’s a way to fight trafficking at a cost of $120 per year per girl. Their families are desperate for money, the girls are poorly educated, and a trafficker promises them a great job selling fruit in a distant city… In her own shack, with her mother sick and often crying, it is a window into a magical land where people have plenty to eat and get cured when they fall ill…” (Half the Sky, p20) Most Americans want to help other people, most just don’t know how or where or who to help. But given the opportunity of going to Overlake School changed some of these students lives that will affect them forever. Many people around the world have different ideas as to how to address these situations in third world countries. The need to want to help is great, but what usually are the outcomes aren’t always great because of the wrong approach. We sometimes forget that places like Pakistan or the rural parts of India don’t have laws that the people abide by. People do and want as they please, and that’s why so many women are taken advantage of and manipulated. “We sometimes think that Westerners invest too much effort in changing unjust laws and not enough in changing culture, by building schools or assisting grassroots movements…. Mahdere acknowledges that change has to be felt in the culture as well as the legal code…Empowering women begins with education,”(Half the Sky p66). Instead of implanting new laws or trying to force a country to stop doing what they normally do, may not always have the greatest affect. Sometimes it is better to help guide the women into a situation like school, and educating them so that they understand the normal way of thinking isn’t the best way of thinking. The women who want to break the “normal way of thinking”, and the tradition to live with the abuse do most times create the greatest changes within those third world communities. “In short, women themselves absorb and transmit misogynistic values such as men do. This is not a tidy world of tyrannical men and victimized women, but a messier realm of oppressive social customs adhered to by men and women alike…the greatest challenge is to change these ways of thinking. And perhaps the very best means of combating suffocating traditions is education, through schools like one of our favorites, in a remote nook of the Pakistani Punjab, run by one of the world’s most extraordinary women,” (Half the Sky p 69).
Mukhtar Mai is one of those women who wouldn’t allow herself to fall to tradition, and instead stand up against the people who caused her and her family much pain. She fought against the men who raped her, her brothers, and the government who kept knocking her down. “As the days passed, Mukhtar’s attitude mutated… she did something revolutionary …demanding prosecution…President Pervez Musharraf sympathized, sending Mukhtar the equivalent of $8300 in compensation. But instead of taking the money for herself, Mukhtar decided to invest it in what her village needed most, schools. - Why should I have spent the money on myself? This way the money is helping all the girls, all the children- She started a school because she believes in education. Mukhtar…her voice muffled by the scarf, … spoke passionately of her belief in the redemptive quality of education, in her hope that men and women in the villages could live together in harmony if only they had education,”(Half the Sky, p71, 72). She created a school using the money she received from the case she fought against. She believed in education, and only wanted help the young girls of her society to prevent what happened to her happen to them. She was harassed by her government because of all the world recognition she was getting that was shedding light on the horrific situations going on in her community. But the world recognition allowed her school to continue growing, and people around the world came to visit her school to see her hard work and dedication to the people of her community. Although uneducated, she stood up against any situation that she faced because of her determination to make her community safe and the girls educated. Women in these countries are not given opportunities that women in developed countries are given. They have to go out and look for help and people to support them, if they even get any. They risk their own lives to save themselves and others and they need to be recognized and honored for these risks that they take. They need to be given opportunities that will either take them out of danger, or help them create a safe environment from the women in their communities. Education is their opportunity. “But when a woman stands up, it’s imperative that outsiders champion her; we also must nurture institutions to protect such people. Sometimes, we may even need to provide asylum for those whose lives are in danger. More broadly, the single most important way to encourage women and girls to stand up for their rights is education, and we can do far more to promote universal education in poor countries. Ultimately, women like those in Kasturba Nagar need to join the human rights revolution themselves. They constitute part of the answer to the problem.” (Half the Sky, p53) If all these women could join the human rights movement themselves they would have an even stronger support background than what they have now. They already believe in nothing less than human rights. But joining a movement with the rest of the world could be ten times better for their own sakes. All these situations shed light on the fact that women and girls in these countries need education to stay out of harms way. To them, education is something that comes second to taking care of family. These women will die trying to make money for their sick parents before they try to go to school. Sometimes education isn’t even a thought in their minds. Investing in education for these countries is one of the best ways to prevent the growing number of women that are trafficked in their countries and across borders. Keeping them somewhere safe where they can learn and be able to move onto a career path in the future is the safest idea. And allowing them to be in learning environment empowers them to stand up against the “normal way of thinking”. Breaking the tradition is what is most important, and the most challenging, but education is the way to make it happen. “Some eighty nine percent Sri Lankan women are literate. Investments in educating girls resulted in women having more economic value and more influence in society….” (Half the Sky, p117).
Bibliography
Kristof, Nicholas D., and Sheryl WuDunn. Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. New York: Vintage, 2010. Print.
"Universal Declaration of Human Rights." Amnesty Australia. Amnesty International Australia, n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2013.