WAR ON WOMEN
Feminism has not reached its goal yet.
For the white, Western woman, much has changed but the first wave of feminism taken place in many parts of the world it is dangerous for many women to be born.
Every now and then comes threw the Dutch media is a message on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), trafficking, or Indian child brides, but those messages disappear quickly and make little impression. Who knows what FGM is anyway? Details are uncomfortable, but Sue Lloyd-Roberts knows precisely that details make the difference and warns you of them in her book The War Against Women.
The World Health Organization defines FGM as "any procedure where in a part of or all of the external female genitalia are removed, or any other damage of the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. There are four types according to the organisation. In many cases, the clitoris is maimed or removed and sometimes labia, both inner and outer are cut through. The latter is done to narrow the vaginal opening; anything to make women sexual pleasure possible. Young girls are circumcised, and everything takes place without anaesthesia. Some girls bleed to death after such a cutting party. FGM still exists because of the belief that a girl will not marry if she is not circumcised, she would be unclean or indecent; people value tradition.
That is what we are talking about when we talk about misogyny; tradition. It is maddening, even for Lloyd-Roberts.
She writes: "I want to scream when I hear him invoke the word "tradition" as an explanation. How many crimes are all over the world against women committed in the name of tradition? Humanity is becoming better informed, globalised, and more educated, you might think, so why do people just refer to outdated and unexplained traditions mock common sense, and even with the law? What is it terribly convenient to carry on traditions to disguise misogyny and even legitimise criminal behaviour."
In Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, India, the tradition is to treat a woman as property. she is married off as soon as possible because otherwise it costs too much money. According to the law you may not marry girls in India before 18 years old (boys must be at least 21 years), but it happens that girls have been choosen before they are teens.
Despite the low social status of women, the honour of a family does depend on chastity and unconditional obedience of daughter, sister, and / or spouse. A girl has however already no longer pure as noted by family that someone other than her (future) husband looks at her. In such cases, a girl's life is no longer certain, honour killings will be punished enough not to commit the murder. If the killer is already arrested and prosecuted, he is only a few months in prison and then welcomed home as a hero: the family honour is saved.
Sue Lloyd-Roberts (she died in October 2015 from a rare form of leukaemia) a courageous journalist, from the texts in the war against women show that they undisturbed questions kept asking, and would not be stopping by disgust or anger or dismay. Moreover, she knows how to put every story in context, making it clear to include these women stories because it can be a huge scandal, or because for bureaucratic reasons little or nothing is done.
Sue Lloyd-Roberts appoints in this book frankly what she sees or hears or thinks. Lloyd-Roberts was not necessarily feminist but came after thirty years of film making to the conclusion that women are very often the victims of situations that are maintained by men. How is it possible that women, a group comprising more than half the world's population, still treated as a minority? It is a political issue, suspected Lloyd-Roberts. It is an issue that is still not considered a priority, even in the Western world is misogyny often seen as a luxury problem.
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