Artifacts: Half the Sky

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Half the Sky by husband and wife Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn discusses the many forms of the oppression regarding women’s rights in many parts of the world and the importance of taking action against these acts. The book, which is also adapted into a documentary, includes Kristof and WuDunn visiting the countries where oppressive acts are taking place and meeting with women who are spearheading organizations, nonprofits and grassroots movements that are taking action to give the women in their country opportunities. I first heard of this book/documentary my senior year, I was in need of a good read and also the fact that Edna Aden, a huge inspiration of mine, was featured in the book helped peak my interest even more. Edna Aden is well known in Somaliland for being the first in many things, but what particularly drew me to her was the fact that she founded the Edna Aden Maternity Hospital in Hargeisa where she sees seeks to decrease the high maternal mortality rate present in Somalia. At her hospital she trains midwives and dispatches them throughout the country to provide more women with trained healthcare professionals to ease the struggle of chldbirth. She is also a huge fighter against the FGM (female genital mutilation) practices that are present all through out Somalia and many cultures around the world.

The film/book gave me an insight into a world I didn’t know much about, a world that is a reality for some girls around the world. The girls who are being trafficked sometimes by people close to them. Girls who are raped and sexually abused sometimes in their own homes, where they should be the most comfortable. Girls who have thoughts and ideas that are strong enough to change the world, but aren’t given the space to express them. Girls who aren’t given a voice, girls who are so marginalized that they forgot their own worth. There is no difference between me and those girls, maybe a difference in circumstance but that is just luck not something I worked for. Many of these girls are bright and string, they just lack an open space to explore their talents and they could be trailblazers, they could change the whole world as we know it. Although I watched much of these struggles through the TV screen, they resonated in my heart. The girls that were in the documentary were no different from the girls living here, the girls I see everyday; they were no different from me. And I feel like it is much easier for people living more privileged lifestyles to watch such films and read such books than to actually think about how prevalent these issues are in our own communities. We believe that these problems are far from us, they take place in exotic places. We believe that by donating a few bucks and volunteering a few hours we are doing our part in fixing problems that are in places we will probably never visit.

Although the book/film opened my eyes to many of the atrocious acts that are being done to girls living around the world it also allowed to open my eyes and realize that those acts can occur here and that I shouldn’t have such a detached mindset when talking about issues in other communities. Half the Sky opened a window into a world I used to hear about but never truly related to. There is a difference between vaguely reading about an issue you cannot relate to and seeing those who are directly affected by said issues, that these issues affect living, breathing individuals such as myself. This is only the beginning of my journey in bettering myself and hopefully the world.

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