Artifact VIII: Half The Sky- Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide

Reflection Tag: Half The Sky, by Nicholas D. Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn, dives into the conditions of women worldwide in order to try to educate their readers on the true treatment of many women across the world. As a human race it has become very evident through the centuries that ignorance is responsible for atrocities being conducted upon innocent people, both men and women. Currently within the world, a world where may cultures deem women as second-class citizens, there is despicable treatment of women and young girls that only through education can ever be cured or at least prevented.

Half the Sky, by Nicholas D. Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn, addresses many of the issues that are currently plaguing humanity across the world: prostitution, sex-trafficking, rape, genital mutilation, lack of proper women’s health facilities, ect. The result of all of these atrocities is a world where women are forced to live in fear of not having full rights over their own bodies, or even if they do being worried that they may not be able to survive many of the things that we in the West do not worry about. Getting pregnant, even on the younger side, in the U.S, is generally a time for celebration of a new life. It is very rare that someone pregnant within the U.S would live in fear of dying on the table during childbirth, however, for a lot of countries that is exactly the case. Because of marring to young, having sex to young, and the lack of knowledge about medicine means that something such as childbirth, which is acknowledged as a blessing in the U.S to most, is a possible death sentence for many across the world.

Women should be revered due to the fact that without women there would be no life but many do not see it that way. Women are viewed as weak, expendable, and as a result some are subjected to abuse that would sicken most people. Cambodia, in particular, like many poor countries, has a high risk of prostitution for its females. Mothers are known to sell their daughters to brothels just for money to survive. If a girl is raped she is viewed as almost tainted and will be sold into sex slavery. This is disgusting but it also shows how girls and sex is viewed within the culture. Children, babies even, are raped. Pregnancies are aborted violently, or young girls give birth long before their bodies are ready, girls 5 or 6 get STDs,, some a death sentence. Without knowledge of this there is no hope of change but through educating people on why this is wrong and dangerous there is hope of saving girls who would otherwise be sentence to this life of hell. India is similar in practice but due to their caste system it is more about generations and family than simply being sold. Many girls who are the daughters of prostitutes are born to women who see it as a job, meaning that when she feels her daughter is ready it will be her job as well. Through education, we can help give these girls a chance to make something more of their lives, a chance that many of their mothers never had.

Places such as Sierra Leone and Somaliland are very poor and as a result the treatment of young girls and pregnant women is often subjected to tradition rather than education. FGM, or female genital mutilation, is one of the atrocities that arises when people are undereducated. All this practice does is satisfy the needs of the society but for the child it is nothing but pain and future problems, scarring, fistula, inability to birth a child. A society in which FGM exists says all that it needs about the culture. Women are seen as objects of reproduction born into a poor country that doesn’t know anything about reproduction. Often married before their bodies are truly ready for childbirth, they are seen as weak if they do not give birth at home, and as many as 1/12 of these women will not survive childbirth from causes that are highly preventable in many other areas of the world. If we want to fix these problems of ignorance throughout the world, we must first use education to relieve centuries of ignorance and poverty within these societies. There is no reason that a child should be sold into prostitution and there is no reason why we cannot help educate poor counties on prenatal care.