Women’s Oppression: The Greatest Moral Challenge of Our Time

As change agents we need to be aware of issues not only within our own scope, but as part as a larger whole.  Just because women have come so far in our part of the world, doesn’t mean there isn’t work still to be done both here and abroad.  Janice Brody, LMSW brings our attention to this challenge with our most recent submission.

Women’s Oppression: The Greatest Moral Challenge of Our Time

Imagine: The local “cutter” comes into the village one morning and all the young girls are gathered up and one by one are genitally mutilated. Ten years later, on the verge of death, one of these young women is rushed into Edna’s hospital in Somaliland. Because the scar tissue from her mutilation is obstructing her baby from coming out, Edna must cut her open in order to save her and her baby’s life. Female Genital Mutilation is only one of several examples of the oppression women around the world endure. Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide is an incredible movement that works with courageous and inspiring women like Edna, who are fighting to change such horrific acts of female oppression. The series, which recently aired on PBS and is based on the acclaimed book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, documents such terrible circumstances from maternal mortality, to forced prostitution, to gender-based violence but also illuminates how women worldwide are seizing the opportunity to create change in their communities. Women like Edna or the beautiful Umoja women, who escaped abusive lives and created a women-only village, are improving the lives of women and children around the world. The oppression of women and girls is the greatest moral challenge of our time but we also have the power just like these women to stand up and create change. To learn more about how you can become part of the solution visit: www.halftheskymovement.org.