Procrastination

Confession: I did not plan on writing tonight. Actually, at this moment, I should be doing homework. However, there are sometimes when one gets news so wonderful one must share it.

Today, a Liberian jury found the men who kidnapped and forciblyy FGM-ed* Ruth Berry Peal.** This is a huge victory. But it is a victory that also underscores how far there is to go: Hundreds of thousands of women are FGM-ed every year, and too often, the perpetrators get away with it.

The Peal victory had a lot to do with a campaign sponsored by Equality Now, a women's action network that has been lauded by Nicholas Kristoff.

The Peal victory also reminded me how lucky I am to live in the USA: Forced FGM is not a threat I face daily, and I can drive, go to school with men, compete with them for jobs, and wear mini-skirts (a right I choose not to take advantage of).

For more on FGM and Equality Now, please go to: http://equalitynow.org/fgm

Of course, often human rights campaigns find themselves in the murky waters of cultural imperialism. While it is true that "cultural autonomy" is often the cry of non-Western human rights offenders trying to mask their offenses in post-colonial guilt, it is also true that there is something slightly jarring about a group of non-white people going to a country of non-white people and saying to them: "Stop. This is immoral. Your practice is wrong." I think that the cultural values debate within human rights- much like the feminism debate within Judaism - comes down to the question of: What are this movement's core values? After all, in order to maintain an international system of laws governing human rights, we must be working off of the assumption that there is some sort of objective right or wrong: Otherwise, even genocide might be acceptable. Who am I to say that it is not? I can't "prove" it. If we wish to undo Western bias, then the entire concept of human rights and international law goes by the wayside - it is an inherently Western concept, started by Western nations in the wake of WW2.

For this reason (among others) I particularly applaud the work of Tostan, seeking to end FGM by advocating for grassroots change within the society, rather than trying to impose an outside human rights framework on a society.

http://www.tostan.org/

While we are on the topic, there is also rape as a weapon of war in the DRC: An issue that affects men and women, not only because it tears apart the fabric of society and ruins many spousal relationships, but because now men are being raped as well, though not as frequently as women.

The IRC does some great work in this area: http://www.rescue.org/where/congo
as does HEAL Africa, which has hospitals that cater to specific rape-related injuries and helps raped women get their lives back on track: http://www.healafrica.org/

For more on rape in the DRC: http://www.suite101.com/content/rape-in-the-democratic-republic-of-congo-a296028

I am getting these websites - and much of my information - from power couple Nicholas Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn's book "Half the Sky", and the website: http://www.halftheskymovement.org/

Writing this now puts things into perspective: Wage inequality is bad and must be fought, but it pales besides some of these gross human rights violations that are being committed against women for the crime of being women.

I am tempted to blog about a different women-human-rights-related issue every week, but wonder if I have the willpower to carry through with a commitment to doing so. Globalization has increased our knowledge of the world, but with knowledge of all the human rights crises around the world, comes at times, a feeling of despair, that one will not succeed in the fight - it is just too big.*** But to paraphrase Pirkey Avot: Just because you may not be able to finish, does not mean you are free to disengage from the task.****


* Is that a word? Whatever - Shakespeare coined neologisms - time for me to unleash my inner bard.
** http://www.awdf.org/browse/1959
*** There is a theory that one of the reasons for limited giving in the wake of the Japan catastrophe compared to others is that the sheer magnitude of the tragedy caused people to despair and feel like they couldn't help, thus they did not even bother finding organizations to donate to.
**** Direct quote with artwork: http://www.alljewishlinks.com/job-lo-alecha/