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Resource: List of Recommended Memoirs by Women
* Some Excellent Books Recommended
* Blood Stains: A Child of Africa Reclaims Her Human Rights, by Khady Koita, UnCUT/VOICES Press, 2010
* Nomad, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Free Press, NY, 2010
* Infidel, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Free Press, NY, 2007
* The Caged Virgin, An Emancipation Proclamation for Women and Islam, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Free Press, NY, 2006
* Honor Betrayed, Sexual Abuse in America’s Military, by Dr. Mic Hunter, ISBN 1-56980-325-0
* Whose News? The Media and Women's Issues, Second Edition, edited by Ammu Joseph and Kalpana Sharma, 2006
Sage Publications Pvt. Ltd
* Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence, by Sonali Kolhatkar and James Ingalls, September, 2006
Seven Stories Press
* Voices of Women Media Leaders, The International Women's Media Foundation
An important book for information on women's media: Women's Periodicals in the United States, Social and Political Issues, edited by Kathleen Endres and Therese Lueck (Greenwood Press, CT, 1996).
Some Excellent Books Recommended:
War is Not Over When it's Over by Ann Jones
Kabul in Winter by Ann Jones
Meyebela, My Bengali Girlhood by Taslima Nasrin website: http://taslimanasrin.com/index2.html
The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World, by Nawal El Saadawi. London: Zed Books, 1980.
BLOOD STAINS: A CHILD OF AFRICA RECLAIMS HER HUMAN RIGHTS
By Khady Koita
(UnCUT/VOICES Press, 2010)
www.uncutvoices.wordpress.com
Review by Elana Anderson, WIFP
January, 2012
In a thought provoking, highly personal work that focuses upon the heretofore taboo subject of female genital mutilation (FGM) in the “modern” world, Khady Koita and Marie-Therese Cuny have presented readers with a first-hand account of this harrowing reality, still practiced today. African women generations removed from their ancestral homelands, born and living in the Diaspora, may be hard pressed to find a way to relate to the continued practice of FGM, forced/arranged marriage, or adolescent marriage. While historical experience, presented fictionally or no, can illuminate women’s shared suffering and powerlessness at the hands of men and the women who act as their agents, there is nothing that can impress upon a woman who has not undergone such a brutal betrayal of her personhood and sexuality the pain of a woman who has. Blood Stains: A Child of Africa Reclaims her Human Rights is a story of the pain associated with the loss of childhood/adolescence through excision, forced/adolescent marriage and their subsequent psychological and physical effects.
Published in 2010, this book is one of the first in the growing corpus of work produced by UnCUT/VOICES Press, the only publishing enterprise of its kind and the first to focus solely on work about female genital mutilation. Founded by Tobe Levin in Frankfurt am Main, Germany in September of 2009, this unique institution translates studies of FGM from French, German and other languages into what is considered the world “lingua fanca” – English. While such works may indeed be considered an indispensable resource whose provision is imperative in the struggle to educate more women about FGM, some readers may begin to wonder how those who do not read or write in the languages of the Western world may actually be included in the constituency of this publisher. The mission and values of the organization are provocative, and, taken directly from its website, reads:
Mission
· To promote abolition of FGM, thereby saving girls from genital torture, by creating a multi-media platform for dissemination of autobiographies, novels, poetry, plays, and other creative work as well as research, legislation, and histories of the movement
· To translate from various languages into the lingua franca, English, to advance knowledge among a broad audience and encourage activism
· To give voice to victims, artists, policy-makers, academics, and others with a personal and professional interest in the subject whose work finds no home in the established press
Values
· To cooperate in an ecumenical, democratic effort that includes women, men, old, young, all nationalities and languages
· To encourage participation of all ethnicities and nations that practice FGM
· To deploy professional managerial methods, adopt modern technologies, and strive towards financial independence (www.uncutvoices.wordpress.com [01/20/2012)
This is exactly the kind of organization that is fully supported by Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press and should be supported by any other media network that is focused upon the efforts, challenges and accomplishments of women.
Khady Koita, the author (this is an autobiographical account), is called a “gifted public speaker, trainer, and dedicated activist” who currently lives in Brussels, Belgium, but was born in Thies, Senegal (preface). As co-founder of EuroNet FGM, a consortium of European non-government organizations (NGOs) currently boasting 37 members, she has been the leading voice in the struggle for the abolition of FGM and continues to lecture in Europe, Africa and the United States. She has been instrumental in the enactment of key legislation in Senegal and the United Nations against this practice. In ten chapters, titled according to the chronology of her experience, Khady introduces her readers to a world that men may think had better been kept secret. It is a world of betrayal, of pain, of suffering, of control and ultimate transcendence and triumph. It is also a story of courage.
Khady underwent a clitoridectomy at the age of seven at the hands of the mothers (Salindé) she trusted in her village, without anesthesia and without support. She made it through school up until sixth or seventh grade (Growing Up), when at the age of fourteen, she was married to her first cousin (A Blow to the Head). She was not even consulted about the decision, made for her by her father. In traditional societies it was thought that “from the moment a girl bleeds and her breasts show, her parents think she is ready to marry and they hope a bridegroom will appear on the double for fear she might get pregnant before tying the knot” (Khady, 43). At such a young age, how is any girl supposed to be able to connect the dots between education, tradition and desire? Khady was a child who wanted what all of her girlfriends wanted, to be married, and she was happy that she would be the first. What she did not know, could never know until it happened, was what consummating her marriage would do. The pain was so excruciating that she blacked out!
Subsequently, Khady (pronounced Kah-Dee) was put on a plane to France to live with the husband who knew nothing about her and whom she knew nothing about (The Stranger). Readers are made privy to his illiteracy, and his ignorance as to the ways of love. Khady gives her readers a wholesale glimpse of the psychology of institutionalized patriarchy and the devastation it wreaks in the psyches of both men and women.
Joining Parisian society and adjusting to its lifestyle (Integration) was difficult only in that Khady bore three children before the age of nineteen with no support from her husband. At that time, welfare dictated that all funds be wired directly to the husband’s accounts, and he barely provided Khady with enough to support the appetites of their children. Unfortunately as well, her first two daughters were cut before they were a year old by a cousin who felt it was her “duty” to perform the act as part of the family and her role in Senegalese society as a member of the blacksmith caste. The procedure was performed while Khady was hospitalized due to complications with her third birth. She did not question it because of tradition, and had her third daughter cut at barely one month of age. Too, her marriage was a shambles due to the stress of childbirth and her reluctance to have sex with her husband.
Khady’s first trip back to Senegal was bittersweet, and because “home” was so very rehabilitative for her and culturally significant for her children, she found herself at odds about returning to France (Disintegration/Reintegration). Upon her return, she began to take control of her own life as well as work outside the home in an effort to make life easier for herself and her children. The fact that her father came for an extended visit made things all the more palatable, for she was able to convince her landlord to allow the family a second apartment across the hall. A fourth pregnancy yielded a son, and Khady thought it necessary to bring her sister from Senegal to help with the children. It also gave her more opportunities to work. She even found her husband a job when he lost his, but despite her efforts, marital strife increased. Birth control became the order of the day for Khady and her husband became so enraged by the fact that she was progressing in life and he wasn’t, that he sent her sister back to Senegal amidst accusations of ruining his marriage. According to Khady, “the entire masculine community was advising” her husband on how to make her submit (Khady, 117). Visiting a great uncle in Normandy four to five times a year became a welcome refuge for her and her children.
A fifth pregnancy and the birth of another daughter at the beginning of 1985 after forgetting to take the pill put Khady in the hospital; upon her release, she found that her husband had married a second wife (Polygamy). The second wife turned out to be fifteen years old and illiterate like her husband. They both made life miserable for Khady, who realized that polygamy as practiced by African men in France “ruins human relationships and destroys children” (Khady, 139). She needed to get out of the marriage and out of the home, as her husband became more and more violent toward her because of her independent nature and self-preserving attitude. Hiring a lawyer was her first step.
The following steps (The Great Leap) took her to the welfare office to secure that the payments would go to her own account, before a French divorce court for a legal restraining order, and back to Senegal to try to dissolve the marriage at the mosque. In Senegal, religion trumps the law. It is religion that is used to control women, to cut them, to marry them off too early, and to force them into patriarchal submission.
In the final chapters (A House of Tears, Combat), Khady reveals the depression, violence and brutality of life in her household and her fight to remove herself, finally being granted a new apartment for her and her children. The French finally granted her a civil divorce and her marriage was dissolved at the mosque. It is in these final two chapters as well that readers are introduced to her activism, beginning with the French organization GAMS (Groupe pour l’Abolition des Mutilations sexuelles), a secular non-partisan NGO. Khady highlights all of the reasons that men use to continue the practice of FGM, from increased sexual pleasure for the man, to religion, to maintenance of social cohesion, all of which are lies.
Khady’s story is one of endurance and survival, like the stories of countless women of color who have never found a voice for their suffering. Her story is also one of sisterhood that crosses cultures and generations, for the support that she found among her neighbors in France (both White and Black) and friends was unparalleled. This book is a must-read for every woman who has ever suffered the physical, psychological and emotional effects of male domination and even for those who never have, that they may continue to raise women who will celebrate themselves, their lives, and their sex. Look out for other works published by UnCut/VOICES Press, such as that of Hubert Prolongeau, titled Undoing FGM. Pierre Foldes, The Surgeon Who Restores the Clitoris and The Excisor: Hawa Greou Speaks Out by Linda Weil-Curiel and Natacha Henry.
______
Elana Denise Anderson is a PhD Candidate, Ryoichi Sasakawa Fellow at Howard University, Washington, DC. Elana works with WIFP and is currently in Senegal.
Nomad, From Islam to America - A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations
By Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Another book by Ayaan Hirsi Ali that you will not want to put down.
In 2007, Ayaan Hirsi Ali established the AHA Foundation - www.theahafoundation.org - to help protect and defend the rights of women in the West from oppression justified by religion and culture. Twitter: @AHAFoundation
Infidel
By Ayaan Hirsi Ali
(Free Press, NY, 2007)
"In this profoundly affecting memoir from the internationally renowned author of The Caged Virgin, Ayaan Hirsi Ali tells her astonishing life story, from her traditional Muslim childhood in Somalis, Saudi Arabia, and Kenya, to her intellectual awakening and activism in the Netherlands, and her current life under armed guard in the West.
"One of today's most admired and controversial political figures, Ayaan Hirsi Ali burst into international headlines following an Islamist's murder of her colleague, Theo van Gogh, with whom she made the movie Submission."
The Caged Virgin, An Emancipation Proclamation for Women and Islam
By Ayaan Hirsi Ali
(Free Press, NY, 2006)
"Muslims who explore sources of morality other than Islam are threatened with death, and Muslim women who escape the virgins' cage are branded whores. So asserts Ayaan Hirsi Ali's profound meditation on Islam and the role of women, the rights of the individual, the roots of fanaticism, and Western policies toward Islamic countries and immigrant communities. Hard-hitting, outspoken, and controversial, The Caged Virgin is a call to arms for the emancipation of women from a brutal religious and cultural oppression and from an outdated cult of virginity. It is a defiant call for clear thinking and for an Islamic Enlightenment. But it is also the courageous story of how Hirsi Ali herself fought back against everyone who tried to force her to submit to a traditional Muslim woman's life and how she became a voice of reform.
"Born in Somalia and raised Muslim, but outraged by her religion's hostility toward women, Hirsi Ali escaped an arranged marriage to a distant relative and fled to the Netherlands. There, she learned Dutch, worked as an interpreter in abortion clinics and shelters for battered women, earned a college degree, and started a career in politics as a Dutch parliamentarian. In November 2004, the violent murder on an Amsterdam street of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, with whom Hirsi Ali had written a film about women and Islam called Submission, changed her life. Threated by the same group that slew van Gogh, Hirsi Ali now has round-the-clock protection, but has not allowed these circumstances to compromise her fierce criticism of the treatment of Muslim women, of Islamic governments' attempts to silence any questioning of their traditions, and of Western governments' blind tolerance of practices such as genital mutilation and forced marriages of female minors occurring in their countries."
Honor Betrayed
Sexual Abuse in America’s Military
by Dr. Mic Hunter
$24.95• 256 Pages, Hardcover
ISBN 1-56980-325-0
Over the years the media has continued to report on sexual abuse scandals in the military; whether at West Point, Tailhook, or the Air Force Academy the stories are the same - discrimination, harassment, even rape. Military and civilian leaders respond that the claims are exaggerated or merely the result of "a few bad apples." Although investigations are held and policies issued, little significant change to the culture of the military takes place. Dr. Hunter goes behind the headlines to examine the underlying factors that, not only contribute to, but actually encourage, sexual abuse in the military. Honor Betrayed examines how traditional military training leads to the creation of an environment hostile to men perceived to be homosexual and to all women. Honor Betrayed includes numerous first-person accounts of American servicewomen and men who were sexually abused by their comrades, including one woman's case that was heard before the U.S. Supreme Court. Dr. Hunter describes how wide spread sexual abuse contributed to the recent prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq. Honor Betrayed does more than identify the problem. Hunter provides specific actions the military can take to reduce the incidence of sexual abuse and thereby improve the mission readiness and effectiveness of the armed forces to face the challenges of the 21st century.
Endorsements
Honor Betrayed challenges readers to set aside pre-conceived notions of sexual behavior in the military. In this pioneering effort, Dr. Hunter presents an excellent blend of history, research and personal accounts. Written to empower, Hunter argues that military leaders can promote the changes necessary to make the military a safer place for those who serve and make our country safer. This book is an important and long overdue resource for anyone interested in an incisive look at the dynamics and impact of sexual abuse in the military. Honor Betrayed belongs in the library of any practitioner who treats victims of military sexual abuse, as well as military officials who set policy over such matters.
Larry A. Morris, Ph.D. Co-author of Males at Risk: The Other Side of Child Sexual Abuse, Author of The Male Heterosexual: Lust in His Loins, Sin in His Soul?
"Mic Hunter helps us understand a topic that nobody wants to talk about. Nobody, that is, except the thousands and thousands victims who have never had a voice. For a long time, one of the military's dirtiest secrets has been the prevalence of male-male sexual assault within the ranks. Now, thanks to Hunter's incredible research, we can begin to have a conversation about the perpetrators, the victims, and the system that all too often turns a blind eye to rape."
Aaron Belkin
Associate Professor of Political Science
Director of the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military,
University of California, Santa Barbara
“Dr. Hunter proposes an impressively comprehensive volume that would be a welcome addition to the growing literature addressing sexual abuse in a military environment. As events of recent years illustrate, the institution of the military poses unique challenges for those attempting to disentangle the complex relationships between power, gender, and sexuality. A volume such as this will, I believe, make a significant contribution to our understanding of how abuse might be prevented and how those involved in situations of abuse might best be helped."
Dr. Melissa Sheridan Embser-Herbert, Associate Professor of Sociology, Hamline University, Author of Camouflage isn't Only For combat: Gender, Sexuality, & Women in the Military.
”In the age of Abu Ghraib, Mic Hunter has given us the needed background to understand the role of sexual abuse in the military. Detailing the long history of the issue, Hunter makes his points incisively and illustrates his story with examples that illuminate without sensationalizing.”
Richard B. Gartner, Ph.D.
About The Author
Dr. Mic Hunter holds Minnesota licenses as a Psychologist, and Marriage and Family Therapist. He has been sought out by the print and broadcast media for interviews over 100 times including Oprah, CNN, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. He has presented throughout North America to professional audiences and the general public over 200 times. He has presented at the meetings of the American Association Of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists, the Society for the Scientific Study of Sex, the American Psychological Association, and at all of the national conferences on male sexual abuse survivors, including giving two keynote addresses. He has served as a reviewer for The Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, The Journal of Men's Studies, The Journal of Interpersonal Violence, and Violence Against Women. He is a recipient of the Fay Honey Knopp Memorial Award, given by the National Organization on Male Sexual Victimization, "For recognition of his contributions to the field of male sexual victimization treatment and knowledge." In addition to articles, Mic is the author, co-author, or editor of eight books including Abused Boys: The Neglected Victims of Sexual Abuse, The Sexually Abused Male Volumes I & II, Child Victims & Perpetrators Of Sexual Abuse, Adult Survivors Of Sexual Abuse: Treatment Innovations, The Ethical Use of Touch in Psychotherapy, and The American Barbershop: A Closer Look At A Disappearing Place.
Whose News?
The Media and Women's Issues
Second Edition, 2006
Edited by:
Ammu Joseph Independent journalist
Kalpana Sharma The Hindu, Bombay
Description:
The First Edition of Whose News?: The Media and Women’s Issues (1994) quickly became an international classic which was widely used both by students and practitioners. The decade that has passed since its publication has witnessed dramatic developments in the media environment across the world. As a consequence, the coverage of gender issues in the media today has to be viewed and evaluated against the background of globalization in general and media globalization in particular.
This is just what this new and updated edition of the 1994 classic does. In particular, it addresses the set of questions that has arisen in recent years concerning women’s access (as users) to the media and to information, their participation in media and communication structures, and their portrayal and perspectives in media content.
This new edition retains its unique gender analysis of media content, and situates, views and evaluates the coverage of gender issues in the media within the context of recent trends in both the economy and the media industry. Employing a novel and nuanced methodology, it offers a distinctive view of the history of both the media and the women’s movement in India at the beginning of the 21st century. It also examines current media coverage of women’s issues such as dowry-related violence, rape, sex selection, Muslim women’s legal rights, and the practice of sati.
Overall, this topical and insightful book vividly depicts the complexities of media representations of women. It will be of considerable interest to media professionals, students of mass communications and journalism, and those concerned about the status of women in contemporary India.
Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence
By Sonali Kolhatkar and James Ingalls
Release Date: September, 2006
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
Description
In the years following 9/11, U.S. policy in Afghanistan has received little scrutiny, either from the media or the public. Despite official claims of democracy and women’s freedom, Afghanistan has yet to emerge from the ashes of decades-long war. Through in-depth research and detailed historical context, Sonali Kolhatkar and James Ingalls report on the injustice of U.S. policies in Afghanistan historically and in the post-9/11 era.
Drawing from declassified government documents and on-the-ground interviews with Afghan activists, journalists, lawyers, refugees, and students, Bleeding Afghanistan examines the connections between the U.S. training and arming of Mujahideen commanders and the subversion of Afghan democracy today. Bleeding Afghanistan boldly critiques the exploitation of Afghan women to justify war by both conservatives and liberals, analyzes uncritical media coverage of U.S. policies, and examines the ways in which the U.S. benefits from being in Afghanistan.
About the Authors
SONALI KOLHATKAR and JAMES INGALLS are the co-directors of the Afghan Women’s Mission, a U.S.-based non-profit organization that works with the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA).
Their writings have appeared in Z Magazine, Foreign Policy in Focus, on Alternet, Common Dreams, and in CounterPunch.
In February 2005, Kolhatkar and Ingalls traveled to Afghanistan to witness firsthand the results of U.S.policy, and to understand how ordinary Afghans felt about the war.
Sonali Kolhatkar is the host and producer of Uprising, a popular, daily, drive-time program on KPFK, Pacifica Radio in Los Angeles.
James Ingalls is a Staff Scientist at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology.
The International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) Publication Looks at Trends and Challenges of Working in Media
Voices of Women Media Leaders is a report that focuses on some of the major trends and challenges that affect women who work in the international news media.
The report builds on a panel the IWMF held in September 2003. Women executives from seven major news organizations, including the Associated Press, CBS News, National Public Radio, Knight Ridder Digital, Newsday, NBC and the Missouri School of Journalism, discussed major issues facing the news business. They were joined by an audience of some 40 women journalists, who participated in a Q and A session. The IWMF then interviewed international women journalists about the same issues discussed at the panel. The result is Voices of Women Media Leaders.
"By publishing Voices of Women Media Leaders, the IWMF seeks to encourage an ongoing discussion about the major issues facing the media today," said IWMF co-chair Larry Olmstead of Knight Ridder. "The perspectives are those of some of the top women engaged in the profession around the world. In this way, we hope to add women's voices to debate about the future of the media."
Topics addressed in Voices of Women Media Leaders include the lack of training opportunities for journalists, diversity in newsrooms, the impact of technology on the news media, how to capture the youth audience and the difference in perception about international coverage between the U.S. and the rest of the world.
The IWMF was launched in 1990 with a mission to strengthen the role of women in the news media worldwide, based on the belief that no press is truly free unless women share an equal voice. The IWMF network includes more than 1,500 women and men in the media in more than 130 countries worldwide. The IWMF is celebrating its Fifteenth Anniversary Year in 2005.
For further information or to order a copy of Voices of Women Media Leaders, contact Erin Henk at the IWMF, (202) 496-1992, EHenk@iwmf.org. To read an online version of Voices of Women Media Leaders, go to http://iwmf.org/pub/p-8747/e-8751/.
Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press
Washington, DC
www.wifp.org