Half the Sky

"Half the Sky" showed Sheryl and her husband, Nicholas, going to different countries to help prevent the cruel treatment of young women and make the world aware of these issues. We began by watching about a woman named Somaly Mam, who lives in Cambodia, help survivors who have been victims of sex trafficking.  Somaly helps to free the girls from the brothels that they have been living in. Women in Cambodia "are disposable," Somaly said, and she is trying to make girls feel empowered when she rescues them. These young girls were beaten in brothels but even if they were bleeding or in pain, they still had to take clients. They could see tens of clients in a single day and these clients do not wear condoms. We heard a story about a young girl who was in a brothel for eight years who not only lost an eye because of the abuse she endured, but also got pregnant and was forced to abort it. Even when the girls are able to escape the brothels or are freed, their families reject them and call their daughter a "whore." These victims of sex trafficking can be as young as three years old when they are taken. As Meg Ryan said, who was there to help Nicholas and Somali, "There is no solution, but she's still contributing." The police there do not help with the sex trafficking so there is no solution, but Somaly helps greatly and the purpose for Meg Ryan to say this was to influence others to contribute to eventually eliminate the sex trafficking in Cambodia. A line from this section of the movie that I feel truly summarizes the experience of these young women is from a girl who died from contracting HIV/AIDS. "A few moments of their pleasure killed me." 

The second story we heard was about a women named Edan who lives in Somaliland and helps women give birth. In Somaliland, there is a 1 in 12 chance of dying from childbirth. There are two reasons for this high maternal mortality rate, the first being that the husband has to approve for their wife to have a cesarean section, even in an emergency. The second reason is the extreme amount of women who received genital cutting. This is a procedure similar to a circumcision. Three million women in Africa have genitalia cut and have no say over the matter. These girls are between the ages of five and eight when this cutting happens and it is usually done by family members. After the cutting, these young girls have their legs bound and are not fed. I am left wondering why these girls aren't "circumcised" when they are born, like boys typically are. Edan tries to help these women give birth because it is impossible to have a child naturally after being cut, without cutting more. Nicholas went to speak with a woman in the town who gives many genital cuttings but he faced the difficulty of cultural relativism. The reason behind this cutting was to keep the chastity of girls and lower their sex drive. The woman who does this for a living said the cutting is used to keep women "under control." Because of Edan's work as a midwife, she has recused the mortality to one fourth of the nations original maternal mortality. 

These two women have taken on different issues but have both tried to do something about it and have been highly successful. Somaly was disempowered because she too is a victim of sex trafficking. Edan came from a more privileged background with her father being a doctor and attending a university, but she was also a victim of genital cutting. Although these two women had very different backgrounds, both felt empowered to make a change so what happened to them, would not happen to as many young girls as had been before.