Half the sky - Turning oppression into opportunity for women

Book - Half the sky. Amazon link

Written by Nikolas Kristof and Sheryl Dunof.
Why this post?
A google blog search with this title returns 6 million results. Meaning 6 million blog posts containing this term. Assuming that even if 1/6th of them are actually about this book, it still makes it a million. Then why am i even writing this post?
Ans - Because i do not want this book to go off my brain that easily.

Why this book?
I joined this meetup - Politically inspired book club. They read one book each month and then meet to discuss it. This was their Feb book and i read it too. Very rarely, i would read a book with so little background check, normally, i would wait until i have heard the book mention in many places before i dive in. Or it has to stand out way out of the way for me to read it. But this one - i just took it based on the face value - more so because i had been meaning to join a book reading club for a long time. The title was interesting and it was rated good on amazon. All were enough for me to read this book.

About the book -
The book is a study of women related issues across the globe focusing on topics such as prostitution, slave trade, mortality rates, abuse, rape and gender inequality issues. It focuses mainly on third world countries, mainly India, Pakistan, and African nations like Congo, Rwanda and their likes. After covering some of the issues, the book also covers some solutions that have worked such as micro-credit, kiva, it covers NGO/aid work going in these areas and how it has changed perople's lives. Lastly, the book covers on how you can help these women and discusses many ideas.


Review -
The above section is waste. No matter what i write, it can not explain what is written in the book. The first 100 pages were a torture to read, issues, issues - how can anyone do this? In India? Really! ? Near Nagpur, in kolkatta? where was the govt. ? Everyone knows? Why is no one saying anything? India shining huh!? Tears! Dude, this has happened, it is happening! Everyone knows. Some do, others read, and many remain ignorant. Stories, real stories - make you throw up, shout, anger! - helplessness. One after the another, acid throwing, fistula, sex-trafficking and it goes on and on. In my anyways pessimistic views about society, this book goes deep and takes me further down in my fears.

Yet after 100 pages or so, there are some solutions, not solutions but people who are making a difference, people who are not afraid, people - mostly women, some have lived it, others just felt it. The second half of this 250 page book gives hope and last section is almost a plea for help - come forward and make a difference.

Nothing above that you read will make any difference, until you have read the book. I will have to read this book again - when i gather enough courage, may be when time is right.

About the meetup -
Loved the meetup. Let me build the ambiance - It was on a Thursday evening - 8 pm to 10 pm at Red Rock cafe's second floor. Meetup over coffee is the culture in this part of the world and i like it. 9 people had RSVPed yes and 8 showed up. Two tables were joined and everyone sat down with hot coffee or tea. But there was just one oddity - Out of 8 discussing a totally feministic book - there were 7 women and 1 man (me!) Women came from all age groups and all backgrounds. There was one from India, one from Iran, one studying psychology, couple of them were over 50. Who cares about these statistics?

And yet, in this women dominated group, a sufficient amount of time was spent in discussing an idea that had completely skipped my mind. A women had posed this question - In many stories, it was always men who had an upper hand and women were oppressed. So, men would waste their money on drinks, drugs etc while women would save for food, children etc. Do you think that if it was other way around, women with higher power than men, earning higher than men, would they have behaved similarly, would they also be reckless in their habits?
i had not thought about it. Most women said yes.

We discussed randomly, each making some points, citing examples from the book, from personal lives etc. It was a very good discussion.

This was the meetup link - http://www.meetup.com/PoliticallyInspired/calendar/12390769/

The link has a link to a movie related to the subject above. But i do not have the courage to watch it now.

Next meetup is about Manufacturing Consent by Chomsky. I already have it from my library.