The war on women and the brave ones who fight back

Written by Sue Lloyd-Roberts Simon & Schuster, 2016 ISBN 9781471153907

“Can you imagine holding down your five-year-old daughter, and they are cutting her and she is screaming and calling out ‘Mum’ and Mum is the one holding down your legs and there is nothing Mum can do?” says 36-year-old Maimouna from the Gambia. This is the moment Maimouna decides not to follow in her mother’s footsteps to become the village circumciser, a highly regarded and financially rewarding position in her local community. She flees Gambia, leaving her children behind, is denied asylum in the UK and lives with the daily threat of being deported back to Gambia. Her husband has remarried and her children are in the care of a neighbour. If Maimouna is forced to return, she will be forced to cut. Otherwise, she will be killed.

Maimouna features in a BBC documentary about female genital mutilation (FGM) (https://www.you-tube.com/watch?v=pVCgC6Lucwc) and the first chapter of The War on Women, both from the hand of Sue Lloyd-Roberts, a multi-award winning journalist. Lloyd-Roberts spent most of her 30-year-long career reporting about human rights abuses and atrocities worldwide. In The War on Women she puts the spotlight on women’s lives. It is an over-whelming account of places in the world where women cannot decide about their own lives and bodies. Where women are bought and sold, abused, raped, tortured and killed. Where women are inferior to men and need to be controlled, because their intelligence and sexuality might be a threat to men. Where ‘all that matters for a woman are the three Vs: her vagina, her virginity and her virtue.’

The book describes how culture, tradition and religion are used to explain why women are treated this way. In Amman, Lloyd-Roberts visits a man who is serving a six-month sentence in prison for killing his sister. She dishonoured his family by choosing her own husband. “We are in charge of the chastity of our women. If she loses her chastity, the honour of the family is lost. This thing will continue, and rightly so. It is our way”, says the man, a hero according to his fellow-inmates. It is considered normal behaviour for UN Peacekeeping forces to use the sexual services of trafficked young women. When these young women want to testify against their abusers, the police are not interested, as described in the aptly titled chapter ‘Boys will be boys’. An imam is quoted on FGM: “The Prophet did it, (….) and so this is legalized by Islamic law”. Neither the Koran nor the Bible mentions FGM.

‘A powerful reminder of how far we still have to go before equality is achieved’
Louise Callaghan, Sunday Times

THE WAR ON WOMEN AND THE BRAVE ONES WHO FIGHT BACK
Sue Lloyd-Roberts and Sarah Morris

‘She showed great courage and commitment’
Aung San Suu Kyi

Lloyd-Roberts is not afraid. She travels to sometimes unsafe countries, using disguises and acting skills if necessary to reach her goal. She visits and accompanies the women involved, but also talks to government officials, religious leaders and local men. Her stories are thoroughly researched and well written. They make you angry, sad and maybe leave you dispirited. Lloyd-Roberts’ purpose is not only to inform and make the reader aware of the human rights abuses against women worldwide. She also wants to portray the people who fight for women’s rights and try to change cultural, traditional and religious practices. One of these people is Isa Touray, director of a non-governmental organisation. She presents Gambian village leaders with arguments to stop FGM and hold ‘Drop the knife ceremonies’ to stop initiating girls by mutilation. Another example is a campaign against male shop assistants in lingerie shops in Saudi Arabia. Perhaps a minor issue in the light of human right abuses, but says Reem Assad about her successful Facebook campaign, “It sums up the craziness of attitudes towards women in the only country in the world where women are not allowed to drive”. Her next campaign is about a better infra-structure to send women to work, i.e. a safe transport system (so women can travel unaccompanied by male relatives) and day-care facilities for working women in a country that is called ‘the world’s largest women’s prison’. Another group that wants to change cultural views of how women should behave is Operation Anti Sexual Harassment (OpAntiSH) in Egypt. This group of young men and women, including survivors of sexual assault, form a force against pre-planned gang sexual assaults of women during demonstrations. The first few days of the 2011 uprising in Tahrir Square were called the Age of Chivalry because men and women were free to demonstrate side by side. This changed very quickly when gangs of men and the military isolated female demonstrators and sexually assaulted them. Again, this happened during the demonstrations in 2012/13 against President Morsi. The OpAntiSH provided an essential service in rescuing and protecting women, a service the Egyptian government was unwilling to provide because the women “know they are among thugs. By getting herself involved in such circumstances, the woman has 100 percent responsibility.”

This book is the result of Lloyds-Roberts’ anger about the wrong done to women. It shows her passion to uncover injustice and her skill in making difficult subjects into inter-esting stories. My advice: read it.

IT IS AN OVERWHELMING ACCOUNT OF PLACES IN THE WORLD WHERE WOMEN CANNOT DECIDE ABOUT THEIR OWN LIVES AND BODIES.