CultureWatch Book Reviews: Uprising by Sally Armstrong and Joan L. Cannon's New Poems

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Author Armstrong notes in Uprising that "The new wave of change isn't about giving the 'little woman'" a fair shake or even about pushing reluctant regimes to adhere to hard-won international laws relating to women. It is based on the notion that the world can no longer afford to oppress half its population. "Together men and women are the two wings of a bird — both wings have to be not wounded, not broken, in order to push the bird forward." Cannon's new book of poetry, My Mind is Made of Crumbs, while dealing with pain and loss, others express the deep connection of their long and happy marriage.

UPRISING; A New Day is Dawning for Every Mother’s Daughter

Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press; Paperback; 255 pp

Sally Armstrong, a Canadian journalist whose earlier books have dealt with the lives of the women of Afghanistan, has branched out to include coverage of women in places all across the world, who are speaking up and taking action in ways undreamed of in earlier times. The following is from the second paragraph of the opening page of her book:

"The new wave of change isn't about giving the 'little woman' " a fair shake or even about pushing reluctant regimes to adhere to hard-won international laws relating to women. It is based on the notion that the world can no longer afford to oppress half its population. The economist Jeffrey Sachs, spearheading the United Nations Millennium Project, claims that the status of women is directly related to the economy: when one is flourishing, so is the other; when one is in the ditch, so is the other. The World Bank asserts that if women and girls are treated fairly, the economy of a village will improve."

She follows this with statements from several experts; my favorite of those comes from Sima Samar, chair of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, who says: "Together men and women are the two wings of a bird — both wings have to be not wounded, not broken, in order to push the bird forward."

In what has at times become a strident name-and-blame game between men and women, the emphasis of this book is steadfastly positive, reporting on the advances made when education and opportunities for women, especially young women, have had good effect on their communities and even on the official policies of their countries.

Often it is technology that is given credit for reaching formerly closed societies and inspiring them to try to update their customs, but Ms. Armstrong notes that civic unrest and war in places like Afghanistan, or epidemics like the HIV/Aids scourge throughout Africa, may also stir the pot of discontent. It is especially the young people, whose knowledge of the world is indeed broadened by technology, who begin to question old customs and taboos. Unquestioning obedience to outdated rules is suddenly challenged as young people become aware of different ways of thinking, and access to the age of information brings common ground that crosses borders and religious rules.

Ms. Armstrong uses specific cases to enrich her claims, with references to everyone from Malala Yousafzai who was shot by the Taliban for trying to get an education, to Molly Melching, an exchange student in Senegal, whose cause became the eradication of the cultural practice of FGM (female genital mutilation).

According to Ms. Armstrong, in working to change such practices, outsiders are often told " 'it's just our culture, our religion; it's none of your business.' But when misogyny is passed off as 'our way,' when women and girls are denied an education, denied access to health care, exposed to daily rations of violence, even killed, then surely it is the obligation of everyone to speak out, to insist that what is happening here is not cultural but criminal."

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CultureWatch Book Reviews: Uprising by Sally Armstrong and Joan L. Cannon's New Poems

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