When being a woman becomes a fault – uomini e donne

“Burned alive” is a very beautiful book. It has nothing like it was written, its style, what matters is the story. The story of this woman who has, as her only fault, that of being born a woman. Indeed female. Because girls, according to her father,  are worth less than sheep and goats.

Unfortunately, we know that there are deeply sexist cultures, where women are in no way involved. But reading is different.  Reading, word for word, the beatings, the humiliations and sufferings of a 15 years old girl and her sister made me shiver. It makes one shudder even more to know that his brother, always and only for being a “man” (and I write it in quotes because I do not think that it is), has always been entitled to do what he wanted: entering and leaving at will, looking to everyone in the face, and beating and humiliating women.

Yes, women. How strange, in some countries being a woman means being a special being, have a gift, different emotional intelligence from that of men, and so on and so forth.

But, elsewhere in the world, the birth of a woman becomes a disgrace. If you already have too many daughters, then you erase them.  Just born. First they smile for seeing their mother’s face  for the first time, and a moment later that same face permanently delete their lives.

And these mothers cannot do anything about it.  For them this is right. For the culture where they grew up, it is right that a wife serves her husband, washes his feet and takes beatings and beatings when she is wrong. And their daughters receive this inheritance. They will still marry young virgins, demonstrating to entire villages that they were indeed. Is inherited a husband who has the exact same way of the father.

And rightly so for their daughters. Seeking freedom in men’s homes which will become prisons. So from mother to daughter to daughter, in an infinite chain.

Fortunately, someone tries to stop this chain. Reading the book you can find a suisse association, SURGIR , trying to help these women, marginalized and disowned by their family. They try to make them escape from certain death, . With some women they already have succeeded, as with Suad, the woman whose life has taken this project, survived the execution and direct witness of honor killings.

Reading this book is not just to confront and be aware of other cultures, but above all means to do not leave alone those women who suffer, day after day, this kind of violence.

(Via http://lentina.wordpress.com/2010/02/26/quando-essere-donna-diventa-una-colpa)

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