Anyone wishing to see a thought-provoking film grounded in real-life issues should see “Dessert Flower”, a film that chronicles the life of Somali supermodel turned human rights activist Waris Dirie. Based on her 1998 bestselling autobiographical novel of the same title, the story is told through flashbacks. This film, written and directed by German director Sherry Hormann, features Ethiopian model Liya Kebede in the lead role as Dirie. The narrative begins where Waris does: in the scorching deserts of Somalia with her family who were nomadic shepherds. The opening shot of a brightly bloomed yellow flower is contrasted against the bleak landscape of the East African dessert, this becomes a lasting symbol of Waris, and of her ability to survive and thrive against suppressing odds. At the age of 13 Dirie takes a desperate journey across the Somali desert alone to escape an arranged marriage (as a 4th wife) to a much older man. She would later become one of the first to speak out against female genital mutilation (FGM), a brutal ritual that she endured as a young girl. Flashbacks show us the 13-year-old Waris who fled her homeland, and later the 3-year-old Waris who was taken to a female elder by her mother so that her external genitalia could be painfully cut away and her vagina essentially sown shut so as to preserve her virginity for her future husband. The procedure, which has no legitimate purpose other than to serve male interests, is still practiced in many countries today on what is estimated to be around 6,000 girls worldwide per day (according to statistics stated in the film), many of whom don’t even survive.
Hormann tells Waris Dirie’s story through a more contemporary and up-to-date lens utilizing a few aesthetic embell...
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...s still felt, the perseverance of Waris Dirie and the courage of the women she represents is deeply inspiring and remarkable. Waris now uses her recognition to make the world aware of the mutilation that still occurs today all over the world in the name of religion and tradition.
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Works Cited
Costa, Diego. “Dessert Flower.” Rev. of Dessert Flower. Dir Sherry Hormann.
Slantmagazine.com. 17 Mar. 2011. Web. 30 May, 2014.
Dessert Flower. Dir. Sherry Hormann. Perf. Liya Kebede, Sally Hawkins, Timothy Spall, Juliette Stevenson. National Geographic Entertainment. 2011. DVD.
Ebert. Roger. “Dessert Flower.” Rev. of Dessert Flower, Dir. Sherry Hormann. Rogerebert.com. Roger Ebert Reviews, 31 Mar. 2011.
Moore. Omar. Desert Rose' a Majestic, Moving Journey of Supermodel Waris Dirie. Rev. of Dessert Flower. Dir Sherry Hormann. Examiner.com. 29 Mar. 2011.
The women in Nampossela lack the social and economic rights to make many significant decisions about their life. Due to her simultaneous position as an outsider and a member of the group, Holloway becomes an unbiased outlet that Monique and other woman can speak with regarding their difficulties. One such difficulty amongst women in Mali that Holloway discovered was female circumcision. Holloway, prior to her visit to Mali, was aware of the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in rural villages. However, the intense birth of Korotun’s daughter causes Holloway to question the reasoning behind the traditional cutting. In response to Holloway’s mention of FGM, Monique explains her painful experience of circumcision at nine or ten and her thoughts on the subject, “Here we say that koloboli helps girls become good wives and bear children…it does not help the baby pass through…”(114). The practice of FGM in Mali occurs often enough that Monique had never met an uncut woman prior to Holloway, whose western background does not practice FGM.
The overall theme of the documentary is women and girls oppression. However, in the specific story from Cambodia that was analyzed, the theme is the quote from Somaly Mam, “I help them but they help me.” There are two differences in similarities that are found. The first being prostitution and sex slavery; although they both involve the exchange of sex for money, prostitution is voluntary and sex slavery is not. The second is the differences in each girl’s story, even though they were all sold to brothels.
Despite its popularity in Africa, FGM is under scrutiny by members of the international human rights community. In 1993, female circumcision was deemed harmful by the international Human Rights Conference in Vienna . The World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the UN Population Fund have planned programs designed to “completely eliminate [female genital mutilation] within three generations” , on the basis that FGM is a human rights violation. This gives rise to the obvious question as to whether human rights activists and organizations should be sensitive to the cultural practices of the people of Africa. Some human rights activists have even professed FGM as a “knock-down counterargument to cultural relativism”, and use the practice as an example of how hum...
A lady is an object, one which men attempt to dominate. A man craves to get a hold of this being beneath his command, and forever have her at his disposal. In her piece “Size Six: The Western Women’s Harem,” published in 2002, Fatema Mernissi illustrates how Eastern and Western women are subjugated by the control of men. Mernissi argues that though she may have derived from a society where a woman has to cover her face, a Western woman has to face daily atrocities far worse then ones an Eastern woman will encounter. Moreover, Mernissi’s core dogma in “Size 6: The Western Women's Harem” is that Western women are not more fortunate than women raised into harems in other societies. Additionally, she asserts that though women in the Western world are given liberties, they coincide with the unattainable ideals of what is aesthetically pleasing. Furthermore, to strengthen her argument towards her wavering audience, Mernissi’s main approach in her paper is to get the reader to relate with her issue by means of an emotional appeal, while also utilizing both the ethical and logical appeal to support her thesis.
documentary, Rape in the Fields, the troubling outcomes of working in the fields is finally given
There’s a organization today to help stop this critical dilemma. Woman all over the world are fighting for this practice who has affected woman for more than 5,000 years. These entire women want to have their voices heard. Everyone and anyone can help fight back for this young girls and woman by giving donations to bring this dreadful experience to an end. Donations can be made on www.stopfgmnow.com. Because If the community won’t help stop it people doing it won’t. “Female genital mutilation targets little girls, baby girls – fragile angels who cannot fight back. It’s a crime against humanity. It’s abuse. Its absolute criminal and we have to stop it – Waris Dirie
In the society, women can be prone to different kinds of violence. The book “I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced” is a true representative of this. Written from the first person, it is a real expression of the experiences of Nujood Ali and her suffering. This is a personal autobiography of the little Yemen girl who was married off when she was only 10 years of age. In Yemen, young girls are forcefully married off to men who are way ahead of them in terms of age. It might be that many of them do not come out to challenge the decisions that are imposed on them by their families. However, Nujood had the courage to come out and speak on behalf of other young girls like her and also women who are forced into suffering and oppression. Young girls should not be forced into marriage and it is
In Searching for “Voices”: Feminism, Anthropology, and the Global Debates over Female Genital Operations, Walley discusses the social issues concerning female genital operations as perceived by “westerners”, as well as discusses her ethnographic account of female circumcision. Her main purpose of doing this was to lay the groundwork for “a more productive feminist and anthropological debate” capable of going beyond the binary terms in which female circumcisions are usually discussed. Since female circumcisions are known by a variety of names, such as female genital mutilation and female genital torture, and with her understanding of the negative connotation often associated with those varieties of names, Walley makes the decision to adopt the term female genital operations instead. In 1988, Walley went in the village of KiKhome, in western Kenya as an English teacher and immersed herself in the lives of the people living around the village to better understand the practice of female genital operations as an outsider. One day, some of her students invited her to assist at a female genital operation ceremony. She found out that the participants see circumcision as a rite of passage into adulthood. However, she truly wanted to know the participants’ personal views on the topic rather than the imposed views of their parents and their culture. The four women she interviewed told her that “their custom was good,” and it was something that a person needs to accept with her whole being not to feel the pain. Nevertheless, some of the women told her that they would not want their daughters to undergo circumcision, and that they themselves regretted having done the procedure. Walley finally gave up “searching for real voices,” because what t...
In the past women have suffered from inequalities where women have been stopped from achieving their goals and dreams. One can argue that this is not true, they can simply say it was a different time period, a different set of social norms, different traditions, but the reality is that women back in the days compared to today are still facing many issues with inequality it can also be seen in the way female characters are displayed among television and film. For instance, in the film “Fifty Shades of Gray” Anestia is a female character that is portrayed as a female who has no voice for herself and has to learn how to be submissive just so she can remain by the side of the man she claims to love which is Christian Gray. Anestia eventually learns to not have a voice as to what she truly wants and desires from him, and becomes okay with the idea of following his orders. This film has sent a message to young females that it is okay to not take a stand and not have a voice for themselves with situations they are not happy with. This film is a perfect example to demonstrate how female inequality is still being persuaded among our society through films and television. But films like Amelie are changing females life into encouraging females to take action and follow their
She was the first of her kind. An inspiration to young and old. Someone who chased their dream and never gave up. She believed in equality among both sexes. Linda McCartha Monica Sandy-Lewis was her name. She was better known as Calypso Rose. Calypso Rose is the ambassador of Caribbean music.
...ts and African Resistance: Female Circumcision in a Broader Comparative Perspective. Global Jurist Frontiers, 4(2), 1-23.
Beyond losing self to the whims or caprices of men is the role other women play as victimizers and oppressors. There is a difference between women helping culture to suppress other women, and women being wicked and victimizing other women. Mireille’s madness is a buildup of partly her husband’s infidelity and partly the betrayal of women who are supposed to stand with her. These women knew firsthand what it means to be discriminated against both culturally and racially, based on their experience with colonialism and their own culture, still they were the biggest opposition she faced in her sane life. Mireille, Yaye Khadi, and Oulematou are all oppressed women, and their races, and social class, are a big barrier to their bonding. The point of the novel then becomes a plea at understanding and appropriating the differences that we might have.
Young women all over the world including places like Yemen in southwest Asia, Malawi, and Sudan, both in Africa, have dreams of being very successful independent women when they grow up. They envision themselves to become doctors, lawyers, and even teachers. They desire an education to make money and for once in their lives, to not live in poverty. Unfortunately, these young women will never live to see their dreams come true because almost fifty percent of them will be forced into marriage, with a complete stranger who is more than double their age. Child marriages are not uncommon issues in these undeveloped countries. Sadly, young women, as young as eight years old are forced into marriage. They are also forced into having the mindset where society’s sole purpose for women is only to reproduce. Child marriages happen for many reasons. For example, many girls are pressured onto marriages by their family members to they can receive dowry payments. Mothers and fathers are willing to sell off their female children for cows, cattle and other animals to escape poverty. Other young women become pregnant, nine and ten year old girls are getting raped by their boyfriends, or soon to be husbands (Human Rights Watch). They are unaware with what sex even is. They do not have any experience, they are scared and have absolutely no choice or say when put in these hostile situations. Child marriages violate young women’s human rights all over the world and there is not enough being done to stop this from occurring.
...sued a public statement, endorsed by 500 doctors, declaring their opposition to the attempted repeals. The UNICEF-European Union programme on FGM/C, which began in 2008, concluded. During that period, 17,772 families of girls were at risk commit to abandon FGM. (UNICEF) Current reports seem to indicate a decreasing popularity of FGM in Upper Egypt (El-Gibaly). demonstrating that the reform process is slowing
Ramatoulaye writes this letter to her best friend as a way to cope with the death and betrayal of her husband; however, it is her, Daba, and Aissatou, that create awareness for the audience of how divided the perceptions held by both traditional and modern mindsets are. The author implements these characters to showcase the perpetual transformation of women in Senegalese society, through utilizing these women as liberal, rational women that question the societal norm. They are no longer remaining submissive and accepting the inequalities traditional practice has established; but rather, they advocate feminism and fight for equal rights for both men and women.