more books... and some hot blood

... thanks anu - the Marjane satrapi series sounds fascinating. indeed, am adding them to my list. remember zahra kazemi? iran has always fascinated me and her sad story made me sit up and wonder what really goes on in those closed societies. the princess series is another i have been wanting to read.

i also remembered an old(er) book i have been meaning to read and now that the movie is about to be released, i'd better hurry up: Memoirs of a geisha. on the topic, check out Jodi Cobb's research for national geographic on geishas. pretty interesting. Cobb is an amazing woman photographer who has also worked with and documented the lives of women in saudi arabia.
so the new added ones are:

1. embroideries
2. Persepolis 1 & 2
3. Princess Series 1,2,3
4. Memoirs of a Geisha
   

of late i have been reading about women in parts of africa who live a dismal, pre-planned existence. pre-planned by their father, who, usually in debt forsakes his daughter (some as young as 9,10) to men as old as 50,60, even 70 in return for debts owed. the little girls become bed-mates and then have pregnancies that are disastrous. they "belong" to their husband's family and usually have no recourse, save courage. and some use that courage to escape, others to just bear night after night of misery.

yesterday i heard the Diane Rehm interview on the Mukhtar Mai episode. much as i like Diane, somehow that interview -- maybe beause of the language barrier -- seemed irrelevant and dislodged given the gravity of the situation. and when one "Madhav" called in to say "women in india have traditionally been worshipped. why are you concentrating on this incident and clubbing india, pakistan and afghanistan?" haan?! the Amnesty guy present correctly said "ask the women who were raped in gujarat their story" were they worshipped? and the women in the north-east? how silly can these Madhav-men get? do they honestly believe that women are worshipped in modern society? that they ever really were? that they were not treated merely as objects owned? ask draupadi. ask any number of women. "worshipped!" my left toe.

sadly, when women bring up the issues of gender and women's rights, even well-read people apathetically dismiss it as "oh there's another woman talking about gender."

given the patriarchal societies that we live in, the day men stand up enmasse to fight for rights denied, we can be granted that apathy. unfortunately until then, whoever cares has to speak up. and more often than not, on women's and children's issues only women care.

i know i sound naiive when i say this, but i wish there was a way out towards equity and justice the world over.