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- From: harelb@math.cornell.edu (Harel Barzilai)
- Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
- Subject: 3rd WORLD RESOURCES V8N3 -- BOOKS (pt 1)
- Message-ID: <1992Aug28.160251.21277@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
- Date: 28 Aug 92 16:02:51 GMT
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- [Via misc.activism.progressive from PeaceNet's twr.nl]
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- The following is from the quarterly magazine, THIRD WORLD
- RESOURCES: A QUARTERLY REVIEW OF RESOURCES FROM AND ABOUT THE THIRD
- WORLD; subscriptions to the 24-page hardcopy edition are $35/year
- (organizations) and $35/two years (individuals). For rates outside
- North America, write to: Third World Resources, 464 19th Street,
- Oakland, CA 94612-2297 USA. See also their conference `twr.nl' on
- PeaceNet, or email to tfenton@igc.org (Tom Fenton)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- Topic 123 BOOKS, 8:3 - 1992 Response 1 of 16
- tfenton
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-
- ***<AND SHE SAID NO! HUMAN RIGHTS, WOMEN'S IDENTITIES AND
- STRUGGLES.> Liberato Bautista and Elizabeth Rifareal, eds.
- National Council of Churches in the Philippines, Program
- Unit on Human Rights, 879 Epifanio de los Santos Ave.,
- Quezon City, Philippines. 1990. xviii + 188 pp. ISBN 971-
- 8548-50-5. Illustrations, list of contributors.
- Liberato Bautista and Elizabeth Rifareal set out in 1987 to
- produce a monograph on women and human rights. Contributions
- came from every part of the Philippines, and though not all
- the authors are Filipinas, all speak from firsthand and
- longtime Philippine experience.
-
- Clear themes emerged as the editors arranged their material:
- women's place in church and society, women's experience of
- human rights violations (whether in their own person or in
- their husbands and children), and women's struggle for human
- rights. The title derives from Helen Graham's brief but
- meaty article, recalling the biblical case of Queen Vashti,
- the wife of the Persian king Ahasuerus. Vashti refused to
- appear on command and show her beauty before the king and
- his "drunken cronies." She was accused of corrupting all the
- women of the empire by her example and of challenging the
- established patriarchal structure. She was dismissed, a new
- queen was chosen, and the system was secured. But the "No"
- had been spoken and even we of the twentieth century hear
- it.
-
- Vashti's story relates directly to the stories of the book.
- The editors explain that the "writers of this book trace the
- story of how women have been conditioned to reject
- opportunities and responsibilities accorded only to men.
- They remind us that for centuries, women have been taught to
- say <No> to conditions that would put them on equal footing
- with their male counterparts because of the accepted belief
- that they belong to the less superior half of the human
- species....The women whose voices are heard in this volume
- remind us that women today still say <No!> But this
- time...women are saying <No> to centuries of
- domination,...to a socialization which prepares them from
- childhood to become `good' mothers, wives, daughters
- according to models created by the expectations and needs of
- men,...to sexist practices that reduce their worth,...to a
- religiosity and theology which fail to remember that men and
- women are equal in the eyes of God."
-
- These "life stories of real persons" may have sprung from
- the Philippine reality, but they are universal in content
- and appeal. The editors admit that--to their surprise--the
- process of producing this book turned even their own already
- informed concept of the topic upside down. The reader will
- be similarly affected if she or he allows it.
-
-