Nothing But Red
I recently read a guest blog on a popular book review site about violence towards women, mainly involving the phenomenon of "honor killings", but also relatable to other serious episodes of violence directed towards women in foreign countries, many times for reasons that most Westerners cannot understand. The guest blog post wasn't just about violence but also spreading the word about a project aimed at ending it called Nothing But Red. People interested in helping are encouraged to write essays, poems, fictional short stories, and create art work for an anthology entitled "Nothing But Red" that is due for an April 2008 release with all proceeds going towards addressing this issue.
This issue is difficult for me to broach. It is painful, it is frustrating, and made me cry many times when I was a student in college. I, for whatever reason, looked into this issue an awful lot during my early years of college. I even wrote my entrance essay about Amina Lawal, a Nigerian woman who came close to being stoned to death for reasons similar to the fatal stoning of Dua Khalil Aswad that sparked this project, and also found similar horrifying accounts of violence towards women in many other places including China and Albania in my subsequent studies.
Many of the things I read were terrifying and took an emotional toll on me. I have a tendency to over-empathize, even with the past pains of distant strangers. I have since then gravitated away from the issue, maybe because of that. If I had felt that I could have done something about it, then maybe I would not have removed myself so thoroughly. Some of the things I read about I could never bring myself to even talk about with anyone else; I can't imagine having to endure them. I probably wouldn't be strong enough. I might not survive. Many women don't.
And there I've went, making this all about me and it's not. It's about them and the fact that I shouldn't hide behind my fear and empathetic pain as an excuse to do nothing. I may not be able to participate in this project as I am not an essayist nor do I have specialized skills in organization or promotion, but that does not mean that I cannot find other ways to address this issue. Whether or not you decide to participate in Nothing But Red, I hope that you can, and will, also find your own way to get involved in stopping this sort of violence towards women.
I recently read a guest blog on a popular book review site about violence towards women, mainly involving the phenomenon of "honor killings", but also relatable to other serious episodes of violence directed towards women in foreign countries, many times for reasons that most Westerners cannot understand. The guest blog post wasn't just about violence but also spreading the word about a project aimed at ending it called Nothing But Red. People interested in helping are encouraged to write essays, poems, fictional short stories, and create art work for an anthology entitled "Nothing But Red" that is due for an April 2008 release with all proceeds going towards addressing this issue.
This issue is difficult for me to broach. It is painful, it is frustrating, and made me cry many times when I was a student in college. I, for whatever reason, looked into this issue an awful lot during my early years of college. I even wrote my entrance essay about Amina Lawal, a Nigerian woman who came close to being stoned to death for reasons similar to the fatal stoning of Dua Khalil Aswad that sparked this project, and also found similar horrifying accounts of violence towards women in many other places including China and Albania in my subsequent studies.
Many of the things I read were terrifying and took an emotional toll on me. I have a tendency to over-empathize, even with the past pains of distant strangers. I have since then gravitated away from the issue, maybe because of that. If I had felt that I could have done something about it, then maybe I would not have removed myself so thoroughly. Some of the things I read about I could never bring myself to even talk about with anyone else; I can't imagine having to endure them. I probably wouldn't be strong enough. I might not survive. Many women don't.
And there I've went, making this all about me and it's not. It's about them and the fact that I shouldn't hide behind my fear and empathetic pain as an excuse to do nothing. I may not be able to participate in this project as I am not an essayist nor do I have specialized skills in organization or promotion, but that does not mean that I cannot find other ways to address this issue. Whether or not you decide to participate in Nothing But Red, I hope that you can, and will, also find your own way to get involved in stopping this sort of violence towards women.
posted by Tatterdemallion at 8:05 AM
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