by Sophie Donne
This wonderfully written book, by Stacey Dooley, does more than recount the adventures she went on to film her documentaries, but provides an insight into the realities of many women across the globe. From paedophilia in the Philippines and Japan, to female militias in Syria, this book covers the real stories of real women, who have lived extraordinary and brutal lives.
The topics covered are not for the fainthearted but a necessary read for anyone wanting to learn more about human rights violations committed against women globally. Stacey covers these in a sensitive and balanced way. She starts each chapter by introducing the topic and using factual evidence to describe the issue. She then goes on to introduce real victims of the issues and give a voice and face to them, so as to personalise people who may seem removed from those of us in the Western world. The language that she uses is accessible and easy to follow, it is also engaging and real, portraying Stacey’s true thoughts in the compromising situations she has found herself in.
The topics covered in the book are: prison, immigration, drugs, child abuse, femicide, prostitution, abortion, child sexualisation, murder, war, and survival. Each chapter title includes the topic and also the names of the women mentioned. Although I would definitely recommend reading this book and researching all of the issues mentioned, I would like to discuss one of the topics in more detail - femicide.
The World Health Organisation defines femicide as ‘the intentional murder of women because they are women’ (2012). Whilst Stacey focuses on the case of Heydi Hernández, a woman from Honduras who was brutally maimed by her husband, femicide is rife across the world. Despite Latin America being one of the worst affected areas, with Honduras holding the record with murder being the leading cause of death among women under 24, the issue is also prominent in countries such as South Africa and the UK.
We can deduce that the issue is more prominent in Latin America due to the ‘machismo’ culture, which Stacey also explores. She speaks to inmates at Danlí prison, where 80 of the 600 prisoners were serving time for violence against women. The consensus seemed to be that ‘love’ had driven them to murder because they felt they had been disrespected by their women. They justified their actions as acts of passion, which is a crime with a lesser sentence in Honduras. However, as Stacey said, it seems difficult to believe that someone can spend so much time cutting through flesh and bone as an ‘act of passion’.
The reason why so many of these men believe that they can get away with murdering their wives and girlfriends, is because fewer than 3% of domestic abuse cases are solved in Honduras. On top of that, sentences are often incredibly low. In the case of Heydi, her husband sawed off her legs to stop her from leaving and only received a few years in prison, after which he can leave and murder her.
Overall, the issue of femicide needs to be addressed across the globe by imposing stricter laws. For now, you can help by signing petitions to pressure governments to investigate femicide cases and reevaluate their laws. You can sign a petition here, to get justice for the murder of Karla and Alondra in Mexico: https://www.amnesty.org/en/get-involved/take-action/ni-una-menos/
You can buy Stacey's book at any book store or on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Front-Line-Women-Fight-Back/dp/1785942980/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2U7ZJKNP7B0H4&dchild=1&keywords=stacey+dooley+women+who+fight+back&qid=1611170958&sprefix=stacey+dooley%2Caps%2C151&sr=8-1
For more information, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us and also look at the sources below:
Amnesty International, 2019. South Africa: 'Alarming' Levels Of Gender-Based Violence And Femicide. [online] Available at: <https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/south-africa-alarming-levels-gender-based-violence-and-femicide>
Femicidecensus.org. n.d. Femicide Census – Profiles Of Women Killed By Men. [online] Available at: <https://www.femicidecensus.org/>
Roberts, Y., 2020. ‘If I’m not in on Friday, I might be dead’: chilling facts about UK femicide. The Guardian, [online] Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/nov/22/if-im-not-in-on-friday-i-might-be-dead-chilling-facts-about-uk-femicide>
Rodriguez, L., 2020. Femicide: Everything you need to know. Global Citizen, [online] Available at: <https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/what-is-femicide-everything-you-need-to-know/>
World Health Organisation, 2012. Understanding And Addressing Violence Against Women. [online] Available at: <https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/77421/WHO_RHR_12.38_eng.pdf?sequence=1>
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