Question of the day: How do we in the West pay constructive attention to the plight of girls in cultures so different from our own?
Remember the story of Nujood Ali, the ten year-old Yemeni child bride who, against the most serious of odds, got herself a divorce?
She thought the divorce would be the end of her struggles. She was wrong…
Her story has significant parallels with Dexter Filkins piece in the New York Times about his frustrated efforts to help Shamsia Husseini, one of the Afghan girls who was wounded in an acid attack while she was on her way to school.
Take home:
“There is no change at all since going on television. I hoped there was someone to help us, but we didn’t find anyone to help us. It hasn’t changed a thing. They said they were going to help me and no one has helped me. I wish I had never spoken to the media,” Nujood says bitterly.”
***
“And so it had come to this. The Taliban, or someone who thought like them, had thrown acid in the faces of a number of girls, and a number of readers in the United States and other countries, filled with generosity, had given their money to take care of one of those girls and the school. And now the girl’s family, for reasons I could barely comprehend, was telling me, in effect, that they wanted something else.”
The challenge, of course, is that what stirs our interest of the West are stories – stories about individuals, stories with pictures. And yet, that kind of interest, well-intentioned as it is, generates a temporary spike in monetary donations which often doesn’t translate into a better life even for the individual for whom it is intended – much less for all the girls like her.
So what’s the solution? How do we in the West channel our attention in truly effective ways?
To me, what is needed is a vehicle for sustained attention and a committed group of individuals willing to wrestle with the challenge of how best to foster change from far away.
Want to be part of that group?
