I AM UNBEATABLE

Week 34: Notes

This programme is about violence against women – violence against minority groups, domestic violence, human trafficking, child marriage, female genital mutilation (FGM) and femicide. The problem knows no geographical borders, race or class boundaries, it is embedded in the power structure and inequalities of patriarchal society.

There is an epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women the United States and Canada affecting the First Nations, Inuit, Métis and Native American communities. Having been socially, politically and economically marginalized they have virtually no lobby. Donna Ferrato, a US-American photojournalist and activist tells how photography can be employed to expose the hidden world of domestic violence, make it visible, get it talked about and perhaps even stopped. In the first half of 2020 more than 1,000 women were killed in Mexico. This is an increase of 7.7% compared to the same period in 2019. ‘Machismo’, the entitlement of Mexican men to superiority, has made the country one of the most violent places in the world for women. South African Grizelda Grootboom, an activist against human trafficking and author of the book Exit! recounts her harrowing experience as a sex slave and her escape from it and its consequences. Somaya, an Afghan girl, was only13 years old when she was sold into marriage by her father. This practice violates not only the right to education but can be a health risk through early child birth. Some of its causes can be pinpointed: gender inequality, poverty, regional customs and religious and social pressures. Leyla Hussein, a Somali-born British psychotherapist and social activist, tells how tradition and social pressure made her a victim to female genital mutilation when she was seven years old. At the end of the programme Leslie Morgan Steiner, US-American feminist, author, and women’s rights activist appeals to everybody: Domestic violence can be stopped by bringing it into the open.