Happy International Women's Day

On Thursday, I went with some friends to see A Powerful Noise, a documentary about three women living in Mali, Vietnam and Bosnia and Herzegovinia coping with issues of war, gender bias and disease and their effects on the people there. For anyone who missed it here are some quick snatches from the film.



Madame Urbain (Jacqueline) a powerful African woman, leads an organization that educates and defends the right of young migrant women living in Bamako. Madame Urbain gives a ground trembling sermon about educating girls, but the old men sit stone-faced and silent, refusing to clap. She takes one young teenager's employer to court for burning the woman's baby with a knife and refusing to pay her her salary.

In Bosnia and Herzegovinia, Nada, a survivor of Bosnia and Herzegovinia's gruesome has started an organization for women, both Serbs and Bosniaks, to grow and sell produce. They also hold open forums to discuss their problems, business-related and otherwise. One woman reluctantly admit that her husband doesn't want her at the meetings, but she comes anyway.

In Vietnam, Bui Thi Hanh an HIV-positive woman describes taking her sick daughter to meet with a doctor who asks her husband, if he ever injected drugs. "He was silent," she said. "The doctor told us to go home and shut the doors." On top of dealing with the illness the family was shamed into isolation. Hanh lost her husband and daughter, then she created the group The Immortal Flower so people with HIV/AIDs could see they weren't alone.

In a graduation speech, a young girl thanks Madame Urbain for teaching her to read and write. Now, not only can she write her own name but when she goes to the market she can make a list so she doesn't forget anything.

Following the film, Ann Curry led a panel comprised of Natalie Portman, Madeleine Albright, Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times, Christy Turlington-Burns, and Dr. Helene Gayle of CARE. Here is a bullet point summary of highlights.

*Madeleine Albright despite the recession, we have to continue to see beyond our own domestic problems. She said even if you aren't altruistic, helping other countries is a form of national security.

* Natalie Portman described a poignant conversation with women in northern Uganda who would say to her, "I wish I didn't get raped everyday on the way to school." Several panelists brought up the problem of "rape as a weapon" and how it is being used to decimate villages in the Congo.

* Natalie Portman spoke about the role of Hollywood in raising awareness, saying "not every movie should be didactic" but that Hollywood can have an effect on people. In movies like An Inconvenient Truth or Syrianna, she said there's a "collective social empathy" where audiences channel the feelings of character's and try to understand their lives. It something people will remember after they leave the theater.

* Christy Turlington- Burns talked about maternal healthcare, the dangers for women ranging from death to fistula. She spoke about delaying marriage explaining that when girls get married at 13 the chances of ever getting an education decrease.

* In response to Anne Curry's question, Do men feel disempowered when women are empowered, Helene Gayle of CARE said no. She said, "The men look at their wives differently. Now she is contributing something." She added, "Brothers look at their sisters differently when they are sitting next to them in a classroom"

* Albright said that men can be supportive, but they aren't always, sometimes instead they do feel competitive, especially when women take jobs that were traditionally men's.

* Nicholas Christof spoke about microfinancing and put forward the idea that when there are women leaders in government there is less corruption. Turlington-Burns gave Liberia as an example of a country where microfinancing started as a grass roots movement and then exploded and the women involved in it were basically responsible for electing the country's next president. As Ann Curry pointed out, "Africa beat the U.S. "Liberia elected its first woman president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Natalie Portman championed KIVA, a site that lets you partner with one woman in a developing country, through direct communications and loans.

* All the panelist and Ann Curry encouraged audiences to write to their congressmen about these issues and to visit CARE's Web site.
The film's organizers have also designed a downloadable discussion guide.