A Voice of Her Own: Women and Economic Change in Asia: Review
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RESOURCES FILM REVIEWS heroic companion Dhebo raises of footage from actual perfor- difficult classroom issues. Stu- mances and village life in A Voice of Her Own dents will also need to be Rajasthan will need to be Women and Economic informed about the tradition of explained separately from the heroic disembowelment. The narrative thread of the six hun- Change in Asia video does not explain compar- dred-year-old story. Without ative folklore traditions into source material to sort out geo- PRODUCED BY THE INFORMATION OFFICE ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK which some of the actions of the graphical locations, names of 6ADB AVENUE hero fit, such as the exchange of characters, and cultural expecta- MANDALUYONG, METRO MANILA, PHILIPPINES weapons in the final battle, and tions, students with some back- PHONE: 1-632-632-5898 only references or omits en- ground may tangle anything FAX: 1-632-636-2647 tirely many of the Pabuji tales, they know about religious DIRECTED BY ANDREA KALIN including the post-apocalyptic beliefs, especially concerning PRODUCER: MATTHEW WESTFALL final segment. Despite the Rama, Indian visual arts and DISTRIBUTED BY SPARKS MEDIA PRODUCTION issues raised by sati and blood Indian music, into the Pabuji 1997, 23 MINUTES. COLOR revenge, students will want epic. Students with no back- to know what happens after ground preparation may come Pabuji leaves the scene. away more confused than Background information enlightened. here do women fit organizations, the video paints for classroom use can be At the end of the video stu- into the pattern of a picture of growing awareness extracted from John Smith’s dents are asked to speculate on W rapid economic and limited progress in literacy comprehensive text, The Epic of what will happen as television change in Southeast Asia, and employment opportunities. Pabuji: A Study, Transcription becomes more common in rural where traditional values, illiter- The video opens with a and Translation (Cambridge India. Whatever the answer, the acy and enormous poverty collage of images depicting University Press, 1991). Smith filmmaker’s claim that this weigh heavily against new the dramatic societal and eco- provides information and video offers a rare chance to prosperity and increased oppor- nomic contrasts one sees in instructions on how to down- “catch history by the tale” as tunity? What share of the pro- these countries. The segment load the complete text of the this art form disappears over the ceeds do women receive in this on Cambodia begins with the epic at: http://www.bombay. edge of time is true. n region where they have been stark reminder that this nation oriental.cam.ac.uk/index.html. called “the speechless ones” is host to 8–10 million land- Information on the tradi- and where “ . poverty wears mines which claim over 300 tion of cloth paintings to which a woman’s face”? lives a month, and is clearly the par belongs and examples of NANCY TRAUBITZ conducts staff Educators should welcome still hampered by the dark development courses for Mont- such scroll paintings are at the gomery County Public Schools in this short film produced by the shadow of the Khmer Rouge pichwals Web site: http://www. Maryland and develops curriculum Asian Development Bank legacy. As the narrator elo- rajasthanweb.com/painting/pich for MARJiS (Mid-Atlantic Region which profiles the challenges quently observes, “The people Japan in the Schools) at the Uni- wais.html. versity of Maryland. She has par- and changes facing women are in passage from pain to Maps of Asia to help place ticipated in Fulbright Summer in three Southeast Asian memory.” With many young Pabuji geographically and his- Seminars in India and China. Her nations—Cambodia, the Philip- men dead, and institutions and most recent publication is a study torically related instructional of the uses of autobiography and pines, and Bangladesh. Since the intellectual community materials and model lessons are autobiographical fiction in Hidden filmmakers have been more decimated by the atrocities at the Asia Society’s Asian Messages: Instructional Materials for attentive to societies in East of the Khmer Rouge, Cambo- Investigating Culture, Barbara Education Resource Center K- Finkelstein and Elizabeth R. Eder, Asia, documentary footage on dian women carry the burden 12 Web site: http://www.ask eds. (Yarmouth, MA: Intercultural the role of women in Southeast of restoring their country. asia.org. Press, 1998). Asia is a welcome addition And reconstruction is just The epic of Pabuji and the to the educational archives. beginning. performance tradition of the The short eight-minute clips on Over half of the house- bhopo will interest teachers of each country highlight major holds are headed by women, literature, social studies, music, economic and social issues. most of whom cannot read or art and theater. However, for Through interviews with write. Telling words come most students the animation women in government, acade- from an illiterate woman early techniques juxtaposed with bits mia, business and self-help in the film. “If you don’t have 76 EDUCATION ABOUT ASIA Volume 4, Number 2 Fall 1999 RESOURCES FILM REVIEWS education, it’s like you are a opment Association, which blind person.” Studies show are trying to help women that when women are educa- become more self-reliant. A ted, they have fewer children new governmental office, the and seek better health and edu- Ministry of Women’s Affairs, cational opportunities for their holds to the goal of insuring offspring. The issue of educa- that women’s needs are at least tion for young girls in Cambo- recognized, though it lacks dia remains problematic, how- resources and staff. This seg- ever. Curricula in elementary ment also profiles a young schools emphasize a submis- woman who has advanced sive role for women through professionally despite her par- required readings such as ents’ reservations. “If you “Rules of a Lady,” which don’t work, you waste your- stresses that young girls self. You waste your life,” she should prepare themselves to observes. Such awareness is a be good wives and mothers beginning, but the viewer is who follow their husbands’ left with the feeling that the commands without question. legacy of a prolonged civil war Parents continue to pull girls and the strength of traditional out of school when they are attitudes continue to hold back old enough to help with chores the vast majority of Cambo- and younger siblings. By the dian women. secondary level, almost all A different set of prob- girls have dropped out of lems faces women in the school. The fact that the uni- Philippines, where clear eco- versity in Phnom Penh lacks nomic gains and a glossy dormitory facilities for women veneer of fashionable clothes, underscores the educational throngs of cars, and urban con- barriers which hold women struction veil the fact that back in Cambodia. almost one-half of the popula- The video touches on the tion lives in poverty. Here issue of adolescent prostitu- there are educated female uni- tion as a growing problem for versity graduates eager for young girls with limited edu- employment as teachers or cation throughout Asia, where accountants, yet an excess women are contracting the labor supply and limited capi- AIDS virus faster than any- tal have created a situation where else in the world. One where these women can earn notable segment features a more as domestics working young girl who has managed overseas than they can in their to escape prostitution, but the own country. This exportation video does not sensationalize of skilled labor, thought to be a the problem. Social and sexual short-term phenomenon, has subordination of women con- developed into an economic tinues to be prevalent, with a pattern that has government high incidence of domestic officials concerned. violence. Through interviews with On a positive note, the women senators, university narrator points to self-help professors, and small business organizations such as the entrepreneurs, viewers come Cambodian Women’s Devel- to understand efforts to reverse 77 RESOURCES FILM REVIEWS This short, informative video is packed with information and promises to be eminently useful in the classroom. It puts a human face on economic statistics from these three developing nations. this trend. The Asian Develop- some degree of economic self- ment Bank has stepped in with reliance. Long workdays are Non-Governmental Organiza- the norm and substandard con- tion (NGO) loans to women at ditions are common, but low interest rates, providing employment in the garment seed money to encourage industry is a step forward, women to start their own busi- enabling some young women nesses. Organizations such as to earn three times the average “Women in Finance and national wage. Lacking the Entrepreneurship” offer fur- ability to read, however, few ther support for enterprising advance beyond the position individuals. Again, the narra- of sewing machine operators. tion mentions studies which Some factories are begin- demonstrate that when women ning to offer literacy classes become wage earners, the and day care. The efforts of benefits go to their children community activists and grass and families, with some indi- roots organizations such as the viduals earning respect from “Center for Women’s Initia- their husbands. Thus, the tives” are providing support, entire community profits from even helping to finance hostels women’s expanded opportuni- as safe lodging for female ties. A basic message of hope workers in the urban slums is conveyed in that commun- where most live. The challenge ity-based, grass roots NGOs in Bangladesh is to convince are playing a critical role in more factory owners to provide helping women in the Philip- day care and literacy classes, pines and elsewhere in Asia. two key factors which enable In Bangladesh, a patriar- women to remain in the work chal society and one of force even after bearing chil- the most densely populated dren, and to be eligible to regions of the world, women advance to supervisory levels.