From Two of Our Most Fiercely Moral Voices, A
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U.S.A. :)>27·95 CANADA $34.00 rom two of our most fiercely moral voices, a Fpassionate call to arms against our era's most pervasive human rights violation: the oppression of women and girls in the developing world. With Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn as our guides, we under take an odyssey through Africa and Asia to meet the extraordinary women struggling there, among them a Cambodian teenager sold into sex slavery and an Ethiopian woman who suffered devastating injuries in childbirth. Drawing on the breadth of their combined reporting experience, Kristof and WuDunn depict our world with anger, sadness, clarity, and, ultimately, hope. They show how a little help can transform the lives of women and girls abroad. That Cambodian girl eventually escaped from her brothel and, with assistance from an aid group, built a thriving retail business that supports her family. The Ethiopian woman had her injuries repaired and in time became a surgeon. A Zimbabwean mother of five, counseled to return to school, earned her doctorate and became an expert on AIDS. Through these stories, Kristof and WuDunn help us see that the key to economic progress lies in unleashing women's potential. They make clear how so many people have helped to do just that, and how we can each do our part. Throughout much of the world, the greatest unexploited economic resource is the fema le half of the population. Countries such as China have prospered precisely hecause they emancipated women and brought them into the form al economy. Unleashing that process globally is not only the right thing to do; it's also the best strategy for fighting poverty. Deeply felt. pragmatic, and inspirational, Half the Sky is essential reading for every global citizen. :> y u 1:\ 0 ::li ;;: ...,.. < % "'~ z< "I readHalftheSkyin one silting, staying up until3 a.m. to do so. It is brilliant and inspirationaL and I want to shout about it from the rooftops and mountains. It vividly illustrates how women have turned despair into prosperity and bravely IL u nUitured hope to cultivate a bright future. The book ends with an especially com a pelling 'what you can do· to exhort us all to action." z: - GREC MORTENSO , authorofThreeCupsofTea "If you have always wondered whether you can change the world, read this book. Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn have written a brilliant call to arms that 0 describes one of the transcendent injustices in the world today- the brutal treat w ment of women." -FARE E o ZAKAR LA, author of The Post-American World icholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn are [! the first married couple to win a Pulitzer Prize \L "This stirring book is at once a savage indictment of gender inequality in the de in journalism; they won for their coverage ..J velopingworld and an inspiring testament to these women's courage. and their of China as New York Times correspondents. struggle for hope and recovery. An unexpectedly uplifting read." Mr. Kristof won a second Pulitzer for his op-ed 01 - K H ALE u H 0 ss £ 1 N I , author of The Kite Runner columns in the Times. He has also served 0 as bureau chief in Hong Kong, Beijing, and 0 "These stories show us the power and resilience of women who would have every Tokyo, and as associate managing editor. At ru reason to give up but never do. They will be an inspiration for anyone who reads the Times, Ms. WuDunn worked as a busi ness this book, and a model for those fighting for justice around the world. You will editor and as a foreign correspondent in Tokyo Q not want to put this book down." and Beijing. They live near New York Cit y. -AN G El..l NA JOLIE Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn's China IVakes and ''It's impossible to exaggerate the importance of this book. Wonderfully written Tlrumlu from the Ea.ft ar~ available in Vintage paperback. Ul and vividly descriptive. Half the Sky can and should galvanize support for reform on all levels. Inspiring as it is shocking, this book demands to be read." z:. -ANNE R 1 C£, author of Called Out of Darkness With 40 photographs "I think it's impossible to stand by and do nothing after reading Half the Sky. lt 0 w does what we need most: it bears witness to the sheer cruelty that mankind can t do to mankind." - G E 0 R C E C L 0 0 N E Y z: Jack~t images: (sky) Wcs lnompson/Hut PhotographyNeer: "Halfth e Sky is a passionate and persuasive plea to all of us to rise up and say 'No (face~) Nicholas D. Kristof more!' to the seventeenth-century abuses to girls and women in the twenty Jacket design by Chip Kidll first-century world. This is a book that will pierce your heart and arouse your conscience." - TOM BROKAW POLITICAL IS 8 N 978-0-307-26714-6 s c 1 EN C E 1 1 1 1 1 .s .z 7 9, s CHAPTER TEN InvestinB in Education If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. -DEREK BOK lfALFTHE s a newly married couple living in China almost twenty years ago, SKY Awe came to know a scrawny thirteen-year-old"girl in the hard scrabble Dabie Mountains of central China. The girl, Dai Manju, lived with her mother, father, two brothers, and a great-aunt in a dilapidated wooden shack on a hillside, a two-hour hike from the nearest road. The Turning Oppression into Opportunity family members had no electricity, no running water, no bicycle, no wristwatch, no clock, no radio-virtually no possessions of any kind for Women Worldwide and they shared their home with a large pig. The family could afford to eat meat just once annually, to celebrate the Chinese New Year. There was almost no furniture in the dim shack except for a coffin that the father had made for the great-aunt. "I'm healthy now," the great-aunt explained cheerfully, "but it's best to be prepared." NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF Dai Manju's parents were elementary school dropouts and barely literate. They didn't see much point in girls getting an education. Why AND SHERYL WUDUNN would a woman need to read or write when she was going to spend her days hoeing fields and darning socks? The school fee-$13 a year for elementary school-seemed a waste of the family's tattered banknotes when the money could be used for something useful, like buying rice. So when Dai Manju was entering the sixth grade, they told her to drop out of school. A short, thin girl with stringy black hair and a timid air, Dai Manju was a head shorter than an average American thirteen-year-old would be. She couldn't afford textbooks or even pencils and paper, but she was the star pupil in her grade, and she yearned to continue her education. "My parents were ill, and they said they couldn't afford sending me ALFI\ED A. KNOPF (?~ NFW YOHK 1010 INVESTING IN EDUCATION HALF THE SKY. There was a startled pause. "But 1 didn't give ten thousand dollars," he said. "I gave a hundred." After some investigation, it turned out that Morgan Guaranty had erred. We called up a senior Morgan Guaranty executive and asked aiManju. him on the record if be intended to dispatch bankers to force children Dan unwillinB to drop out of school to make up for the bank's mistake. si:xth-amde dropout, "Under the circumstances," he said, "we're happy to make a dona in front if her tion of the difference." school in China, The villagers were mightily impressed by American generosity witb her principal and carelessness. Since Dai Manju was the one who had inspired the (Nicholas D. gift, the authorities provided her with tuition-free schooling as long as Kristrj) she was able to pass exams. She finished elementary school, junior high school, high school, and then the equivalent of accounting school. She found work in Guangdong Province, as an accountant for local facto ries. After she had worked there for a couple of years, she found jobs for friends and family members. She sent growing sums of money home k' at her feet and speaking so quietly to her family, so that her parents became among the richest in the vil to school," she said shylyJoo mg h ld. t child my parents asked lage. When we made a return visit a few years ago,Dai Man_ju's parents 'bl "S'nce I am t eo es ' . d she was barely aud 1 e. 1 k" She was hanging aroun were rattling around a six-room concrete house (the great-aunt had h 1 with the housewor . ' me to drop out an d e p . t'f her parents wouldn t pay died).1bere was still a pig, but it lived in the old shack, which was now . 1 rn sometlnng even . f the school, hopmg ~o ea, d of becoming the first person m her am~ a barn. The family had electricity, a stove, a television, and a fan. the fees and she still dreame h 1 The teachers doted on Dat Dai Manju manied a skilled worker-an expert in molding-in ' 1 entary sc oo. ily to graduate from e. em .1 , nd scraps of paper, hopmg to sup- 2006 and had a baby girl the following year, when she was thirty years anj·u giving her old btts of penct sda t h when we first visited the old.