On the frontline with the women who fight back
Reviewed by Janice Collins, National Vice Chairman
In this centennial year celebrating certain women getting the vote and the fact that some women still do not have equal rights in this country, it was interesting to read this book by the presenter of various TV documentaries about women around the world.
Dooley uses her meetings with women with horrific tales to tell to show how female equality is severely lacking in places - but women are fighting back. This was particularly poignant when she related her experiences in Iraq, where she visited some Yazidi women who had been kidnapped by so-called Islamic State and escaped. Having been forced to watch their menfolk killed in front of them, these women had been held in awful conditions, but had banded together to form an army against Islamic State in Mosul.
Dooley also shows how, in some countries, women are treated as chattels and slaves - for example, in Honduras, where the crime of femicide is rife (killing women just because they are women). However - even when maimed to stop them from escaping an abusive marriage - these bold, brave women fight back.
I can't say this was an easy read, but it was a necessary one, although not a book to read by the pool on holiday!
Janice Collins
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