"Faces of Courage Book Lunch, Intimate
Portraits of Women on the Edge," by Mark Tuschman is result of the
photographer's 10-year global journey to investigate what former President
Jimmy Carter calls "the most pervasive and unaddressed human rights
violation on earth." It is published by Val de Grace, Inc., based in Napa
Valley.
-- Monday Sept. 21, 6-8:30 p.m.
World Affairs Council
312 Sutter St. #200, San Francisco
Opening reception for exhibit of images
from Faces of Courage with presentations by Mark Tuschman, Musimbi
Kanyoro, CEO of Global Fund for Women and Denise Dunning of Let Girls Lead.
Reception: 6-7 p.m; program, 7-8 p.m.; book signing, 8 p.m.
"Faces of Courage, Intimate Portraits of
Women on The Edge" by Mark Tuschman is available through his website,
In 2001, photographer Mark Tuschman, on
assignment for the Global Fund for Women, went to China, Mongolia and Thailand.
His first stop was a shelter for abused women in Ulan Bator, Mongolia. It was
crowded to capacity with so many more women waiting for sanctuary, each could
stay only a limited amount of time.
"It was the first time I witnessed the
harsh, unrelenting reality that tens of millions of women face every day of
their lives," Tuschman said. "Through my lens I saw their pain.” He
also heard their stories, including one of a woman who was not there to tell it
— her husband boasted of having starved her to death.
This first assignment for the Global Fund for
Women set Tuschman on decade-long journey a that took him around the
world, to Ghana, Guatemala, India and Nairobi, to Vietnam, Kenya, and Ethiopia,
on assignments working for a collection of United Nations agencies,
foundations, and other non-government organizations to document the stories of
women surviving "on the edge" of poverty and abuse.
Each woman he met, each story he heard, he said,
left “an indelible mark on my consciousness and on my heart.”
The soft-spoken Tuschman, who grew up in New York
City and now lives in Menlo Park, has compiled the photos and the stories into
a book, "Faces of Courage: Intimate Portraits of Women on the Edge,"
published by Val de Grace Books, Inc., based in Napa Valley.
“The intent of this book is simple,” Tuschman
said. “I want to pay tribute to the women I have met and to the millions of
other women who share their fate and their lack of autonomy over their own
lives and their bodies. I want to bring these women to the forefront of world
consciousness.”
Tuschman's book is a work of astonishing beauty
and power as well as a call to action. On viewing the book former
President Jimmy Carter, was so impressed with the work, he allowed Tuschman to
use one of his quotes from a conference on women in the advance publicity:
“The abuse of women and girls is the most pervasive and unaddressed human
rights violation on earth.”
Turning the pages of "Faces of
Courage", one meets woman after woman, whose faces radiate dignity, joy,
hope and strength as well as sorrow, as they look into Tuschman's camera. Then
one reads their stories: They are women who have endured conditions that are
almost unimaginable for inhabitants of a prosperous world: Living in dire
poverty, they are denied education, sold into marriage or slavery, raped,
abused, and with every pregnancy risk their lives.
They are:
--Walda, a sex worker in Kenya, who had no other
way to support her two children after fleeing from an abusive husband;
--Seni, trafficked from Indonesia to Saudi
Arabia; Rupa, a child bride in India whose husband tried to murder her because
her dowry was inadequate;
--Meera, daughter of a sex worker, brutally
beaten by her mother and brother, a petty thief, when she refused to follow her
mother's line of work;
--Marigarito, from Malawi married at 15, and
injured early in childbirth, which created a condition called fistula, which
causes women to be ostracized, and often abandoned by their husbands.
In their cases, they were able to find their way
to help from organizations, including Planned Parenthood Global, Girls
not Brides, the Global Fund for Women and Womens Trust.
"Being born female is dangerous to your
health," Anne Firth Murray, author of "From Outrage to Courage,"
is quoted in the book as saying.
Nonetheless, “This is not a book about women as
victims,” Jill Sheffield of Women Deliver writes in an introduction. “Mark has
combined sadness with hope, problem with solution, and tears with smiles...we
cannot just look at the problem -- we have to inject hope and possibility into
this reality.”
Balancing the stories of outrage and
violence are ones that show what these women accomplish if given a chance: If
they learn a trade, get a loan to start a business, and most of all, if they
are able to go to school.
"It may seem hard for us in the West to
comprehend but in rural areas of countries like Ghana, educating girls and
women is an almost revolutionary act," Tuschman writes. He quotes Ghanian
educator Dr. J. E. Kwegyir Aggrey, "The surest way to keep a people down
is to educate men and neglect the women. If you educate a man, you simply
educate an individual, but if you educate a woman, you educate a family -- and
a whole nation."
Here is where the sheer joy of Tuschman's photos
emerge in the faces of girls in Ghana, Malayasia and Nigeria who are able to go
to school. They pore over books together, listen with rapt attention, and in
one photo from Nigeria, cluster around an amazing laptop computer. "Their
optimism, eagerness to learn and the hope in their eyes are palpable and deeply
felt," he writes.
He also shares stories of women who achieved an
education and return to their villages as mentors, teachers and healthcare
workers: He introduces Farida Mussa, born in a slum in Dar es Salaam, who
drives four hours a day to and from a school she built with her salary; and
Pendo Ngomale, who "cheerfully guided us through a labyrinth of dirt and
garbage that fill the pathway to her home" to show how her scholarship to
study nursing allowed her to take charge of a local clinic and support her
family and help her siblings stay in school.
Tuschman downplays the effort it took to make his
way into these far-flung places and gain the trust that allowed him to take his
photos and hear the stories. "This work has taught me a profound
lesson," he writes. "The human condition is wrought with great
uncertainty and suffering, yet the human spirit and the hope for a better life
can withstand terrible hardships and grow even stronger in the face of
adversity. The women you meet on these pages have constantly inspired me, and
I’ve come to understand that their cause is our cause, their humanity is our
humanity."
The book has its official launch on Sept. 21 in San
Francisco at the World Affairs Council, followed by its East Coast debut on
Oct. 14.
While "Faces of Courage" is drawing
praise from women's organizations -- "I hope every advocate puts this book
in their briefcases" writes Jill Sheffield -- Tuschman's goal is to see
the book in schools and libraries. While much has been accomplished, he notes,
daily headlines like the accounts of harrowing plight of women being
enslaved and raped by forces of ISIS in Syria and Iraq, confirm that monumental
work remains to be done.
"It is my fervent hope that we in this
country, blessed as we are with freedom and great material wealth, can join
hands to support the aspirations of these forgotten women and offer them a real
and enduring sense of hope and justice," he concludes.
"Faces of Courage, Intimate Portraits of
Women on The Edge" by Mark Tuschman is available through his website,
0 comments:
Post a Comment