From: harelb@MATH.CORNELL.EDU (Harel Barzilai)
Newsgroups: soc.women
Subject: 3rd WORLD RESOURCES V8N3 -- BOOKS (pt 1)
Date: 28 Aug 92 00:02:57 GMT

[Via misc.activism.progressive from PeaceNet's twr.nl]
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        The following is from the quarterly magazine, THIRD WORLD
        RESOURCES: A QUARTERLY REVIEW OF RESOURCES FROM AND ABOUT THE THIRD
        WORLD; subscriptions to the 24-page hardcopy edition are $35/year
        (organizations) and $35/two years (individuals). For rates outside
        North America, write to: Third World Resources, 464 19th Street,
        Oakland, CA 94612-2297 USA. See also their conference `twr.nl' on
        PeaceNet, or email to tfenton@igc.org (Tom Fenton)
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Topic 123       BOOKS, 8:3 - 1992       Response  1 of 16 
tfenton 
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***<AND SHE SAID NO! HUMAN RIGHTS, WOMEN'S IDENTITIES AND  
STRUGGLES.> Liberato Bautista and Elizabeth Rifareal, eds.  
National Council of Churches in the Philippines, Program  
Unit on Human Rights, 879 Epifanio de los Santos Ave.,  
Quezon City, Philippines. 1990. xviii + 188 pp. ISBN 971- 
8548-50-5. Illustrations, list of contributors. 
Liberato Bautista and Elizabeth Rifareal set out in 1987 to  
produce a monograph on women and human rights. Contributions  
came from every part of the Philippines, and though not all  
the authors are Filipinas, all speak from firsthand and  
longtime Philippine experience. 

Clear themes emerged as the editors arranged their material:  
women's place in church and society, women's experience of  
human rights violations (whether in their own person or in  
their husbands and children), and women's struggle for human  
rights. The title derives from Helen Graham's brief but  
meaty article, recalling the biblical case of Queen Vashti,  
the wife of the Persian king Ahasuerus. Vashti refused to  
appear on command and show her beauty before the king and  
his "drunken cronies." She was accused of corrupting all the  
women of the empire by her example and of challenging the  
established patriarchal structure. She was dismissed, a new  
queen was chosen, and the system was secured. But the "No"  
had been spoken and even we of the twentieth century hear  
it. 

Vashti's story relates directly to the stories of the book.  
The editors explain that the "writers of this book trace the  
story of how women have been conditioned to reject  
opportunities and responsibilities accorded only to men.  
They remind us that for centuries, women have been taught to  
say <No> to conditions that would put them on equal footing  
with their male counterparts because of the accepted belief  
that they belong to the less superior half of the human  
species....The women whose voices are heard in this volume  
remind us that women today still say <No!> But this  
time...women are saying <No> to centuries of  
domination,...to a socialization which prepares them from  
childhood to become `good' mothers, wives, daughters  
according to models created by the expectations and needs of  
men,...to sexist practices that reduce their worth,...to a  
religiosity and theology which fail to remember that men and  
women are equal in the eyes of God." 

These "life stories of real persons" may have sprung from  
the Philippine reality, but they are universal in content  
and appeal. The editors admit that--to their surprise--the  
process of producing this book turned even their own already  
informed concept of the topic upside down. The reader will  
be similarly affected if she or he allows it.