As Emma Watson prescribes on the cover, this is indeed a book we all need to be paying attention to right now.
Dr Denis Mukwege’s The Power of Women: A Doctor’s Journey of Hope and Healing, published by Jonathan Ball Publishers last year, blew me away. Not generally an enthusiastic non-fiction reader, I found myself glued, and more or less awed, from the get-go.
It’s an extraordinary book by a man of untold courage who risks his life every day as an activist for women’s equality and protection. Native to the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, Dr Mukwege was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018, and published this phenomenal work at the end of last year. It contains a mammoth amount of careful research around the state of gender-based violence worldwide, and intimate knowledge of the desperate plight of women in his own country.
His is indeed a story worth telling and a message that the world needs to take note of. For more than two decades, since the outbreak of the First Congo War in 1996, Dr Mukwege, a gynaecologist, has dedicated his life to caring for thousands of victims of sexual violence. In The Power of Women, he recounts many of the heinous horrors suffered by his patients, and also tells of the constant state of fear he and his family experience as they live under perpetual threat.
He still lives and works in the DRC (under 24-hour protection of UN peacekeepers) where he has suffered the torment of soldiers and warlords, survived massacres and many assassination attempts, and continues to be threatened. None of which has weakened his resolve in lobbying and speaking out against the atrocities perpetrated against women in war-stricken areas in Africa and around the world.
Dr Mukwege believes in the inherent power of women, their resilience and strength, and he seeks to portray this through stories of the many survivors of horrific abuse he has treated at his Panzi Hospital and Foundation in Bukavu. The stories, though brutal, are inspiring and tell of brave women who have stood up, rebuilt their lives and continue to inspire and help other women, many in leading positions at the foundation.
The book also pays tribute to the many people he’s worked with in the fight against gender-based violence. One of whom was the late Eve Ensler, known mononymously as V, the famous feminist playwright and creator of The Vagina Monologues. She worked tirelessly alongside Dr Mukwege for years, raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for his cause, and donated of her own money to help fund the land expansion of the hospital in Bukavu. Today, the hospital not only provides medical treatment to victims of GBV, but the foundation also offers psychological support, safe accommodation, education and training.
Reading his book, one soon realises that what Dr Mukwege is dealing with in the DRC is merely an extreme microcosm of a global scourge. It is hard to fathom that, in this modern day and age, sexual violence is still the most common, under-reported and least prosecuted crime in the world.
The Power of Women is a call to arms for governments, authorities, international courts – in fact for all of us, to work towards ridding our society of violence against women. One thing is clear, our world needs more men like Dr Denis Mukwege.
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