A tale of two novels - empowering women through comics

A Question for you to ponder. How would YOU answer this?
"Do you think we are currently living in a good time for women in history? Will we look back at this time period in the future and say that there was equality?"

Read Priya's Shakti online

Researching world changing historical women for my recent NaBloPoMo posts, I was thinking how lucky I am to be alive today. Elizabethan women were the property of their husband, they did not own land, have the right to inherit, and their own children were the property of their husband. The late 1800s women owned property but their husbands' rights still overruled theirs. At end of World war two "Rosie the Riveter" was unemployed and working women were seen as stealing jobs from the men. In the 1960's my college Professor, after completing her PhD, was not allowed to get a telephone in her own name, her father or brother were expected to contact the phone company and set it up under theirs. 


Today, I have the right to be employed, to own property, and to have a telephone in my own name. My husband of 2 years does not own me or have rights superior to mine. It is a good time to be a woman ... in the Western Hemisphere. We still have a long way to go here and in many parts of our world. But more and more women, and men, are standing up against the violence, misogyny and injustices. 

Get this gif, read the graphic novel and find the link to their IndieGoGo Fund at PriyasShakti.com

Two of the more heartbreaking stories of injustice and violence against women are in India and Pakistan where the brutal rape of women and girls has become horrifyingly commonplace and can lead to the victims death. 

The outcry after the  2012 gang rape and murder of a nursing student inspired the creation of graphic novel "Priya's Shakti" by Ram Devineni. The story features a rape survivor protagonist who is aided by a goddess ad her faithful tiger steed. This inspiring heroine is already started a "I stand with Priya" movement and its greatest value will be the long term positive effect it will have on the minds of its young readers. 



You can now "Stand with Priya" support their fight against sexual violence globally by donating to their  Priya Shakti Indiegogo fund. You better hurry over to the site as it closes on March 22, 2015

You can Stand With Priya when you donate

In Pakistan, author and human rights activist, Muktaran Bib (now Muktaran Mai) went against the societal expectation that she should commit suicide after a gang rape and instead went to the police and took the men to court for the crime committed against her. This was an unheard of action at the time. The case and the initial conviction of the accused rapists brought her international attention. She opened a school for girls and a battered women's shelter and has been steadfast in her human rights activism in spite of threats against her. 

Excerpt @ Gates of Vienna

In the Name of Honor - a memoir, Muktaran tells her story of violence, survival and healing through the love and respect from her father, family, friends and out pouring of international support. 

I am hopeful that positive change will happen because women and men are speaking out and standing up for the human rights of all people, and genders. These two positive courses of action after tragic violence acts of violence against women are signs that the world is moving in the healthy, safer, more just direction. 

So today is better than yesterday but not as good as tomorrow will be. 

What are your stories of perseverance, survival and strength? Do you think we are living in good time for women? Yes or No, and why? Have your read the graphic novel Priya's Shakti or the memoir In The Name of Honor? What did you think of them? Would you recommend them?

Michelle Lathe