My current event was about a woman named Sarah Cleto Rial who won the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award. She won the award because she was recognized for all of the activism movements that she has somehow participated in against the human rights abuse going on in Sudan. She was born and raised in Southern Sudan. At the age 17 she was arrested for the way she was dressed. The police put her into a pick up truck and drove around town letting people shout out insults and throw things at her then was put through an uncivil trial at court. For over twenty-five years, since her arrest, she has become an activist against human rights abuse. She mainly focuses on woman's voices being heard and their needs being meet.
She moved to the US in 1993 on a college scholarship and resettled in Lynn, Massachusetts. Since her move to America she has become the co-founder of non-profit organization called African Woman Empowerment Group. The organization helps immigrants and refugee woman become more independent and it also helps activist movements in Sudan. She currently works as a program director for My Sisters Keeper, which is a women led humanitarian organization in America. She helps direct programs to help enhance woman's education.
This is historically significant because the award was named after Eleanor Roosevelt. She is famous for being President Franklin Roosevelt's wife (our 32nd president) and for help making the Universal Declaration of Rights. The Universal Declaration of Rights was adopted on
December 10, of 1948 by General Assembly. The document is still used today by the United Nations to help create constitution's and peace laws.
Clarifying Questions:
1) What was in the Universal Declaration of Rights?
Here's a link to a great website of the whole document;
http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/
2) Why was the fact that Eleanor Roosevelt was significant?
She was significant because she helped write and draft this huge document about human rights and the reason why its linked to Sarah is because she has been dedicating her lift to help others gain those human rights and not have them be violated by a terrible government.
Probing Question:
In what ways can Sarah use woman's history to help her activism in Sudan?
Sarah could do something like they did in the Declaration of Sentiments and could make a list of complaints about how women are treated. She could use the fact that she was driven around town and had things thrown at her to show that she's not being treated fairly. I don't think that Sarah could use United States women's history to help her though, because Sudan is a completely different culture and doesn't have the same rights as we do. I don't know anything about Sudan, so I can't really talk about how they treat women. But I do know they're behind in comparison to the United States.
ReplyDeleteLike what Jess said, one of the only few things she can do is to spread the story of her experience. Sudan is different from the United States, so many things from women's history here like hunger strikes or parades may not work. However, one other thing that may work is if she spoke out referencing official documents like The Universal Declaration of Rights. Elizabeth Stanton did something similar using parts of The Declaration of Independence in her Declaration of Rights and Sentiments. It was difficult to fight against because it contained portions of the U.S.'s declaration. If Sarah could use something from Sudan's history that no one could argue, it would help her activism in Sudan greatly.
ReplyDeleteThere are a few ways that Sarah can get her word out to the public about the issues in Sudan. One way is by just telling everyone publicly about the situation. Start picketing lines and such, just like women in the United States did in order to gain their suffrage here. Also, it might be difficult in order to carry out some of these ways because the government is more strict in Sudan and the citizens of their country do not have as equal rights as American citizens do. But, overall if Sarah uses certain techniques like the woman's suffrage movement used, then it will help the cause.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that there is much that Sarah can do because like Jess and Christian said, there are different laws and ways things are gone about in Sudan. The United States and Sudan are two very different countries. One thing that Sarah could possibly do is publicly state her problems. She could also try and protest, but with the problems in Sudan/the different rules/laws I don't think that most of the things that she'd do would even help the situation at all.
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