The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| New limbs aid Syrians in long walk back from war Posted: 19 Jan 2014 07:20 PM PST Clinching waist-high bars on either side of him, the 19-year-old former university student will pace back and forth for five minutes before stopping to rest. That he is able to walk at all is down to the National Syrian Project for Prosthetic Limbs, which provides free treatment and prosthetics to any Syrians who make their way to the clinic in Reyhanli, just across the border in Turkey. The clinic does not ask whether patients are fighters or civilians, but Raid al-Masri, the director of the centre, says around 40% of the 370 patients it has treated in the last year are women and children. "We have a patient who is a year and a half old. He was wounded when he was eight months old," he said. "He hadn't even learned to walk and he lost his leg. The first time he walks he'll walk on a prosthetic limb." An estimated 130,000 people have been killed in Syria's war, and if there were a reliable tally for the number of wounded it would likely far exceed that number. The Reyhanli clinic is registered in Britain and funded by Syria Relief, a non-governmental organisation based there, as well as the Syrian Expatriates Medical Association, a group of doctors from abroad who treat war victims. On a recent day several young men arrived, some hobbling on crutches while others, like Sheikhhamdu, had to be carried in by relatives. One man, just 22 years old, lost both legs and an arm in a rocket attack in Aleppo six months ago. It takes at least four months after the last surgery before a patient can even be fitted with prosthetic limbs, followed by months of physical therapy. "For those who have lost both legs, it's a little harder to rehabilitate them after they get the prosthetic limbs," Masri says. "It's hard for them to get used to it." Sheikhhamdu, who lost one leg below the groin and the other above the knee, seems to take to the new limbs, at least as long as he holds onto the bars. "He'll go back and forth for five minutes and then rest. Next week we will try for 10 minutes," says Samir al-Masri, a volunteer physical therapist. Earlier, Sheikhhamdu had quietly recalled the day everything in his life changed. The family was preparing to go to Friday prayers when a bomb dropped by a regime warplane struck their home, killing his sister and wounding him and two others. "Sometimes I feel like I lost everything," he says. "I can't move." Therapists encourage the patients as they help them to stretch their legs and exercise the muscles before fitting them with prosthetics. Abdelmawla, an 18-year-old volunteer, shares a special bond with those who come in. He was riding in a car with his family on a highway north of Damascus when a government patrol fired a burst of heavy machine-gun fire at the car, shredding his left leg from above the knee. "Everything seemed normal. And right that moment there was very heavy gunfire, very heavy," he says. "It was really frightening." Months later he found the clinic by chance during a trip to Turkey and was later fitted with a prosthetic leg. Today he walks with only a slight limp, but he still struggles with the little things. "There are things little kids can do that I can't, like play football," he says. "Some people can go to the bathroom and it's perfectly normal. I can't go to the bathroom in a normal way." He tells new patients they have a long road ahead, urging them to take it one daring step at a time. "Some people have lost all hope in their lives, but then they see me, and I have a prosthetic limb," he says. "They see me and they realise they can live the life they did before, maybe even better." - AFP, January 20, 2014. |
| Indian battle against sexual violence gathers steam Posted: 19 Jan 2014 05:02 PM PST The brutal attack in December 2012, which touched a raw nerve in the country and sparked mass public protests, "lit a match to the movement opposing violence against women", Steinem told AFP. "People found their voice," she says, referring to the seething public anger over the death of the 23-year-old, which prompted parliament to toughen laws against rapists and other offenders. "It's heartening, but there's a long way to go," Steinem cautions, referring to the battle to overcome sexual injustice entrenched through India's ancient caste system, religious beliefs and ideas of female "honour". Stark evidence of the problems India faces was provided last week with the gang-rape of a 51-year-old Danish woman in the capital – the latest incident to shine a spotlight on the country's record of sexual violence. Steinem, co-founder of Ms. magazine in 1972, which became a powerful voice for the women's movement in the West, is in India to headline Asia's biggest literary festival, which began on Friday in the city of Jaipur. The American, who is nearly 80 and has spent a lifetime fighting gender injustice, first came to India on a fellowship in the 1950s. Her Indian experience – studying land reform – taught her "there's no grass without roots" and that "change is wrought by people on the ground". Crucial to change, she says, "is developing a consciousness and getting a critical mass to believe in it. That's what I think is happening here". Steinem, who hit fame in 1963 when she wrote an expose on life as a Playboy Bunny, is attending the Jaipur festival to talk about her new essay anthology bearing the tongue-in-cheek title "As If Women Matter". She insists during the interview in New Delhi that younger women are "more feminist" than her generation and have better "bullshit detectors" in spotting injustice. After years of writing about and railing against inequality, what angers her most is when people say the world has entered "a post-feminist era". "I say: 'Are you blind? Can't you see we still don't have equal pay for equal work?'" "When you look in the power closets (corporate offices) the occupants are mainly men," she adds. And she rejects the notion that women can have it all – marriage, career and children. "No way," says Steinem. "That means we women do it all. We can't be superwomen. We've got to come up with better family-friendly work situations." "Of course, we've made a lot of progress," she adds, saying she believes former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has a fair shot at becoming the first female president in US history if she runs. "People saw her every day as Secretary of State, they got used to her in a position of power. Making her president would not be such a big jump in their minds." Steinem had a tough childhood – her mother suffered from depression, which meant she became her carer at 10 after her parents split. But later she won entrance to the prestigious Smith College in New England. Reflecting on her early years as a feminist, she confessed she was "naive". "I thought injustices against women are just so great – if we just explain them to people, they'll get rid of them. I was wrong. It's been much slower progress," she said. Regularly lampooned as a "feminazi" by conservative US talkshow host Rush Limbaugh, Steinem says she understands why some women shy away from describing themselves as "feminists" because it's a word "mocked by men". Steinem, who turns 80 in March – "I feel like a Russian doll with my 20-year-old self inside" – remains feisty and funny and remarkably youthful, which she attributes to yoga and keeping perpetually busy. How does she plan to celebrate her 80th birthday? "I'm going to ride elephants in Botswana!" she says gleefully. - AFP, January 20, 2014. |
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