Hope

I have two stories of hope to share with you this Christmas season.  Both fall under the heading of change is possible, but it is very slow.  For me, holding on to hope about some of the bigger problems of the world gives me perspective about my life and helps me to practice gratitude.  I hope these do so the same for you.

I saw the movie Eagle Huntress this weekend.  In case you haven’t heard of it, it’s a documentary about a thirteen year old Mongolian girl who wants to become an eagle hunter.  She comes from a long line of eagle hunters, with both her father and his father having won numerous award for the feat.  To become an eagle hunter, first you must capture an eaglet during the few days after it is hatched but before it can fly.  That involves scaling rugged cliffs with just a rope tied around your waist and putting the bird, which is the size of her upper body, in a bag.  It’s not for those afraid of heights, like me.  Then, you train the bird to spot and capture foxes and other animals as they run across the barren steppes of Mongolia.  Finally, you must perform various feats of speed and agility with your bird at the national championships.   A photography tour group leads an expedition every year to photograph the event and that’s how I heard about the movie.  I opted for the movie rather than the expedition because (a) Mongolia is far, cold and otherwise desolate and (b) see reason (a).  But I digress.

Needless to say, eagle hunting is man’s work.  It always has been.  It always will be.  Except that Aisholpan (our heroine) comes from what must be one of the more progressive families of nomads in Mongolia, as both her father and his father have blessed her endeavors and offered to pass on all they know about the sport.  The crusty, wrinkled old men who are the resident elders have a different take on Aisholpan’s efforts.  It runs something more like, “No girls allowed.”  Period.  Among their concerns are the fact that “girls get cold.” Well yes, it’s minus 40 degrees in Mongolia so its fair to say that everyone gets cold.  Spoiler alert, even after she triumphs at the contest, these old curmudgeons qualify  her skill by saying that she still has to prove herself in the mountains by capturing a fox, etc.  All the way around the world, we see an episode played out that is far too familiar.  No matter how successful a woman is, no matter her achievement, there is always one more hurdle placed in front of her before some holdouts will admit she is as good as or better than a man.  But ultimately, this is a story of a father’s love for his daughter and his belief that girls are equal to boys.  It is a message of hope that cultural norms can change.

My second inspiring message is from a group call Speakupforthepoor.org.  Based in Bangladesh, the group’s mission is to keep girls in school by avoiding child marriage.  Even though it is illegal to marry under 18 in Bangladesh,  it is the cultural norm to marry girls off young.  Once a girl is married off at 13,14, or 15, she finds herself in some distant village, usually with several kids, wholly dependent on a stranger who is her husband for everything.  If he leaves, dies, whatever, she becomes destitute and, more often than not, ends up in prostitution.   To address this issue, the group starts way upstream with girls in middle school, helping them build confidence and most miraculously, identify a dream for their lives and a plan to achieve it.  Most of the girls never thought to dream.  They grow up seeing women who married young–cooking, cleaning and having babies.  They merely assume that is their only course in life.  But this group asks them to dream and helps them achieve those dreams.

Yes, child marriage is a huge global, cultural problem.  And one group only touches so many lives, but the lives they touch matter.  That gives me hope.  I wanted to pass on their name so if you are looking for worthy charities this giving season, perhaps you’ll take a look.

Both these stories confirm for me the fact that when you are born a woman in the United States, you are already one of the luckiest women alive.  For that, I am truly grateful.