Talking Out Walking On - the Spiritual Emancipation of Rural South African Women
By Hadass S. Ben-Ari
From:
In
However, there are many areas in the world where the emancipation of women is lagging. In
This is how the ‘Talking Out Walking On’ project has come about. Led by Juditta Ben David,
a 47-year-old, single Israeli woman, this project focuses on the emancipation and the spiritual healing of women using the technique of trauma therapy through film.
Having studied psychology, psychotherapy, yoga, Buddhist meditation and trauma therapy, and having traveled to places where women are not included in society and where antiquated concepts about the role of women persist, Ben David notes that rural women in
Trauma therapy is seen as essential for these rural women who are exposed to so much poverty, disease, war, violence, rape, illiteracy, the widespread epidemic of HIV/AIDS, experiencing much death, a loss, misunderstanding and not enough education. The ToWo project gives these women a chance to document their lives, experiences and old traumas in order to heal and move past them.
“The project is about talking out,” explains Ben David. “Being able to talk out in such a way that will allow to walk on, rather than talking out and being used for media coverage, or talking out and being victimized again.”
Ben David claims that media can be used constructively, but it can also destroy when women are being victimized. A video camera can focus on dramatic images, helplessness and weakness, as we see on TV, but it doesn’t help the women. The project, therefore, uses video cameras as a response to that victimization in a constructive, therapeutic manner – using film media from a subjective story-telling point-of-view, for the benefit of the women.
“It’s talking out in order to attain resiliency, self-esteem, to reach the healing aspect of ourselves.” Ben David further says that the women also view it as a sort of a play when it’s in front of a camera, so it brightens up the subject.
The overuse of shock images which create the victimization we see on TV is a portion of reality. By getting the women to contribute their own reality to the media from their point-of-view, and use it for their own benefit, the women have a chance at artistic expression and spiritual emancipation.
“It’s also to inform them about the media and bring up more question marks into this system – how can you become proactive in that? So getting the women to play with that can make them think about ‘what can you do with a camera? How can you color it one way? How can you color it a different way?’ And once they’re playing with that, they’re also playing a little bit with their life story, and they can say ‘Ah wait! I can move and think about myself in a different way, from a different point-of-view, differently than how I was thinking about myself until now.’ Story-telling can be very healing, because it makes the woman see that she has something to say and somebody wants to listen to her.”
In addition, by using a camera and experimenting with it for themselves, these women also have the chance to get acquainted with the technical developments of the 21st century, thus bridging the gap between their society and Western societies.
“For them it’s very important because if you want them to move and initiate their lives in a modern context, they need to understand these things.”
One of the major traumas dealt with revolves around rape and the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The misunderstanding and lack of education about HIV/AIDS serve to propagate misconceptions about it and spread the epidemic itself. It is closely related to rape since there is a belief system that if you have the virus and you have sex with a virgin, you will be healed.
Ben David claims that every 29 seconds, a woman is raped in
“One of the results of research shows that when women are more educated, it doesn’t matter in what, when the education of women rises, there is less prevalence of HIV/AIDS.”
The ToWo project, therefore, also focuses on teaching women the technical skills of filming and story-telling, and by the end of the week, the women watch the videos in a group and analyze them. They are taught observation skills and active listening by digging deeper into what they see and hear, by analyzing the words used in the film, the tone, the body language, and looking beyond what is seen on the surface. Learning these skills, they become more educated, and at the same time, they can ‘walk on’ past their old traumas.
Although Ben David is faced with the enormous amount of pain these women have to deal with, she looks at her experience in a positive light, claiming that these overwhelming sights soften her to the reality of the situation and provide her with encouragement.
“One of the ways of dealing with it is: this is what keeps you motivated. You want to give.”
In fact, she is hoping to extend this project to some societies in
The reactions of the women themselves have also shown that the project is bearing fruit.
“A woman came up to us and told us ‘You know, I was very miserable before, and I was depressed, and somehow during the week, I really feel like I have something in my hands, and you gave me a feeling that I can actually do something, that I can master something, in such a way that maybe I can also do it in other places’.”
ezine המאמר לקוח מתוךג'ודיתה בן -דוד, Juditta@the-art-of-breath.orgפרוייקט טובו ToWogroup@gmail.com
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