Sally Armstrong, author of Ascent of Women, in discussion with UBC journalism instructor Kathryn Gretsinger, part of the Vancouver Writers Fest, Monday, March 25 at 7: 30 p.m. at St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church in Vancouver. Tickets: $21/$19, visit vancouvertix.com.
PREPARING to leave Afghanistan on one of her many journalistic missions, Sally Armstrong said goodbye to the women she had been hiding out with - women who had been compelled to share their stories with her, but, under the Taliban, feared being seen with her.
"Where I go, believe me, the people in power don't want me there," she says. "And they will do everything they can to either get rid of me or make my life so difficult that I'll leave, which I never do. But the women, they'll get me around," she says.
Their final act of generosity, stuffing her pockets with sweet cakes and naan bread, is something she's never forgotten.
"I thought, 'This is unbelievable. They're worried about the comfort of my journey out of a place that's basically put them in prison.' But women are like that."
For more than 25 years, Armstrong, an award-winning journalist, humanitarian and member of the Order of Canada, has fought to bring the stories of women and girls living in conflict zones and developing countries to light in an effort to influence positive change. While she hasn't always had "good" news stories to tell, the spirit and perseverance of the women she's encountered has continued to drive her.
"I feel very humbled that the women will tell me their stories. Women always have hope. They have to," she says.
Armstrong too has an optimistic heart and in her new book, Ascent of Women: Our turn, our way - a remarkable story of worldwide change, she explores the impacts of the countless changemakers she's met over the years whose efforts are currently being felt the world over like never before.
"I decided I would do the book because this is brand new, this is really important and I wanted to get it out there," she says.
Armstrong will offer insight into the work, Monday, March 25 at 7: 30 p.m. at St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church in Vancouver as part of the Vancouver Writers Fest.
The Montreal, Que. native's career covering war and human rights stories, filing stories from the frontlines in Bosnia, Africa, Asia and the Middle East, is a far cry from her initial job as a physical education teacher.
Armstrong says she was "very" pregnant with their third child when her husband's boss' wife called her and said, "'There's a man opening a magazine. I gave him your name.'"
"I said, 'My name?' I never wrote anything. I was always the bridesmaid they gave the wine to and said, 'Write the poem for the shower,' but I'd never done anything," she says, reached Tuesday from Calgary, where she had travelled as part of her current cross-Canada book tour. Armstrong currently splits her time between Salt Spring Island, Toronto, Ont. and her cottage near Bathurst, N.B.
Despite her reservations, she took the meeting, figuring due to her pregnancy she wasn't going to be doing a lot of round off back handsprings in the near future, she says. She got the job, as did her boss' wife, a home economics teacher who gave sewing lessons over at the CBC at lunchtime. "I thought, 'Oh, she must be real media. She must know how to do this,'" says Armstrong.
A third woman, a recipe developer at Canada Packers, was also hired and they served as the founding editors of Canadian Living magazine.
"That's where I learned and I loved it immediately and moved on from there," she says, of her career in journalism.
While at Canadian Living, Armstrong had an opportunity to write a story out of Liberia, and her passion became clear. She continued writing stories in that vein when she moved on to become editor of Homemakers, a publication with a reputation for being a "thinking woman's magazine."
"The editors before me had already taken on all the big issues of the '80s - incest and wife assault and domestic violence, all those kinds of things," she says. "I took over in '88 and at that time, I figured the all-news networks were in our living rooms and it changed what we know. We used to be able to say, 'I didn't know.' And if you don't know, you're not driven to any sort of action. But once those all-news networks were in our living rooms, we knew."
Polling her readers, she realized they were just as upset as she was and likewise craved more information than the 90-second truncated TV news reports provided, and so Homemakers started publishing articles covering conflict from the point of view of what happens to women and girls in war-torn countries around the world.
"The readers poured through the windows and doors," says Armstrong, who maintained her post as editor as well as began travelling to remote locations to research articles for publication in the magazine.
Armstrong is currently a freelance journalist, contributing regularly to CBC Radio's Ideas program as well as Chatelaine and Macleans. Ascent of Women follows Armstrong's previous books, which include Veiled Threat: The Hidden Power of the Women of Afghanistan (2002), Bitter Roots, Tender Shoots: The Uncertain Fate of Afghanistan's Women (2008) and The Nine Lives of Charlotte Taylor (2007). She previously served on the United Nations' International Women's Commission, and is currently on the advisory council for Human Rights Watch.
She is also an avid speaker at fundraisers for humanitarian organizations, including Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan, the Stephen Lewis Foundation and the Canadian Women's Foundation.
Early in her career, she worried about being known as both a journalist and a humanitarian. "I know I have to seek the truth of what's happening and report that back to my readers. That's my job. I used to worry when people would say journalist/ humanitarian because I felt like they were putting me down as a journalist but I don't worry about those things anymore," she says.
Armstrong decided to write Ascent of Women: Our turn, our way after experiencing an epiphany, feeling as if the "earth was shifting," seeing women's efforts towards change not only taking root but turning the tide.
Among the things she's noticed is the increased communication among women, seeing them come together, including in their respective communities, like African women taking a stand to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS, and in forming effective international organizations like Women Living Under Muslim Laws. As well, thanks to the Internet and social media, women from Africa, to Asia and the Americas have been able to connect with one another.
"I think the worst thing that ever happened to extremists
and misogynists and fundamentalists was the day those women started talking to each other. . . . Women wearing hijab found out that despite what the fundamentalists had said, women wearing jeans were not all whores and the women wearing jeans found out that despite what they'd been told, women wearing hijab were not all subjugated and oppressed," says Armstrong.
Increased emphasis on the importance of education has also contributed to the felt change. Armstrong recalls a woman in Afghanistan she interviewed who related being unable to read as "being blind," stating, "'I couldn't read so I couldn't see what was going on.'"
"Women have started to ask questions they never dared to ask before. They're asking where is it written in the Qur'an that my daughter can't go to school? Where is it written that I can't go to work?" she adds.
Ascent of Women chronicles a number of positive stories, including the Senegal women who are helping eradicate female genital cutting and the 160 Kenyan girls, ages three to 17, who are suing their government for failing to protect them from being raped.
"All these things that are happening wouldn't have happened a couple of years ago," says Armstrong, who's been "absolutely delighted" with the response she's received for her book thus far.
"Although my research is very, very strong and I can back up every claim, I was afraid that some people would say, 'Oh come on. Things are too terrible for women. You couldn't possibly be turning a corner.' And that hasn't happened, the opposite has happened. People are saying, 'I thought this too' and 'I'm so glad to hear this' and I think people are really rejoicing," she says.
When asked what society members in the Western world can do to help the women she's come to know further their respective causes, Armstrong says of course supporting worthy NGOs is important, but the most important thing is for community members to use their own voice to inspire change.
"I don't think people realize how valuable their voices are," she says. "We tend to think, 'I'm not famous enough, or rich enough or powerful enough. I'm only one person. I can't make any change. Nothing I say or do is going to change anything' and that's not true. Your voice is really, really valuable. When you speak up and say, 'This is not okay with me,' you're planting a seed and you're doing a very important thing."
