On the Front Line with the Women Who Fight Back by Stacey Dooley

Author : Stacey Dooley

Title : On the Front Line with the Women Who Fight Back 

Published : 2019
Publisher : BBC Books
Pages : 304
Genre : Non Fiction 

     Over her ten years of documentary film making, Stacey Dooley has covered a wide variety of topics, from sex trafficking in Cambodia to Yazidi women fighting back in Syria. At the heart of all her reporting are incredible women in extraordinary situations: sex workers in Russia, victims of domestic violence in Honduras, and many more. On the Frontline with the Women Who Fight Back, draws on Stacey's encounters with the brave, wonderful women she has met over her career to explore the issues of gender equality, domestic violence, sexual identity and, at its center, womanhood in the world today.

     Until recently I had never heard the name Stacey Dooley , what brought her to my attention was the controversy surrounding her Red Nose Day film. A lot of what was being levelled at her seemed to be very negative. So while at my local book store I came across this book I was curious to see what she was like behind all those headlines. But that wasn't all, I have read many books about the hard lives women have to leave from around the world. It brings me constant reminders of what I fail to see and can never experience. To often my side of the human experience goes by with a blindside to what women have to endure. And while the women in my life tell me of things that they have been through it is only in small glimpses. They choose to hold things back and I can't say I entirely blame them for this.  It frightens me how often they are not believed. It is through reading books such as these that I can get a better understanding of what it is like to live in our modern age as a woman.

     This is not an easy book to read, it goes to places that we do not want to look. In her investigations, Dooley shines a light on the worst of what it means to be a woman. With each chapter dedicated to a different woman and in by doing this a different topic we as the reader get to experience the horrors they have seen and experienced. It is still eye-opening for me to read such texts, these are stories that rarely get any attention and will not feature in your nightly news. While each visit with them is by far way to short you get an understanding as to what is going on. It feels like a jumping off point, something that will make you look harder into what s taking place. What she does is shock you into thinking about the subject you would rather push far from your mind. For me at least the chapters that deal with paedophiler where some of the most heart wrenching to digest. I can not wrap my brain around it, the way they think is so alien to me. What in many ways is even more alarming is the rise in mothers doing this to there own children. It is something that truly breaks my heart. 

     The book is well presented and it becomes clear very early own that these topics are ones the author feels very strongly about. She speaks from a place of knowledge and understanding wanting to let the reader into the things she has witnessed. With each section clearly divided it means that I never felt lost within the book and could sort the thoughts out that were running through my mind. I struggled at times to be able to deal with the emotions that it brought out. It is a book that makes you want to scream out which is not best when you are reading it in your works canteen. As a man, it brought out that primal feeling of wanting to protect these women but also do serious harm to the men who have hurt them. But I feel at least for the latter this would do little to change what has happened. In my life, I have known a couple of women who have suffered at the hands of men only learning long afterward of what has taken place.  It is that feeling of helplessness that washes over you, I am still at a loss as to what to do with it. All I have come up with is to sit and lessen let them tell me what they choose to and never to push. 

     This book is so hard to get through, it wreaks havoc on you as you go. But it is an important one, it shows that we as a species have so much more to do. The book is like those best of teachers, it guides us and says look this is what is wrong now it is up to you to start making a difference.  The smallest ripples can span the globe and in doing so change the lives of so many.