Scars Across Humanity: Understanding and Overcoming Violence Against Women

Review "Elaine Storkey's Scars Across Humanity is a bold and invaluable effort to educate us on the sprawling global humanitarian crisis that is destroying the lives of millions of women and girls. This well-researched discussion of what women and girls are suffering also reports how many individuals and NGOs are combatting these injustices. Storkey also tackles the root issues that drive, sustain, and normalize this appalling crisis. She is fearless in confronting the role religion plays in the subjugation of women, including her own Judeo-Christian tradition?a topic that needs even further examination. Her discussion of patriarchy and how it violates the humanity of both women and men (no matter how soft a form it takes) is worth the price of the book. It's impossible to overstate the urgency of reading this book and becoming part of the solution. So buckle up and read!" -- Carolyn Custis James, author of Malestrom and Half the Church"From the publication of her seminal work, What's Right with Feminism (1985), Elaine Storkey has been a prophetic voice for gender equality for over thirty years. In this thoroughly researched, clearly compelling yet deeply disturbing work, she takes her readers to the darkest places of violence against women and girls (including the unborn) around our world. Addressing this all-encompassing global crisis is undoubtedly the most important unfinished business the emerging generation will face. Reading Scars Across Humanity will make you think twice about endorsing patriarchy?no matter how benevolent its intentions." -- Ronald W. Pierce, editor of Discovering Biblical Equality"I've traveled the world observing and writing about injustice against women and girls. I thought I had seen it all. Yet Scars Across Humanity has left me shocked and indescribably saddened. We need this deeply moving book. We need Elaine Storkey's probing research in order to understand the world our sisters inhabit. We need to be challenged to take an active part in the struggle against violence and join those who are working to bring about healing and change." -- Kay Marshall Strom, writer, speaker, twenty-first-century abolitionist"Scars Across Humanity is a heart-wrenching yet compelling read. Excerpts of personal narratives from women across the globe make Storkey's careful, historical research and current statistics come alive. As I read, I found myself recalling two intelligent Pakistani girls who were in my sixth grade class at Karachi American School. To my shock, I discovered that instead of joining the rest of our classmates the following year, they had been married off by their wealthy family to middle-aged men and had given birth to their first children by age thirteen. Upon reading Storkey's book, I now wonder, Did they survive subsequent pregnancies and childbirth? Were they victims of female genital mutilation? Did their husbands beat and rape them? Or even, Did they fall prey to honor killings? Horrific as such questions are, Storkey does not leave the reader without hope." -- Heather Davediuk Gingrich, professor of counseling, Denver Seminary, author of Restoring the Shattered Self and coeditor of Treating Trauma in Christian Counseling"Scars Across Humanity is a thoroughly researched revelation of the constellation of violent injustices against females. What Storkey rightly names 'a global pandemic' piles on social, economic, and spiritual losses beyond anything the world has ever seen. This book serves as a powerful call to action for every reader to speak up and invest in the freedom and empowerment of women and girls in the hardest places." -- Michele Rickett, author, CEO of She Is Safe"In her significant book, Scars Across Humanity, Elaine Storkey paints a vivid and detailed portrait of a present day gendercide. Her stark descriptions of global violence against women and girls draws us into this reality that begs for more church response. Storkey explores various causal theories that aid in framin