Flock, Elizabeth
9780063048799, 0063048795
Paperback
 
Elizabeth Flock, the renowned journalist and author of The Heart Is a Shifting Sea, investigates what few dare to confront, or even imagine: the role and necessity of female-led violence in response to systems built against women.
 
“A remarkable and important exploration—reported with deep rigor and care—of what justice looks like for women whohave been stripped of power and are trying to reclaim it.”—Rachel Aviv, author of Strangers to Ourselves
 
“A captivating examination of violence and power. . . . This one will stick with readers.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
 
The Furies examines how three real-life women have used violence to gain power, safety, and freedom when the institutions meant to protect them—government, police, courts—utterly failed to do so:
 
Brittany Smith, a young woman from Stevenson, Alabama, who killed a man she said raped her but was denied the protection of the Stand Your Ground law
Angoori Dahariya, the leader of a gang in Uttar Pradesh, India, dedicated to avenging victims of domestic abuse
Cicek Mustafa Zibo, a fighter in a thousands-strong all-female militia that battled ISIS in Syria
 
With exquisite nuance, Elizabeth Flock explores whether the fight for women’s safety is fully possible without force and how views of women who defend themselves are often distorted by their depictions in media and pop culture. Each of these women has been criticized by those who believe that violence is never the answer.
 
Do these women’s acts of vengeance help or hurt them and their communities? Did they create lasting change in entrenched misogynistic and paternalistic systems? And ultimately, what would societies in which women have real power look like? The Furies provokes questions about how to achieve true gender equality and offers profound insights in the quest for answers.