Gabby on "Saving Face"

This documentary, was surprisingly (I almost feel bad to say), not that much of a shock to me. I was absolutely horrified to see these women's lives ruined because of men in their lives, but knowing what I know about the Middle Eastern treatment of women (though it is not a lot of knowledge), I cannot say that I was all that surprised by their mistreatment. Women in the Pakistan, as well as surrounding countries, are unfortunately frequently mistreated. Like the women in the documentary, most of these women have no means to support themselves without their husbands and their families and they become trapped in this life that they have no control over.

Comparing Saving Face to The House is Black is interesting to me because despite that we have two different types of victims plagued by life, they share the same lifestyle in a sense. The lepers in the house have been isolated from the rest of their society because of their deformity, similarly to the women who hide their ruined faces from the rest of their world. Neither of these people had any control over what became of them, and it is very difficult to change their life once it has been ruined. However, I was so thrilled to see the plastic surgeon who came in and wanted to help these women regain a part of themselves that they felt they had lost forever and especially when Parliament passed the law that would put these horrible, torturous men in prison for life.

As an American, it was so difficult to watch this film and not wonder how things like this can happen in the world. I think it is even scarier when we realize that we have tragedies similar to this (but perhaps not to the same extent as throwing acid in someone's face) right here in the U.S. Laura pointed out in class that there is a similar parallel between this case and that of the many rapes that happen in America. What I find disturbing, yet interesting at the same time, is that in both cases it always seems that these women bring it on themselves. In Saving Face, these women were ruined because they denied a man's advances or tried to escape abuse; in America, this is usually the case too behind many rapes. We tend to feel so safe here in America because we do not fear acid attacks or landmines or other things that will destroy our lives, that these things only happen in places like the Middle East. We are often so blind to the own horribleness of many sick and crazy people in our own country who think nothing of destroying another life. We hear of all these terrible things on the news but we are only learning about a fraction of the things that go on in the world. It is very easy to say that things are so terrible in other parts of the world when we do not live in it, yet I feel that we are even more ignorant of the horrible things that go on in our own world.