The Right to Her Story

The Right to Her Story, a video from the Center for Digital Storytelling's Silence Speaks programme, presents "women's human rights stories created in Silence Speaks storytelling and participatory media workshops held around the world. The stories explore women's experiences of conflict and displacement, gender-based violence, discrimination, challenges in accessing reproductive health services, and other topics; the storytellers come from Belize, Laos, Lebanon, Mexico, Nepal, India, South Africa, and Uganda."

Silence Speaks, a programme of the United States-based Center for Digital Storytelling, works internationally with individuals and groups using participatory media, popular education, and testimonial practices to support the telling and witnessing of stories. Its work "surfaces personal narratives of struggle, courage, and transformation and works to ensure that these stories play an instrumental role in promoting gender equality and human rights. With the permission of storytellers and project partners, stories are shared in local communities and globally through broadcast television, radio, or social media outlets, as strategic tools for training, grassroots organizing, and policy advocacy to promote dignity and justice."

This video of collected stories includes a downloadable PDF training and discussion guide for use by educators and advocates promoting human rights education and action. Stories highlighting local and global implications of varied women’s human rights concerns include the following:

"Nombasa: Nombasa describes the challenges facing girls in her rural South African community, including a lack of infrastructure, high rates of gender-based violence, and poor educational opportunities.

Elisa: Elisa shares the social pressures and economic constraints that led her to have a back-alley abortion in Belize, and talks about her efforts to ensure that young women today have options, when it comes to their sexuality and reproductive health."

Sales of The Right to Her Story (available on DVD or streamed online) support Silence Speaks and its work worldwide. Their first DVD, entitled "Stories to End Violence", is also available on the website below.