Ankita Das

Paper: Empowering Lives: The Journey of Jaycee Dugard, Mukhtar Mai and Elizabeth Smart

Abstract

Social activists and feminist scholars across the globe have endlessly stressed on the need for women to lend support to other women; for victims to help other victims and for survivors to aid other survivors. Empathy and compassion for fellow human beings is one of the possible ways of raising the standards of humanity. The present paper highlights the endeavours of such women who despite having undergone unspeakable privations have not only pulled themselves up but also are striving hard to make the society a better place to live in. In order to help people who have had similar fate and endured similar traumatic experiences, women like Jaycee Lee Dugard who was illegally held captive for eighteen years, Mukhtar Mai, who survived a gang rape and Elizabeth Smart, who too had suffered nine months of abduction and sexual abuse, are at present running organizations which provide shelter and assistance to survivors like them.While Smart and Mai are attempting to work against violence through spreading education and awareness, Dugard’s foundation, ‘Just Ask Yourself To Care’ aims at providing support to not barely the survivors of traumatic experiences but also help their families to reintegrate into the society. The objective of the present paper would be to underline the contribution of these women towards bringing a desired change in the society. The paper closely examines the personal lives of the three women in context thereby analyzing their ways of self-affirmation which is not just confined to them but also extends to other survivors. Since the change is envisioned by those who are typically expected to have a submissive demeanour, the paper to traces the socio-cultural elements that facilitate or hinder such initiatives.

Ankita Das is a Junior Research Fellow at the Humanities and Social Sciences Department in Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad. She has completed her Masters in English from Ambedkar University, Delhi. Her areas of interest include Captivity and Slave narratives, Trauma Theory, Indian Writing in English and Gender Theory.