Format: ebook
Published: January 9th, 2024
Age: Adult
Genre: Non-Fiction – True Crime – Social Justice
Goodreads
Rating: 5/5 Stars
This book is fantastic, infuriating, upsetting, and inspiring in equal measure. It’s not radical to say we live in a patriarchal world, or to point out women face injustices every single day, while expected to smile and get on with it, to make themselves smaller and quieter and adapt to systems designed to keep them in line. Through The Furies, Flock highlights the lives of three very different women, in three different parts of the world, who responded to the violence against them with their own violence, and the consequences that followed.
There’s a line towards the end about how nonviolence is a privilege, and it sums up the situations these women found themselves in really well. Each woman we meet here – whether it’s one of the three Flock focuses on or those who get mentioned in relation to them – has dealt with and faced situations no one would in an ideal world, and Flock explores the way society treats them due to the violence they used to protect themselves and their communities.
‘Stand Your Ground’ has become infamous even outside the US, in its use against marginalised folks especially, but Brittany Smith was denied it as a defence when she tried to make a man who assaulted her leave her home, and her life and her brother’s were under threat. As Flock points out, Brittany is not an ‘ideal’ victim – she is a working class, single mother who had her children removed from her care, and who struggles with addiction, but Flock raises the question of who we give support to and when. Her story here is heart-breaking, and Flock uses interviews to show us all sides of the story. It’s incredibly detailed, and like the rest of the book, clearly heavily researched.
Angoori Daharilya in Uttar Pradesh, India, fought back in the only way she could after she was kicked out of her home due to her class – she formed a gang, who worked to avenge victims of domestic abuse and punished those the police would not. Again, Angoori isn’t perfect; like all humans, and like Brittany, she is flawed, but she inspired and worked towards something to make lives for all women better, and forced those in powerful positions to actually pay attention.
Lastly, there’s Cicek Mustafa Zibo, part of the militia that battled ISIS in Syria. Although all three stories are powerful and, in many ways, difficult, I found this last one to be the one that had me tearing up. Not just because of Cicek and what she experienced, but the women around her, the difficulties they faced, and the constant threat to their lives, either from ISIS or Turkey.
None of these tales ends positively, but there’s a lot of reflection at the end regarding the impact their battles had on their own lives, and the lives of those around them.
Flock really brings these stories to life in her use of interviews and own descriptions of the places these women call home. She includes the wider context and dives deep into the gender bias involved in each story. It’s a hard read, and comes with a lot of trigger warnings – Flock doesn’t shy away from brutality and violence, although it never gets overly graphic, either. It’s easy to see how in a less informed writer’s hands these tales might have been twisted, but Flock gives a really balanced view, these women not presented as heroes or even trailblazers, but ordinary women thrust into often devastating, life changing circumstances.
These are the kind of things that stay with you, whether it’s a mother trying desperately to keep her children from arguing with each other as they both await trial, the bravery shown by a group of women in trying to solve serious issues in their community, or the horrors of war where fighters don’t know if they’ll live to see the next sunset, this is one of those books that feels truly unforgettable, and highlights the deep seated issues faced around the globe. Flock has done an incredible job here, and without a doubt this book deserves to be very wildly read.
Reading Challenge
Musicals Reading Challenge 2024
Prompt: Chicago – We Both Reached for the Gun – Killer women
Progress: 7/24 Completed
Unwrapping Words 