Champion of choice [electronic resource] : the life and legacy of women's advocate Nafis Sadik / Cathleen Miller.

ISBN:

9780803246836

Title:

Author:

Miller, Cathleen.

Personal Author:

Miller, Cathleen.

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Contents:

Title Page; Copyright Page; Contents; List of Illustrations; Introduction; 1 Birth; 2 Welcoming the Girls; 3 Azhar; 4 Karachi; 5 The Wedding; 6 Doctor's Orders; 7 Mothers; 8 Family Planning; 9 The un; 10 The Director; 11 The Vatican; 12 Cairo; 13 Beijing; 14 Back Home; 15 On The Ground; 16 Onward; Epilogue; Acknowledgments; Notes and Sources; Index.

Local Note:

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Personal Subject:

Sadik, Nafis.

Subject Term:

Women social reformers -- Pakistan -- Biography.

Women physicians -- Pakistan -- Biography.

Family planning -- Developing countries.

Reproductive rights -- Developing countries.

Women's health services -- Developing countries.

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

Click here to view

Publication Date:

2013

Publication Information:

Lincoln :

University of Nebraska Press,

[2013]

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
305.42092	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Not many women can claim to have changed history, but Nafis Sadik set that goal in her youth, and change the world she did. Champion of Choice tells the remarkable story of how Sadik, born into a prominent Indian family in 1929, came to be the world's foremost advocate for women's health and reproductive rights, the first female director of a United Nations agency, and "one of the most powerful women in the world" ( London Times ).

An obstetrician, wife, mother,nbsp;and devout Muslim, Sadik has been a courageous and tireless advocate for women, insisting on discussing the difficult issues that impact their lives: education, contraception, abortion, as well as rape and other forms of violence. After Sadik joined the fledgling UN Population Fund in 1971, her groundbreaking strategy for providing females with education and the tools to control their own fertility has dramatically influenced the global birthrate. This book is the first to examine Sadik's contribution to history and the unconventional methods she has employed to go head-to-head with world leaders to improve millions of women's lives.

Interspersed between the chapters recounting Sadik's life are vignettes of females around the globe who represent her campaign against domestic abuse, child marriage, genital mutilation, and other human rights violations. With its insights into the political, religious, and domestic battles that have dominated women's destinies, Sadik's life story is as inspirational as it is dramatic.

Author Notes

Cathleen Miller circled the globe to interview the sources for this book. Her previous work includes the international bestseller Desert Flower , a tale of female genital mutilation that has been translated into fifty-five languages and adapted as a feature film. Miller's travel essays have appeared in numerous publications including the Washington Post , the Chicago Tribune , and the Los Angeles Times . She teaches creative writing at San José State University.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Essayist and creative writing teacher Miller (Desert Flower) offers an intimate, exhaustive biography of Nafis Sadik, a woman from an upper-class Indian family who became a physician and would eventually pioneer women's health and welfare rights around the world. By the time of her retirement, at age 70, as head of the UNFPA, Sadik was the top ranking woman in the United Nations. While lauded as efficient and unendingly energetic, Miller also reveals Sadik's warts, including difficulties in adjusting to the U.S. and an estrangement from one of her daughters. Sadik was an enigma, a female physician who had to navigate the male-dominated ways and means of medicine. Yet just when her reluctant admirers would consider her "one of the boys. she would sneak out to go shopping." Interspersed with Sadik's biographical information are brief but powerful sketches about individual women's struggles to avoid traditional circumcision practices, obtain sex education about HIV/AIDS, or avoid sexual exploitation. The vignettes are interesting but they rarely have a direct tie back to Sadik, weakening what is already an information-laden book. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* Born in a time and place where the arrival of a female child was cause for consolation, not celebration, Sadik stood the world on its head. Of Indian descent, she grew up in Pakistan after Partition and defied convention by eschewing the traditional marriage-family route when she announced her plans to attend medical school. With the full support of her family and fiance, Sadik completed her medical degree in obstetrics, thus launching the lifelong involvement in women's reproductive-health issues that would eventually lead to her becoming the first female director of a United Nations agency. As such, Sadik traveled the globe, from tribal African villages to papal Vatican apartments, raising awareness of the deplorable state of women's health and reproductive rights. Causes such as combating genital mutilation, domestic abuse, infant and mother mortality, and rape-as-war-crime received her unwavering concern and relentless advocacy. Extensively researched, Miller's engrossing biography illuminates Sadik's formidable passion for such issues, most notably through crystalline vignettes about women from Kenya to Kosovo whose individual narratives transformed Sadik's mission into a personal commitment. An indefatigable supporter, tenacious crusader, and powerful proponent of women's autonomy, Sadik is a hero for all ages and genders.--Haggas, Carol Copyright 2010 Booklist