Ten past five. It was a Saturday. The street was bare. Soulless. Without heat. We feel the emptiness of silence. We feel fear running through all our pores. Port-au-Prince sleeps early. Very early. Very early on, the inhabitants of the district took refuge behind their very high wall. Their throats tighten. Hum… We only hear complaints. Me, to escape from reality; set off to meet another world, another time, I picked up a book. It was Virginia Woolf’s text titled “A Room of One’s Own”. By immersing body and soul in the author’s reflection, an idea suddenly came to me. This concerns the place of women on the Mondoblog platform.
I thought about the importance of this community. How it constitutes a space of freedom, of meeting which allows women to be seen, to be heard. I have thought of hundreds of women who are part of it. I reflected on those who share their borders; who invite us to discover their community. I thought of those who take care, the time to teach us; inform us ; make us laugh through their posts on very interesting themes.
With Fritzline
So I couldn’t help but think of Fritzline Désir, a Haitian who, through her blog Lecarnet.mondoblog.org, informs us every day of the problems affecting the Haitian education system. This student in education sciences always gives herself the task of reflecting, highlighting the various problems affecting Haitian schoolchildren. In her last post, she took her time to show the situation of Haitian school children who emigrated to the USA in the face of the constraints of the American school system.
With Nicole
My reflection continues. There is this lady from Lebanon. With her, for me, Lebanon is no longer a small five-letter word inscribed on a geographical map. While living in my country, I live in Lebanon. I live in its beaches. I know the heat of the sun of this country. I feel the pain of these people who dream of having a Lebanon without social and economic inequalities; a Lebanon where the rule of law reigns. Nicole Hamouche, it is this lady who gave me this privilege. It is she who, through her titled post “Lebanon: a little more blond on a black background” allowed me to visit this country, travel its mountains and experience the harsh darkness of its night. And since my meeting with her, every time I want to go to Lebanon, I click on her blog penseesdebeyrouth.mondoblog.org.
With Majoie and Valetah
Oops… I almost forgot Majoie Koutohounou, the student in planning and development economics. With her, I was able to go to Benin. I was able to know Abomey, the historic city located in the south of Benin. Thanks to his blog educationdesenfants.mondoblog.org, the girl made me discover all the colors and riches of this tourist town. OW! There is also this woman. She’s a young novelist. If I’m not mistaken, her name is Valetah. She too comes from Benin. On his blog plumesensible.mondoblog.org, she fights against the different clichés that relate to Benin. It enlightens us on the art, culture, and spirituality of this beautiful country.
With Coulibaly
And Fatoumata Z. Coulibaly. She comes from Mali. She is a journalist and writer, I believe. On her blog fatoumataz.mondoblog.org, Coulibaly never misses an opportunity to make the voices of women in her country heard. She talks about their commitment and their suffering. She fights for the sexual and reproductive health of her women. She speaks out against female circumcision and advocates female leadership.
Women are not in small numbers on Mondoblog. Their names came to me in floods. I couldn’t list them one by one. I don’t have enough ink to talk about their work. Not enough words to praise their writing. They are all original. How grateful to have met them. I congratulate them for their abilities, their commitment. I congratulate them for having the courage to speak about everything concerning their existence, their community so that I can hear their voice from Haiti. I want to tell all these women that I am with them. Even if we don’t live in the same country, we don’t share the same culture, the same reality, we have something in common. This common point is the fact of being a woman. Mondoblog is our bedroom. We must put ourselves at ease, unite to talk about our ills, make our bursts of laughter heard and invite the women around us to participate in the mondoblog contest so that they can also have their own “room of their own ” to express oneself.