Women Can't Wait

by Pamela Grossman

Can the hearts of eight women from eight different nations be conveyed with one body? To ringing applause and a standing ovation, performance artist Sarah Jones showed her audience at the U.N. General Assembly building that the answer is yes.

Jones' one-woman show, "Women Can't Wait," was commissioned by the international women's-rights group Equality Now as part of a week-long conference currently being held in New York to mark the five-year anniversary of the Beijing women's-rights conference. Representatives of Equality Now, which campaigns against laws that it identifies as harmful or restrictive toward women, sought a tool to cut through layers of red tape and address pressing issues.

"People are haggling over words when they've already made a commitment," says co-executive director Monique Widyono, referring to the Beijing Platform for Action, a women's-rights initiative that was signed by representatives of 189 countries at the Beijing conference. "Governments always make promises; now it's time for accountability. These laws affect women's lives; they're not just words on paper."

Enter Jones, introduced at this performance by Gwyneth Paltrow, to demonstrate that point. Using only one prop--a shawl, which she employed as a head covering, handcuffs, a sling, and even a doll--she transformed herself into eight different women from around the world who are struggling with discriminatory legislation in their respective countries. First was Praveen from India, a victim of marital rape. Then came Émeraude ("from France, of course"), a teacher and an enthusiastically upstanding citizen who finds herself in violation of a law forbidding women to work at night. Then Tomoko from Japan, who has discovered true love after an abusive first marriage but whose future is clouded by a government-mandated "waiting period" before a divorced woman can remarry. Next was Hala from Jordan, whose brother was told to kill her rebellious only sister--and did so--when the girl was seen as a threat to the family name. Then came Alma from Uruguay, whose daughter's rapist has been removed from all blame because he has offered to marry his victim (as the girl is pregnant, this wedding is in fact going forward "and I am having to choose a dress to match the flower worn in the tuxedo of my daughter's rapist, soon to be my son in law!" states Alma in disgust). Bonita from the United States followed; she was jailed for a self-defense killing born of domestic abuse. Next was Shira from Israel, an Orthodox Jewish woman in prison for seeking a divorce from a husband who will not grant her one. And finally Anna from Kenya, a gentle, sweet-voiced girl who wants her country to halt its practice of performing femal genital mutilation (FGM) on young women when they reach adolescence. Respectful of tradition and, apparently, not one to turn down the chance for a good party, Anna does not think that coming of age should be ignored; she suggests that girls receive new outfits and be given celebrations in their honor. At these events, she explains tentatively but sensibly, cuts could be made to culturally symbolic artifacts.

Jones' mastery of accents and regional mannerisms brought laughs of recognition from her audience, an international mix of government delegates and NGO members. Her gentle humor, conveyed through her characters' sly comments and sometimes comic traits (Bonita, a born and bred New Yorker, struggles to control her native slang for a U.N. audience), brought a levity which counterbalanced the show's somber points without eclipsing them. And Jones' ability to shift from one nationality to the next astonished many viewers. "She belongs to Hollywood, but we need her here, too," says Manjari Bhatt of India. "How does she do this? I've seen nothing like her. With one scarf, she changed everything."

"We really wanted a unique way of highlighting the harmful impact that these laws have on women and girls," explains Widyono. "Sarah has an incredible talent for bringing to life women's stories, we've never met these women, but she helps us understand them." The goal of Jones' show was, by all accounts, well met. "What she did in one hour for me said more than all these days that I've been coming here," says Luciana Ferraz of Brazil, "because she expressed from her heart. When the communication is real, not just intellectual, it reaches deeper-and art is a means for that." "Women Can't Wait" was performed again on Friday, June 9th, at Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South, at 8 P.M. The performance, which will be introduced by Gloria Steinem, was free of charge. Contact Equality Now for further information via e-mail.