No Woman Or Girl Left Behind: Restoring Girls In China And Cambodia -- By: Lily Lee

Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 28:1 (Winter 2014)
Article: No Woman Or Girl Left Behind: Restoring Girls In China And Cambodia
Author: Lily Lee


No Woman Or Girl Left Behind: Restoring Girls In China And Cambodia

Lily Lee

Lily Lee holds an MS in mathematics as well as MAR and ThM degrees from Westminster Theological Seminary. She is Cofounder and President of Fullness in Christ Fellowship (FiCF), which develops Christian women leaders and serves girls and women who are hurt and oppressed. She is Founder, Chair, and Executive Director of Pleroma Missions in Cambodia with its two ministries: Pleroma Home for Girls and Pleroma Education for Girls (PEG).

Former Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China said, “The speed of a fleet is judged not by the fastest ones in the front, but by the slowest ones trailing at the end.” This imagery, unintended though it was for the women’s movement, provides a vivid depiction of women and girls who are left behind. Though gender equality has seemingly made significant strides inside and outside the church in the past few decades, there remain many overwhelmingly horrid stories of women and girls whose lives are severely broken by extreme abuse and exploitation. In the biblical framework of creation-fall-redemption, and against the cultural backdrops of China and Cambodia, we look into God’s intention in restoring lives of these violated girls.

Many women today are enjoying unprecedented rights and opportunities. Leading in the front of the fleet, we see women as presidents, prime ministers, secretaries of state, chief executives, scientists, astronauts, and more. However, trailing behind in alarming numbers are girls and women who continue to be intimidated, deprived, discriminated against, violated, abused, raped, exploited, brutalized, and even murdered simply because they are female. For example, Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai was shot in 2012 simply because she proclaimed that every girl has a right to an education.1 The female university student known as Nirbhaya was brutally gang-raped to death on a New Delhi bus.2 These horrific stories, not unlike countless others, have made the world’s conscience uneasy and sparked soul-searching about the place of women and girls in the world.

The Global Plight Of Women And Girls

The above are examples of violations, not just on females’ bodies, but also on their dignities and spirits. Gender brutality in our generation is extensive:

  • In the last half-century alone, the number of women and girls who have died as a result of gender discrimination exceeds that of all men killed in all the battles of the twentieth century combined.3

  • For each decade in the past century, more girls were killed than the sum total of all th...
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