"God Sleeps in Rwanda"

The entire time that I was viewing this short film, a lot of emotions and thoughts occurred to me. First, I felt an overwhelming sadness for these women and children that had suffered for something that they were helpless to change. While the situation was vastly different, I saw certain parallels between this transition and the transition of American women after WW2. Rwandan women had very little rights prior to the genocide but following its conclusion they had to change their roles. Women finally gained their rights because of the absence of men; unfortunately, it wasn't because people had finally decided women were no less than men but they needed them in order to sustain society and survive.

I enjoyed the film because it did show how women were capable of surviving and capable of taking care of others. The women used their experiences to take care of others and raise the children in a new generation where they wanted them to be better and have better than they had. This female subjectivity is what helped change their position in society. With the absence of men, women are finally allowed to show their strengths and abilities. While incredibly sad that this atrocity is what it took for women to gain these rights, this film shows that these women are leaders and can rebuild whole societies.