Six Days: Three Activists, Three Wars, One Dream

Lanja Abdullah, in the documentary, refers to the collective experience of people of Kurdistan, which is the homeland of Kurdish people and which was forcibly divided. As a result of this division, it lies mostly within the present-day borders of Turkey, Iraq and Iran, with smaller parts in Syria, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The documentary follows the violence perpetrated on Kurdish women in Erbil, Iraq. Kurds in Iraq exist in more than 4 million as a population, and comprise about 23 percent of the population.[3] Under the Ba’ath regime of Saddam Hussein, the people of Iraq endured 35 years of repression and widespread human rights violations, of which the Kurdish population possibly experienced the worst.[4] Additionally, after this there was the war between Iran and Iraq which further made things worse for the Kurdish population. The women in this population often face all kind of physical abuses that either result in or force them to resort to self-immolation or hanging.[5] According to a statement released by the Free Women's Organization of Kurdistan (FWOK), in 2014 alone there were 6,082 women killed or who committed suicide in Iraqi Kurdistan.[5]

Liberia has experienced two Civil Wars – The First Liberian Civil War was in 1989 and the Second Liberian Civil War was in 1999 . Nelly Cooper in the documentary was witness to the wars and even had a 6 month old baby during the evacuation of homes. Owing to the Civil War, many communities in Liberia have been subjected to extreme poverty. In 2010, more than 80% Liberians were surviving on less than $1.25 per day.[6] Nelly relates in the documentary, that “many of the women’s husbands don’t work in Liberia. So the households are run by women.” Education of these women and other young girls is meant to be a “cornerstone” in the development of Liberia.[7]

Gali, in Abkhazia, is a neglected region of Georgia and is sparsely populated compared to pre-war times.[8] As a result of this, women's healthcare is also a neglected issue where one out of every five women has never had a routine health checkup of her child or herself.[9] Many of these women have not seen a gynecologist for 15–20 years. There are also many instances of bride kidnapping that although not widespread, are still not condoned due to strong cultural beliefs and tradition.[10] There seems to be two major types of bride kidnapping. First, where the girl is actually kidnapped against her will. Second, where the youth elope together to release the girl's family from any responsibility over her. Young women in many rural areas cannot protect themselves by relying on law enforcement officials because prosecutors reportedly habitually declined to indict the perpetrators for the kidnap, and instead told the victim or her parents to reconcile themselves to the fait accompli.[11]