'Get us a ticket out of here, please'

Women and girls changing their worlds — and ours. No Images? [Click here]( [Across Women's Lives]( Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Fear not, sign-up and receive your own copy weekly in your inbox. [Subscribe]( Hi, I’m Jasmine Garsd, lead reporter for our Across Women’s Lives project. I’m excited to bring you the stories of women from around the world, and America. Here's a little about what I'm working on next: I've been watching the news of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, but even though I have a lot of connections there, it wasn't until I talked with a friend on the phone, who is stranded on the island with her baby, that I began to understand the magnitude of the disaster. “What do you know? Is anyone coming to help us?” My friend, Mel, asked me on Monday, her voice sounding panicked. Phone service is extremely limited, so we've mainly stayed in contact via text, intermittently, over the past week. And, her situation is very worrying. Since the hurricane hit, there have been a lot of stories from people in a similar position as Mel, who feel like they’ve been left to their own devices. Friends who cannot find their loved ones. Friends who are not on the island, but are watching with a broken heart. Friends who just want to call and cry. Next week, I'm traveling to Puerto Rico alongside Andrea Crossan, AWL series director. We will be telling you those stories. And as always, the stories of women who are rising up to the challenge. In the meantime, I'm still corresponding with Mel, trying to find help. “Get us a ticket out of here, please,” read the late-night text I got from my friend a few days ago. This is no easy task. The San Juan airport has been damaged. Some flights aren’t available; others are outrageously priced. But we finally managed to book a flight for Mel and her little one. “We got you two tickets. October 11th. Sorry, it’s the earliest we could get,” I texted her today. “I’m on my way there next week, I’ll see you there. Please answer whenever you get this.” Here are some of the highlights from this week’s AWL coverage. [This week from AWL.]( [For domestic abuse survivors, finding safety amid natural disasters is 'very complicated']( First, it rained bullets. In a town, somewhere in Texas. Ann is describing her husband’s final fit of rage. “My kids' father shot my house up. Tried to kill us,” she says. Ann didn't want to use her last name or other identifying details — she’s still in danger. But, she was lucky. “[None] of us ... not one bullet touched us.” Ann took the kids and came here, to Beaumont, Texas. They're staying at [Family Services of Southeast Texas's Beaumont Shelter](— the only domestic violence shelter in a six-county area[.]( Two days after she arrived, it really started raining. This time, it was Hurricane Harvey. “When we woke up, me and my children, we stepped in water. And then we looked out the window, and it was just water. And it just started coming in, coming in. And so, me, I tried to get the towels, thinking it was just our area. It wasn’t. It was the whole wing.”She started to panic. “So, I’m sitting there and I’m thinking to myself, ‘Oh wow. What am I gonna do?’ Do I go back to my abuser? Because you have no money. You’re just in a bad place.” [Share via Twitter]( [Listen to the story]( [He trolled a plus-size model on Twitter. She had the perfect comeback.]( It was around 11 at night, and Lesego Legobane was getting ready to go to bed. A friend asked if she had seen the tweet about her, which had been circulating on the internet. It was posted by a Twitter user named Leyton Mokgerepi, and it showed two pictures side by side, one of a thin model, and one of a plus-size model. The caption read: "Girls that I like vs Girls that like me." Legobane, a 24-year-old South African photographer, plus-size model and body positive activist is used to seeing comments like this. She was far from surprised. “It didn’t even take me a second to reply,” she explained. “I was like, ‘Here we go again with this body-shaming nonsense; this is so tiring.’ I had no energy to fight with him or whatever, hence the simple answer.” Her simple answer, "I don’t like you," went viral. [Share via Twitter]( [Saudi women celebrate end of the driving ban]( When the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia issued a decree on Tuesday allowing women to drive, many were left scratching their heads. "I was in shock,” says Nadia Malaika, who lives in Jeddah. “I thought maybe it would happen in 10 or 15 years but not now.” Malaika says she's lucky to be able to afford a personal driver. And in fact, she prefers it that way. "I find driving a hassle," she explains. "The streets are crowded; [...] I love the fact that I can just go up to the store, get dropped off at the door and then have the driver worry about parking. I take a nap after work in the car on the way back home. So, for me, it's [a] relaxing time." But she knows that many women in her country are not as lucky as she is. And that denying them the right to drive complicates their lives. "I think women should have the choice to decide whether they want to drive or not," Malaika says. [Share via Twitter]( Across Our News Feeds 👀 Weekend reads and dinner party fodder The Guardian [The Moomins: Tove Jansson’s feminist legacy]( The Finnish author and illustrator used her books to subtly challenge views on how women should live and behave. Now, those stories are part of an Oxfam campaign to empower women around the world. The New Yorker [What Happened to Myanmar’s Human-Rights Icon?]( The ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya reveals what the world didn’t understand about Aung San Suu Kyi. Salon [HBO “Vice Principals” star on shattering casting categories]( Kimberly Hébert Gregory explains how creating categories across race and gender lines is better for us all Quartz [The Philippines’ greatest female philosopher has died]( At 12:40 am on Sept. 17, Emerita Quito, one the Philippines’s greatest philosophers, finally got her wish. The 88-year old former De La Salle University dean and author of more than 20 books died of respiratory failure in Manila. She was a trailblazing scholar, a prolific writer, and a sought-after lecturer. She was also my grand aunt. The Guardian [Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars]( Adjunct professors in America face low pay and long hours without the security of full-time faculty. Some, on the brink of homelessness, take desperate measures Longreads [On American Identity, the Election, and Family Members Who Support Trump]( Nicole Chung reflects on the burden of engaging with racism and educating white people, including some in her own family. Across Women’s Lives is PRI’s ambitious multi-platform journalism and engagement initiative about the connection between the empowerment of women and girls, and economic development and improved health around the world. This newsletter highlights our reporting and the work of PRI staff in calling attention to the ways that women are shaping a better future for their communities. [Donate Today]( PRI Public Radio International Hear a Different Voice [Like]( [Tweet]( [Forward]( [Preferences]( | [Unsubscribe](