A Proper Woman: one woman’s struggle to live her dreams

A Proper Woman: The story of one woman’s struggle to live her dreams

This is the true story of a young Cambodian woman who has challenged her country’s social and cultural norms throughout her life and as a consequence has become an ambassador for female empowerment.

Growing up on an island in the Bassac River, removed from many of the conveniences of modern life and surrounded by traditional customs and thought, Thavry’s story is one of inspiration to females around the world.

As Cambodia slowly recovers from the great turmoil and destruction of civil war and the Khmer Rouge, rural life largely returned to familiar, century-old ways.

For women, this meant marrying young, bearing children and working on the family farm, with little say in anything.

But with support from her parents, whose own childhood experiences had been greatly shaped by the four years of Khmer Rouge rule, Thavry was taught to value education as a means of breaking from the confines of the village and to forge her own independent future.

Her inspiring story shows that encouraging young women to believe in their dreams – and supporting them to do so – can lead to a freedom to learn and grow unknown to earlier generations.

Thavry's website

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From: Top 10 Books by Cambodian Authors in 2017