Sophie Harman’s Sick of It is a damning report on how global power structures undermine and exploit women

Health

An anti Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) protester holds a placard outside the National Assembly in Gambia. Photo: Getty

Frieda Klotz

In 2021, a teenage girl living in the Democratic Republic of Congo sought medical care after a rape. When she emerged from the clinic, a photographer approached her and asked if he could take her ­picture and she agreed. The ­image was later published along with her story and was used in ­marketing materials of the ­charity that helped her, Medecins Sans Frontieres.

The account highlights questions of consent and exploitation that are at the heart of Sophie Harman’s Sick of It, an angry, impassioned book which gives readers an excoriating analysis of how global power structures undermine women.