by Patrick Appel
Mac McClelland's essay on her PTSD, which was caused by covering rape in Haiti, has infuriated "36 women who've worked in that country as journalists, activists and development workers." Una Moore, who lives in Kabul, Afghansitan, defends McClelland:
I have male Afghan friends I trust with my life, but I have been cornered enough times by both strangers and personal acquaintances to fear the footfalls behind me and the grin of the average man on the street. I have learned to distrust before I trust. And when the time comes for me to write about how my experiences with some Afghan men have caused me to develop what will likely be long struggles with anger and impulse control, I do not want to be told that I am marginalizing Afghan women, whining, or being racist, or, even worse, that I am too crazy and damaged to be taken seriously at my job.
Those of us who choose to go to work in places like Haiti and Afghanistan do just that –-we choose to work in extremely troubled places where we are outsiders. But the fact that we made that choice while others had it foisted on them at birth shouldn’t mean we aren’t allowed to write honestly and without shame or self-censorship about how we cope with the mental health issues that are among our occupational hazards.
The Dish 