It is one of the most popular children’s books of 2017, a collection of stories about female role models from Amelia Earhart and Marie Curie to Hillary Clinton and Serena Williams, inspiring girls to aim high and challenge the status quo.
But Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, likely to be in many Christmas stockings, has run into controversy because of one of the 100 women included in its pages. When the book was written last year, Aung San Suu Kyi
was deemed a worthy subject: winner of the Nobel peace prize and epitome of courage in the face of oppression. But her fall from grace over her response to violence against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims, described by the UN as possible genocide, has triggered calls for her to be taken out of future editions. In response, the authors, Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo, are considering removing her from reprints.
The book, aimed at children aged six and over, devotes two pages to each of its role models, including commissioned illustrations by female artists. It quotes Aung San Suu Kyi as saying: “Since we live in this world, we have to do our best for this world.” It charts her story from her protests against the junta through 21 years of house arrest to her release and leadership: “She won the Nobel peace prize, and inspired millions of people in her own country and across the world, all without leaving her house.”
On the book’s Facebook page, Lenka Uzakova wrote: “As much as 99 per cent of book is inspiring, I found it absolutely disgusting that you have included someone suspected of genocide in the book. Aung San Suu Kyi has no place between those women. Someone who does nothing and perhaps is directly involved in massacres, rapes, burning of kids alive … I am speechless she is in the book.”
