What limits exist for a woman\u2019s physical endurance?\nThere is no single absolute answer to this question\u2014but the life of Tran Thi Ly will truly make you shudder in awe at what she endured. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWho is she? A girl or a fairy?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Twenty-five years old. Three arrests. Forty-two wounds.\nThese are the words often used to describe her\u2014a young woman in her twenties, her body marked by the countless pains of war. Tran Thi Ly (Tran Thi Nham, 1933\u20131992) was a Hero of the People\u2019s Armed Forces, honored with the rare distinction of meeting President Ho Chi Minh three times. Joining the revolution at the age of twelve, she devoted nearly her entire life to the cause of national liberation.\n\nBy the age of eighteen\u2014when \u201cthe sun of truth shone through her heart\u201d\u2014she had been admitted into the ranks of the Communist Party, continuing her passionate activism toward the liberation of the South. After being arrested three times and enduring brutal torture, relentless struggle, and extraordinary hardship, the heart of this resilient and indomitable woman still burned with faith in peace and with an abiding love for humanity and life.\n\nPerhaps she, alongside countless heroes and unnamed women\u2014those \u201cfairies\u201d whose names are forgotten\u2014together contributed to a glorious golden chapter in the nation\u2019s history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFight until America goes away, fight until Nguy collapses\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Without dark nights, how could we see the faint, dazzling starlight? Without bombs or wars, how could there be the serenity but resilience, the gentleness but arrogance of a flower in the midst of fire? Having said that, how can we see her incredible fortitude and unwavering resolve without mentioning the crimes and brutal torture committed by not only the government of the Republic of Vietnam in particular but also wars that have left an imprint on her? Many times she escaped death on duty, many times her fear of dangers had not yet subsided, and the third time being captured, she was forced to endure excruciating torture in front of the enemy. She was taken prisoner by the Republic of Vietnam government in 1956 and subjected to a cruel torture regimen that included electric shock, stabbing, pouring soapy water, cutting her breasts with a knife, and using fire to burn her genitals to the point that she lost her fertility\u2026, but that faithful woman still did not say a word. Sensitivities and private spaces are treated as if they were a valuable commodity, seemingly only to relieve pleasures, vanity, and ambitions that are dehumanising. It is incomprehensible to imagine why people could play countless corrupt \"tricks\", especially on a woman just over twenty years old. Could it be that no hearts have any little sympathy or little compassion for her? Or could it be that, just because of the struggles and \"egos\", those once shared Vietnamese blood, were then cruel to a woman without any pity? Alas, twenty years old! A beautiful age, yet sadly marred by the blood of savagery, sacrifices and bravery for the homeland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPain? - Never have we surrendered!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In mid-1958, Viet\u2013Soviet Hospital admitted a very special patient.\nHer medical record read: \u201cTran Thi Nham (also known as Ly), age 25, from the South; weight: 26 kg. Condition: severe exhaustion, frequent convulsions; 42 wounds on the body continuously bleeding; nipples severed and ulcerated; continuous bleeding from the genital area.\u201d\nRevisiting these historical records, one cannot help but feel shaken by the aftershocks of such brutal torture.\n\nIn October 1958, Tran Thi Ly was tortured to the point of complete physical collapse. The authorities of the Republic of Vietnam believed she would not survive and discarded her outside the prison. By a rare stroke of fate, she escaped death\u2014secretly rescued by comrades, transferred to Cambodia, and then taken to the North for medical treatment. As if the immense suffering inflicted upon her body were not enough, she also endured a long and perilous journey back to the frontline of the nation. It was a journey of countless miles, countless hardships, and constant fear for her safety. Yet this indomitable woman survived and returned to Viet\u2013Soviet Hospital, surrounded by the love and anguish of her comrades.\n\nShe later recounted:\n\u201cThe third time, in March 1956, they took me to Hoi An prison and tortured me with extreme brutality. Phan Van Loi\u2014sent from Saigon by Diem\u2014along with several others, personally carried out the torture. They poured soapy water and filthy water down my throat, then stomped on my stomach and chest with spiked boots until liquid gushed from my mouth and nose. They drove iron hooks through my feet and hung me upside down from a beam; applied electric shocks to my genitals and breasts; sliced flesh from my thighs, arms, and chest with knives. They used red-hot iron pliers to tear chunks of muscle from my body, and forced iron rods into my vagina\u2026 They demanded that I confess to being \u2018pro-Communist\u2019 and \u2018opposing the national government.\u2019\u201d\n\nWhat made this woman so resilient? Was it a miracle of nature, an extraordinary inner strength, or the burning love of country and revolution\u2014a love that would not allow her to fall? Words can scarcely convey the reverence, admiration, and profound respect owed to such an extraordinary woman. And it is at this moment that poetry finds its voice\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWake up my dear, the nightmare is over Returning to Viet\u2013Soviet Hospital, returning to the familiar warmth of the homeland, Tran Thi Ly underwent treatment with remarkable determination.\nYet after surviving that near-miraculous escape from death, she did not retreat into silence or quietly resume revolutionary activities. Instead, she courageously spoke out to denounce the inhumane crimes committed by the U.S.\u2013Diem regime.\n\nShortly thereafter, at 5:00 p.m. on October 25, 1958, the Voice of Vietnam Radio in Hanoi broadcast a report on Tran Thi Ly, stating:\n\u201cComrade Ly was arrested and brutally tortured by Diem\u2019s henchmen, subjected to savage forms of \u2018interrogation,\u2019 including having chunks of flesh torn from her body with iron pliers and being subjected to electric shocks applied to her nipples and genital area.\u201d\n\nTo accuse, to expose, to speak out\u2014this was all that the steadfast woman chose to do after enduring such pain and barbarity. That courage sent shockwaves through international public opinion at the time and ignited a media battle between North and South Vietnam. In doing so, it indirectly curbed the brutality and arrogance of the Republic of Vietnam government, laying bare its merciless cruelty.\n\nWhat if that brave woman had allowed those crimes to sink silently into the past?\nWhat if she had accepted the wounds on her body as an inevitable fate?\nWould such inhumane atrocities have continued\u2014endless scenes of savage torture carried out in the name of military objectives?\n\nOnly then can we truly grasp the power of voice and exposure that Tran Thi Ly so resolutely exercised\u2014a power capable of sealing away the dark shadows of cruelty and opening a radiant horizon for the future, and for the revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFrom the dead, gloriously, you rise Bombs, bullets, blood and tears. That is all people usually write about war. We write about the valiant climate amidst the murky warfares. We write about sweats, blood and tears of the warriors who have sacrificed their own happiness. Seemingly, in all of the recorded depictions, there exist only toughness, frankness and all the glories of a bygone era. They left no space for the softer, harmonizing feel of tenderness . Is that when \u201cThe unwomanly face of war\u201d was written, overflowing with feminine, softer perspectives along with unspoken stories from the home front and even post-war pains? As we follow the traces of their souls, emotions, recollections and memories, a concurrent war gradually resurfaced itself from a feminine point of view. A war in which unwavering women engaged themselves in the furious storm of the era, getting eaten alive, crushed, killed or returning with wounds over their body and soul. They kept their memories hidden in the forgetfulness of time. With 19 chapters, the book is structured like a woman's life cycle: From girls aged 12, 13 hearing about the war, to adolescents aged 15, 16, who then made their way into wars. From little girls to damsels, wives and mothers they became. Their entire youths were tied to bloody and disastrous battles. Wars brutally deprived them of everything, and even if they were fortunate enough to return, they were no longer themselves. So beautiful, naive, full of faith were they before wars struck. After wars, they became void, wretched, haunted, unsightly and became forgotten, ostracised and abandoned. How terrible it is to witness our own homeland, our beloved country falling apart. How terrible it is to see our beloved perished under the enemies\u2019 guns. How terrible it is to see our own fellow human beings, having blood of red alike, slaughtering and killing each other. However imperturbable, one could not help but alter their outlook on life. How could there still be much aspiration, hope, much faith left in them after all the horrors they've experienced? All in all, while Ms. Tran Thi Ly allows us a sight into the revulsion and unbearable pain of the body, in the \"The unwomanly face of war\", that pain becomes a knife plunged deep into the woman\u2019s heart which has soon hardened over time. The horror, the pain left an indelible imprint on their hearts. Even if the clock of time may bring to dust all the ruins, wiping out the traces of history, that pain remains.\u00a0 Authors: Ng\u00f4 Mai Ph\u01b0\u01a1ng, Ph\u1ea1m Kh\u00e1nh Linh Gi\u1edbi h\u1ea1n n\u00e0o cho m\u1ed9t ng\u01b0\u1eddi ph\u1ee5 n\u1eef v\u1ec1 m\u1eb7t th\u1ec3 x\u00e1c? Kh\u00f4ng m\u1ed9t c\u00e2u tr\u1ea3 l\u1eddi n\u00e0o l\u00e0 ch\u00ednh x\u00e1c tuy\u1ec7t \u0111\u1ed1i cho c\u00e2u h\u1ecfi n\u00e0y, nh\u01b0ng b\u00e0 Tr\u1ea7n Th\u1ecb L\u00fd th\u1eadt s\u1ef1 s\u1ebd ki\u1ebfn b\u1ea1n \u201cr\u00f9ng m\u00ecnh\u201d kh\u00e2m ph\u1ee5c khi bi\u1ebft \u0111\u01b0\u1ee3c nh\u1eefng g\u00ec m\u00e0 b\u00e0 \u0111\u00e3 tr\u1ea3i qua. \u201cEm l\u00e0 ai? L\u00e0 […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-women-history-vfsa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vnsfemaleassociation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vnsfemaleassociation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vnsfemaleassociation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vnsfemaleassociation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vnsfemaleassociation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2455"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/vnsfemaleassociation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4617,"href":"https:\/\/vnsfemaleassociation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455\/revisions\/4617"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vnsfemaleassociation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vnsfemaleassociation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vnsfemaleassociation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vnsfemaleassociation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
You\u2019re alive again, you\u2019re alive!
Electric shock, stabbing awl, cutting knife, and fire
Cannot kill you, valiant heroine!\u201d
\u201cOur voices cannot be silenced. We speak up\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like the day you\u2019re gone, to the wave of the scarlet flag
You return, the triumphant woman
We hold on you, like our flesh and blood\u201d
\u201cA women\u2019s history\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"