Jimmy Carter’s newest book, he has written many, will not be a biography or a historical piece about his life or presidency, it will be a defense of women’s rights, as well as an attack against those who use religion to deny equality.
His publishers, Simon & Shuster, announced Tuesday that President Carter’s newest title, “A Call To Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power”, will be published on March 25th. The publisher says Carter will draw upon personal observations from his worldwide travels as he condemns abuses of women and girls and the distortions of religious texts used to justify abuse and discrimination.
Mr. Carter has spent a big part of his life post-White House, touring the world as a human rights advocate, collecting information for his various books, especially this one, which explores “all aspects of women’s lives” equipped with stories from his own travels.
A spokeswoman for Simon & Schuster described the book as “an impassioned account of the human rights abuses against women and girls around the world, particularly in religious societies.”
The Times received a copy of the book proposal, via literary agent Lynn Nesbit. In that proposal pitching his newest title, Mr. Carter wrote:
“I am convinced that discrimination against women and girls is one of the world’s most serious, all-pervasive and largely ignored violations of basic human rights,” Mr. Carter, 88, wrote in the proposal, adding: “It is disturbing to realize that women are treated most equally in some countries that are atheistic or where governments are strictly separated from religion.”
It continued, “Whenever possible, I’ll use my personal observations and experiences, such as a trip around Africa with Bill Gates Sr. and his wife,” wrote Mr. Carter, “during which he and I spent much of our time in enormous brothels, and appeared with Nelson Mandela to end South Africa’s practice of outlawing treatment for H.I.V.-AIDS.”
Mr. Carter wrote in the proposal that he had been asked to write the book by a “wide coalition” of religious leaders. He has also solicited contributions from women’s activists for the book.
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