Yahoo Lifestyle Why Every Girl Needs An Education
An afghan girl at school. Photo by Getty Images.
Imagine a place where your life counts for nothing and you have absolutely no say over what happens to you. Chances are you’ve never lived there, but for millions of other girls and women, it’s all they’ve ever known.
It’s an uncaring place where girls are made slaves, bonded to a master for life. A heartless place where a girl works from the age of three and is married off at 11. A cruel place where a girl can watch her father work himself to death and know that will be her fate, too - unless something happens to change that future. That ‘something’, for all these girls, is education, as simple as that. And it can work miracles.
"Educating a girl is one of the highest returns on investment in the developing world," says World Vision Australia’s Program Advisor, Simone Charnley. "When you educate a girl, you instantly improve not only the social, health and economic benefits to the individual, but the community reaps benefits as well. It is the single most effective strategy for pulling people out of poverty: educated girls are a real force for change."
Now a moving new film, Girl Rising, aims to focus the world’s attention to the plight of young girls denied the simple right to learn. The film takes viewers on a journey to nine of the most marginalised nations to tell the stories of nine girls who face heartbreaking injustices everyday. All these brave girls, however, have refused to be broken by their circumstances. Instead, they’ve become inspirational voices for change. For the film, each girl was paired with a writer from her own country to shape their stories, and their stories are narrated by a host of Hollywood heavyweights including Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway.
Here is one of the girls’ inspiring stories.
Amina’s* story, Afghanistan: married off at 11
Words by Zarghuna Kargar
Like thousands of other girl children who are born in a country where women’s lives are worthless, when little Amina was born no-one bothered to record the date of her birth.
"I am told my mother burst into tears when she heard of my sex," Amina says. "She set me aside in the dirt. She already had one son but wanted another – she wanted to have the status of being a bearer of boys.
"From the age of three, I learnt only to serve. I spent my days working; carrying icy mountain water to wash men's hands. I woke before dawn; cleared the house, washed the clothes, the dishes and carried my siblings on my back until they were old enough to walk. I learnt early this was the way things were always intended to be for the women in my family.
"The happiest times in my life were the few short years of my education. I learnt to read and write on a blackboard imbedded in a crumbling stone wall.
"I was 11 years old when my father arranged for me to be married. My mind was of little value but my body could settle a dispute like a debt. Who would care that I was married against my will for roughly $5000? My empty-eyed mother approved the match and when the transaction was complete, they spent the money to buy a used car for my brother.
"The first night of marriage my new husband barely spoke. I vowed that night I would not only find a way to endure, but to prevail."
Though she was trapped in marriage and "masked and muted and hidden beneath an embroidered cage", she has sworn that she will not be silenced and has grown more impatient with the injustices meted out to her and the women of Afghanistan.
"If my husband heard these words he might kill me; so might my father or my brother or any one of thousands of my countrymen. Killed because I want to learn; killed because I want to read.
"The midwife who delivered my son said I was one of the lucky ones: more women die giving birth in Afghanistan than anywhere else in the world. I behaved dutifully but all I felt was impatience.
"Impatient because we are poor, because we are silenced; disenfranchised; beaten; cut, married as children; sold; raped. When we seek freedom we are burned. When we speak the truth we are silenced. When we go to school we are bombed, poisoned, shot.
"Don’t tell me it simply has always been so. Don’t tell me that blame lies in my religion, in my culture.
"I am an Afghan woman and I know from history that it hasn’t always been this way. On my wedding day I tried to think of all the strong Afghan women who had gone before me: women who could read and write and who spoke their minds. Women who were national heroes.
"I have not forgotten my vow. I will read and I will learn and I will study. I will return to school. I dare you to tell me it’s a waste of time. If you try to stop me, I will just try harder. If you kill me, there will be other girls who rise up and take my place.
"I am the beginning of a different story in Afghanistan. And when my granddaughter explains how I withstood the odds against me, it will become legend.
"Do you see it? I am change."
Where is Amina today? Unfortunately, no-one knows where she is. Ongoing communication with the NGO who supports Amina could endanger her safety and the work the organisation is effecting in the region. However, there is some good news: there are more young girls in schools in Afghanistan now than at any time in its recent history.
*name has been changed.
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