Girls Stand Up for Their Right to Education -- by Julia Trommer

An African proverb says: "If we educate a boy, we educate one person. If we educate a girl, we educate a family – and a whole nation"

Growing up in a privileged country, it´s easy to take certain freedoms for granted. We quickly forget that access to quality education is not normal for everybody, especially for an immense number of women in the world. Equal education, besides being a human right, is essential for an independent life. By educating girls, issues such as child marriage, infant and maternal mortality, population explosion and domestic and sexual violence would decrease. But in our modern society there are still well over 20 nations which continue discrimination against women by holding them back from learning. The leader of this sad list is Pakistan well known for their unequal education and patriarchal society. According to a report of the UNESCO, over 3 million girls are not even attending primary school in that country. At the foundation this is the result of a lack of adequate teachers, sufficient schools and further study opportunities. However, these general problems are known in most developing countries, so what makes Pakistan so bad concerning equal education?

Pakistan is a patriarchal society, which implies that a woman´s role is defined by traditions; she is expected to be a mother, daughter, wife or sister dependent on male order. In these societies, the birth of a daughter is considered an extra family burden, since she is regarded as a temporary member of the household. Following that way of thinking it’s useless to educate someone who is only responsible for cooking, cleaning and giving birth. Moreover, as the Taliban gained control in Pakistan, both girls and boys weren´t allowed to go to school anymore, because they believe that education is something devilish and harmful. So they started to destroy schools and frighten students until they stopped attending school. But there was one girl who stood up against the regime even if she feared losing her life: Her name was Malala Yousafzai.

Malala was born on July 12, 1997 in the Swat Valley, which was a well-known vacation destination, but in 2007, when Malala was ten years old the Taliban began to control the Swat Valley. Girls were banned from attending school, and cultural activities like dancing and watching television were prohibited. By the end of 2008, the Taliban had destroyed over 400 schools. Determined to go to school and with a firm belief in her right to an education, Malala stood up to the Taliban. Alongside her father, Malala quickly became a critic of their tactics. “How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?” she once said on Pakistani TV. In early 2009, Yousafzai began blogging for the BBC about living under the Taliban's threats to deny her an education. In order to hide her identity, she used the name Gul Makai. Nevertheless she was revealed to be the BBC blogger in December of that year, which made her a great target for the regime. On October 9, 2012, Yousafzai was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman while she was on her route home from school, but despite being seriously injured she survived. After the shooting, her incredible recovery and return to school resulted in a global outpouring of support for Malala, which resulted in her winning the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 17, being the youngest person ever to receive a Nobel Prize. Accepting the award, Malala reaffirmed that “This award is not just for me. It is for those forgotten children who want education. It is for those frightened children who want peace. It is for those voiceless children who want change.”

Even if Malala is not the only example for fighters of education, she is considered the most extraordinary person concerning her story that was spread all over the globe. She has sparked a dialogue about children's education throughout the world, which still continues. Moreover, she started The Malala Petition which urges the United Nations to recommit to Millennium Development Goal 2, which involves universal primary education for children around the world. In addition she established The Malala Fund in order to ensure that beyond the words of her speech, concrete results are reached in the fight for access to education. Nevertheless, in general we should all be a little bit more like Malala. Now a 21-year-old woman, she was a girl who forgave her attackers immediately without feeling a hint of rage. A girl who showed us that you have to be fearless if you want change to happen and that age does not matter when you are determined. Her story inspired thousands of girls all over the world to speak up and fight for their right of education. So, find your inner Malala.