We Fight For Equal Rights: Afghan Girls

Afghanistan has been a big topic, especially in the feminist region, since girls and women have been struggling to fight for their own rights. The education for girls is BANNED in over ninety percent of the country. Ninety. In 2002, boys attended school, while girls and women were almost completely excluded from educational opportunities. 

Mehran was a 6-year-old girl when finally, her parents decided to cut off Mehran's hair and wear boy's clothes. She spent 5 years as a boy because she knew she would be treated correctly and more equally. She didn't want to get abused; however, she needed to be a boy in order for her to get the education she needed. How sad is that?

There is lots of movements, though. Not everything is that horrible. The State Ministry of Education in Afghanistan has promised education for woman, which has gotten a lot better. Usually, three percent of females were not allowed education. Now about thirty-six percent receive education. And even though girls are getting an education now, some families are not taking the risk. Schools have been burned down, teachers have been threatened or even killed, and girls have been physically harmed while in school or walking to school. 

There are organizations working together to get females their rights to have an education, helping those who were not taught an education when they were a child, they get taught to write and read. Hopefully, in the future, there will be even more educational sources for not only girls, but boys too. I believe that we can help them if we have bigger and better organizations and more involvement. It just helps to believe in our girls, and their rights.

"It's like having a flower, or a rose. You water it and keep it at home for yourself, to look at it and smell it. It [a woman] is not supposed to be taken out of the house to be smelled." 
-- Syed Ghaisuddin, Taliban Minister of Education, when asked why women needed to be confined at home