Blog 5; Afghan Girls going to School

For many girls in Afghanistan, the simple act of walking to school can be a life-threatening journey. Many people, mostly men, in Afghanistan believe it is wrong to educate women. The idea of girls going to school is very uncommon and extremely unsafe. Just last year there were 185 documented attacks on schools and hospitals in Afghanistan. The walk home from school is said to be the most dangerous. Girls have been attacked with acid being poured on them. Other girls have had their drinking water poisoned or targeted by bombers who think that girls should not attend school. But among this violence girls are still attending school. Some say there is hope. "To see these girls walking to school, delighted to be learning and spending time together in the classroom, writing their own names for the first time, reading their first words -- I felt hope for the future" stated Beth Murphy, a documentary filmmaker who recently traveled to Afghanistan to work on a feature film about girls' education. Another spokeswomen even stated what she thought would be the solution to keep girls going to school despite all of the horror going on around them. "In Afghan culture, parents don't consider it appropriate for girls to be educated by a man," Roehrs said. "There is a high dropout rate of young girls after the early grades because there are not enough female teachers. So the secret of getting and keeping girls in school is to get more female teachers."

In America education is valued by many, including myself. Education is something that should not discriminate against gender, race, ethnicity, or any other "divide" among people. But unfortunately that is not how reality works. In Afghanistan the idea that women should be forbidden to attend school blows my mind. I have a feeling the idea behind that is that women will just be staying home to take care of the home and children later in life so why educate them when they are young. But this article give me some hope for the girls and women of Afghanistan. Although there is a tremendous amount of terrorism in that country there are still young girls risking their lives to learn the simple things that many Americans take for granted. These girls get so excited just to be able to spell their names and to write out full sentences. The idea of attaining more female teachers seems like a great idea to me. Having more females as teachers might give the young girls more hope when coming to school and even encourage more girls to start attending school. Having a female presents in the classroom may be more comforting to the parents as well as they feel it is inappropriate for girls to be educated by males. As I have stated before, this article gave me some hope that some day in the near future, young girls in Afghanistan can wake up in the mornings excited to go to school and not fear for their lives on the walk home. It also gives me hope that more women can be given teaching jobs and give parents some peace at mind about their daughters being educated by a female rather than a male.


 http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/26/world/asia/cnnheroes-afghan-schoolgirls/index.html?hpt=wo_bn3