Blog # 8: Despite deadly risks, Afghan girls take brave first step

This article is about is about how girls in Afghanistan are put in harm’s way every day while they are going to school. Some people don’t want these girls to attend school so they do vicious things like throw acid on them and bomb the schools they go to. Not only are they attacked but most of the time they are abused within their own homes. Razia Jan has created an education center in Afghanistan which teaches girls from rural areas for free and the main goal is to stop women from growing up illiterate like many of the women are in Afghanistan. Although they face great danger by even going to school, they are still happy to be able to learn every day.  The reason for the high rates of illiterate women in Afghanistan is the fact that men are the ones teaching in schools because they allowed to go to school to get an education and in the Afghan culture it isn't appropriate for a girl to be taught anything by a man. Another reason women are illiterate is because in this country the legal marriage age is 16 and once the girls get married there is a slim chance that their spouse will allow them to go to school. Razia Jan is so passionate about educating the girls in this country that she sometimes goes from house to house asking the parents if it is possible for the marriage to be postponed so that the girl will be able to attend school.

Education is important and I believe that it is good that people like Razia Jan are stepping in and trying to provide girls with an education so that they can have some opportunity to advance in society. It is definitely going to take a lot of work in Afghanistan to get people to allow little girls to attend school without them having to worry about what kind of attack they will be under. Women are inferior in this country and I don’t think that is going to change anytime soon but I do believe that by allowing more and more girls to get an education that eventually women will be able to stand up for themselves. This story can somewhat be related to the US because at one point in history men were the hierarchy of the family and they didn't want women going to school because they felt it wasn't necessary. Although they didn't attack the girls that wanted to go to school they tried to oppress them but in the end girls kept striving and now women have some of the same opportunities that men have. 

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