GIRLS’
EDUCATION:
THE
UNSTOPPABLE
REVOLUTION
by Hannah White
when he writes, “Revolution isn’t smashing
something, it is bringing forth something.”
This revolution is bringing change, bringing
hope, bringing girls’ education.
Although girls’ education is in headlines
now more than ever with women like Malala
Yousafzai and U.S. First Lady Michelle
Obama advocating for change to the status
quo, the movement is a fairly recent phenomenon. Even in some of the wealthiest,
most industrially developed nations, women’s education was almost nonexistent as
recently as a hundred years ago. Writing was
developed over 5,000 years ago. Needless
to say, that is a bit of a delay from writing to
accessible education. That is the reality of
the situation.
For centuries women have been kept in
the dark. They were told education was not
proper for girls; that only their brothers
needed to go to school; that education was
only for the wealthy; that they only needed
FALL 2016
to know enough to look after children; or
that they should only worry about getting
married because their husbands would take
care of them.
But these excuses will no longer stand.
Change is coming and women will no longer take no for an answer. They are demanding education. They are demanding it now.
And why shouldn’t they? Education is
a human right. It says so in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, first adopted
by the UN General Assembly in 1948. Most
people don’t need a piece of paper to tell
them that, but if laws are not enough to convince you that education should be available
to everyone, let’s look at it from a practical
standpoint.
In the news, there are reports of violence,
poverty, illness, and hate — so many problems. Wouldn’t it be amazing if, rather than
addressing each dilemma individually, we
could address them all together? Well we
“A non-violent
revolution is not
a program of seizure
of power. It is
a program of
transformation of
relationships, ending
in a peaceful transfer
of power.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
JOURNEY OF HOPE | 15