“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter” – Martin Luther King.
Today, on a day celebrating the life and legacy of Martin Luther King, I want to talk about something that matters to me. Amidst the furore of the #metoo movement and the general conversation surrounding female empowerment, I think it is important to get to the root of these issues and that, in my view, is female education.
Article 26 of the universal declaration of human rights establishes education as a fundamental right necessary for developing the human spirit and promoting the virtuous ideals embodied by the declaration. Yet today over a billion individuals are deprived of their basic right to education, the vast majority of whom are young women in developing economies.
I was fortunate enough to be born in a country where it was expected that I would go to school, where my parents had no choice in enrolling me. But I have fought countless battles with my parents on furthering my education, I have fought to be strong and independent and I have shrugged off the weight of gender expectations time and time again.
But my struggle is a fraction of the struggle faced by young girls like Malala Yousef. I have fought with slammed doors and angry faces. They fight for their lives.
I have watched the backlash against the #metoo movement, and against feminism as a whole. I have had people tell me that feminism isn’t needed anymore, that women are equal enough. But feminism will only disappear when we live in a world where we no longer need to point out that two thirds of the 774 million of the illiterate adults in the world are women. It will disappear when being born a girl is no longer a cause for exclusion.
Study after study has shown that educating women leads to prosperity, just for them but for society as a whole. But more than that, education teaches girls to stand up for themselves, to have a voice and a chance.
So today, when we reflect on all the battles we have won and all the atrocities still going on in the world, it is important to remember that human rights violations are not always violent, they are not always bloody, sometimes human rights are violated with a simple “because you are a girl.”