Di Beatrice Saporosi
A few days ago a Taliban militant threatened Malala Yousafzai, who is known all over the world as an activist for women’s rights and children education and also as the youngest woman to have won a Nobel Prize, tweeting that “Next time there will be no mistake”.
This man is accused to have shot this courageous girl nine years ago, when she was only 15 years old. Malala was born in 1997 in Pakistan. She became quite famous in 2009 after writing a blog for the BBC in which she presented the Pakistani Talibani regime, saying that Talibans were against women’s rights. On 9 october 2012 this girl and two friends of hers were shot by a Pakistani Talibani militant while they were on a bus: Malala was seriously wounded and almost died, but thanks to the transfer to an English hospital she could heal completely.
In 2013 she gave a speech to the headquarters of the UN in New York, asking the governments of the world to ensure free education for all children, and in 2014 she was awarded the Nobel peace Prize. Malala today is a 23-years-old graduated from Oxford University, and she fights every single day for permitting everyone to have the opportunity to study, especially women. It seems impossible to think that someone can’t enjoy these rights in such a modern world, but the problem of education is still relevant today.
According to some statistics of 2018, 123 million children don’t go to school, and the largest number is found in Liberia, South Sudan, Eritrea, Afghanistan and Nigeria. But even more puzzling is the fact that 60% of this number are women. Women have always been penalized in education, since the ancient times, and this serious problem hasn’t been solved yet, but rather it has worsened due to the pandemic of Covid-19.
In fact in 161 States schools were suddenly closed after the spread of the contagion, and in many places it wasn’t possible to organize a distance learning, considering that there is often a shortage of technological devices.
There are various causes for which girls are not sent to school, but the most common is the fact that they are usually forced to get married at a very young age and so they must look after their children. Another reason is that families which are not so wealthy decide to guarantee an education for male children, thereby sacrificing girls’ future, or very often the cause of this decision is linked to cultural factors, if we just think of some islamic countries like Pakistan.
Female and children education is a very discussed topic, but it would be even more important to act as soon as possible to try to ensure everyone a good education and a bright future.
