Pen-powerment | Educate the Girl Child

Everyone always says that pens are mightier than swords. Before every battle fought, it’s the general who is the head behind the strategy. Education itself is a debatable term, according to me. Learning text books is a start to a formal education but hands-on experience in different fields of learning can also be considered as education. Another quote is that if you educate a mother, you educate the nation. Mothers are those entities who every child sees from the beginning of his/her life. We learn from her and our perception builds from what we see. A mother is a mother, nonetheless but an educated mother guides her child strategically through their life battles. Apart from fulfilling a successful role of being a mother, a woman has every right to educate herself and conquer her dreams.

In a patriarchal society, there are still areas that have the taboo of educating their girl and even if they do admit them to schools, the girls are a victim of early marriage or forced marriage. The cities have a completely different scenario. Women are still encouraged to get married as soon as they are of an appropriate (early or mid 20s) age. Now, you might ask, why is it important for women to study? Number one and only, the question is irrelevant in its own. It’s not about women studying, rather its

every human being’s right to education. Every man and woman needs to educate themselves. The question of ‘why’ cannot be considered in any circumstances.

Education doesn’t need to be from text books rather lessons that would help in life. Education would not only help women but would help the nation to grow as the workforce would increase and so will the economy and standard of life. When you’re educating half the world population, you are increasing the world by a notch. So, anyone who believes in gender equality should never ask why a woman should study, rather the question should be how can I help a woman study? Nothing is a better feeling than helping another human being to flourish. Remember, women are human first. Genders are a social construction for discriminating and voicing superiority, and avoiding this superficial thought could might as well be the first step to a better education.

Raisa Rahman