How Can a Girl's Lack of Access or Access to Education Affect Her

Life?
Everyday girls all over the world do not go to school."53% of the worlds
out-of-school children are girls and 2/3 of the illiterate people in the world
are women." (Dosomething.org) It was proven that women who have an
education have less children, and are less likely to be married young, also
children who have educated mothers are less likely to be unhealthy. Every
year of education reduces the child mortality rate by around 2%. Overall,
being educated was proven to give families and children a better life in the
general aspect. There are many groups who support women in their
journey towards education, but there are also those who don't support
education for women and do anything they can to prevent them from
coming to school. In many countries other than the U.S. girls risk their lives
everyday just to be able to pick up a pencil and speak their mind. Many of
us don't know or understand what this is like because it is normal for us to
go to school, we are not scared to go to school, and we know that we will
not be punished for wanting to go to school. This is very different in other
countries, as more than 70 million girls aged 6-12 do not go to school, not
including the United States. How would our situation be different if we
couldn't or didn't go to school? How can a girls lack of access or access to
education affect her life?
To be educated means that you are prepared for life, whether or not that
means you will be a housewife or an educated engineer, a person of any
age can be fully educated, and some might not even need an education to
do what they love, but they still deserve a chance. Many girls in the world
have access to an education, but many also do not. There are many
reasons why girls and children around the world cannot go to school, such
as, location, gender, race, poverty, child marriage, young child birth, etc. In
many countries from the age of twelve to fourteen, it is common for girls to
be sold as brides to much older men, many of these girls end up either
dying in young child birth or having to sell their bodies to support their
family. These are twelve to fourteen year olds, many of which would not
even be in high school yet if they lived in the United States. Now imagine

this happening to yourself, your daughter, your friend, your niece, your
granddaughter, anyone. Is this that the life you imagined for a twelve year
old? At this age they are still children, they are not ready to have children or
get married, they want to be a normal girl, they want to go to school, they
want to have friends, they want to have fun. They do not want to be sold as
items.
This tentative age sets them up for their entire future. In other countries,
when a twelve year old girls drops out of school it often leads to poverty,
which is another common cause of out of school girls. Even in places
where education is available, it is normally expensive, and families need
their daughters home to work for money, which is another reason why
parents sometimes have to sell their daughters. Some schools may be free,
but most families in poverty don't have a car, and/or have no way to get
their children to and from school. Most schools are a long journey from
home, and that journey is usually not a safe one for a young girl to make
alone. As a study proved, more than six million girls were harassed and
assaulted on their way to school in the last year. But these are just some of
the reasons why young girls don't go to school everyday. Unfortunately, at
this point in time, your country, your town, your economic status, and your
parents jobs will most likely decide whether or not you will go to school, and
that alone will decide your future.
In countries such as Pakistan, Africa, Haiti, Afghanistan, and many other
places around the world, girls cannot go to School because of location,
poverty, and culture. For example, in Kenya, more than 500,000 girls are
out of primary school. In morocco, almost 45% of the women aged 15-24
are illiterate. In total, seventy million girls aged six to twelve are out of
school. And every year sixty million of girls that are in school are assaulted
on their way to school, another reason why parents might ban an
education. Living in the US, I would not have know this information without
looking it up. So many of us are unconsciously unaware to the fact that this
is happening, and take their opportunities for granted. In the united states it
is normal for us to go to school, we are not looked down upon for going to
school, we are not harassed for going to school. But most importantly, we

have to go to school, and we do. This is just one thing in the US that gives
women rights, in many other places they don't have rights, women aren't
nearly as equal to men as we are in the USA.
The rights for women are evolving, but at the same time, it is still an issue,
in other countries, girls can't go to school, women can't vote, women
always need men's permission, and so much more. Sometimes instead of
looking at the negatives in America such as unequal wages, and title nine,
we need to focus on the main thing. We are so far ahead of these other
countries. We are lucky. Other children do not have the opportunities we
do, they don't have a chance at an education, they don't have an iPhone,
they don't have clean clothes to wear, we are safe and protected, and we
don't have to worry about any of these things. Unlike many teenage girls, I
don't want anything but the opportunity to change the world, and the future
of girls education, and so many other girls do too, but not nearly enough.
Many girls all over the world, who are just like you and me, have stood up
for their education in the past few years. People are finally starting to speak
up for equal rights. For example, the world was shocked when a fifteen
year old girl named Malala Yousafzai was shot by the Taliban on her way to
school on October 8th, 2012. Malala's father had opened a school for girls,
and she had been going there for her entire life. Malala had always been
threatened, but the Taliban had never gone directly after any girls before,
just the father or the entire family. When the Taliban shot Malala, three
shots were fired. One hit Malala close to her eye, and the other two hit two
other girls on the bus in less severe location. She was not expected to
survive, and if she did she would most likely have brain damage. But here
we are in 2015, Malala is alive and well, her brain is fully functioning, and
she is continuing in her fight for education. As Malala said to Obama,
"Instead of sending guns, send books. Instead of sending weapons, send
teachers. These are our most powerful weapons."
Malala is a very powerful figure in the eyes of young girls, and so are many
other girls who have stood up for their education. Eighteen year old Celeste
Dushime from Rwanda stated, "There isn't a lack of opportunities for

women in Rwanda; there's is a lack of will among Rwandan women to use

those opportunities. That's what I fight to change." I think that this quote is
especially important because it's not always that women don't have access
to school, sometimes there just isn't a will to learn or to change things that
would get you the rights that you deserve. Another girl named Menuka
Gurung, a nineteen year old from Nepal, stated that the first part of the
revolution is to make the boys understand what it feels like to not be able to
do what they can do. Another young girl from India, who for safety reasons
must remain anonymous, talked about how many girls do not feel safe in
society, whether or not they go to school. But overall, the root of these girls
stories were them, just one girl, who has accomplished so much, just for
speaking up for something she deserves. It starts with one girl, it starts with
you.
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