The Power of the Pen

1359 Words3 Pages

Take a second and imagine your life without an education, not even enough to learn how to read or write. What is left? Can you imagine a future for yourself, nonetheless aspire to one? I know that I would be nothing without my education, since it is my most valuable possession in life, and I would not be dreaming nearly as big as I am now, at least not realistically. Now that you have been deprived of something so valuable, watched as it was stolen from you, what are you going to do about it? Are you going to sit around and hope that it eventually falls into your lap again, or are you going to take action and make it happen?

This may seem like a faraway, hypothetical situation that may have been a problem a hundred years ago, but unfortunately, it is still a very real issue for females that plagues other parts of the world less fortunate than countries like the United States. Globally, “77.6 million girls are currently not enrolled in either primary or secondary education” (Melancon). In parts of Afghanistan, many girls are scared away both physically and emotionally from enriching their minds. In other developing nations, girls are not forbidden from educating themselves, but the education is not free, so many parents cannot afford to send them to school or choose to educate their sons rather than their daughters.

The UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization) meeting in 2000 set the goal of establishing “universal basic education by 2015”. This goal seems out of reach, with only a little over a year left to complete it. Nations that are still developing are the main area of the problem for girl’s education. For example, about half of the females in sub-Saharan Africa do not finish primary ...

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Melancon, Nicole. “I Am Malala: A Crusader for Girls’ Education Worldwide.” Huffington Post 9 Nov. 2012: n. pag. Huffington Post. Web. 12 Dec. 2013. .

Sperling, Gene B. “The Case for Universal Basic Education for the World’s Poorest Boys and Girls.” Council on Foreign Relations. N.p., Nov. 2005. Web. 9 Dec. 2013. .

Whitcraft, Teri, and Muriel Pearson. “Malala Yousafzai Felt Fear All the Time but Pursued Learning.” ABC News. ABC, 7 Oct. 2013. Web. 6 Dec. 2013. .

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