"If we educate a boy, we educate an individual. But if we can educate a girl, we educate a community."
-African proverb via Greg Mortenson-
Ten years have passed and
the girls of rural Pakistan and Afghanistan are now women. Women not just of an adult identity but of a free identity. An identity free from cultural mis-perceptions and judgments grounded in the misunderstanding of Sharia (religious) law. As Greg Mortenson
noted ten years ago, "Sharia law actually doesn't say that women should be hurt and harmed and marginalized. It doesn't say they should commit suicide. It doesn't, in fact-- there's very implicit laws in Sharia about the right of land ownership for women. There's implicit laws about treating children, women, with respect."
Illiteracy in the past, however, has kept people from being able to know this themselves. They may have been able to read the Quran but not necessarily understand the Arabic, leaving others to dictate the message. One of the things that has changed through the schools established by the Central Asia Institute, though, is that five languages are taught to the children by the fifth grade, including Arabic. The power and significance of this shift in knowledge to come was best described by Mortenson in that same interview ten years ago, "The first word of the revelation to Muhammad the prophet is the Arabic word 'iqra.' And 'iqra' means 'read.' What that means is that it implores all people to have a quest for knowledge. And in the Hadith, which is a part of Islam, the teachings, it says, in Arabic, 'the ink of a scholar is greater than the blood of a martyr,' which means that the pen is more powerful than the sword."
And so it has been with this shift that a new, yet old knowledge has echoed through the lives of the girls and as a result, through their society. An ideology of truth and knowledge has been reborn, mending a relationship between elders and youth that was deteriorating in years past due to the rising of a more virulent, militant kind of ideology. This ideology has mended more than relationships, though. It has mended the lives and wishes of so many, particularly in the form of reduced infant mortality rates. In addition, the quality of health for everyone has improved, poverty and populations have declined, and less men have engaged in violence. It has been observed by Mortenson that, "When girls learn how to read and write, they often teach their mother how to read and write...when women are educated, they're not as likely to condone or encourage their son to get into violence or into terrorism. In fact, culturally when someone goes on jihad, they should get permission from their mother first. And if they don't, it's very shameful or disgraceful. So when women are educated, as I mentioned, they are less likely to encourage their son to get into violence."
Most importantly, though, the change brought about by the women is not the only thing being heard. So are the women themselves--their unique individual selves whose true value cannot be quantified or qualified by any means. They are being listened to, not because there is an economical reason for doing so, but simply because they are who they are. And for the first time, that is being seen.
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