Education. A term which is very well known yet a term that’s widely underestimated. Not given proper importance to when it comes to one gender. When it comes to “girls,” It might all sound oldish and like something many people already know and are working on developing and bringing about real changes. Unfortunately, however, there are still many people, families, men, and women who widely think that educating a girl beyond a certain age is nothing but a ‘waste.’ Waste of money, time and hard-work of one’s parents. Sadly, women who come from such countries, such family, such culture that assumes the only satisfactory manner of spending money on education lies in educating a “boy” otherwise it’s simple, just another unnecessary expenditure, still EXIST. Let alone the percentage or the number of women who are going through such tortures/discrimination but the very fact that they still exist is enough to describe how undeveloped/ backward many parts of the world we live in is, especially in many parts of the Asian countries.
Women aren’t given much importance to attain higher education in most of the Asian countries. What’s worse is people mix culture with religion and simply bring up religion as an excuse to why women don’t have to study and gain knowledge as much as men, neither do they have to go to work and be regarded as a career woman. On the other hand, culturally, many girls are married off at the age of 19 or 20 whether or not they have completed their education or achieved their goals. It’s just the way how certain parents wash their hands off their daughters by getting them married at a young age and making them depend on a man alone as a result of which some women are forced to forever stay in abusive marriages. However since in this article, my only focus is on the importance and equal rights of women to attain education, I will first state some verses regarding the importance of education for both men and women from different religious books:
In Islam, The Prophet Muhammad has said: “Seeking knowledge is a duty upon every Muslim, both male and female”. (Sunan Ibn Mājah)In Christianity, it’s stated in the Proverbs 1:7 “The fear of the lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction”.In Hinduism, it’s stated that: Education is an important means to achieve the four aims of human life, namely, Dharma (Virtue), Artha (wealth), Kama (pleasure) and Moksha (liberation).
Hence, from the verses above taken from a few different spiritual books, we clearly understand that no religion has said ‘women’ can’t attain as equal knowledge as men through education. All that’s mentioned in those books is about its importance to every individual regardless of their gender. However, many Asian families will never understand that education, working and achieving her goals are RIGHTS of every woman as much as it is for every man. I personally believe that education is very important for women as equal as it is for men in today’s world. Yes, undoubtedly many girls go to school more often than earlier times today but there are always some sort of disturbing gender barriers when it comes to girls in school or workplaces. Say for example, sports. Not all schools permit girls to play football, cricket, hockey sort of games. It always comes down to “No, girls aren’t allowed to enroll in those games, those are just for the boys.” While at work, you can always observe how a lady is put into a period of probation for longer without actually being appreciated and promoted even though her work is perfect. Why? Just because she’s a woman and no, she can’t be better than a man at anything except household chores. That’s how much they look down on a woman and her capabilities in this generation as well.
Men’s ego is another term that connects well with why women aren’t given much importance and even opportunities to show the world yes, woman are also good business women, engineers, tech geeks, footballers, and cricketers. Not just a wife, mother and a housewife. Those are of course some important terms/ chores/ responsibilities of every woman, unlike something that she does for ‘herself’ by ‘herself.’
Some achievement, some recognition, some importance and some self-satisfaction she creates for herself without anybody’s validation is what is meant by her ‘GOALS’ and to achieve those goals, I believe, every single woman should be given equal RIGHTS regardless of their religion, race, family background and color. Countries, schools, colleges, workplaces and in many other places and many people should stop differentiating us just because we’re women keeping in mind ‘Sexy’ is not a woman with a perfect body. ‘Sexy’ is a woman with confidence, knowing her capabilities, knowing what she wants and goes after it fearlessly in the right way be it education or empowerment.
