Being 15 in Afghanistan

Being 15 in Afghanistan Emily Hobson-1st hour

Afghanistan is a MIddle Eastern country known officially as The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, bordered by Pakistan and and Iran. Afghanistan has been involved in many wars. It is sometimes known for it's lack of education, and especially harsh treatment of girls and women.

Being a 15 year old girl in Afghanistan can be hard and scary because of constrained opportunities/education, and the difficulty of growing up far too soon.

It's hard to imagine being neglected an education and being married when you're 13, but this happens every day in some parts of Afghanistan. Education is a sort of constant in teens lives in America, and while we may not always enjoy it, it does often contribute a sense of stability and hope for the future. Learning this, I felt very grateful that I live where I do, and have the rights I do, but also angry because I don't think that we should need to feel grateful for being granted an education which I think should be a basic human right.

People are killed for fighting for an education. Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head after fighting for an education for children all over the world. Public education is relatively new in Afghanistan. "Under the Taliban, secular education did not exist. Boys received religious education, but girls were forbidden education altogether. Some parents will not allow their daughters to be taught by men", so you can see why education for everyone is currently being worked on you could say (“Education in Afghanistan”).

You might all be thinking "Well, why does any of this matter? It's just reading and math." Well heres your answer. Educated girls/women are 14 % less likely to be child brides if they have a primary education, and there would be 2/3rds fewer child marriages if all girls had a secondary education. "Only 12 percent of Afghan women are literate, and among school-age children, 38 percent (4.2 million children, the majority of them girls) do not have access to schools."(National geographic) See where we have a problem?

In Afghanistan, 1 in 10 children die before their fifth birthday, and the life expectancy for women is 51. More than 50 % of girls are engaged by 12, 60 % are married by 16, and the “happy couple” often meets for the first time at the wedding.

This is awful and scary because when you’re a 13 year old girl, you are usually going out on your first date, going to school, and learning life lessons, not getting married to an older man and becoming a mother. Amina is a girl who was born and raised in Afghanistan. No one knows the date of her birth. Because she's a girl, no one botherd to record her birth. By the time she was three years old she was working hard from before dusk to after dawn, serving the men in her household. She got very little education, but when she did, it was Amina's happiest times. When she was 11 years old, she was married to a much older cousin so her family could buy her brother a used car for 5 grand. She gave birth to a baby boy not even a year later. On the day of her wedding, she wore a blue shall that covered her entire body, with only a embroidered opening for her eyes. No opening for her mouth to speak because her thoughts, her words are ignored and useless, it's her body that the man agreed to own. A young girl's virginity, security, childhood, was sold for 5 thousand dollars.GIrl RIsing . (Directed by Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri, The Documentary Group, 2013.)

If you have any siblings, imagine them being married off to a much older stranger when they are fifteen to settle a feud, or to get money. When you're a teenager, chance are you're searching for an identity of your own, starting to go on dates, and worrying about doing good in school, not getting married, serving men, and having children. This is what most likely happens if you're a fifteen year old girl in Afghanistan. If one person went through something as terrible as this, it would be awful. But having thousands of girls go through this is un-real. Or at least it should be.

Growing up in Afghanistan as a girl can be very hard and scary. Child marriages, a life of servitude, and a family that only keeps you around because of the money your body can buy them. And yet somehow, these girls still find a way not to lose hope, or get discouraged, and fight. Fight for an education. Fight for their rights. Fight for their daughters rights, and their daughters daughters rights. Fight for everyone's rights. Fight for a future that doesn't involve servitude, beatings, and rape. A future that includes your opinion, your words, and your thoughts.

Through this process, by recognizing emotion, I was surprised that on the other side of the word girls are put through these things on a daily basis, and that it's accepted.

It makes me sick and so angry that men are so demeaning and sexist , and that societies and cultures are used to this type of treatment of women in some places that the majority of the women in a certain area think that it's acceptable for a man to beat them for things as large as refusal to have sex with them, and as small as burning his food.

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Directed by Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri, The Documentary Group, 2013.)

(“Education in Afghanistan”).

Created By

Emily Hobson

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Created with images by AfghanistanMatters - "Thumbs Up" • WikiImages - "turban bedouin man" • WikiImages - "girl schoolgirl learn schulem" • Free Grunge Textures - www.freestock.ca - "Afghanistan Grunge Flag" • Special IG for Afghanistan Reconstruction - "Afghanistan Possible Oversight Access 2014 with US Reconstruction Projects (numbered)" • Ricardo's Photography (Thanks to all the fans!!!) - "Afghanistan" • ArmyAmber - "heart soldier military" • tpsdave - "afghanistan school classroom" • tpsdave - "afghanistan school classroom" • ResoluteSupportMedia - "110327-F-BH761-090" • ResoluteSupportMedia - "100331-F-3322D-076" • art_es_anna - "matrimoni infantil"

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Being 15 in Afghanistan Emily Hobson-1st hour

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