With some changes over the years, many families back home still feel it’s OK to marry off their daughters at a very early age without a formal degree in her hands. If any situations come up later in life such as divorce or a wicked husband or death of the husband, the girls are left completely dependent on relatives for support.
Also, education brings confidence and a better self esteem in girls whether they choose to work or not. An educated mother can also add more value in today’s child given the advancements and changes the world has recently experienced.
So why is it that parents back home still don’t realize the value of educating their daughters?
With some changes over the years, many families back home still feel it's OK to marry off their daughters at a very early age without a formal degree in her hands. If any situations come up later in life such as divorce or a wicked husband or death of the husband, the girls are left completely dependent on relatives for support.
Also, education brings confidence and a better self esteem in girls whether they choose to work or not. An educated mother can also add more value in today's child given the advancements and changes the world has recently experienced.
So why is it that parents back home still don't realize the value of educating their daughters?
The bit in bold is the problem for some people, more education = more confidence = rebelliousness (apparently). It's all about control and insecurity. They want the girls to be dependent on others all their lives, whether it's their parents or husband, that way they can be controlled. I have heard countless times if a woman is 'too educated' (WTH???) she won't listen to her husband, inlaws etc. This attitude still goes on even amongst desis in the West. I have an aunty who works for the UN in Brussels and she has only just gotten married in her mid 40s, a lot of people were saying she'd never get married cos she was 'too educated' and a husband would feel 'threatened' by her. A certain male member of my family wanted to marry a very young girl cos he reasoned she'd be easier to 'mould.' Imo it's the men who need to sort out their own insecurities if they can't handle having an intelligent or well read wife.
Regarding schooling 'back home' I've heard people say about poor villages that they can't afford seperate schools for boys and girls, which is obviously just a pathetic excuse not to educate girls. They don't need a whole seperate building, y not just have classes for the different sexes at seperate times of the day if the community is religious or conservative?? Boys in the morning, girls in the afternoon or something like goes on in other poor parts of the world. The Taliban used to say they couldn't afford 'facilities' for girls (even when they were being given lessons in people's private homes), what a convenient excuse...
The antipathy towards women being educated goes even so far as to the type of education she recieves.
for instance a future lawyer is percieved as being...prone to fight, argue etc
whereas a doctor might be too busy to take care of the kids
a business owner falls into the same category, unfortunately
and why would a woman want to learn about politics?
It's unfortunate not only for the women who have to suffer under the yoke of this backwards-thinking mentality, but for the entire muslim population that then suffers from the lack of contribution that these uneducated women could be making to their own communities.
NIKSIK its not only parents back home who think like this...unfortunately...
I know someone very close in my family...living in Australia for more than a decade now,highly educated and a professional....he got married at the age of 24 to a girl who was 15 at that time and just did her Matric(grade 10).
Today they have 1 boy and 3 girls...the boy goes to school and the girls do not...the parents' reasoning is that the 'mahoul' of schools is not good for them (they happen to be a very religious family and quote religion to be the basis for not educating women or not letting them go out of the house and work and so on...)..
and I am pretty sure he will be marrying off his girls too once they are 15...!!
so what is his excuse for not letting the girls go to school...??...he has money,he is educated himself,lives in a developed country...
he says his wife will home school the kids...but how can a person who just went to school till grade 10 home school ??
these are the weird reasons still existing in today's world...ironic..!!