Because I am a Girl the State of the World’s Girls 2015 The Unfinished Business of Girls’ Rights

1 2 the state of the world’s girls Because I am a Girl the State of the World’s Girls 2015 The Unfinished Business of Girls’ Rights icture s P s ano P

Patna, Bihar, India. Spaull/ Jon 3 Acknowledgements

This report was made possible with the contributions and advice of many people and organisations.

With special thanks to all those who wrote articles, poems and stories for the 2015 report:

Sally Armstrong Chernor Bah President Jimmy Carter Imtiaz Dharker Julia Gillard Anita Haidary Joanne Harris Liya Kebede Graça Machel Katrine Marçal Catalina Ruiz Navarro Indra Nooyi Mariane Pearl Nawal El Saadawi Bukky Shonibare

Girls Report Editorial Board: Sarah Hendriks – Chair, Director of Gender Equality and Social Inclusion, Plan International Sharon Goulds – Editor and Project Manager of the Girls’ Report series Adam Short – Head of Advocacy, Plan International Jacqui Gallinetti – Director of Research and Knowledge Management, Plan International Lucero Quiroga – Gender Advisor, consultant for Plan International

Executive Group: Nigel Chapman CEO, Plan International Rosemary McCarney ceo, Plan International Canada Tanya Barron CEO, Plan International UK

Reference Group – Plan International: Rosanna Viterri, Kanwal Ahluwalia, Alex Munive, Tanya Cox, Rashid Javed, Kristy Payne, Carla Jones, Sara Osterlund, Elena Ahmed, Stephanie Conrad and Keshet Dovrat.

Special thanks to: Nikki van der Gaag, author of six of the Girls’ Reports; all past members of the 2007-2014 advisory panels who gave so freely of their time and energy; Keshet Bachan; Feyi Rodway for coordinating the ‘Real Choices, Real Lives’ study since its inception in 2006; Jo Lateu, Ian Nixon and Vanessa Baird, from New Internationalist Publications; Steve Tierney from Alike Creative for the infographics; Jackie Morris for illustrating River Story; Jennifer Schulte and Sharon Smee for background research; all of the participants in the ‘adolescent girl movement’ survey and Fabiola Villarreal Núñez.

And to our translators Corinne Mateo, Ivette López, Fer de la Cruz, Josep Escarré, Jeannette Payen Short, Virginie Sauzon and Alistair Cunningham; to the Lancet for permission to reproduce ‘Patriarchy and Violence Against Women and Girls’ by President Carter, Bloodaxe Books for permission to reproduce ‘A Century Later’ by Imtiaz Dharker, and The Random House Group Ltd for permission to reproduce River Song by Joanne Harris.

Thanks to Asma Films for our use of the Champions of Change video.

Special thanks to the 4,219 adolescent girls from Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Ecuador and Nicaragua who took part in our ‘Girls Speak Out’ research. And to our research partners Ipsos MORI with special thanks to Rebeccah Szyndler and Olivia Ryan.

Thank you to for primary research funding.

4 the state of the world’s girls icture s P s ano P ianne Milton/ ianne L

Protesters in Brazil.

Girls Report team: Sharon Goulds – editor, project manager and author Jean Casey – research manager Lili Harris – project coordinator & researcher Sarah Hendriks – director of gender equality and social inclusion, chair of editorial board and author Simone Schneider – picture research

Additional research by: Ella Page, Eve Mosley and Mary Bridger

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Design and Production: New Internationalist Publications Ltd

Whilst every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this publication is accurate at the time of going to press, Plan International cannot be held responsible for any inaccuracies.

The commentary and opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent the official policy of Plan International.

Part of this publication may be copied for use in research, advocacy and education, providing the source is acknowledged. This publication may not be reproduced for other purposes without the prior permission of Plan International.

Unless otherwise indicated, names have been changed in case studies to protect identities.

Unless otherwise indicated, dollar values expressed are US dollars.

5 Contents

Foreword: Graça Machel ...... 9

Section 1: Introduction

Gathering the evidence – being young and female from 2000-2015 and beyond By Sharon Goulds and Sarah Hendriks . . . . 10

Poem: Half the sky By Imtiaz Dharker ...... 21 i m

‘We are the generation of change’ Sally Armstrong, the Canadian journalist and author of Uprising, talks to girls from all over the Koutanie Meeri world who are battling to change it . . . . . 26

Girls Speak Out: Section 3: Learning for life Voices from our research If I had the power ...... 38 The imperative of educating girls Julia Gillard, formerly Prime Minister of Australia Section 2: Girls in the global economy and current chair of the Global Partnership for Education, analyses the good, the bad and the The invisible work force indifferent in the struggle for gender equality in Katrine Marçal, author of Who Cooked education ...... 50 Adam Smith’s Dinner?, looks at the dominant economic model and ‘What about the boys?’ finds that something is missing ...... 40 Chernor Bah, a young activist from Sierra Leone, talks about girls’ empowerment Creating a brighter future and why he is a feminist ...... 56 Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo, champions the rights of girls and young women Poem: A century later at school and at work ...... 46 By Imtiaz Dharker ...... 63

Measuring Progress: Measuring Progress: Girls in the global economy, facts and stats . .48 Learning for life, facts and stats ...... 64

6 the state of the world’s girls Refugee camp, Niger.

Section 4: Conflict and disaster Measuring Progress: Girls in cities, facts and stats ...... 84 Travelling the sidewalks Journalist and writer Mariane Pearl with an Section 5: Men and boys impassioned article about women and girls and their resilience in the face of disaster . . . . .66 Men hold the power President Jimmy Carter on patriarchy, religion ‘The greatest cause of our time’ and violence against women...... 86 A photo-essay on the courage of young mothers curated by Liya Kebede, international model and Champions of Change maternal health campaigner ...... 74 Young men from Latin America on battling the stereotypes and why “equality Measuring Progress: makes me happy” ...... 90 Conflict and disaster, facts and stats ...... 76 Measuring Progress: Tracing the past and building the future Working with men and boys, facts and stats . 94 Anita Haidary, a campaigner from Afghanistan, talking about her life, her country’s future and founding Young Women for Change . . . . .78

7 Section 6: New technology Voices of hope: charting the future Sharon Goulds and Sarah Hendriks find ‘We must become cybernauts’ out what girls want in the years ahead . . . .120 Catalina Ruiz-Navarro, poet, journalist and activist from Colombia, with an article on Girls Speak Out: the digital divide in Latin America ...... 96 Voices from our research Empower girls ...... 132 Girls Speak Out: Voices from our research *** Communication, information, education . . .104 River Song #BringBackOurGirls A short story from Joanne Harris ...... 134 Bukky Shonibare, consultant and member of the #BringBackOurGirls movement, writes *** about the challenges facing girls in Nigeria and the role of social media in campaigning . .106 Reference section

Measuring Progress: References ...... 142 Girls and new technology, facts and stats . . 112 Plan International’s Because Section 7: Final words I am a Girl campaign ...... 149

‘When I was a child’ Where Plan International works ...... 150 Renowned writer and activist Nawal El Saadawi looks back over several decades of women’s About Plan International ...... 152 and girls’ rights in Egypt ...... 114

South Sudan. icture s P s ano P ol/ k Brian So Brian

8 the state of the world’s girls Foreword going forward. Their reflections and their different voices should n 2007 I wrote the foreword help us all to understand why Ifor the first of the ‘State of the equality between women and World’s Girls’ reports, welcoming men, girls and boys, sometimes Plan International’s report seems an impossible dream; and

as a significant contribution s spur us on to identify and tackle er to the efforts to document d the root causes of inequality so e E l e

discrimination against girls and Th we can come closer to making fight gender inequality. I said then that dream a reality. that without gender equality none Moore/ The Millennium Development Je ff of the Millennium Development Goals gave the human family Goals would be achieved. lives; the challenges and risks of something to strive for, something Now in 2015 we have come increasing urbanisation; working to measure progress against and, to a pivotal moment. A year of with men and boys; and, last sometimes, a reason to rebuke reckoning for the MDGs and year, ‘Pathways to Power’, which those in power when change the 20th anniversary of the looked at attitudinal, structural was very slow in coming. It has Beijing Declaration, when 189 and institutional barriers to gender proved, over all the decades of governments signed up to make equality. All the reports tell a struggle that women of my age women’s rights a reality. It has similar story – they tell us that we have been engaged in, very hard been a year to celebrate progress, still have a long way to go – and indeed to make gender equality to call for scaling up action, to they ask: how can we bring about a reality. There is often the question what is hindering gender transformative change in the lives sense that if we take two steps equality and to make a renewed of girls and young women? This forward there is always one, or commitment to empowering transformation would not only be one and a half, steps back. At women and girls. Because, fair and right for girls and women this point, as the MDGs give perhaps inevitably, the MDGs but would have far-reaching way to Sustainable Development have not been able to achieve all and beneficial impacts on social, Goals and a new articulation of they set out to do and, despite economic and political landscapes society’s values and aims, there Beijing, women’s rights and across the world. is a renewed chance. Gender gender justice remain elusive. In this latest report Plan equality is the goal that will For girls in particular, there has International has asked people help abolish poverty, that will been some progress, notably in from all over the world and from create more equal economies, primary education, but the issues many different walks of life to fairer societies and happier men, of early marriage, female genital reflect on the issues covered women and children. We are mutilation, early pregnancy, the earlier in the series and to find in lucky that going forward we have unequal burden of domestic this significant milestone of a year the energy and creativity of a chores and the difficulty in making reasons to be positive and to keep new generation of young activists the transition to secondary and alongside their mothers and tertiary education remain largely grandmothers. As I said in 2007, unchanged. There is still no It has been a year to “In today’s world, to discriminate country in the world where there celebrate progress, to call on the basis of sex and is real gender equality. gender is morally indefensible; ‘The State of the World’s for scaling up action, to economically, politically and Girls’ reports have since that first question what is hindering socially unsupportable.” It still is publication tackled many topics: indefensible and we must never girls in the global economy; gender equality and to give up trying to achieve justice. education; girls affected by conflict make a renewed and by disaster; the new digital Graça Machel world and its implications, both commitment to empowering Founder of the Graça Machel Trust negative and positive, for girls’ women and girls and Member of The Elders 9 Gathering the evidence by Sharon Goulds and Sarah Hendriks

Sarah Hendriks is Plan International’s Director of Gender Equality and Social Inclusion . She has been at Plan International for 10 years and has been a key advisor to the Girls’ Report since 2008 . Sharon Goulds has been the editor of the ‘State of the World’s Girls’ report since it began in 2007 .

“My parents do not give value or recognition to me . They only have praise for my brother ”. Girl, 15, Nepal

his comment from a 15-year- the ‘State of the World’s Girls’. It of death for 15 to 19-year-old Told girl in Nepal is echoed began with a simple yet poignant girls. We told a story, often in across the world, in many message: the double jeopardy the words of girls themselves, of countries and in many different of being young and female entrenched discrimination, which circumstances. It is the lack means that girls are getting a begins in early childhood and of ‘value’ that underpins the raw deal. In the very first report, becomes especially intractable struggle for gender equality we documented how girls faced during adolescence – a crucial which, despite centuries of discrimination even before time when girls’ lives pivot activism, has so far proved an they are born – there were an between opportunity and elusive goal. In spite of positive estimated 100 million missing isolation. Back in 2007, girls were legislation and international women because of the practice subjected to early marriage and conventions protecting the rights of female foeticide. We told the female genital mutilation and of girls and women, harmful world how girls suffered more were particularly vulnerable practices and social expectations from malnutrition than their to HIV and AIDS. This has not have kept generations of girls brothers, were more likely to changed. Many girls continue to firmly ‘in their place’. drop out of school, and that the pass from their fathers to their In 2007 Plan International complications of pregnancy were, husbands with little control or say launched a series of reports on and still are, a leading cause over their own lives and destinies.

10 thethe statestate ofof thethe world’sworld’s girlsgirls section 1 : introduction i m Meeri Koutanie Meeri

section 1 : INTRODUCTION 11 Being young and female: has shown that, despite the Graça Machel brought the case the state of the world’s girls landmark achievements of the to the world’s attention: The plight of double discrimination, women’s rights movement, of being young and female, has millions of girls the world over “None of the Millennium been the cornerstone of analysis are being condemned to a Development Goals will be across each report on the state life of poverty and inequality. achieved without gender of the world’s girls from 2007 Women have become presidents equality . We cannot let another until today. Every year, bringing and prime ministers, scientists, minute go by without acting together leading thinkers, activists artists, actors and chief decisively and urgently . Unless and policy makers, we have executives. Not in quite the we do, we will be condemning tackled a different theme and put same numbers as men, but millions of girls to a life of a spotlight on the range of core women have run countries, poverty and hardship ”. issues surrounding girls’ lives. We companies, newspapers and Graça Machel, ‘State of the have looked at the situation of colleges. But still in 2014 a girl World’s Girls’ Report 2007 girls in conflict and disasters; the from Cameroon could say to us promise of quality education for that “the girls are like servants Over the intervening years, the girls; and the global arenas where of boys and men. Their issues ‘State of the World’s Girls’ report change is most dramatic – the don’t really matter.” And in has collected evidence from all world’s cities, which expand every 2012 another girl could be shot over the world and given girls hour, and the ever-changing spaces for daring to go to school and and young women a place to tell of Information Communication talking about her right to do so. their stories and present their Technology (ICT). It is very clear that the issue solutions. It has focused not No matter the report of girls’ rights is as urgent today only on the plight of girls, but topic, the unfaltering evidence as it was back in 2007, when also on their power, resilience and determination; how girls Bangladesh. are coping creatively with all icture s P s ano P en/ ss u sm a pen R pen Es

12 the state of the world’s girls that life throws at them. It has As complex issues like socio-political climate has monitored progress, called for changed for the better. policy changes, for more data, child, early and forced Adolescent girls in particular have, and worked with many partners marriage, female genital in recent years, gained increased to forge a comprehensive agenda attention within the international on the unfinished business of mutilation and gender- development community. Girls girls’ rights. With compelling based violence are gaining have become the focus of evidence, the ‘State of the World’s numerous reports, campaigns Girls’ report series has shown recognition as barriers to and programmes by organisations the consequences of failing to both wellbeing and poverty at multiple levels. When Plan invest in girls, and the crucial International published the first need to listen to girls and ensure reduction, governments, of these ‘State of the World’s that their lives matter. Time and civil society and the private Girls’ reports in 2007 it was again, we have come back to difficult to find much material – the transformative potential of sector are increasingly and even more difficult to find education. We have made the allocating resources and data – that looked specifically at case that big, bold and decisive girls. They were either classified action is needed to truly bring targeting policies to curtail under ‘women’ or ‘children’, and about radical change. The struggle these abuses there was little differentiation for girls’ and women’s rights is of their needs or their rights by centuries old but, now, a few age. Today, a large number of years into the 21st century there heralded with such hope, or programmes and projects focus is, at last, crucial momentum. since 2000 when the Millennium on girls, with many targeted Development Goals (MDGs) specifically at adolescent girls.5 The pace of change were ushered in, or even since Major donors and corporate 2015 marks the 20th anniversary 2007, when the first ‘State of foundations began allocating of the historic UN World the World’s Girls’ report was new funding and increasing the Conference on Women in Beijing, published. Of course, there is focus on girls’ education and one of the largest ever gatherings progress to acknowledge and empowerment. Programmes such of women, and a critical turning celebrate: four million child as the World Bank’s ‘Adolescent point in the world’s focus on deaths have been prevented Girls Initiative’, launched in 2008, gender equality. Looking back, over the past four decades focused squarely on the rights there is cause for both celebration thanks to the global increase in and potential of girls as economic – of the progress that has been women’s education.1 There are actors.6 During this time, a made under the banner that more constitutions and legal number of United Nations entities ‘women’s rights are human rights’ frameworks which pay attention came together in a precedent- – but also frustration – at the to women. There are fewer setting moment to form the inter- pace, which has been too slow, mothers dying in childbirth now agency Task Force on Adolescent and at the efforts, too piecemeal than any other time in history; Girls. In 2010 the Task Force and uneven. Major gaps and the rate of maternal mortality launched a ‘Joint Statement for obstacles continue to stand in has decreased by almost 50 per Accelerated Efforts to Advance the way of the 12 critical areas cent since 1990.2 More girls are the Rights of Adolescent Girls’, for change outlined in the Beijing enrolling in primary education demonstrating the increased Declaration for Action. Twenty than ever before.3 And we have commitment and support across years later, no country in the seen how, in some settings, many sectors to advance policies world has achieved equality for improvements in one area (such and programmes to empower women and girls and, it could be as education) have been driving the hardest-to-reach adolescent said, many have not even tried. changes in other areas (such as girls.7 As complex issues like It is not that nothing has lower fertility rates and higher child, early and forced marriage, changed since 1995 when labour-force participation).4 female genital mutilation and the Beijing conference was In many ways the global gender-based violence are gaining

section 1 : INTRODUCTION 13 recognition as barriers to both Legislation remains opportunities. Their control over wellbeing and poverty reduction, their bodies continues to be a governments, civil society and largely unenforceable, pawn in political bargaining and, the private sector are increasingly gender-based violence is despite the progress of the last allocating resources and targeting two decades, maternal mortality policies to end these abuses. endemic and when poverty still remains unacceptably high.9,10 The International Day of the comes into play, families In no region of the world are Girl, ushered in on 11 October women and men, or girls and 2012, raised the profile of girls’ still invest in their sons boys, equal in social, legal or rights across the globe and economic rights. inspired action by many activists this progress, gender equality Women’s participation in the energetically committed to the and gender justice are a long labour force has stagnated for same cause. There has also been way off. Legislation remains the past two decades: globally, an unprecedented rise in the largely unenforceable, gender- fewer than half of women have number of leading public figures based violence is endemic and jobs, compared with almost four- who back the girls’ agenda. when poverty comes into play, fifths of men.11 Nearly 40 per There is now more research families still invest in their sons.8 cent of people agree that when and understanding (though still There are still miles to go jobs are in short supply, men not enough data) on adolescent before anyone can rest. The should have more right to a job girls. The ‘post-feminism’ era of work of gender equality remains than women.12 In North Africa the early part of the century has unfinished, and the evidence and the Middle East, women are been replaced by a new wave for continuing inequality and no more likely to have a paying of political activism, particularly discrimination is not hard to find. job than they were 20 years from young women themselves, Progress around some issues ago.13 Although employment data who are increasingly politically has not necessarily translated does not differentiate between savvy and make creative use of yet into broader gains. Girls and adolescent girls and young social media tools to advance women still learn less, earn less, women, we do know that young their agenda. However, despite and have far fewer assets and women experience greater rates A Global Adolescent Girls’ Rights Movement As part of the research for this year’s ‘State of the is not yet so evident at community and local level. World’s Girls’ report, we explored the emergence of With this in mind, there is a clear need to consider an adolescent girls’ movement. We canvassed opinion carefully the scope, scale and related impact of the among different activists and organisations involved in ‘movement’ as it evolves: research, programming and advocacy work over the “The ‘adolescent girl movement’ has been past decade. The picture that materialised confirms increasingly visible at the global level, but we need that yes, a movement for adolescent girls has indeed to see more of what is happening on the ground, emerged, taking perhaps longer than 10 years to build. in communities . Girls themselves are becoming “Undoubtedly this movement was not born in empowered to seek and demand changes, and the last 10 years, but with the Convention on the are strengthened in these efforts by the global Rights of the Child and the inclusion of the rights advocacy . To see a much bigger critical mass of girls of the girl child in the Beijing Platform of Action, able to take action in their own lives would be a but it has gained momentum in the last 10 years ”. real measure of success . Another would be to see Cecilia Espinoza (Ipas) this ‘movement’ infiltrate other sectors beyond education and health, such as urban planning, Many respondents agreed that the world has climate change, infrastructure etc – to make them witnessed the emergence of an adolescent girl sensitive to girls’ realities with programmes to movement, but reflected that this has happened match ”. more at a global level, led by the UN, INGOs, Sylvia Wong (United Nations Population Fund) research institutions and leading public figures. It

14 the state of the world’s girls icture s P s ano P Martin/ y Gu Protesters in Tahrir Square, Egypt.

“Due attention should be paid to the plight of but we can’t necessarily create them, it needs to the poorest adolescents both in rural and urban come from bottom up ”. areas, especially living and working in slums and Ruby Johnson (FRIDA: The Young Feminist Fund) informal settlements . How targeted are these Respondents were also asked to identify the key efforts in reaching this category? What about drivers and key moments behind a global girls’ adolescents that become child mothers?” rights movement; time and again the name of Lucia Kiawala (UN-Habitat) ‘Malala’ came up: Other respondents asserted that the real litmus test “When Malala was the target of violence, it for confirming a social movement on girls’ rights is became so apparent that girls are a serious threat to determine the extent to which girls self-identify to fundamentalism in their societies . That served as being part of the movement itself. In order for a as a huge moment to highlight the power girls have ‘girl movement’ to be truly dynamic, girls themselves in their communities to bring out positive change . need to be in the driver’s seat, documenting progress It’s a shame that it had to be a near-tragedy to along the way. As one young activist wrote: galvanise support for girls, and especially their “I think there is still a lot of work to be done on access to education, but it was a turning point for girls identifying as part of a movement and what the global conversation about girls’ empowerment ”. that looks like… It’s complicated and we need Lindsey Mernard-Freeman (Women Deliver) to reflect a lot on who is convening this space; Others talked about the increased coordination again, the role of funders and what that means, among campaigners and agencies, the launch of and how maybe we are allies to those movements the ‘Girl Effect’ video, Plan International’s Because ➔

section 1 : INTRODUCTION 15 of unemployment than their male 2015 is a critical year, likely never to attend primary counterparts in almost every school in sub-Saharan Africa. region of the world.14 the year to really get to If current trends continue, girls In other words, improvements grips with the question of in rural Africa can look forward in girls’ education have not to universal primary schooling translated to gains in economic why change has been so sometime after 2080.18 The participation and empowerment. difficult. For generations, picture is bleaker when we look Huge disparities abound, in at secondary education: one labour-force participation, wage society has been ordered to in five adolescent girls around gaps, and female segregation keep both sexes in a pre- the world are currently not in within the informal labour school.19 In some places, the sector. Recent research shows defined space. Increasingly situation is even worse: fewer that more than half a century men and women, boys than one in three girls in sub- after the United States passed Saharan Africa and fewer than the Equal Pay Act, and 45 and girls know that this one in two in South Asia are 20 years after similar legislation system, and the society enrolled in secondary school. was passed in the UK, women Too many women, one in in the US earn about 76.5 per which it creates, is not three according to the World cent of the amount paid to really working Health Organization, experience men.15 Globally, the amount is violence from an intimate also about 76 per cent, a figure partner, and sexual harassment that has improved by only three In the case of education, at school and on the streets is, percentage points in the past 20 inequality has emerged as a according to our own research, years.16 At the current, painfully brake on global progress and quite commonplace.21,22 It is slow rate of change, it will take the number of girls completing ‘normal’, what you expect, if 81 years for the gender pay their secondary education has you are young and female. More gap around the world to close not substantially improved. The than half the young women completely.17 poorest girls remain the most interviewed earlier this year in

I am a Girl campaign, the development of Girls Not progress made on global policy change at the Brides, and the institutionalisation of an International international level links to activism and advocacy Day of the Girl by the UN. For many, it has been the at local level. And, in particular, how to make culmination of numerous moments and opportunities sure that girls themselves are involved and that across many years of work that has led to a growing grassroot activities are funded: consensus around a ‘girls’ movement’: “The spotlight on adolescent girls indeed led “It is difficult to identify one crucial moment, but to increased funding allocation dedicated for the launch of the International Day of the Girl by programmes targeting adolescent girls, as the UN in 2012 certainly represented a culminating demonstrated by various governments (UK, US moment of advocacy by many organisations to and Canada) and private foundations, and several prioritise adolescent girls in global development country governments made significant policy efforts . This also helped to pave the way for the changes (ie child marriage laws) to address the more recent movement to feature girls in the post- needs of adolescent girls… [However,] limited 2015 sustainable development goals ”. funding has trickled down to support young Ann Warner, Suzanne Petroni women to organise for gender equality at the (International Centre for Research on Women) grassroots level ”. Kathryn Paik Although campaigns around issues like child (Women’s Refugee Commission) marriage have successfully combined global and national action, a key challenge, identified by the “The amplified spotlight around girls’ issues has people we spoke to, is how to ensure that the brought funding to support more work specifically

16 the state of the world’s girls Nicaragua, Ecuador, Zimbabwe and geography – living in a 2015: tackling injustice and Pakistan also felt that girls remote area – all combine The pace of change has been far who marry as teenagers are more with gender and age to make too slow, and not enough has been likely to experience violence in difficult circumstances nearly substantively achieved to make real the home.23 In Zimbabwe, as unbearable. The poorest and headway into the most intractable many as 81 per cent agreed most marginalised women problems confronting girls and that teenage brides were more and girls are the least likely to women, around the world. The at risk.24 Laws against child use healthcare services. A girl next decade may be our greatest marriage may be in place, but with a disability faces double chance to challenge and finally 15 million girls marry before discrimination and it is estimated change the deep, underlying the age of 18 each year, which that only 42 per cent of disabled drivers of inequality and injustice. equates to approximately 41,000 girls complete primary school.29 If we can seize on the momentum girls getting married as children Across and within countries, that has been building, particularly each and every day.25,26 Child gender gaps widen at lower in the last 20 years, we are on the marriage traps girls and families incomes, and, in the poorest threshold of a new social order. in a vicious cycle of poverty. Girls economies, gaps between men 2015 is a critical year, the with no education are three times and women’s earnings are even year to really get to grips with more likely to marry before 18 larger. External shocks, whether the question of why change years of age than those with a economic, environmental or has been so difficult. For secondary or higher education.27 political, have also erased generations, society has been In all regions apart from hard-earned gains, with ordered to keep both sexes in a Africa suicide is now a leading different impacts for girls. When pre-defined space. Increasingly, cause of death for adolescent resources are scarce, many men and women, boys and girls, girls; a shocking development families prioritise their sons, so at home, at work, at school, in which underlines the pressures it is girls who are pulled out of the law, the state, in business girls are under.28 For the poorest school, married off early and and at prayer know that this girls and women, the situation spend increasing amounts of system, and the society which is dire. Poverty, disability their time on domestic chores. it creates, is not really working. working directly with girls . We have been working rescue can so easily lead to leaving women – and with community partners who work with girls women’s rights – out, again ”. since 2009, and only recently have donors like Andrea Cornwall (School of Global Studies, the Nike and Gates Foundations started funding University of Sussex) programmes working directly with adolescent girls So yes, the results do show that a girls’ movement as the primary beneficiaries ”. has begun and that girls’ rights are firmly on the Emily Hagerman international agenda, but these achievements (Let Girls Lead) need to be carefully scrutinised. There are many “Many donors and others still do not fully view unanswered questions: is the focus too heavily girls as agents of change for themselves or others . weighted on global-level advocacy, and is this There is still a while to go before girls and young enough? How can the sustained period of building women are fully empowered ”. evidence and rationale at the global level serve to Adowa Aidoo support grassroots activism and advocacy? How (Girl Scouts USA) do we magnify its influence on the way real girls live their lives, and ensure they are truly at the There was also concern expressed about the overall centre of any social movement for change? Are implications for women’s rights and gender equality: we in danger of losing momentum when change “My own view is that the focus on girls is not is not embedded at community level and led more necessarily helping the broader goals of gender by girls themselves? To be transformative, a girls’ equality… Development’s marketisation of movement must be truly local; so how can girls girls as the ultimate deserving victim in need of themselves take charge and lead this change?

section 1 : INTRODUCTION 17 Over the last decades we have allotted time, there is a renewed affect girls also undermine the achieved a little wriggle room opportunity to properly embed ability of entire nations to drive but fundamentally gender roles the transformation of gender towards economic and social remain fairly rigid. Public power relations into the underlying progress. By acknowledging the is largely held by men, and structures of our society. With gendered dimension of poverty, the private, domestic sphere is a greater consensus around the we can begin to uncover and disproportionately staffed by economic benefits of empowering address the root causes of human female labour. women and girls, there has been a inequality. It is the complex vigorous campaign to put gender interplay of unequal power “We have to take stock and equality at the heart of the new relations and discriminatory make a final push for success . Sustainable Development Agenda; practices that poses the biggest And this demands that we invest not only as a stand-alone goal challenge to achieving sustainable in the more than half a billion but as a principle that informs and ethical development across adolescent girls in developing everything else. societies and communities. countries who can help drive And it’s critical that the That is why girls must be progress across the MDG implementation of the new front and centre in the new agenda ”. development agenda makes development framework. Girls UN Secretary-General the links and recognises that must be intentionally and explicitly Ban Ki-moon, January 201430 poverty is rooted in gender- targeted in programmes and based inequality, exclusion and policies in order to be reached. Two decades on, as the injustice. The discrimination All too often, development and Millennium Development Goals and stereotyping which aid programming corral girls have come to the end of their disproportionately and negatively into categories such as ‘youth’, ‘women’ or even ‘gender’. But India. girls – at all stages of their lives s icture P s ano P i Vitale/ i Am

18 the state of the world’s girls – face distinct obstacles that It is the complex interplay the story of so many “unsung will only be addressed when we heroes lighting the way for acknowledge the double burden of unequal power relations millions of others, armed with of discrimination – being both and discriminatory an unconditional belief in the young and female – that they face right of humans to live as such”. in so many parts of the world. practices that poses Australia’s former Prime Minister Will the change agenda for the biggest challenge to Julia Gillard, writing about the gender equality and adolescent 2012 theme of girls’ education, girls be different this time? achieving sustainable and tells us: “The reality in most When we champion the rights ethical development across developing countries is that of adolescent girls, are we really gender inequality is only one working to achieve a world societies and communities obstacle of the many girls face. that values girls, promotes their Poverty, disability, ethnicity, rights, and ends injustice? In the Dominican Republic and El religion and geography (do they new Sustainable Development Salvador; from Pakistan, Sierra live in rural or urban areas? Are Agenda, will girls finally be able Leone, Australia, Ethiopia, they near or far from schools?) to complete a decent education, Sweden, France, Canada, Nigeria, are powerful factors determining enjoy good health, and be Afghanistan, the UK, the US and whether or not a girl gets empowered to make choices Egypt; and from people of all educated.” about their lives, including ages who have experienced the Youth activist Chernor Bah whether and who to marry, when world in a variety of different describes why, for him, girls’ and if to get pregnant, and how ways. education is the big global to find a decent job? This new Each article explores one of issue of our time. Anita Haidary agenda must be the stepping the themes from the ‘State of the paints a vivid picture of why stone towards a truly brave new World’s Girls’ report series, taking she co-founded Young Women world based on democracy, the reader on a journey using a for Change in Afghanistan: accountability and genuine variety of styles, experiences and “You leave home to go grocery empowerment of the poorest viewpoints. This year we have shopping, you get harassed, and most marginalised. But these poetry from Imtiaz Dharker, a and a friend of mine said if she are words and it is action that short story from Joanne Harris, a could just walk one day without matters. photo-spread from Liya Kebede, being harassed her dream would and many personal reflections; come true. I long for a time ‘We’re going to change the unfinished business of girls’ where I can sit in a park and the world’ rights is tackled in a variety of read a book. These things might This year we have given the job ways and in many different voices. sound so simple but life is about of assessing the state of the We have asked economics simple things.” Bukky Shonibare world’s girls to many different commentator Katrine Marçal to reflects on Nigeria’s social media people across the globe. The reflect on the 2009 report, ‘Girls campaign #BringBackOurGirls authors do not always agree in the Global Economy’, and we and Catalina Ruiz-Navarro writes with each other, or with their have a contribution on that topic about the gender divide in IT publisher, but we want to from Indra Nooyi. US President and why it matters. Nawal El capture dissent and discussion, Jimmy Carter has taken up the Saadawi looks back over her optimism and pessimism, and to 2011 theme on working with life as a writer and activist and try to see the world’s girls from men and boys, as have four brings decades of experience to these different perspectives. champions of change from the long struggle for justice for Contributions come from Latin America: Yelsin, Kevin, girls and women. journalists, poets, politicians, Kendir and Elmer. Mariane Pearl Journalist and author Sally activists, business leaders, has used her experience as an Armstrong, a strong advocate economists and academics. international journalist and for the resilience and new They come also from Colombia, activist to illuminate the theme energy of this generation of Honduras, Guatemala, the of girls in conflict zones; she tells young women, writes: “One of

section 1 : INTRODUCTION 19 icture s P s ano P / d g aar ter el Os el kk Mi

India. husbands and men in positions of authority giving up privilege. the girls I talked to said, ‘We’re longer acceptable or affordable Many of our contributors the generation of change. We is gathering momentum so that, see the next few years as crucial have the power and a new perhaps for the first time, the to bringing about historic and viewpoint and we’re going to force for change will come not significant transformation; change the world – watch us.’” just from those who campaign the culmination of all the Whatever ‘The State of the because it is not fair but from efforts that went before and World’s Girls’, it is always the those who know it is not smart. the first time in history that ideas, the resilience and the It will come not only from the forward momentum for girls’ sheer hope of girls and young power of new technology and and women’s rights will not women everywhere that ignites the global social movement immediately be followed by the struggle for gender justice. which has swept up women and backlash. 2015 is a year full The realisation that oppressing girls from all over the world; of promise and this time that half the world’s population is no but also from fathers, brothers, promise must be honoured.

20 the state of the world’s girls Half the sky by Imtiaz Dharker There is the sky down in the well, a perfect disc ell w

of blue. Small piece-of-the-moon finds herself o

reflected in it, leaning over the rim to look P on Si m as if into a stranger’s face. The sky looks back at her and she looks back at the sky.

There is the sky shivering in the well The bucket has broken into it. Her hands are hauling up the wealth of plundered water. The sky knows she will pay for this. The sky looks back at her and she looks back at the sky.

The weight of the sky on her head, and miles to carry it. Her legs buckle, soft bones melting, knees driven earthward before their time. The sky looks down at her and she looks down.

In the bucket, the sky turns to brass, heavy, heavy-hearted, it feels the curl of a child inside the child, forming between the unformed hips. And she is carrying the weight of the sky. The sky looks back at her and she looks back at the sky.

And she is carrying half a truth. And she is carrying half a lie. And she is carrying half of tomorrow. And she is carrying half the sky. Hear Imtiaz Dharker reading her poem: https://plan-international.org/girlsreport1

Author’s Note: When I was writing this I was thinking about a woman I know who always had aches and pains and seemed much older than her age. We joked about it. But then she said, “Remember, I was carrying water for miles every day before I was 10. My body grew old.” What she didn’t say, what I know, is that she had children when her little body was not ready either.

Imtiaz Dharker was born in Pakistan, grew up a Muslim Calvinist in a Lahori household in Glasgow, was adopted by India and married into Wales. She is an accomplished artist and documentary film-maker, and her publications include Postcards from god (including Purdah) (1997), I Speak for the Devil (2001), The terrorist at my table (2006), Leaving Fingerprints (2009) and Over the Moon (2014), for which she was awarded The Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry. All her collections are illustrated with her drawings, which form an integral part of her books. Her poems are studied at GCSE and A Level, and with Poetry Live! (poetrylive.net) she reads to 25,000 students a year. She lives in London.

section 1 : INTRODUCTION 21 The evidence: girls’ critical issues and ideas for change

Since the first of the ‘State of the World’s Girls’ sexual health and reproductive rights, with only a reports, Plan has committed to building the quarter of girls reporting that they always decide evidence base on girls’ rights and realities. We if and when to get married and one in three girls started with a longitudinal study – ‘Real Choices, saying that they ‘never’ decide if they become Real Lives’ – that is following a small group of pregnant. This inability to make choices about girls in nine countries from their birth in 2006. their own bodies, combined with overall lack of Today, these girls are nine years old and their lives opportunity and care, is unjust and unfair. illuminate our work. Another area of critical concern emerging from An evidence base on girls is critically the research focused on violence. The findings important – to arm advocates everywhere with reveal that violence against girls is frighteningly fresh insights and data on the plight and power of pervasive – girls expect to be victims of violence, girls; to inform programmes that create long-term and the levels of violence that they experience change for girls and boys; and to spur on further are seen as ‘normal’. They seldom feel free from investment and political will through stakeholders violence at home, in their communities, or at convinced by the data which draws out the realities school. For example, 80 per cent of girls in one of girls’ lives. area of Ecuador, and 77 per cent of girls in an area Our approach to building an evidence base on of Bangladesh, said that they ‘never’ or ‘seldom’ girls’ rights has evolved, with greater investment feel safe in their community. In West Africa, 30 per being made over time in innovative and cent of girls said that they never or seldom feel as participatory approaches that provide a platform safe as boys on their way to school. for girls to speak about their most pressing For Plan, these shocking findings have concerns, using a wide range of methodological inspired us to dig deeper into the core areas approaches. In 2014, over 7,000 adolescent girls which emerged from this research. We wanted to and boys in 11 countries around the world talked hear from girls about their views on how things to us about the issues that they faced.31 They should change, and the solutions girls themselves were asked about school, family and their daily see as necessary to address their most pressing lives, and the barriers and challenges girls face in concerns. We decided to invest in a continuing their communities. ‘Hear Our Voices’ became one piece of research which would build on this strong of the largest studies of adolescent girls’ rights evidence base through credible data which focuses ever undertaken, using two unique research tools, on adolescent girls’ ideas for change. As a result, with the voices of girls at the epicentre of this we have partnered with Ipsos MORI to conduct research.32 a representative survey of adolescent girls in The results of the ‘Hear Our Voices’ research four of the countries involved in the ‘Hear Our study brought the realities that girls face into vivid Voices’ study (Ecuador, Nicaragua, Pakistan and colour. The findings confirmed that adolescent girls Zimbabwe). This latest study reflects our evolving face particular barriers to survival and development, desire to contribute to a global evidence base on simply because they are girls. For example, less girls’ rights – one which puts at the centre girls’ than half of the girls said that girls always or often voices, on both their problems and solutions. complete at least nine years of school in their In this year’s most recent study, ‘Girls Speak communities. Even when they are at school, less Out’, we talked to 4,219 adolescent girls, to than half of girls said that they always participated hear their suggestions for improvements to their or took leadership roles as often as boys. lives; who they believe should be responsible for Throughout this study, girls revealed that they these changes; and how they would deal with do not really see themselves as bearers of rights barriers to equality. We drilled down into four of but instead are limited, constrained and subjected the areas that had emerged as the most pressing to injustices that restrict their opportunities in issues facing girls’ lives: decisions around early life. This was especially true when it came to their pregnancy; child, early and forced marriage;

22 the state of the world’s girls lan international P

India.

gender-based violence in and around schools; and they have more opportunities than their mothers safety in the community. did before them. The methodology for this study has been Nevertheless, the portrayal of girls’ undertaken through a robust and comparable empowerment that emerges overall – their ability quantitative survey that is nationally representative to make decisions about their own lives – is very of adolescent girls, aged 15 to 19 years, in all four complex. The results across 4,219 girls in four countries.33 The research was conducted in as many unique country settings paint a very patchy regions as possible and with a diverse selection of picture. In Nicaragua, 43 per cent of girls say girls in each country. Interviews with girls were semi- that they can ‘always’ or ‘often’ make decisions, structured in format, with a number of open-ended compared to only 20 per cent in Pakistan and 33 questions that allowed girls to speak freely about per cent in Ecuador. In Pakistan the four per cent their views on the solutions needed to better protect of girls who say that they are ‘always’ in charge themselves and their peers from abuse, violence, of decisions about their lives are all between 18 early pregnancy and early marriage.34 and 19 years old, live in cities, are unmarried Although the contexts of the four countries are and are still in school. The significance of this is very different, the research findings reveal many echoed across the research; living in a city, being commonalities which, put together, reflect a full single and in school are powerful factors in a girl’s and poignant story of girls around the world. On ability to govern her own life. When put together the whole, girls are positive about their futures: across all countries, the results show that overall most girls across all four countries believe that only a third of the girls interviewed feel they can they are becoming more valued members of their take their own decisions; for two-thirds of them communities and the majority of girls believe that empowerment remains elusive.

section 1 : INTRODUCTION 23 Are girls your age able to make critical and Zimbabwe reported low rates of access to decisions about their own lives? information and slightly higher rates of access to contraception. These results need to be understood in context: girls in Nicaragua are becoming mothers at an increasingly, and alarmingly, young age: 17 per cent of the adolescent girls involved Always Never in this study reported that they already had one 16% 18% or two children, the highest rate out of all the countries, with many giving birth as young as 13 or 14 years of age.35 Girls across all the countries spoke of sexual Often Seldom coercion and the unwillingness of male partners 17% 16% to use contraception as major barriers to avoiding early pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. This data shows quite clearly that girls Sometimes do not hold the power to make decisions about 33% their own bodies, and the urgent need to work with men and boys on negotiating the terms of sex equally with girls. Girls told us how they often feel pressure to take part in sexual activities with their boyfriends or husbands. This lack of This variance is part of the complex story of equality is particularly prevalent in Pakistan and adolescent girls’ lives, and inspired us to dig deeper Zimbabwe. into the data to understand better apparent The overall acceptance of adolescent contradictions in girls’ lives. In reflecting on pregnancy varied widely in terms of girls other dimensions of empowerment, common continuing their schooling, with 85 per cent of experiences were evident. Girls across all countries Ecuadorian girls saying that education is still are overburdened with chores, not given equal possible after having a baby, while in Pakistan access to technology and lack the confidence to only 39 per cent agree with this statement. Across speak up around men or boys. all countries, girls said they need greater support But the story of girls doesn’t end there. Girls from communities and families to ensure that they spoke in depth about the stark realities they are overcome the challenges of pregnancy, and, most facing in the four key areas which represent their importantly, continue their education. most pressing concerns. Early marriage Early pregnancy “I’d advise them not to marry at an early age as “If I had enough information than I won’t become they are not prepared . They are too young and pregnant; I don’t have enough information, that’s their dreams are cut short ”. why I get pregnant in early age . I am 19 years old Girl, Ecuador at this time and I have a small daughter . I spend all my time in looking after her . I want to study Across every country, girls asserted that early further ”. marriage does not benefit them, and that their Girl, Pakistan rights to education, information and services, to be free from violence, and to sexual and reproductive Girls strongly asserted that access to contraception health were being compromised. and health services is inadequate. Overall, the Just over three in five girls (68 per cent) girls interviewed from Latin America feel they agree that girls who marry young are more have sufficient access to information on sexual likely to experience violence in their homes. and reproductive health, but insufficient access This perspective was shared by girls in different to contraceptives. In contrast, girls in Pakistan contexts and countries and in Nicaragua as many

24 the state of the world’s girls as 70 per cent of girls agreed that early marriage Violence in the community is a strong predictor of domestic violence. Girls “I would advise them, if they are being abused, to linked early marriage and education together, with call the police and break the silence ”. the majority of girls across all countries agreeing Girl, Nicaragua that if girls get married before the age of 18, they are less likely to complete their education. The results were encouraging when it came to Better access to quality education for girls was attitudes of what is acceptable in terms of gender- a key solution identified in Latin America and based violence in the community. Girls everywhere Zimbabwe, while education for parents and demonstrated confidence about what to do in care-givers on the hazards of early marriage was the situation of extreme violence: 87 per cent of highlighted by girls in Pakistan. Over a third of the 4,219 girls ‘strongly disagreed’ or ‘disagreed’ girls in both Pakistan and Zimbabwe face social or with the statement: “If a girl or a woman has family pressures to marry at a young age. Across been raped it is better for her not to tell anyone.” all countries, girls spoke about the need to be Similarly, the majority of girls across all countries more empowered and having more confidence to ‘strongly disagreed’ or ‘disagreed’ when asked if raise issues and concerns with their families as a they thought it was acceptable for a boy to hit or major step. use violence against his girlfriend. Nevertheless, girls were divided on whether Gender-based violence they should be able to travel alone on public in and around school transport or be in public places after dark. In Nicaragua, only 12 per cent agreed that girls “I’d train girls to protect themselves, for example should not travel on public transportation without by teaching them karate ”. a male family member, while in Pakistan, this Girl, Zimbabwe increased to 54 per cent. All girls agreed that more School-related gender-based violence is a very supportive communities and more self-confidence real concern; girls appear to normalise violence, would help them, particularly when it came to and in some cases the very worst forms of reporting violence. violence, especially in Pakistan and Zimbabwe. They perceive their journey to school as inherently Towards solutions dangerous: 47 per cent of all the girls in the While many of the findings are not new, this study either ‘strongly disagree’ or ‘disagree’ evidence directly from adolescents themselves that girls feel safe on their way to school. Girls cannot be ignored. For Plan, the learning from this showed that they are aware of their rights, and research will be used to strengthen our programme across all countries 86 per cent reported that it and advocacy work on adolescent girls around the is ‘seldom’ or ‘never’ acceptable for a teacher to globe. Across all these results, we see that girls have give strong physical punishment to girls in certain a strong grasp on both their realities and challenges, situations in school. Girls often had vastly different and we must rally behind them to ensure that they perspectives, based on their location, on issues are empowered to reach their full potential. such as sexual harassment and coercion in school Girls have not just identified their core and corporal punishment. For example, nearly 20 challenges; the main thrust of this study is to focus per cent of girls in Pakistan either ‘didn’t know’ on the solutions that will lead to transformation. or ‘agreed’ that in certain circumstances it may The final chapter of this report profiles the be acceptable for a teacher to ask a girl for sexual solutions that girls believe will bring about real favours in exchange for good grades. However, in change in their lives, homes and communities. It Zimbabwe, Nicaragua and Ecuador, over 90 per is this focus on solutions which, we believe, will cent disagreed. not only diversify the evidence base on adolescent girls’ rights, but will lead us to more questions and a greater ability to influence programmes and Freida Pinto talks about violence against girls: policies that truly respond to girls’ expertise and to https://plan-international.org/girlsreport2 the realities of their lives.

section 1 : INTRODUCTION 25 ect y Eff ualit e Eq Recording the arrival of a new rape att/ Thatt/ b a victim at the Ripples International

uie L Shelter in Kenya. q Jac

26 the state of the world’s girls ‘We are the ril Benoit/MSF ril

generation of change’ Av

by Sally Armstrong

Human rights activist, journalist and award-winning author Sally Armstrong has covered stories about women and girls all over the world . From Bosnia and Somalia to the Middle East, Rwanda, Congo and Afghanistan, her eyewitness reports have earned her awards including the Gold Award from the National Magazine Awards Foundation and the Author’s Award from the Foundation for the Advancement of Canadian Letters . She received the Amnesty International Canada Media Award in 2000, 2002 and again in 2011 . Sally was a member of the International Women’s Commission, a UN body that consists of 20 Palestinian women, 20 Israeli women and 12 internationals whose mandate is assisting with the path to peace in the Middle East . Her most recent book, Uprising: A New Age is Dawning for Every Mother’s Daughter, was published in March 2014 by St Martin’s Press in New York .

ere come the girls. For all the to history books where they belong. But Hpessimists who claim the women’s there is a clarion call around the world movement is over and that young people claiming misogyny and extremism and don’t care, I have news. I found it as a fundamentalism and harmful practices journalist in Asia and Africa and in Europe must be held accountable because these and the Americas while I was researching actions have been proven to be a negative my book Uprising: A New Age is Dawning force for the health and wellbeing of half for Every Mother’s Daughter. There are the world’s population. What’s more, girls and young women all over the world they’re now seen as bad for the economy. who are holding up a pure clear light for Experts claim this change in the status of all to see. They’re asking questions that girls and women will reduce poverty, cut were never asked before, such as “Where conflict and turn the economy around. In is it written in the holy book that I cannot the past there was a taboo about talking go to school?” and “If this is our culture, about issues such as sexual abuse and tell me why we would do something forced marriage. If you can’t talk about that is harmful to all of us?” They are it, you can’t change it. Today, the girls are countering bogus religious claims and talking and their conversations are focused cultural contradictions that have held girls on equality rights, education, healthcare back for centuries. That’s because the and a better tomorrow. earth has started to shift under the status of girls. The good news doesn’t mean that From the Beijing Conference to the injustices like forced marriage, underage Millennium Goals marriage, sexual harassment and rape These young women witnessed the acts and physical beatings have been relegated of their mothers in 1996 when burka-

section 1 : INTRODUCTION 27 clad women in Afghanistan were denied plus Canada who gathered to demand education, jobs and healthcare under the action and turn the tide on HIV and Taliban. They were part of the cheering AIDS, which was affecting more women crowds on Tahrir Square in 2011 when and girls than men and boys. In the the people of Egypt toppled a dictatorial United States in 2012, female college regime. During the decade and a half in students finally spoke back en masse to between, they watched while women the religious right in defence of Roe v. fought to abolish Pakistan’s hated Hadood Wade, the court case that gave American Ordinance, which demanded that a raped women abortion rights in 1973. And in woman or girl have four male witnesses Canada, girls were aware that Aboriginal to prove she didn’t cause the rape; they women, who had accused the government saw women challenge the legitimacy of of failing to take action on the file of the personal status laws in Egypt that deny their missing and likely murdered sisters, women rights in marriage, and they joined aunts, daughters and mothers, had called their older sisters when women and girls in for outside help from the United Nations Afghanistan found the courage to march and got it, giving the government an in the street demanding fairness and embarrassing black eye. justice. In Liberia the girls saw the women Girls the world over watched these surround the men at a peace conference changes and then, fuelled by the success Tending the and barricade the building, saying they of their mothers and sisters and aunts, vegetable garden wouldn’t leave until a peace accord was started a few of their own. For example, at the Ripples struck, and holding a ‘sex strike’ to make Malala Yousafzai became the voice of girls International their point. In Swaziland they joined the throughout the world. She is the epitome Shelter in Meru, grandmothers from 25 African countries of the change that is sweeping nation Kenya. ect y Eff ualit e Eq Th att/ b a uie L q Jac

28 the state of the world’s girls after nation today. Only a few years ago Mandela and Gandhi when she spoke in we would likely never have heard her her straight-forward, from-the-heart style story. When the cowardly Taliban shot at the UN. her in the head on 9 October 2012, for She put the world on alert that 12 daring to go to school and speaking up July when she said, “There was a time for girls’ education, it wouldn’t have been when women asked men to stand up surprising if the people living in the Swat for women’s rights. This time we’ll do Valley, Pakistan, dismissed the news – “so it for ourselves.” And she announced what – she’s a girl”. Elsewhere, had we the way forward for women: “They heard the story, we would have tut-tutted thought a bullet would silence us but they and said, “How dreadful, but it’s the way failed. Out of the silence came a voice: they treat their girls, there’s nothing we weakness, fear and hopelessness died; can do.” strength, power and courage were born.” Instead, Malala’s story made every It’s not just the newfound leaders like newspaper in the world and every radio Malala who are driving change. The foot and television broadcast; people stayed soldiers in this war against oppressors of tuned as news spread about where she women and girls are also marching. In was being treated and when she was India, when Jyoti Pandey Singh was raped being transferred, first to Islamabad and to death by a bunch of hooligans in a bus, then to London, England. In February a curtain was also raised. Her legacy is 2013 we saw or read the details of the that the brutal story reconstruction cranial surgery and the ripped the lid off It’s not just the newfound cochlear implant the doctors would use to 50 years of secrecy leaders like Malala who are repair the damage to her skull and restore about the status some of her hearing. Then in early March of women in India. driving change. The foot she was in the news again. Sporting a pink As it turns out, the soldiers in this war against backpack, Malala was returning to school. fastest-growing And on 12 July 2013, her 16th birthday, democracy and the oppressors of women and girls she stood in front of the UN and spoke hottest economy in are also marching like a seasoned advocate about girls’ the world needs to education. change the way it treats 50 per cent of its Malala had become the world’s population. Now the women of India are daughter. It was as though the citizens on the street, demanding change. And the of the world had lifted a curtain and world is watching through a different lens. suddenly saw the extraordinary stupidity of refusing to educate girls and the A commitment to education consequences of kow-towing to the When the Boko Haram extremists extremists who claim they are acting kidnapped 276 schoolgirls in Nigeria in in the name of God when they shoot April 2014, the world paid attention like teenage girls in the head for wanting to never before. The girls had been writing learn to read and think for themselves. their final exams in the mostly Christian Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the town of Chibok in northern Nigeria when United Nations, said: “When the Taliban Boko Haram, whose name roughly means shot Malala, they showed what they fear ‘Western education is forbidden’, broke most: a girl with a book.” into the school pretending to be guards Malala has that elusive ‘it’ factor and abducted the young teenagers. As I – the one that combines strength with write they are still missing. But as difficult kindness, resolve with vision. She wore the as the ongoing catastrophe in the lives late Benazir Bhutto’s scarf and brilliantly of these girls is, there’s another piece of combined the Prophet Mohammed with this story that needs to be told. When Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King, Nelson American President Barack Obama said

section 1 : INTRODUCTION 29 he was sending strategic advisers and a Girl’ report2, which recognises that surveillance equipment to Nigeria to help the fate of girls and young women is find the girls, he made history. No military, precisely the fate of their countries and no government has ever gone anywhere communities, writes: “The most potent to rescue girls. The message was clear – forces in the world right now… are all girls count and education is paramount. centred around the mythic figure of the This new commitment to the teenage girl.” education of girls is a major shift. For The World Bank has issued reports example, in Afghanistan the women refer every five yearssince 1985 to say that to their illiteracy as being blind. When if attention is paid to the girl child – I asked them what they meant by that, educating her, taking care of her health, one woman explained: “I couldn’t read, feeding her – the economy of the village so I couldn’t see what was going on.” In will improve. Why? Because she will fewer than a dozen words, she described marry later, have fewer children and a system that men in power have relied on those children will be healthier. That for centuries – keep the girls uneducated report didn’t get the traction one would so they won’t know what’s going on. have expected. But by 2012, when the Today almost nine million children are earth had shifted under the status of in school, 40 per cent of them girls. women and girls and Millennium Goals Everyone knows that the way forward in economist Jeffrey any country is education. Sachs said that the It’s as though the centuries-old The upsurge in education is changing status of women the way women and girls live their lives. and the economy jig is suddenly up. The abuse In Saudi Arabia, enrolment in primary are directly related of women and girls is being and secondary schools for girls has been – where one’s rising by 8.3 per cent a year.1 The women flourishing, so is revealed as a bully tactic by who in 2011 and 2012 protested the the other; where out-of-date males who are ban against females driving were dentists one’s in the ditch and professors and IT specialists. These so is the other – his trying to cling to power women and their daughters are no longer proclamation got willing to ask permission of male guardians traction. to move about freely on their own in their It’s as though the centuries-old jig is home country, travel abroad or have a suddenly up. The abuse of women and medical procedure. What’s more, the birth girls is being revealed as a bully tactic by rate in Saudi Arabia is falling to European out-of-date males who are trying to cling levels, and customs such as marrying a to power. first cousin are falling out offavour . Farida Shaheed, cultural rapporteur for the The face of the new Afghanistan United Nations, says, “The more options Nowhere is this more evident than in women have, the less they are under the Afghanistan. In 2012 Noorjahan Akbar, thumb of their husbands, fathers, priests along with her friend Anita Haidary, and mullahs.” founded Young Women for Change Supporters are jumping on this (YWC), an organisation of Afghans bandwagon like born-again believers in aged 15 to 22 that is as modern as it is the power of girls. The philanthropist Bill provocative. And they did this in one of Gates says, “The past decade has seen the world’s capitals of female oppression: more progress against inequality than Kabul. Their aim is to reshape the any of the previous five.”Doug Saunders, emotional landscape of Afghanistan. a columnist for The Globe and Mail Noorjahan and Anita are the face newspaper in Canada, commenting on of the new Afghanistan. “We want Plan International’s 2010 ‘Because I’m to mobilise the youth,” they told me.

30 the state of the world’s girls “Sixty-seven per cent of the population of planting a seed of doubt in their hearts, Afghanistan is under the age of 30. We and that’s valuable. The next time, they have never fought a war. We never started might think before speaking or acting. one either. We have new ideas. And we When you start to question the injustices want to get rid of those old customs that you’ve put up with all your whole life, nobody wants. And we have the tools to that’s very empowering.” make change – we’re all on Facebook.” Noorjahan even walked down They are pressing a lot of very the main street in Karta See – the reactionary buttons. If a man harasses neighbourhood where YWC is located Noorjahan in the street – speculates on – with a recording device hidden in her her virginity or her breasts, or calls her a headscarf and gathered evidence of the prostitute for being on the street without truly revolting things men and boys say a male escort, which is all too common to women and girls on the street. Then in Afghanistan – she stops and asks him, the recording was delivered to radio and “Why did you say that?” If a man gropes television stations in Kabul to play for their her, which is also not at all unusual, she’ll viewers and listeners. She feels she and say, “What’s your problem? These streets her collaborators have nothing to lose; are mine too. I have the right to walk that speaking up is their best chance for freely in my city.” She wants to make the moving forward. Going to school men stop behaving in a way that she finds Treating girls like second-class citizens in an abandoned ridiculous. “If they harass me physically, is one problem to solve; raping them – building I hit them with my backpack. When I ask which is still a scourge for girls all over the in Kabul, them what they’re trying to do, I feel I am world – is another. Rape has always been Afghanistan. icture s P s ano P ic/ z ana Sle ana L

section 1 : INTRODUCTION 31 a silent crime. The victim doesn’t want of civilian deaths, over 90,000 unsolved to admit what happened to her lest she disappearances, and more than 100,000 be dismissed or rejected. The rest of the cases of sexual violence.3 After the peace world would either prefer to believe rape accord was signed, women became doesn’t happen or stick to the foolish idea more aware of their rights, and some that silence is the best response. political space had opened for them, Today the taboo around talking says Luz Méndez, vice-president of the about sexual violence has been breached. executive board of the National Union Women from Bosnia, Rwanda and the of Guatemalan Women. “Inside the Democratic Republic of Congo have women’s movement, we say the peace blown the whistle about rape camps and accords were a marking line. We had mass rapes and even re-rape, a word more opportunity to speak out, get coined by women in Congo to describe organised to fight for our rights.” But the condition of being raped by members after the war was over, organised crime of one militia and raped again when and narco-traffickers soon moved in. She another swaggers into their says, “Now the bandits attack village. Instead of being women just because they hushed up, cases such are women.” as that of Mukhtar The violence that Mai, the Pakistani the drug traffickers girl who was imported with gang-raped by them altered village men the landscape who wanted to outside the punish her for home, and the walking with old violence ect a boy from an against wives y Eff upper caste, have and daughters ualit made headlines inside the home e Eq

Th around the world. resurfaced as well. att/ b

a And the raping of “Women [and girls]

uie L an unconscious girl by dare not walk on the q

Jac two university students – street today,” Méndez says. football players – in Steubenville, “But, worse, the assaults against Ohio, in the US in 2013 got attention women have spread like a virus to their mostly because some of the media own homes.” reported that the “poor boys who raped her were going to jail and their lives were A watershed moment over”. An outraged public responded What’s needed is a change in attitudes with a conversation that went viral. “If toward girls. One of the most stunning you’re so worried about your high marks examples comes from Kenya, where in and your great ‘rep’ and your football 2011 there was a watershed moment scholarship, don’t go around raping everyone had been waiting for. In the unconscious girls and posting the photos northern city of Meru, 160 girls between on YouTube.” the ages of three and 17 sued the A cautionary tale needs to be told government for failing to protect them about the speed at which the gains from being raped. Their legal action women and girls make can be lost. was crafted by the Equality Effect using In 1996, a peace agreement brought precedents from Canada, another country Guatemala’s 36-year civil war to a close. where women successfully sued the The conflict had caused thousands government for failing to protect them.

32 the state of the world’s girls Everyone from high court judges and the University of Nairobi, says a case magistrates in Kenya to researchers and like this couldn’t have happened even a law school professors in Canada believed few years ago. “I think the timing was these girls would win and that the victory actually quite perfect, particularly in the would set a precedent that would alter the Kenyan context,” Kamau says. “We have status of women in Kenya, and maybe all a new constitution that was enacted in of Africa. August 2010, and in the last half-dozen The suit was the brainchild of Fiona years we have had some very progressive Sampson, winner of the New York Bar laws passed in our country. Five years Association 2014 Award for Distinction ago it would have been difficult to bring in International Law. She is the CEO everybody together, but the timing now of the Equality Effect, a non-profit I believe is right. There’s also a lot more organisation that uses international awareness among African women about human rights law to improve the lives of their rights, and they have the feeling, the girls and women. When Fiona Sampson sense that they need to change. We can met Mercy Chidi, the director of a non- harness these energies.” governmental organisation called The It’s a four-hour drive from Nairobi Ripples International Brenda Boone Hope to Meru (population 1 million) and the Shelter (which is known locally in Meru shelter where the Kenyan girls are staying. as ‘Tumaini’, the Swahili word for hope) We drive through the action was crafted. When Mercy told banana farms and tea What’s needed is a change her about the shelter and about the girls plantations, past dark who can’t go home because the men who umbrella-like acacia in attitudes toward girls. raped them are still at large, they both trees, inhaling the dry One of the most stunning knew it was time to tackle the root of the scent of the savannah. problem – the impunity of rapists and Bleating goats and signs examples comes from Kenya, the failure of the justice system to convict declaring ‘Jesus Saves’ where in 2011 there was a them. dot the landscape. The Kenya has laws on its books designed rutted red dirt road watershed moment to protect girls from rape, or ‘defilement’. into the Ripples International Shelter is So the lawyers for the Equality Effect shaded by a canopy of lush trees that offer claimed, “The state is responsible for the refuge from the heat of the equatorial police and the way police enforce existing sun. Hedges of purple azalea and yellow laws. Since the police in Kenya failed to hibiscus camouflage the fence that keeps arrest the perpetrators and fail on an intruders away from this bucolic place that ongoing basis to provide the protection is a refuge for the 160 girls who are poised girls need, we are filing notice that the to cut off the head of the snake that is state is responsible for the breakdown in sexual assault. the system.” Sampson said at the time, I’d been briefed by the Equality “We will argue that the failure to protect Effect team in Nairobi about what to the girls from rape is actually a human expect when I meet the girls whose rights violation, that it’s a violation of cases have been selected for the lawsuit. the equality provisions of the Kenyan The first one I’m introduced to is Emily. constitution. It’s the Kenyan state that The size of the child takes my breath signed on to international, regional and away. Emily is barely four and a half domestic equality provisions and it’s feet tall, her tiny shoulders scarcely 12 therefore their obligation to protect the inches across. But when she sits down girls. Only the state can provide the to tell her story, her husky 11-year-old remedies we’re looking for, which is the voice is charged with determination. safety and security of the girls.” “My grandfather asked me to fetch Winnie Kamau, a law professor at the torch,” she explains. But when she

section 1 : INTRODUCTION 33 brought it to him, it wasn’t a flash-light suicide when she heard about Ripples and he wanted. “He took me by force and came to their Tumaini Centre. warned me not to scream or he would In Kenya, a girl child is raped every cut me up.” Along with thousands of 30 minutes, some as young as three men in Kenya and, indeed, throughout months old. If a girl doesn’t die of her sub-Saharan Africa, Emily’s grandfather injuries, she faces abandonment; families believes that having sex with a girl child don’t want anything to do with girls will cure HIV/AIDS, a belief that led who have been sexually assaulted. She him to rape his own granddaughter, almost certainly loses the chance to get presumably to heal himself. What’s more, an education. Some can’t go to school men believe that the younger the child any more because they’ve been raped is, the stronger the cure will be. Now she by the teacher. Others are prohibited by is taking the old man to the high court the stigma; the girls are doubly victimised in Nairobi. Even Emily knows the case by being ostracised. They may be HIV- is likely to be history making. This little positive as a result of rape, so their health kid, along with the other 159 plaintiffs, is compromised. Urinary tract infections knows that they may be the ones who and sexually transmitted diseases plague strengthen the status of women and girls them. Without an education, with poor not only in Kenya but in all of Africa. health and no means of financial support, “These men will learn they cannot do the girls drift into poverty. Their childhood this to small girls,” says Emily, who, like the is over and they become the face the other girls I met, balances the victim label world expects of Africa – poor, unhealthy with the newfound empowerment that and destitute. has come to her from the decision to sue. Charity is also 11 and her sister Susan ‘The shame isn’t ours, it’s yours’ only six. Their mother is dead. Their father Twenty-five per cent of Kenyan girls raped them – first Charity, then Susan – aged 12 to 24 lose their virginity due to after they came home from school one rape. An estimated day during the winter months. Charity 70 per cent never “It was suggested half a dozen says, “I want my father to go to the jail.” report it to the Her sister is so traumatised that she won’t authorities, and years ago that the police create leave Charity’s side and only eats, sleeps only one-third of a gender desk where a female and speaks when Charity tells her it’s okay the reported cases to do so. Perpetual Kimanze, who takes wind up in court.4 would be safe in reporting care of these girls and coordinates their If the prosecutor the crime, but invariably the counselling and therapy, keeps a close eye can prove that a on Susan when the little girl begins to talk girl was under the gender desk isn’t staffed and is to me in a barely audible voice, uttering age of 15 when covered with dust” each word with an agonising pause she was assaulted, between, and says, “My … father … put the rapist’s sentence is life in prison. But … his … penis … between … my … legs there’s the rub. The laws are not enforced, … and … he … hurt … me.” and rape is on the rise. If the girl goes Doreen, 15, has a four-month-old to the police, she risks being re-raped or baby as a result of being raped by her humiliated. More than 90 per cent know cousin. Her mother is mentally ill. Her their assailant – fathers, grandfathers, father left them years ago, and they had uncles, teachers, priests – the very people moved in with her mother’s sister. When assigned the task of keeping vulnerable she realised she was pregnant, her aunt children safe.5 And raping little girls as a told her to have an abortion; when her way of cleansing themselves from HIV/ uncle found out, he beat her and threw AIDS isn’t the only reason they act. Says her out of the house. She was considering Hedaya Atupelye, a social worker I met

34 the state of the world’s girls ect y Eff ualit e Eq Th att/ b a uie L q Jac at the shelter run by the Women’s Rights gender desk isn’t staffed and is covered Awareness Program in Nairobi, “Men with dust,” Mercy Chidi says. “One of think having sex with a little girl is a the challenges is that our culture doesn’t sign of being wealthy and stylish. Some allow us to speak out about sexual things. of these men are educated beyond the My only advice from my mother when graduate level, but they want to be the I got my period was: ‘Don’t play with firstto break the flower so they seek out boys; you’ll get pregnant.’ My own uncle young girls.” tried to rape me, and to this day I have If it’s the breadwinner who’s guilty, not told my mother. We have to break the family will go hungry if he’s sent to this silence.” jail, so even a child’s mother will choose to When the girls arrive at the shelter, remain silent. “No one wants to associate she says, they are severely traumatised and with one who’s been raped or who’s lived don’t want to talk to anyone. Some are in a shelter,” says Kimanze. “We need to frightened, others aggressive. They tend to stand up and say the shame isn’t ours, it’s pick on one another. And as much as they yours.” come around and begin to heal, Mercy “If a girl or, for that matter, a says that they never completely overcome woman,” says Hedaya, “goes to the police the trauma. “It’s like tearing a paper into on her own she is usually ridiculed and many pieces. No matter how carefully you harassed.” try to put the pieces together again, the “It was suggested half a dozen years paper will never be the same.” One little ago that the police create a gender girl at the shelter begins to cry every night desk where a female would be safe in when it starts to get dark and the curtains reporting the crime, but invariably the are drawn.

section 1 : INTRODUCTION 35 “It’s the hour when her father used to women. It governs the laws that deliver come and rape her,” Chidi says. that protection. The lawyers decided to When I visited the Tumaini Centre argue that the state failed to execute the there were 11 girls in residence. One of constitutional rights of the girls. Then them, a 15-year-old called Luckline, had they set their sights on a court date. The been raped by a neighbour. She was 39 journey they were on together was about weeks pregnant when we met. When she girls who dared to break the taboo on talked about what happened to her, she speaking out about sexual assault. It was didn’t sound like a victim. She sounded about women lawyers from two sides of like a girl who wanted to get even, to the world supporting these youngsters make a change. She said, “This happened in their quest for justice. And about the to me on 13 May 2010. I will make sure young women who were told they had this never happens to my sister.” When I no rights but insisted that they do. It was asked what she would do after the baby the push-back reaction that every woman was born, she said she wanted to return and girl in the world has been waiting to school because she planned to become for. “This case is the beginning,” said a poet. With little prompting, she read me Chidi. “It’ll be a long journey but now it one of her poems: has begun.” The feeling as they prepared to go to court was that if they won the Here I come victory would be a success for every Walking down through history to girl and woman in eternity Africa, maybe even The process of change is From paradise to the city of goods the world. usually daring, certainly time- Victorious, glorious, serious and pious Elegant, full of grace and truth The hot winds of consuming, invariably costly, change The centrepiece and the masterpiece of and occasionally heartbreaking literature On 11 October Glowing, growing and flowing 2012, when the but eventually an exercise so Here, there, everywhere case went to rewarding that it becomes the Cheering millions every day court in Meru, the The book of books that I am. lawyers marched stuff of legends through the streets This from a teenager who is disadvantaged from the shelter where the girls had been in every imaginable way. Yet she was staying to the court house. The girls preparing to sue her government for wanted to march as well but were told failing to protect her. This is how change their identity needed to be protected happens. But it takes commitment and and they must stay back at the shelter. colossal personal strength for a girl to Nothing doing, they said. They marched tackle the status quo and claim a better beside their advocates to the courthouse future for herself. chanting “Haki yangu”, the Ki-Swahili Back in Nairobi I sat in on the words for “I demand my rights”. With all meeting that the team of lawyers was the hullaballoo on the street, the police holding in a hotel across town. For five at the court panicked and slammed the long days, they argued over how best gates shut as the girls approached. But to make the case. There were three nothing would stop them now. They choices: a civil claim, a criminal claim or a climbed onto the fence, still calling “Haki constitutional claim. Finally they decided yangu” and then they looked at each that a constitutional challenge was the other and started to laugh at the reversal way to go. The Kenyan constitution in roles being played out in front of guarantees equality rights for citizens. them. “Look,” they called to each other. It promises protection for men and “These men who hurt us and made us

36 the state of the world’s girls ashamed are scared of us now.” Soon Confronting the realities in the lives enough the gates were opened and the of girls is the single best way to begin the girls and their lawyers entered the court long, sure process of change, even when to begin the proceedings that could alter that confrontation means attacking old their future. shibboleths: stay at home, everyone is There was something deliciously watching; you are the source of the family serendipitous about the power going off in honour. Girls know the size of the change northern Kenya seven months later, on 28 they have to make and believe that it’s the May 2013, just as Judge J A Makau read young people who will do it. Two young his much-anticipated decision about this Afghan girls offered this illustration: if a case that put rape in a glaring spotlight, a girl asks her grandfather about marching case that could alter the status of women against street harassment, he’ll say, and girls in Kenya and maybe all of Africa. “Don’t do it, you’ll bring shame on the When the lights came on, the judge in family.” If she asks her father, he’ll say the high court in Meru stated: “By failing the same and add, “Stay at home, the to enforce existing defilement [rape] street is too dangerous for you.” But if laws, the police have contributed to the she asks her sister, she’ll want to know development of a culture of tolerance where and when the march is taking for pervasive sexual violence against girl place and join in. children and impunity.” Similar initiatives are happening in Guilty. Senegal and Swaziland, in India and The earth shifted under the rights Pakistan as well as the Americas. The girls of girls and women that day; the girls I spoke with all over the world confirm secured access to justice for themselves that the firststep is acknowledging their and legal protection from rape for all 10 plight, and the next step will take them million girls in Kenya. into a better future. They believe in Within 48 hours of the court decision, their hearts what experts such as Jeffrey Fiona Sampson had heard from half a Sachs and Farida Shaheed have recently dozen other countries that want the same stated: educating and empowering girls action. But the win is only as good as and women is the ticket to an improved the justice each girl gets. Without due economy, reduced poverty and a cut process, the supporters knew they would in conflict. The process of change is not have won anything. So the Equality usually daring, certainly time-consuming, Effect rolled out the next step. Presently invariably costly, and occasionally the police force is being retrained, the heartbreaking but eventually an exercise entire judiciary is reviewing the role each so rewarding that it becomes the stuff of one plays in justice and a public-awareness legends. But like all movements and most campaign is being prepared. periods of change, there are invariably The confounding aspect of rape is false starts and setbacks. Change is that it punishes women twice. First they fuelled by anger and disappointment, as suffer the physical abuse and then the well as inspiration and patience. What never-ending memory and shame, which is happening today is the culmination threaten and retreat like tidal surges of all the waves of women’s efforts that throughout the rest of their lives. Justice went before. Once change like this can only come from acknowledgement begins in earnest, once it has lifted off, and the conviction of the perpetrator. the momentum picks up and it becomes That’s what the girls in Kenya were unstoppable. One of the girls I talked to counting on. And when the judge vindicated said: “We are the generation of change. them in May 2013, magistrates from around We have the power and a new viewpoint the world were buffeted by the hot winds of and we’re going to change the world – change that blew out of Africa. watch us.”

section 1 : INTRODUCTION 37 Girls speak out: finding some answers If I had the power…

NICARAGUA “Disclose laws and explain to each woman and girl their right to not be abused.” “Organise a group where they can share these kinds of experiences and report to stop abuse against girls and women.” “To promote ‘breaking the silence’ with the help of the police and trained authorities.” “I think the government and community leaders should create places where information and protection can be given to those who are being abused.” “Teach boys since they are little kids to respect women, so when they grow up they do not become violent.”

ECUADOR “If I had the power to do it, I’d improve safety, make the police patrol the neighbourhoods 24 hours a day and put an officer in post to receive reports of abuse and violence against teenagers.” “I would implement more police officers and that the government place more street lighting.”

“Talk with parents and government

auer to protect girls more.” ettina b b “Strengthen bonds in the neighbourhood and in the community to protect each other and prevent violence.” plan international/ plan

38 thethe statestate ofof thethe world’sworld’s girlsgirls The voices that came through in our four-country study of girls and young women in Nicaragua, Ecuador, Zimbabwe and Pakistan had, despite the differences in context, a lot in common. When asked to think about solutions to the challenges many girls face – early marriage, early pregnancy, violence – key themes emerged everywhere: education, communication, information, supportive families, communities and governments, and empowered girls. These quotations are a synthesis of girls’ voices addressing the issues that affect their lives.

PAKISTAN “Steps should be taken by the government to punish them and girls should be trained in self-defence and they should be given confidence.” “People of the area should arrange a security system and responsible women should be the head of such an organisation.”

ZIMBABWE “I would encourage girls to report to police if they face abuse or violence. Every girl should have a mentor or someone they feel comfortable talking to. I will make sure that there are longer prison sentences to those who abuse girls.” “Girls must have open lines of communication to feel free to report matters of abuse and actually see progress, like the perpetrators being arrested, as this would give them some form of solace. The victim-friendly departments at the police stations should have more women, as victims find it hard to express their feelings to men.” “Campaigns, especially to men – to show them the importance of women so that abuse does not occur.” “Setting up safe places and groups where girls and women can share information and experiences related to violence and abuse.”

section 1 : INTRODUCTION 39 The invisible work force by Katrine Marçal

Katrine Marçal is a vocal commentator on the new economic movement called ‘virtuous banking’1 and the lead m

trö editorial writer for Swedish newspaper s Aftonbladet, where she writes articles ena Ah l ena

L on international politics, economics and feminism . On publication in Sweden, A nna- Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner? was shortlisted for the August Prize and won the Lagercrantzen Award . She lives in London .

nvest in girls and growth will that each additional year of Itake off – this has become a schooling boosts long-term bit of a mantra in the last couple growth by 0.58 percentage of years. Most international points per year.3 Most organisations today, from the UN analysts agree that economic to the IMF, pen beautiful press returns on girls’ education releases about how women are in developing countries are the key to economic development. substantial. In most cases they Girls can fix the global exceed those observed in richer economy, we hear, and the countries and those of boys.4 experts have numbers to prove it. International organisations Investing in girls so that and NGOs repeat these they complete the next level of stark figures in the hope education would lead to lifetime that it will lead policy earnings that are equivalent to makers to reconsider up to 68 per cent of annual the current GDP, a study by The World underinvestment Bank has found.2 Other in girls. economists have estimated i m Meeri Koutanie Meeri

40 thethe statestate ofof thethe world’sworld’s girlsgirls section 2 : girls in THE global ECONOMY

Refugee camp, Niger.

section 2 : girls in the global economy 41 In developing countries, consequences for women and girls. economic development would girls make up approximately The feminist economist be boosted. All her current half the youth population, but Marilyn Waring famously looked work hours are, however, done they contribute less than their at the unpaid labour carried within the informal economy potential to the economy. Child out by a young woman in the and therefore not part of these marriage, early pregnancy and Lowveld in Zimbabwe. calculations. school leaving prevent them, as The girl wakes up at 4am to But does that mean that they does the perception that girls carry a bucket 11 kilometres to don’t matter? have limited economic value the well and back. Three hours To understand why compared to boys. Food is later, she has returned home economists think this way we often given to boys before it is with the water. Still barefoot. need to start from the beginning. given to girls. The same is true Collecting wood, washing How do you get your dinner? for healthcare and, especially, dishes, cooking lunch, doing the That’s the fundamental question education. dishes again and then out to of economics. It seems simple, Societies that don’t invest get vegetables. Fetching water but it is extremely complicated. in girls pay a price for it in terms In 1776 Adam Smith, the of slower growth and reduced father of economics, wrote the income. Yes, girls might be able words that shaped our modern to rescue the world economy understanding of economics: and boost growth if we give “It is not from the them the opportunities. benevolence of the butcher, However, the economic the brewer or the baker story that these figures that we expect our are often used to tell dinner, but from their in the media, the story regard to their own of girls as an untapped interest.” economic resource in Smith’s idea was the world, is not the that the butcher works s whole truth. in order to have satisfied icture

P customers and, therefore, s

ano Neither about girls. money. Not to be nice. The P / Nor about the global baker bakes and the brewer an s m economy. brews not because they want $ $ $ to make people happy but to

Dieter T ele Dieter Economists sometimes joke that turn a profit. If the bread and the if a man marries his housekeeper, Rajasthan, India. beer are good, people will buy the GDP of the country declines. them. That is why bakers and If, on the other hand, he sends a second time, dinner, younger brewers produce their goods. Not his mother to an old-age home, siblings needing to be tucked because they actually care that it increases again. In addition to in and the workday is over at people get good bread and tasty the joke saying a lot about the nine. However, all this work she beer. perception of gender roles among does is not counted as something That’s not the driving force. economists, it also shows how that contributes to growth. It is The driving force is self- the same kind of work can be actually not counted as work at interest. counted or not counted as part of all. During all these hours the girl This is still the starting GDP. Work done within the home is considered unproductive and point of standard economic is not counted as contributing to economically inactive. theories. When we speak the growth of an economy; only If she were to get a paid colloquially about “thinking like work done outside of it is. This job instead, her efforts would an economist”, this is what we economic assumption may seem suddenly matter. They would mean: people do what they do harmless but actually has severe be part of GDP and growth and because it benefits them.

42 the state of the world’s girls ‘The invisible hand’ is The 11-year-old girl is largely made up of girls and the best-known expression in women. economics. Adam Smith coined who walks 15 kilometres $ $ $ the term, but it’s the economists every morning to gather A woman in our world spends since him who popularised just over two-thirds of her it. The invisible hand touches wood for her family working day on unpaid work. everything, guides everything, is plays a big part in her The equivalent statistic for men in everything, decides everything is one quarter.7 In developing – but you can neither see nor country’s ability to develop countries with large agricultural feel it. It doesn’t intervene from economically. If we don’t sectors, the difference is even above, outside, point and move greater. In Nepal, women work things around. It arises in and acknowledge her work, 21 hours more each week than 8 between the actions and choices our whole understanding men. In India, around 12. In of individuals. It is the hand that parts of Asia and Africa, where drives the system – from within. of what creates economic men often migrate to the cities, The idea of the invisible development is at risk of women are left behind. They hand is that if everyone just acts have no support from men or from their self-interest it will being wrong from the state, but still they have automatically lead to what’s best to manage the triple burden for the economy, as if we were all morning to gather wood for of a career, housework and “guided by an invisible hand”. her family plays a big part in agricultural work. But the invisible hand is not her country’s ability to develop The global economic crisis alone. economically. If we don’t led governments to borrow Adam Smith never married. acknowledge her work, our extensively to support the The father of economics lived whole understanding of what financial sector; this, together with his mother for most of his creates economic development is with the fall in GDP and life. She tended to the house and at risk of being wrong. increased unemployment, created a cousin handled Adam Smith’s The French author and large deficits. The political choice finances. When Adam Smith was feminist Simone de Beauvoir made by many governments in appointed as a commissioner of described woman as “the second response to this became austerity customs in Edinburgh, his mother sex”. It’s the man who comes measures. moved with him. Her entire life, first. It’s the man who counts. However, cutting spending she took care of her son, and she He defines the world and woman means cutting public-sector jobs, is the part of the answer to the is ‘the other’, everything he is and the public sector is where question of how we get our dinner not but also that which he is lots of the care work in a modern that Adam Smith omits. dependent on so he can be who society takes place. For the butcher, the baker he is. It’s also, to a large extent, a and the brewer to be able to go In the same way that there female sector of the economy. to work, at the time Adam Smith is a ‘second sex’, there is a The problem with cutting was writing, their wives, mothers ‘second economy’. The work care jobs in order to balance the or sisters had to spend hour after that is traditionally carried out budget is that the numbers of hour, day after day minding the by men is what counts. Women’s elderly who need to be fed and children, cleaning the house, work is ‘the other’. Everything turned and have their hands cooking the food, washing that he doesn’t do but that he is held won’t change. Austerity the clothes, drying tears and dependent on so he can do what measures don’t just mean that squabbling with the neighbours. he does. women will lose their jobs; it However you look at the market, The economy isn’t just built also means that fewer nursing it is always built on another with an invisible hand’, it is also assistants will have to do the economy. built with an ‘invisible heart’.5 same amount of work. The 11-year-old girl who And in the global economy Their backs and joints might walks 15 kilometres every this all-important ‘invisible heart’6 not be able to hold out.

section 2 : girls in the global economy 43 In that sense, austerity means Girls and women are not It is telling that many of the a shifting of costs from the first nurses were nuns who had government onto women’s bodies. an untapped economic sworn an oath of poverty. This Canada’s national statistical resource in the world; logic remains with us today. agency tried to measure the Professional nurses, carers value of unpaid work: between their work is the invisible and child minders are simply 30.6 and 41.4 per cent of the structure that keeps extending their natural family GDP, they concluded.9 The first role as nurturers, we still believe number is calculated on the basis societies and economies on some level. Therefore they of how much it would cost to together do not need to be paid very well replace unpaid work with paid. for doing it. It’s not a real job; The other is based on how much at least, not in the same way as a person would earn if they were care is not valued, it is either many men’s jobs, we think. earning a wage while they were badly paid or not paid at all. “Anyone can do it.” doing housework. It is not possible to close At least, any woman. Whatever the method – the the gender pay gap between The working hours of sum is enormous. men and women without doing domestic labourers around the In Britain, just the value of something about the devaluation world are therefore among the unpaid childcare is more than of care work. Highly paid women longest, most precarious and three times that of the financial in developed economies like most unpredictable of any jobs sector!10 Britain start to lose out financially on the labour market. Many Housework is neither more compared to their male women in this sector aren’t nor less difficult to measure than colleagues the minute they have allowed to leave the house much of what we include in GDP. children and take on these care without permission, according We take great pains to measure responsibilities. to a study conducted by Human the value of the food a farmer Low-paid women, on the Rights Watch. produces on his land but doesn’t other hand, earn less than Verbal, physical and sexual take to market. With housework, low-paid men because they to harassment is common, but we don’t make the same effort. a larger extent work in the care seldom reported. Moreover, Women’s work is a natural sector, where wages are very low. such a worker is often in the resource that we don’t think we Whether women work in country illegally and afraid of need to account for. the care sector because the being deported. She worries Because we assume it will wages are low or whether wages almost all the time, mostly about always be there. are low because women work her children on the other side A big reason for the there is a question that can’t be of the planet. In some cases the economic inequality between answered, but the devaluation of domestic worker is herself a child. men and women today is that care is one of the main reasons Some 17.2 million children are women to a much greater extent why women earn less than men in paid or unpaid domestic work work with care. Whether it’s the in the world today. in the home of a third party or girl in the poor African economy Traditionally, care has been employer.11 who has to look after her siblings conducted in the home. Based According to the ILO, 67.1 during the day and is therefore on empathy, love and nurturing, per cent of all child domestic taken out of school by her it was and still is often seen as a workers are girls.12 parents, or the British woman complement to the harsh male This is one side of the who is being paid the minimum world of market competition equation. wage on a zero-hour contract to and money. Care was something The other is that a Filipina work in elderly care. women did out of love and housekeeper in Hong Kong earns The pattern is the same: because they simply were female. as much money as a male doctor Somebody has to do the care It was their gentle nature in action, in the rural Philippines. Foreign work in an economy, otherwise we assumed. It had nothing to do nannies working in Italy have nothing else works; but because with money, the story went. a salary that’s between seven

44 the state of the world’s girls and 15 times higher than what However, they can also be But was this increase accurate? they could earn in their home problematic in the sense that Because no one had bothered countries. they don’t tend to acknowledge to quantify housework, we might The money that female the contribution to the economy have overvalued the actual migrants send home contributes that girls and women are already increase of wealth. The calculations more to the economy of many making. we make today about how much countries than aid and foreign Every society must in some wealth would increase if more investments combined. In the way create a structure for how to women in developing economies Philippines, remittances account care for other people; otherwise, took up paid work might be wrong for almost 10 per cent of the neither the economy nor anything for the same reason. GDP.13 else will work. Without care, We need a new economic These global ‘care chains’ children can’t grow and the sick story. One that stresses the need of largely female migrants that won’t get healthy. Being cared for for change without ignoring the stretch around our world are by others is the medium through economic contributions women a massive part of the global which we learn cooperation, and girls make today. economy, but we very seldom empathy, respect, self-discipline Girls and women are not an acknowledge their significance. and thoughtfulness. untapped economic resource $ $ $ These are fundamental life in the world; their work is the All the calculations about how skills. invisible structure that keeps much growth would go up if When married women in the societies and economies together. women and girls had the same West entered the workforce, they But they haven’t freely opportunities as men to work started to devote more time to chosen this role. And they are in the formal economy are the kind of work that is counted not being paid, compensated or important. They show us that (working outside the home) and acknowledged for it. gender equality is not just a less time to the kind of work This needs to change. question of fairness but also that isn’t (domestic work). This something that everyone could dramatically increased the GDP in Katrine Marçal is the author of Who benefit from. the Western world. Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner?: A Story About Women and Economics Mali. published by Portobello Books. s icture P s ano P i Vitale/ i Am

section 2 : girls in the global economy 45 Creating a t d i hm on Sc s on brighter future Ja by Indra Nooyi

Indra Nooyi is the Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo . Raised in India, she learned first-hand the important role that a supportive family and access to education can play in increasing opportunity for young girls .

“The truth is that somewhere in a small “I come at this as a daughter, a mother, a sister, town in Asia… or a remote outpost in South America… or a dusty village in a concerned citizen, and as the CEO of a global Africa, a young girl is bursting with talent corporation. The financial success of businesses and drive… and dreams . It’s up to all of us as global citizens to help her find a all over the world depends on the economic way to make those dreams come true ”. success of the communities where we work. Indra Nooyi, speaking at the 2012 launch of Plan International’s Because I am a Girl And we need the talent and insights of girls Campaign for girls’ education today to lead our businesses tomorrow. That’s

ll around the world, there are more why expanding educational opportunities for Agirls and young women than ever girls isn’t charity. It’s a smart investment in a before breaking barriers and leading the 1 way towards a better future. Yet at the stronger global economy and in our future.” same time, it’s undeniable there is much more work to be done if we are to achieve my sister and me to dream big and the world we all wish to see – one in fostered opportunities for us to pursue which every girl and young woman has those dreams. Yet not all families have this the chance to reach her full potential. luxury. Young girls around the world face Access to education is a key piece of unique challenges and are often born into the equation. So, too, is clearing the many difficult circumstances. Too often, their hurdles that prevent many young women futures are sacrificed for the needs of the from pursuing a career. present or, worse, fall victim to prejudice Growing up in India, I witnessed many and injustice that prevent progress. We all of these hurdles first-hand. I also gained a have a role to play in creating a brighter deep and lasting appreciation for the role future. women play in society, as well as the as Companies must be an important part yet untapped contributions they can make of this effort. in the world. After all, support for girls’ education is My personal journey was rooted in the good for society and for business. Women support of my parents, who encouraged are engines of growth for economies.

46 the state of the world’s girls k ur Blac Om

According to the World Bank, increasing reality unless they are coupled with the India. primary and secondary education raises freedom to attend school day in and day a girl’s eventual income.2 And, according out. And even if a young mother receives to a recent UNESCO report, education a microcredit loan, it will only matter if she narrows the pay gap between men and has the time and opportunity to grow her women and makes it more likely women business. can find work.3 Our daughters’ imaginations should The benefits don’t end there. Women have no bounds, and we cannot rest until also bring diverse perspectives with them they also have the opportunities to pursue to work that broaden ways of thinking their dreams. and enrich companies. That’s why, across our company, we support women through female leadership, talent and support “When one out of every five adolescent girls on programmes. Providing more young girls and this planet is denied an education because her women with the opportunity to family cannot afford her school fees… because determine their own fates requires support and investment from all levels she has been sold into prostitution… because of our society. Families, communities, she is not deemed worthy of the chance to learn businesses, NGOs and governments must all play their part. – when 62 million girls are out of school, we are Because the truth is that, even if not even close to unlocking the potential that young girls have the courage to dream big, 4,5 those dreams have no chance of becoming our young people hold.”

section 2 : girls in the global economy 47 FACT FILE GIRLS IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY: ADDING IT ALL UP

In recent years there “When we has been a marked support girls, international focus on they reward girls as agents of society with enormous economic change. contributions in At the current rate of Investing in girls is no creativity, change it will take compassion and YEAR S longer seen just as In 15 countries, husbands can legally OUN D – yes – girl Globally women’s

R the right thing to do; object to their wives working and Closing the gap in women’s power.”4 average wages are G it’s also the smart prevent them from accepting jobs, labour-force participation in Ban Ki-moon OYMEN T thing to do. 90% of countries have at and in 79 countries, there are laws OECD countries will lead to WEF 2014 24% least one law that restricts to restrict the types of jobs that an average GDP gain of 8for the gender1 pay gap BAC K economic equality for women1 women can do2 12% by 20303 EMP L less than men’s 5 to close completely6

In only In Greece, the “Many girls are unemployment rate for now engaged in young women aged 15-24 is prostitution, with the full knowledge of their parents, 60.4% 98% who remain silent compared with 46.1% 10 because the money for young men they bring home In almost all OECD countries, helps the In Latin America of the estimated girls are more ambitious than COUNTRIES 75% 80% of Bangladeshi garment workers are household.” boys. On average, girls are of women’s female.12 Paid employment can help to Girl, 17, 11% more likely than boys to SURVEYED employment in 17.7% explain declining fertility and increasing age 4.5 MILLION Mozambique, 2010 15 expect to work in high-status are there more, or as developing regions of young women are of marriage, but many are employed in forced into sexual exploitation and 55% of jobs such as legislators, many, women as men in is informal and unemployed, compared to exploitative conditions, work long hours for the estimated 20.9 million victims of senior officials and managers7 these high-status jobs8 unprotected9 11.4% of young men11 very low wages and are denied basic rights13 forced labour are women and girls14

Family poverty has more impact on girls’ According to a 2011 survey, S I survival than boys’: a 1% fall in GDP 11% of children interviewed in increases infant mortality by the UK, 66% in Rwanda and 7.4 deaths per 1.5 deaths per K 74% in India ‘totally agree’ that: 1,000 births for girls 1,000 births for boys16 AL C RI S ‘A woman’s E WO R most important

NANC I role is to take care Cuts in health budgets leave Girls’ enrolment rates in school of her home and

Nearly 40% of people adolescent girls even more D CA R increased by more than 2% in A survey in 16 countries found that

I cook for her agree that when jobs vulnerable during pregnancy. Ghana, 10% in Yemen and 10% of girls aged 5-14 perform A 22 are in short supply, men Globally, maternal mortality is 12% in Pakistan when the household chores for 28 hours or family’ OBAL F I

L have more right to them a leading cause of death for time spent collecting water for more each week, which keeps UN P G 17 18 19,20 21 48 the state of the world’s girls than women 14 to 19-year-olds their family decreased them from studying FACT FILE GIRLS IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY: ADDING IT ALL UP

In recent years there “When we has been a marked support girls, international focus on they reward girls as agents of society with enormous economic change. contributions in At the current rate of Investing in girls is no creativity, change it will take compassion and YEAR S longer seen just as In 15 countries, husbands can legally OUN D – yes – girl Globally women’s

R the right thing to do; object to their wives working and Closing the gap in women’s power.”4 average wages are G it’s also the smart prevent them from accepting jobs, labour-force participation in Ban Ki-moon OYMEN T thing to do. 90% of countries have at and in 79 countries, there are laws OECD countries will lead to WEF 2014 24% least one law that restricts to restrict the types of jobs that an average GDP gain of 8for the gender1 pay gap BAC K economic equality for women1 women can do2 12% by 20303 EMP L less than men’s 5 to close completely6

In only In Greece, the “Many girls are unemployment rate for now engaged in young women aged 15-24 is prostitution, with the full knowledge of their parents, 60.4% 98% who remain silent compared with 46.1% 10 because the money for young men they bring home In almost all OECD countries, helps the In Latin America of the estimated girls are more ambitious than COUNTRIES 75% 80% of Bangladeshi garment workers are household.” boys. On average, girls are of women’s female.12 Paid employment can help to Girl, 17, 11% more likely than boys to SURVEYED employment in 17.7% explain declining fertility and increasing age 4.5 MILLION Mozambique, 2010 15 expect to work in high-status are there more, or as developing regions of young women are of marriage, but many are employed in forced into sexual exploitation and 55% of jobs such as legislators, many, women as men in is informal and unemployed, compared to exploitative conditions, work long hours for the estimated 20.9 million victims of senior officials and managers7 these high-status jobs8 unprotected9 11.4% of young men11 very low wages and are denied basic rights13 forced labour are women and girls14

Family poverty has more impact on girls’ According to a 2011 survey, S I survival than boys’: a 1% fall in GDP 11% of children interviewed in increases infant mortality by the UK, 66% in Rwanda and 7.4 deaths per 1.5 deaths per K 74% in India ‘totally agree’ that: 1,000 births for girls 1,000 births for boys16 AL C RI S ‘A woman’s E WO R most important

NANC I role is to take care Cuts in health budgets leave Girls’ enrolment rates in school of her home and

Nearly 40% of people adolescent girls even more D CA R increased by more than 2% in A survey in 16 countries found that

I cook for her agree that when jobs vulnerable during pregnancy. Ghana, 10% in Yemen and 10% of girls aged 5-14 perform A 22 are in short supply, men Globally, maternal mortality is 12% in Pakistan when the household chores for 28 hours or family’ OBAL F I

L have more right to them a leading cause of death for time spent collecting water for more each week, which keeps UN P G 17 18 19,20 21 than women 14 to 19-year-olds their family decreased them from studying 49 the imperative of educating girls by Julia Gillard

ooking back on the last 15 Lyears since the international community set a bold goal to educate more of the world’s girls, it’s possible to feel a mixture of accomplishment and futility. On the accomplishment side of the ledger, more girls in developing countries are in primary school than ever before, and many countries are moving gradually toward gender parity in education systems. Indeed, in some places, the rise in girls lan international P

50 thethe statestate ofof thethe world’sworld’s girlsgirls section 3 : learning for life

Julia Gillard, the former Prime Minister of Australia, is the Chair of the Board of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) . She is also a distinguished fellow for education at the Brookings Institutions . Between 2010 and 2013, while serving as Prime Minister, she delivered nation-changing policies, including reforming Australia’s education h at every level from early childhood to university education; improving the provision it m and sustainability of healthcare, aged care and dental care; and commencing the nation’s first ever national scheme to care for people with disabilities . Before becoming Prime Minister, Ms Gillard was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education, Marielle S Employment and Workplace Relations and Social Inclusion .

finishing their primary education Senegal. is outpacing that of boys. There are also countless stories of individual triumphs over forces that long kept girls out of school – none more visible and inspiring perhaps than that of Malala Yousafzai, who faced violent Taliban attacks in her native Pakistan, making her the world’s most powerful advocate for girls’ education and winning her the Nobel Peace Prize, all at the remarkable age of 17.

section 3 : learning for life 51 It’s also reassuring that in Start with the stark reality that has diligently documented, Boko the last decade and a half, more we remain far from the finish line Haram has in recent years carried people around the world – from set 25 years ago by the Education out brutal attacks on schools grassroots activists to government for All agenda. While it’s true that and, as the world learned last and NGO leaders – have come 48 per cent of all children in school year, kidnapped young girls in not only to understand but also in developing countries are girls, order to keep them from going speak out for the imperative of the majority of all out-of-school to school.8 Not surprisingly, many educating girls. It’s heartening children (31 million out of 58 parents in the region simply that there are far more voices million) are also girls.6 stopped sending their children, making that case than ever particularly their girls, to school.9 before, through traditional media, Girls face many education Crisis – civil war, natural social media, NGOs, high-profile challenges disasters or epidemic – represents events and government actions. Indeed, women represent nearly one of the biggest impediments two-thirds of the world’s 781 to giving poor girls and boys alike Educating girls is key to million illiterate7; cultural practices the education they deserve. We’ve development that marry off girls early and seen some progress: the Global The logic of girls’ education require them to care for their Partnership for Education works has never been hard to grasp. families instead of going to school with 60 developing countries, Evidence shows that if you are still widespread; in many almost half of which are fragile educate a girl, she will be able countries where the number of and conflict-affected. In these to make better life choices, earn girls completing primary school countries, there were substantially a higher income and contribute is surging, too few are moving more children (68 per cent) who much more to her family and on to lower secondary and completed primary school in 2012 community life than she would secondary school, let alone to than there were in 2000 (55 per without education. higher education. Also, a number cent).10 But the fact remains that We know, for example, that of nations struggle to keep about 82 per cent of all out-of- a child whose mother can read schoolgirls safe from harassment school children in the 60 partner is 50 per cent more likely to live and violence and to recruit enough developing countries of the Global past age five1, that women’s teachers who can provide the Partnership for Education – or education over the past 40 encouragement and peace of mind roughly 33.5 million – today reside years has prevented more than that helps them thrive in school. in such conflict-affected and four million child deaths2, that And let’s not forget that fragile states.11 investing in girls could boost there are terrorist groups, like So, while there has been sub-Saharan Africa’s agricultural Boko Haram in Nigeria or the some good progress, we are far outputs by 25 per cent3, that Taliban in Pakistan, waging from done. As we move ahead, one additional school year can war against the very idea of we must be mindful of several increase a woman’s earnings educating girls. As the Coalition important factors. by up to 20 per cent4 and that Against Attacks on Education increasing the number of women Systems matter with a secondary education by The Education for All movement one per cent can raise a country’s The logic of girls’ education no doubt contributed to a rise annual per-capita economic has never been hard to in awareness about the need for growth by 0.3 per cent.5 giving more children across the Educating girls, in other grasp. If you educate a developing world greater access words, is a virtuous cycle: good girl, she will be able to to quality education. It also for each individual girl, as well spawned more concrete action to as her family, community, nation make better life choices, fulfil that goal. and, ultimately, the world. earn a higher income and But, as we’ve learned at the Still, in spite of undeniably Global Partnership for Education, good news, it’s hard not to feel contribute much more to her all the good will and expense discouraged. family and community life will miss their mark unless

52 the state of the world’s girls they are organised into sound, the elimination of school fees are powerful factors determining comprehensive systems. School so families in need could send whether or not a girl gets construction, teacher training, their daughters to school. As educated. If we’re not taking development of new pedagogical a result, girls’ net enrolment in those other factors into account, approaches are important tools primary education in Yemen rose we can’t possibly meet the goal to improve education systems. significantly, from 42 per cent in of educating all girls. But in isolation and without an 1999 to 81 per cent in 2013.13 Put another way, a girl with overarching plan they will reach It’s reassuring, even if we can’t disabilities from a poor, rural only a limited number of children. yet claim victory. But Yemen’s and ethnically disadvantaged Developing countries need clear commitment has made family has virtually no chance of approaches that are sustainable, the difference. Our hope is that completing primary school, while support the overall system and recent upheaval in the country the picture is more encouraging fit all the various inputs together does not reverse these gains. for girls from a relatively into a coherent whole that can In Afghanistan over the prosperous family in an urban lift all boats over time. last dozen years, we have area. As the Education for All A good education system witnessed what is perhaps the Global Monitoring Report 2013/14 strives for educational excellence most dramatic transformation noted, “If recent trends continue, at all levels and ensures that all anywhere when it comes to girls’ the richest boys will achieve schools, teachers and students education. That’s due in large universal primary completion in meet widely accepted standards. part because post-Taliban Afghan 2021, but the poorest girls will not A system has to be responsive leaders committed to systemic catch up until 2086.”16 and accountable to the public. change and followed through We have to target And it must be built on best on their plans. At 8.3 million, approaches that focus not just on practices and evidence, driven the number of enrolled students girls but also on a complex set of by reliable local data, and, today is more than eight times needs, lest we leave many stuck ultimately, owned and operated what it was in 2001. Almost 40 in poverty. Funding should focus by each country.12 per cent of all students are girls.14 on multiple factors that keep When it comes to educating About 60 per cent of children – usually the hardest to girls, the biggest success stories approximately four million out- reach, such as girls, those living come from those countries that of-school children in Afghanistan in remote areas, and those who have laid out clear, actionable are also girls.15 That’s far too are of marginalised groups or and systemic blueprints to tackle many. But the government disabled – out of school. the issue, usually through a multi- has developed strong and year strategic education plan. It comprehensive girls’ education Equity is the goal starts with a sincere commitment programmes, focused on bringing At their heart, the Millennium and depends on concerted, down the high gender-disparity Development Goals (MDGs) concrete follow-through. rates in remote and insecure aimed to address the human In Yemen, for example, districts. needs of all people around the the Ministry for Education set world. With that foundation now out to get more girls in school, Gender is only one dimension largely in place after nearly 15 particularly in more remote Planning for and simply directing years of extraordinary work, we communities. With co-funding resources at girls is not enough have an opportunity to spend by the Global Partnership and to address the challenge of the next decade and a half on other partners, the Ministry educating them. The reality in achieving true ‘equity’ among all. launched a multi-pronged most developing countries is The Sustainable Development effort that included a training that gender inequality is only Goals that will succeed the MDGs programme to establish a one obstacle of the many girls at the end of 2015 must aspire bigger pool of qualified female face. Poverty, disability, ethnicity, to deliver equity at every level of public-school teachers, a public religion and geography (do they education, carrying forward the information campaign that urged live in rural or urban areas? Are unfinished business of universal more girls to go to school and they near or far from schools?) education, especially for those

section 3 : learning for life 53 icture s P s ano P / d g aar ter Primary school, Uganda. el Os el kk Mi

54 the state of the world’s girls children who are very poor, those Conflict and fragility in their education sector plans living in remote, conflict-affected are major impediments and budgets that are ‘emergency and fragile regions, children with We’ve also got to do better at blind’, setting aside too little disabilities and, of course, girls. ensuring that children – and funding for disaster risk reduction But what does it mean to girls in particular – in conflict and emergency preparedness and “deliver equity at every level of and fragile environments leaving whole societies incapable education”? How will we know don’t lose their once-in-a- of keeping girls and boys in when we’ve reached that point? lifetime opportunity to get the school when crises arise. We’ll know it when every knowledge and skills that lift boy and every girl is able to go to them and their societies out of The world has to step a school for a quality education. poverty and desperation. up to the challenge When there are enough That’s obviously difficult to In spite of the growing school buildings; functioning, achieve in places such as Sierra recognition around the world sustainable education systems; Leone, Liberia and Guinea, where that we need to give more sufficient availability of qualified Ebola has killed thousands and children, especially girls, quality teachers, particularly female threatens more, and in nations like schooling, donor aid to basic teachers, who are important the Democratic Republic of Congo education has dropped by seven for girls to succeed; quality or Somalia, which have been per cent between 2010 and textbooks and other learning ravaged in recent years by civil war. 2013, while overall development materials; and free schools that Clearly, in such contexts, aid increased by more than nine remove financial barriers to public health systems (in the per cent over the same period. getting girls educated. We’ll case of an outbreak like Ebola), That troubling trend occurred know it also when all families or diplomacy and other security even as developing countries and communities see educating interventions (in the case of themselves are putting more of girls as essential to their personal civil war) have to stabilise the their own resources into their development and to the future situation. But one of the first education systems. Indeed, at the wellbeing of their societies. rules of any humanitarian crisis Global Partnership for Education’s Reaching those equity is to ensure that children stay replenishment conference in June goals will require a revolution in school, to provide for their 2014, 27 developing countries in measurement of educational short-term cognitive as well as exceeded all expectations by trends and results, which will emotional needs and ensure their pledging to increase their own hold governments accountable long-term development. education budgets by a collective and help them understand what’s Humanitarian responses are US$26 billion between 2015 working, what’s not and why. often hobbled because education and 2018. So what kind of signal It will involve an improved in emergencies is under-financed. does it send them when wealthier recognition of those with In 2013, the education sector countries back away from limited access to schooling, received only two per cent education? particularly those girls who are of requests made through Ultimately, the shortage hardest to reach or who face the humanitarian funding appeals in of funding and other critical greatest obstacles to going to or 2013.17 In too many crisis zones, resources hurts not only the continuing in school. education is not recognised as a people and societies we would And it will call for ample and humanitarian priority, though it otherwise support, but also strategically allocated financing should be. the wealthy donor countries for education, aimed especially We have to elevate themselves. A world in which girls at those who need it most. Too education in emergencies so – and the women they become – often, for example, donors set a that it receives equal status with reach their full intellectual, social low cost per student as a primary other priorities, and we need to and political potential is a more criterion for funding. That could integrate education as a primary secure, healthier and prosperous leave behind girls, or children component in all humanitarian world. When we reach – or at with disabilities or other specific action plans. Also, countries least approach – that state, we disadvantages. should do away with provisions will all be better off.

section 3 : learning for life 55 ‘What about F

the boys?’ UNICE by Chernor Bah

A leading youth advocate for global education, a girl champion and former refugee from Sierra Leone, Chernor Bah recently became an Associate at the Population Council, leading a collaborative initiative to provide solutions to adolescent girls affected by the Ebola outbreak . He is a Co-Founder of A World at School – and the youth representative on the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Steering Committee for the Global Education First Initiative . As a teenager, he founded and led the Children’s Forum Network, Sierra Leone’s Children’s Parliament . Following the outbreak of Ebola in his country in 2014, Chernor co-founded the Salone Adolescent Girls Network, leading advocacy, relief and programme efforts for affected and marginalised girls . He received the Women’s Refugee Commission’s Voice of Courage Award in 2014 for his global efforts on behalf of children and youth affected by conflict .

s a longtime champion for girls’ rights, I’ll admit that my response is a AI’ve spoken many times and in many bit flippant, designed for effect and places about the importance of giving for shifting the challenge of their more girls around the world the education question back on them. Furthermore, they deserve. No matter how passionate it doesn’t fully address all the very real and convincing I try to be on this point, and difficult issues bound up in the one of the first questions I almost always question “what about the boys?”. What hear is some variation of “what about the is equitable and when and how much boys?” How, they ask, do we ensure boys’ should be invested in boys and men needs aren’t ignored or diminished when when girls bear such disproportionate we make special efforts to educate girls? risks? At what stages should boys be Don’t we risk the progress of boys when included in programmes? Should we we focus disproportionately on girls? In strive for an equal number of men order to bring about better outcomes for and boys in ‘gender equality’? Should girls, don’t we need to change the minds we always include boys in those of boys and men first? programmes? Can we achieve progress Because these questions come up without engaging men and boys, and so often, I now have a standard retort: what is the cost of this engagement? I’ve just spent a lot of time detailing the My ultimate answer is that girls’ structural and systematic exclusion of a empowerment initiatives must keep their largely marginalised and often vulnerable eyes, first and foremost, on girls. In many population. Why, I ask rhetorically, are societies, the obstacles keeping girls out of you still only interested in the empowered school or from realising their full potential group? are far greater than those boys face, and

56 the state of the world’s girls s icture P s ano P d / on mm Liberia. in Ha in b o R

section 3 : learning for life 57 they require a higher level of effort and of moving attitudes and perceptions in a investment. positive direction. Moreover, direct economic, social That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t and health investment in girls doesn’t just make any effort to give boys a quality help girls and women; the evidence is education and all the other building overwhelming and conclusive that, as the blocks of personal development. Indeed, wellbeing of girls and women improves, approximately 27 million (or 47 per cent) boys and men – all of society, really – are of the 58 million primary school-aged better off, too. children out of school today around the During adolescence, the world of girls globe are boys.1 The obstacles keeping typically shrinks, while that of the boys them out of school are: conflict and expands. In order to engage girls socially fragility, poverty, geography, disability, and prepare them economically requires a ethnic or religious discrimination and, higher level of effort and investment that quite simply, lack of local capacity prepares them to face the social, health to educate them. The international and violence risks, as well as the economic community has to continue to address challenges, that they uniquely face. those challenges if we are to achieve the Also, as boys and men see more goal of Education for All. educated girls in their midst, I believe Nor am I suggesting that girls’ they’ll be more likely to abandon education and empowerment programmes their archaic perceptions of women as should not include meaningful engagement inferior and mere sexual objects with no with boys about the importance of meaningful role to play outside the home. educating girls. As I will discuss, that is an Only as we create, so to speak, ‘facts essential part of the process. on the ground’ – that is to say, real and But, in a world of finite resources, tangible change – will we have any chance we have to spend more on educating Sierra Leone. ea d R k lan international/Mar lan P

58 the state of the world’s girls girls and building their skills, especially in And because she was a teacher adolescence, when girls are faced with with a little bit of education herself, and far greater social, health and economic despite many challenges (including at risks. We have to account first for that one point, fleeing the country for our imbalance. When we focus resources lives, as refugees), she understood the directly on girls’ empowerment, beginning power of learning. That makes me one with the poorest girls, boys and the rest of the lucky ones. Without my mother’s of society benefit. Whereas ‘trickle down’ understanding of the value of education, doesn’t work, ‘trickle up and out’ often I would not have gotten does. the education I did and Moreover, we have to prioritise would not be where I was lucky not just to have which girls we should focus on most. I am today. It’s one an enlightened mother; I Knowing, even among girls, there are small example of how distinct and critical differences based on educating a woman has was fortunate also to be a economic status, health and disability, multiple ripple effects boy. My two sisters faced ethnicity, religion and geography, girls’ for her family and the education efforts must focus on the most community around her. challenges I never did: marginalised, not just the middle and But I was lucky threats of sexual violence, upper class. We have to be conscious not just to have an and supportive of the girls who need the enlightened mother; I men coming into contact most and who often are invisible within was fortunate also to be with them and, even when their communities and to the managers a boy. My two sisters of empowerment programmes. For all faced challenges I never the girls were fairly young, these reasons, they require a much more did: threats of sexual asking them to marry them targeted approach. violence, men coming into contact with them and, even when First-hand experience the girls were fairly young, asking them to How did I, a young male, born and raised marry them. As we got older, there were in a fairly conservative country, get so signals from many directions suggesting interested and passionate about girls’ that their lives seemed to matter less, empowerment? That’s another common even though I was always convinced they question that I am often asked, directly were smarter than me. In retrospect, I can or otherwise. In short, it grew out of two now see what happened: society spent sources: my own personal story and the so much time telling them, and girls like facts. them, that there were higher expectations I was raised in Sierra Leone by a for me only because I was a boy. single mom alongside two sisters in what The odds were, and are, stacked is one of the worst places in the world to against them. be a girl. My mother separated from my In Sierra Leone, about 90 per cent father when I was young and has since of girls are subjected to female genital then worked as a primary-school teacher. mutilation (or FGM), one of the highest She is educated. But the pay for a teacher rates in the world.2 Only 36 per cent like her was – and still is – paltry. Highly of women in Sierra Leone are literate, aware of the circumstances for women compared with 52 per cent of men.3 in Sierra Leone, she had to work hard One in six girls are married off by 15 and use all her energy and ingenuity to and almost half are married by the time make ends meet. So, to supplement her they are 18.4 It’s illegal but, with little low teachers’ pay, she sold everything – enforcement of those laws, widespread. bread, cake, palm oil – whatever she (with Two out of 10 women aged 20 to 49 my sisters’ and my help) could create with report having their first sexual intercourse her own hands. before they are 15 years old, rising to

section 3 : learning for life 59 seven out of 10 by 18.5 Over their lifetime, human rights. We were raising our voices if present patterns continue, 75 per cent and created a platform to talk about girls’ of all adolescent girls in Sierra Leone will rights. We still took a lot of flak from be a single mother at some point and friends and some relatives, who didn’t that figure in Liberia is over 90 per cent.6 understand what we were doing and Much of the single motherhood arises accused us of being too influenced by the from having babies before marriage, very West or of lacking a grasp of reality. unstable marriages, and the absence of I wish I could say that, over the last male social and economic support. decade since we fought for girls’ rights in Fitting into that pattern, many girls Sierra Leone, we dramatically transformed I knew in my community who dropped how men there view educating and out of school were subjected to FGM and empowering girls. The truth is that, while were forced into early marriages. As these there has been some change, it has been girls reached puberty, their social space much less than we would have hoped. It’s narrowed as boys’ expanded. It didn’t still a work in progress. matter that so many of the girls were And that is not limited to Sierra smart and showed lots of potential, more Leone. There are far too many places than a lot of the boys. It also didn’t seem around the world where it is difficult to to matter that the children of uneducated be a girl. My own personal or poorly educated women were most story is emblematic of what I believe girls’ education likely to be caught in a continuous is happening elsewhere. downward spiral of poverty, ill health and Approximately 15 million is the global civil rights other challenges. girls worldwide are forced issue of our time The more I saw this pattern, the more into marriage every year and I sensed something was not right. Our in 27 countries there are large districts society not only treated girls badly, it then where at least 15 per cent of girls are blamed them for their plight, saying they married before age 15.7,8 According to weren’t smart or hard-working enough the International Center for Research to learn. And when they were sexually on Woman, one-third of girls in the abused, it was somehow their fault. That, developing world are married before the at least, was how many men, and the age of 18, and one in nine are married boys these men influenced, saw it. before the age of 15.9 UNESCO data In my mid-teens, I befriended a shows that “nearly 17 per cent of the small group of other boys who talked world’s adult population is still not literate; about education, and who all knew two-thirds of them are women.”10 Those that improving the odds for girls to get empirical numbers confirm what I’ve seen schooling was important – not only anecdotally from my experiences across to those girls but to us, too. When we the continent and what I’ve read about. were between 15 and 18, we started a campaign, through the Children’s Forum Engaging boys Network, that helped change the laws to I have personally designed and deal with child marriage, codify sexual implemented programmes in several violence laws in the country and ensure African nations aimed at encouraging compulsory primary education for girls. boys to understand the value of girls’ I was the first child to testify about this education, so I’m certainly not against to the national Truth Commission, and I spending some of the valuable girls’ collected similar testimonies from others. education resources on boys. One of our recommendations was to pass In Ethiopia, for example, I helped the Child Rights Act, which was finally lead an innovative initiative, supported enacted in 2007. by Girl Hub, called YEGNA (which means We were motivated by justice and ‘ours’ in Amharic) aimed at inspiring girls

60 the state of the world’s girls to believe in themselves and to change make it easier for boys, who essentially boys’ and society’s minds about the value become positive deviants, to have their of girls in society. We created clubs, radio behaviour approved by their peers. dramas, talk shows and a documentary These approaches also have to answer on the topic. Those are useful and can the question: what’s in it for the boys? work when paired with a more targeted, They have to show that ending poverty girl-centric programmatic approach. We benefits us all and eases the burden men worked with local groups and, in some may feel they have to provide solely cases, religious institutions to get their for their families. As Plan International help spreading the gospel, if you will, of has pointed out, educating girls has girls’ education. enormous economic, health and social The medium of engagement matters. benefits across a society, which shows I worked with a group of boys in Ethiopia up in decreased under-five mortality, who told me they cared about equality greater agricultural productivity, improved issues but would feel emasculated if they nutrition, increases in per-capita income were seen as promoting girls’ issues. and GDP growth, lower fertility rates, and Creating the right platforms and the much more.11 right messages reinforces incentives for And there are civil society benefits to all and aims to make it cool to be part of educating girls as well; investing in girls male gender clubs. In Liberia, we came can diminish the pipeline of boys who up with the idea of being ‘G-Positive’ (a might end up in groups like Boko Haram, play on ‘gangsta’, but standing really for the Taliban or al-Shabab. In response to ‘gender’). In Ethiopia, we created clubs for these groups’ efforts to, in part, keep boys and girls with t-shirts that identified girls out of school by terrorising them, them publicly and proudly as part of a many people call for focusing primarily growing group dedicated to promoting on boys, the recruits for these extremist girls. Delivering messages through mass movements. But the answer to this Working with media alone doesn’t work. They must be difficult challenge is to double down on young men in reinforced with small social groups, which efforts to keep girls in school, to defy Honduras. lan international P

section 3 : learning for life 61 Slum in the outskirts of Freetown, Sierra Leone. s icture s P ano P ett/ k ric or P Iv them, as Malala Yousafzai and other those boys and men have bought into courageous girls have done. We know that and perpetuate cultures that devalue when the parents – especially mothers girls and women, they do care about – of young boys who are vulnerable to injustice. We need to show them that it’s recruitment are educated, they will be more fashionable and even masculine much less likely to allow their sons to go to join the fight against injustice and do to Boko Haram or the Taliban. That’s why something about it. We need to show valiant efforts today to keep schools safe them that it’s about our sisters, mothers from violence are so critical to the future. and daughters. We have to make it I believe girls’ education is the global personal. civil rights issue of our time. Just as the Again, these kinds of investments Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr and his in boys are necessary, but they’re not colleagues battled in the 1950s and sufficient. The best way to level the 1960s, when support from the white playing field is not to use finite resources community eventually came because meant for gender equality on boys and the human rights agenda became too men, but to empower girls and women powerful and persuasive to ignore, girls’ directly. For everyone’s good, they need education and empowerment initiatives to be in school, learning, growing and, must also appeal to boys’ and men’s ultimately, transforming the people and sense of justice. Ironically, even as communities around them.

62 the state of the world’s girls ell w o on P on

A century later Si m

The school-bell is a call to battle, every step to class, a step into the firing-line. Here is the target, fine skin at the temple, cheek still rounded from being fifteen.

Surrendered, surrounded, she takes the bullet in the head and walks on. The missile cuts a pathway in her mind, to an orchard in full bloom, a field humming under the sun, its lap open and full of poppies.

This girl has won the right to be ordinary, wear bangles to a wedding, paint her fingernails, go to school. Bullet, she says, you are stupid. You have failed. You cannot kill a book or the buzzing in it.

A murmur, a swarm. Behind her, one by one, the schoolgirls are standing up to take their places on the front line.

Imtiaz Dharker Over the Moon (Bloodaxe Books, 2014)

A response to Wilfred Owen’s Anthem for Doomed Youth written for the centenary commemoration of the First World War.

Hear Imtiaz Dharker reading her poem: https://plan-international.org/girlsreport3

section 3 : learning for life 63 FACT FILE LEARNING FOR LIFE: EDUCATION AND GIRLS’ RIGHTS

There have been “…The rebels came into the school. As of 2012, Globally significant advances in They didn’t like the way some of the there were nearly girls’ education.1 It is girls were dressed. They yelled at SCHOOL anticipated that with the us, saying that what we were current rate of progress 2/3 wearing wasn’t good. It made me of countries will have scared. They broke our school desks, destroyed our school books achieved gender parity in At current rates, the in and our things. I didn’t want them to 1 5 primary education Between 2009-2013 there were poorest boys in

destroy our things. I didn’t like what O LEARN

OUN D attacks on schools in at least 70 sub-Saharan Africa will 62 enrolment by the end of they were doing at all. School is R Between 1999 and 2012 the different countries, with a number supposed to be a place where we achieve universal MILLION

G 2015, but only 48% of number of countries with girls of primary countries will have of these attacks being specifically learn things.” primary completion in ADOLESCENT fewer than 90 girls enrolled in directed at girls, parents and 6 2069, but this will take and lower Sita, 12, Mali YING T achieved gender parity in primary school for every 100 teachers advocating for gender nearly 20 years longer secondary school GIRLS 2 BAC K secondary education. boys fell from 33 to 163 equality in education4,5 T R for the poorest girls7 age not in school8 are out of school9

In Afghanistan there are Fewer than 1 in 3 girls in sub-Saharan Africa and fewer than 1 in 2 in South Asia are enrolled 71GIRLS in secondary school13

& in Pakistan there are

43% 9% 82GIRLS Increasing female educational levels does not Across 30 countries, IN PRIMARY SCHOOL necessarily mean increased overall equality: in A 2010 survey in the 43% of those out of school FOR EVERY Today, a young girl in South Sudan both Latin America and the Middle East, recent Côte d’Ivoire found that are girls from the poorest 11 is three times more likely to die in In contrast, in Latin America and the increases in female education levels have not 47% of teachers reported households. Only 9% are boys pregnancy or childbirth than to Caribbean, there are more girls than led to corresponding equality in the initiating sexual relations from the richest households10 100 BOYS complete primary education12 boys enrolled in secondary school14 work-place or at home15 with students16

A 2011 survey Girls with no education Educated women are more “Sometimes people are three times as likely likely to find work. Over Analysis of secondary like to ask me, why to marry by 18 as those

found that more than 50% of girls and S school English language should girls go to with secondary almost 68% of boys in India agree R textbooks in Pakistan education or higher. with the statement: school? Why is it found that women and important for them? TT E 100 girls were seldom But I think the more represented or were important question is: ‘If resources MILLION represented in a are scarce, it is why shouldn’t they? 2.1 million child deaths young women living in low stereotypical way. In 20 Why shouldn’t they (under 5) have been better to educate and lower-middle income out of 22 lessons in one have this right?” TI ON M A In Brazil 50% of women prevented between countries are unable to English textbook, women a boy instead 18 19 Malala Yousafzai with primary education 1990 and 2009 because 17 read a single sentence were not mentioned at all 20 20% of a girl’ (2014) of girls with secondary are in work; this rises to of increased education education get married 60% of women with for women of

EDUC A 21 22 23 64 the state of the world’s girls before they are 18 secondary education reproductive age FACT FILE LEARNING FOR LIFE: EDUCATION AND GIRLS’ RIGHTS

There have been “…The rebels came into the school. As of 2012, Globally significant advances in They didn’t like the way some of the there were nearly girls’ education.1 It is girls were dressed. They yelled at SCHOOL anticipated that with the us, saying that what we were current rate of progress 2/3 wearing wasn’t good. It made me of countries will have scared. They broke our school desks, destroyed our school books achieved gender parity in At current rates, the in and our things. I didn’t want them to 1 5 primary education Between 2009-2013 there were poorest boys in

destroy our things. I didn’t like what O LEARN

OUN D attacks on schools in at least 70 sub-Saharan Africa will 62 enrolment by the end of they were doing at all. School is R Between 1999 and 2012 the different countries, with a number supposed to be a place where we achieve universal MILLION

G 2015, but only 48% of number of countries with girls of primary countries will have of these attacks being specifically learn things.” primary completion in ADOLESCENT fewer than 90 girls enrolled in directed at girls, parents and 6 2069, but this will take and lower Sita, 12, Mali YING T achieved gender parity in primary school for every 100 teachers advocating for gender nearly 20 years longer secondary school GIRLS 2 BAC K secondary education. boys fell from 33 to 163 equality in education4,5 T R for the poorest girls7 age not in school8 are out of school9

In Afghanistan there are Fewer than 1 in 3 girls in sub-Saharan Africa and fewer than 1 in 2 in South Asia are enrolled 71GIRLS in secondary school13

& in Pakistan there are

43% 9% 82GIRLS Increasing female educational levels does not Across 30 countries, IN PRIMARY SCHOOL necessarily mean increased overall equality: in A 2010 survey in the 43% of those out of school FOR EVERY Today, a young girl in South Sudan both Latin America and the Middle East, recent Côte d’Ivoire found that are girls from the poorest 11 is three times more likely to die in In contrast, in Latin America and the increases in female education levels have not 47% of teachers reported households. Only 9% are boys pregnancy or childbirth than to Caribbean, there are more girls than led to corresponding equality in the initiating sexual relations from the richest households10 100 BOYS complete primary education12 boys enrolled in secondary school14 work-place or at home15 with students16

A 2011 survey Girls with no education Educated women are more “Sometimes people are three times as likely likely to find work. Over Analysis of secondary like to ask me, why to marry by 18 as those found that more than 50% of girls and S school English language should girls go to with secondary almost 68% of boys in India agree R textbooks in Pakistan education or higher. with the statement: school? Why is it found that women and important for them? TT E 100 girls were seldom But I think the more represented or were important question is: ‘If resources MILLION represented in a are scarce, it is why shouldn’t they? 2.1 million child deaths young women living in low stereotypical way. In 20 Why shouldn’t they (under 5) have been better to educate and lower-middle income out of 22 lessons in one have this right?” TI ON M A In Brazil 50% of women prevented between countries are unable to English textbook, women a boy instead 18 19 Malala Yousafzai with primary education 1990 and 2009 because 17 read a single sentence were not mentioned at all 20 20% of a girl’ (2014) of girls with secondary are in work; this rises to of increased education education get married 60% of women with for women of

EDUC A 21 22 23 before they are 18 secondary education reproductive age65 Travelling the sidewalks by Mariane Pearl

Mariane Pearl is the Managing Editor of the Chime for Change campaign, which aims to inspire, collect and share powerful stories about girls and women around the world . She is a journalist and author of two books, including A Mighty Heart (Scribner), which was published in the United States in 2003, translated into 15 languages e la Serna and subsequently made into a film . Mariane is the recipient of numerous awards for her work, including the Anne Frank award Martin d in 2015, the National Headliners award for magazine writing, the Time Warner Women award, The White House project award, the Internews award for excellence in international reporting, the Vital Voices award, The Indian Express Excellence in Journalism award, the El Mundo editorial award in Spain, and the Prix Vérité in France for excellence in non-fiction writing .

66 thethe statestate ofof thethe world’sworld’s girlsgirls section 4 : conflict and disaster

Ghana.

here is a French song I loved immigration laws in the country. the wrong sidewalks of this planet. Twhen I was a teenager named The lyrics involve all people From wars to poverty, women ‘To be Born Somewhere’. It talks who leave their homeland to make and children suffer more, always. about how you don’t get to select a living abroad for their families. “It is more dangerous today to the asphalts or dirt roads on which But there is another song to be be a woman in a war zone than icture s P you’ll learn how to walk. Maxime written, one that has been a long a soldier,” said Major General s ano

Le Forestier wrote the song in time coming – you don’t choose Patrick Cammaert, the Deputy P 1981, when Charles Pasqua, your sex, either. If you are born Force Commander of the United Keulen/ then-French Interior Minister, female, this can quickly become a Nations Mission to the Democratic s

aggressively imposed anti- web of twisted back alleys on all Republic of Congo (DRC), in 2008. ri Ch

section 4 : conflict and disaster 67 When rape is used as a From forced illiteracy of power. After the 9/11 attacks, weapon of war, women are hope seemed to be the most enslaved and described as sperm or rape as a weapon of needed ingredient to survive ‘envelopes’ to be passed from war to the silent killer: the tragedy. I learned that more man to man: violent forced than a hundred babies had been impregnation, psychological domestic violence. If the born from fathers who had died terror, humiliation, bodily list is endless, the means is in the towers. So I decided to go mutilation and death are their in search of a tangible hope for fate. In 2011, a study from the always the same: violence these babies and their mothers. American Journal of Public Health Not a hypothetical one, not revealed that 48 women were strategic rapes and reacts by merely a spiritual one either. My raped every hour in the DRC. upholding what she feels are the instincts made me turn towards I first started corresponding most important values: peace, the half of the world we don’t with Rose in 2013. She wrote democracy and justice (as well hear much about or from – saying that she initially helped as journalism). Not revenge, women and girls. people living with HIV but that not a word of anger or hatred During the following years, the rape epidemic was so bad against men as perpetrators I met women and girls from the in North Kivu, DRC, where she in her correspondence. Only world over and learned about lives, that she went “where the compassion, a commanding what they are subjected to as sufferings of the Congolese driving force that comes through females. As the 2014 ‘State of women” are. She had a great in the urgent tone of her writing the World’s Girls’ report says: project: “I will bring together and that iron determination. I say, “Within the first seven years of 30 women from the Great Lakes top that. I say, may our world life, girls are already indoctrinated region in the city of Kigali to leaders be inspired. into the idea of being subject speak out and to put in place a It makes sense that people to men. This starts in the network of women journalists like Rose, who can think their way household and is reinforced in for Peace, Democracy and through a complex web of politics, the community.”1 Justice,” she said in an email. culture, traditions, family honour From honour killings to sex Then I don’t hear from her and and the likes, would be the most trafficking, breast ironing, female the chilling silence is broken qualified to build a tangible path genital mutilation, acid attacks when an email appears after towards peace. And, like most to early marriages. From forced three months: women and girls I have met, I illiteracy or rape as a weapon of don’t believe Rose wants to be at war to the silent killer: domestic “I’m OK. Yes I didn’t write odds with the men in her life. She violence. If the list is endless, you because during 3 months wants to find a solution but her the means is always the same: we didn’t have any internet answers embrace everyone while violence. The narrative seems to connection. M23, a rebellion bringing those who deserve it to involve an obsession about policing in North Kivu cut our internet justice. I am lucky to have met the woman’s body. Whatever the connection. We accessed many women of that calibre, and justification, the will to dominate is yesterday. each of them has helped forge my the common thread. I shall write to you very soon belief that the rise of such people I went to 18 countries to Rose” is the most reliable source of hope profile many different women today. and today, since I started working And again, I don’t hear from as Managing Editor of the her and, each time, I feel so In search of hope Chime for Change’s storytelling close and so far away from this It was hope I was looking for platform, I have been lucky to woman I have yet to meet. To when I started with my special provide a place for their stories. me, Rose is a shining example interest in ‘women’s issues’ Mostly first-person accounts of what the world needs most. in 2007. I quickly found out: that, I hope, create a patchwork Someone who witnesses an women’s issues are really a single of voices from women and girls epidemic of arbitrary and men’s issue, an inability to let go singing a different song. People

68 the state of the world’s girls icture s P s ano P en/ ss u sm a pen R pen Es who have been through a lot Wounded refugee in hospital, Democratic Republic of Congo. and have become beacons of wisdom. Feeble flickers sparkling cacophony of opinions we tend favourite author since I was 12. I everywhere, hoping that lighting to replace them with. Connecting refer to him as VH. I understood the way for themselves will the dots between your life and why she had fallen for this allow them to illuminate others. that of others is what women beautifully crafted account of the I have now read, seen and heard and girls do well. human condition. I understood hundreds of stories of women There is an example that the call for everything noble and girls and I have never failed always stayed with me because it his writings induced. At about to find a will to seek change, allowed me to understand people that same age, 12, Amina was at often high personal costs, I had lived with as a child. Amina married to a man emigrating for the sake of others. The feel, was made to leave Morocco for to France as a way of securing the context, the climate may be Paris, to jump sidewalks, so to income for his relatives. She different for each person, but the speak. Just like those silent ladies was told that school was over will to work together and help who populated my childhood and once in France she started one another are like blood, of the and whose life always felt as if working as a cleaning lady. Years same colour. something had been cut short in passed, she divorced; she cleaned them. Amina lives in the suburbs and raised her two daughters Telling the stories of Paris. As a child, she had loved alone. But every night, she would Bonding through our stories is Victor Hugo, a lone anthology come home and write phonetic crucial because it can create a in Arabic on her parents’ poems to the moon you could global dialogue in which each bookshelves. I knew exactly what catch a glimpse of through the voice matters, as opposed to the she meant, as he has been my tiny windows of her modest flat.

section 4 : conflict and disaster 69 After many years of cleaning, It is Nujood in Yemen who, shot in front of her, created a she had an accident at work children’s think tank to stop and met an Arabic-speaking at 10 years old, obtains violence. psychologist who helped her a divorce – breaking the Fear of the drug cartels, the transcribe the poems in French. level of corruption, the rampant Amina went to a publishers’ fair. timeless tribal tradition. impunity, drugs and alcohol The book, A Prayer to the Moon, It is Malala, it is Mayerli made for resignation and the was greatly acclaimed and offers trivialisation of brutality. So the of translations came in. She had in Colombia who, at 15, children gathered in a sand pit become the voice of thousands after seeing her best friend and came to the understanding of women all over Europe, who, that violence started at home. like her, felt ‘transparent’, a shot in front of her, created They decided to work on their commodity, a household good, a children’s think tank to parents and the community, not a human. They stepped out promoting dialogue and mutual of the shadows of their servitude stop violence understanding. They became and claimed respect and the first group of children to be recognition. she said to me, laughing. She nominated for a Nobel Peace Amina gained her freedom. showed me the photograph of Prize. These unsung heroes light She told me she hadn’t had a a strong older woman, dressed the way for millions of others, choice in more years than she in a traditional Yazidi outfit armed with an unconditional could remember, ever since she standing among men in the dry belief in the right of humans was married off to someone mountains, with a Kalashnikov to live as such. In the case of going to France. And her strapped to her shoulder and a Mayerli, they were youngsters youngest daughter told me how cigarette burning her fingers. who strove to bend their stories pride ran through her veins when in a radically new direction, at the beginning of school, under Standing up and speaking out their crystalline voices breaking mother’s profession she switched The changes that are under the eerie silence of hundreds of from ‘Cleaning Lady’ to ‘Writer’. I way are indeed unprecedented thousands muted by violence. wish I could tell VH that story. as women and girls claim their Until now, women have left Now is the right time to rights to their lives, their bodies very little mark on Big History, help women and girls share and their story. It is Mercy in considering they are half of their side of the story. Now is Malawi who decides to do her humanity. They were half of the the first time in history, after coming-out publicly by going Second World War and half of countless wars and cycles of to the national newspaper and every struggle and conflict that civilisation, that this ‘human giving them a front page story: has scarred our world since then. capital’ is potentially blooming. “I am a Lesbian” spread across They were the other halves; In early March this year, I went Page One of the Malawi News trapped in the ‘private sphere’, to Iraq to deliver a storytelling the next day. carefully kept away from public workshop for young refugees Mercy was exorcised, thrown life and power. who fled ISIS in Kurdistan. out of her house and shamed by To the world they were At first shocked and silent, all. Yet she withstood the storm, victims who screamed and cried, in the days that followed the because of her profound belief in but you don’t get to hear what girls began to speak. One her right to choose her sexuality. they really had to say. Yet we participant, a beautiful young And no one had ever done this know that female potential is woman named Sham, chose before in this deeply homophobic the most untapped the world to talk about her great aunt. country. It is Nujood in Yemen has ever had because we keep “People say that she was as who, at 10 years old, obtains a studying it. brave as a man because they divorce – breaking the timeless Women at so-called couldn’t fathom women’s tribal tradition. It is Malala, it grassroot levels, but really most strength. In fact, it should is Mayerli in Colombia who, at ordinary women, have proven be as brave as a woman,” 15, after seeing her best friend they perform economically and

70 the state of the world’s girls g allau Th k ri E lan international/ P reinvest in their communities. Malala Yousafzai addresses audiences at the Nobel Peace Prize celebration. Often in quiet determination through everyday acts, we Power, it seems, is the outstanding moral courage, such can see women and girls have ultimate lure; few can resist it, as Rose displayed in her short developed the courage to give or renounce it, or share it. From but intense messages. Clearly, education the place it deserves my experience, it seems like violence is not inflicted by men for the survival of our troubled greatness ceases where the ego and boys only. Women and girls world. When I went to Liberia starts; couple that with greed who have suffered abuse tend and talked to women there at the and you get instant corruption to inflict it. But more women will market, they told me they didn’t and violation of basic human fight to the end for their child to vote for President Ellen Johnson rights. I don’t believe women have a different life. Power seeks Sirleaf because she was a are immune to these traps of to control what it fears most. woman, but because she believed greed and egoism, but I do And if we consider how many in education. believe they are better equipped women are being physically and “Nearly all men can stand to deal with them. Probably emotionally hurt solely on the adversity, but if you want to because they have suffered and ground of their gender, there is a test a man’s character, give him witnessed what power can do to great deal of fear. Again, it is only power,” said President Lincoln. people, because they understand through connections with my We could give all women a try that power is a dangerous and own life that I was able to fathom too. delicate instrument that requires what the numbers meant.

section 4 : conflict and disaster 71 A girl’s life married early and for the purpose means to be a woman or a girl in I did my pregnancy test in the of carrying sons. many parts of the world. Karachi airport toilets. It was 12 I went home and there was September 2001, one day after Dalia. She was five and literally Breaking the chains the attacks on the twin towers lived on the sidewalk outside my But today, for the first time, we in NYC, and as journalists my building. Every day she waited all start having a glimpse into these husband and I were sent straight day for me to come home. For unknown powerful women in to neighbouring Pakistan from the first few weeks, she would the trenches – in Guatemala, India where we were based. We just grin at me, hiding behind her the US or the DRC – who by were scared and deeply happy. father. She was little enough that their actions restore everyone’s To me, giving life is the most she was allowed to approach dignity. They care for all; revenge generous thing I have ever done; me and I would carry her and isn’t a strong enough motive the idea of giving life to someone give her kisses. But that was the but the lives of their children to fulfil my own needs doesn’t extent of what I could do. My are. I have met women and make sense. I also didn’t have building was a Jain residence. girls who feel that for the first strong feelings about gender When we moved in, we were time, life could change and an and the idea that my child was told that no meat could enter the unstoppable wave of people being born for economic reasons facilities. If insects were found will declare: “life cannot go on was not among the complex we were asked to kindly give like this.” As slavery was once web of emotions that come with them back to nature, including abolished, women can no longer giving birth. roaches. Our neighbours would be treated as second-class I learned that welcoming walk barefoot so as to not citizens, burdened by violence a little girl in the world was a step on an ant and didn’t eat and manipulated by shame. On luxury when, a few weeks later, vegetables that have roots like 18 March this year, I attended my husband and I went for a carrots. This intense respect for the Freedom of Expression award routine sonogram at a Mumbai life contrasted violently with in London. One of the winners, clinic. As we opened the door, stepping out of our building and Amran Bundi, is the founder of both pretty convinced we had seeing little Dalia, exhausted and Frontier Indigenous Network, an a girl, we were greeted by rows dirty, sleeping on her bedding NGO to help women at the dicey of posters advertising gender of concrete, and dirt, rats, Somalia-Kenya border. selection. In the waiting room crows and crowds, her thumb In her acceptance speech, she I chatted with women who loosely hanging from her mouth. dedicated the award to women admitted their desire to abort. During that year, the news came there, to the victims of terrorism My anger and judgmental four times of an oven that had and thugs and sexual violence. reaction faded as I listened to exploded, burning to death She closed by mentioning those these mothers, their thin faces a wife. Everyone shrugged; who have vilified her, those reflecting powerlessness and “dowry killing,” they said – as if who have tried to stop her, have resignation. The new life they there were nothing more to add. abused her and tried to shame her were carrying was also their loss. This was an ordinary year, into giving up. “This award also Two of them said they would telling the stories of what it goes to them,” she said, radiant have kept the baby but societal under her blue headscarf. pressure and family disdain got Today, if the world would the better of them. Also, they only agree, we have the didn’t wish a girl’s life upon their As slavery was once opportunity for this spirit to children. They said this so shyly, abolished, women can no expand, to see girls and women a smile to cover their pain and break their chains link by link; a hand to cover their smile. And longer be treated as second- to create a vast network of if you looked even more closely, class citizens, burdened by people believing in peace and you could see the little girls in equality, knowing full well what it them. Little girls with very little violence and manipulated really takes. And what we could childhood as they all had been by shame achieve.

72 the state of the world’s girls At a refugee camp in Yemen. icture s P s ano P a/ uel A ran d uel m Sa

section 4 : conflict and disaster 73 ‘The greatest cause of our time’1 by Liya Kebede

Liya Kebede is a supermodel and designer . She is the founder of the Liya Kebede Foundation for mothers, supporting global maternal health advocacy, education and services, and served as the WHO Ambassador for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health from 2005-2011 .

ore than seven million under 18-year-olds in developing countries give birth Meach year; 70,000 will die in childbirth.2 Complications related to pregnancy and childbirth are a leading cause of death among 15 to 19-year-old girls.3 More often than not these girls have little choice. Their childhoods are cut short by extreme poverty, social and cultural pressures and, many times, by violence. With little education and authority, their access to care during pregnancy is limited and they are at high risk of experiencing dangerous complications while giving birth. Their risk of death is double that of an older mother. While growing up in Ethiopia, I encountered many girls who lacked support structures and access to even the most basic maternity care. Their stories, full of courage in the face of enormous challenges, fuelled my determination to get involved. Every day in countries all over the world, young mothers like those pictured below rise to face a day full of extraordinary demands with incredible resilience and hope that the future holds better. It is the greatest cause of our time to see that it does.

5am in Cameroon Fatou and her two-year-old daughter emerge from the tent they share with five other families at a hospital compound turned refugee centre. She is seeking out breakfast that will sustain her for the long day ahead. When conflict engulfed her village in the Central African Republic, the 15-year-old mother fled, trekking on foot over 600 kilometres under the constant threat of violence. She does not know where the rest of her family are. The camp health clinic offers maternal and child health services that are crucial for displaced girls like her. g Won lan international/Bernice P 9 .30am in Bangladesh In Bangladesh, one in three girls is married before her 15th birthday. Nazma got pregnant not long after her wedding. Throughout her pregnancy she was undernourished and tired. During delivery, she lost consciousness and woke to the surprising news that she had given birth to twins. Her girls are especially hungry this morning and she worries that she is not producing enough milk to satisfy them both. lan international P

74 the state of the world’s girls 6 .05pm in Tanzania Khadija, 15, has packed up her goods at the market and takes a break to play with her z

daughter. Her daughter’s g are v laughter lights up the allau Th uel A l uel

evening. Khadija’s family k g ri sold her into marriage E to an abusive man twice her age. She nearly died giving birth – after lan international/Mi lan lan international/ P 11 hours of labour she P was taken to a hospital 12 .30pm in Nicaragua where an emergency C-section saved her life. “The Maria Luisa is next in line for a prenatal check-up at doctor who was there was kind and helped me. the clinic nearest to her neighbourhood. Waiting is He told me that I could do this.” When Khadija’s part of life in the urban slum where she lives with husband abandoned her soon after she remembered her extended family. She arrived early and settled the doctor’s words. She found a way to make a living in alongside several other girls. Nicaragua has the in the market and joined a women’s saving group. highest teenage pregnancy rate in Latin America and She is determined to do what she can to ensure her the Caribbean. Adolescent girls like 15-year-old Maria daughter gets an education and is never forced to Luisa account for a quarter of all births. When she marry against her will. found out she was pregnant, her boyfriend left her. Single motherhood scares her. The youngest of five, 8pm in Vietnam she will rely on her family to help but worries about Quy and her husband were married at a young age, how they will all manage the growing household. like many other teenage couples in rural Vietnam. Her husband was killed in an accident when their 3 10pm. in son was just three months old and she returned to Sierra Leone live with her parents. It is time for bed for her son, Aminata, home from Chi. She adores this time of night with him. During school, scoops up her the day she works in the fields planting corn and young son outside her picking vegetables and it falls to her young sister grandmother’s house. Thien to watch after him. She feels lucky to be She is serious about surrounded by such loving parents and siblings. She her studies and eager wonders what life will be like for her son growing to return tomorrow. up without a father, though. “I won’t get married She wants to become again. I will spend my life for my son.” a lawyer. At 14 she was the top student lan international P in her class when she was assaulted by a boy she knew and became pregnant. Her father did not believe her and threw her out. Her mother helped her make her way to her grandmother’s village where she gave birth with the help of a midwife from the community. “I was scared… but I am always with my grandma now and she tells me what is right and what isn’t.” lan international P

section 4 : conflict and disaster 75 FACT FILE CONFLICT & DISASTERS: GIRLS AND YOUNG WOMEN IN CRISIS SITUATIONS

In 2000 the UN Security Council Since 1995, international courts and Adolescent girls are largely Nearly a adopted Resolution 1325 which tribunals have recognised rape and other invisible in the response to reaffirmed the importance of forms of sexual violence as war crimes, emergencies despite the BILLION involving women at all levels of crimes against humanity or acts of torture. fact that both their age and children live in peacekeeping and security. their sex will increase their countries that vulnerability. Disasters do experienced conflict In 2009 the IASC gender marker

2 f

in 2013 or 2014 o

was created to evaluate how

t

not affect everyone equally, u

well humanitarian projects o OUN D and neither does war. In 2.9 1.2 3 14 20 address gender issues. In 2014 R

G times of upheaval, girls are BILLION MILLION the proportion of humanitarian increasingly subject to people were affected people were killed assistance allocated to projects

focusing ‘principally’ or But between 1992 and 2011 V Out of 20 current cases before the rape, trafficking and early 1 by disasters between 2000-2012 ‘significantly’ on gender equality women made up just 9% of B BAC K International Criminal Court, 14 include marriage. was only 12%4 peace negotiators5 G charges of sexual or gender-based violence6

A 2011 survey of sexual In 2012 there was a violence against women in 10% decrease in “It’s hard, others NO! the DRC found that Afghan civilian have nothing to eat, estimates of rape among casualties and they embrace women aged 15-49 meant being involved in approximately bad acts just to have something to eat, you don’t know what to do or who to 1150 Research from 2013 shows women raped every day talk to when that In 2012 the UN Office of an alarming increase in child happens.” In 2014 the Global Summit to End Internal Oversight received marriage amongst Syrian Anna, 13, Philippines, International Guidelines for Sexual Violence in Conflict agreed on 60 allegations of sexual refugee communities in after Typhoon tackling Gender-based Violence 48 4 13 practical steps to tackle impunity and abuse or exploitation by women women yet female Jordan three years into the Ondoy in 2009 in Humanitarian Settings have change attitudes towards the use of peacekeepers across 10 raped every raped every casualties crisis, and in some cases it been in place since 20057 rape as a weapon of war8 field missions9 hour 5 minutes10 increased by 20%11 has doubled12

GIRLS make up “There are very horrible things that happened and that I had to do… like take the life away of one or another person. Now that the war is over it is like a of the little box, a little box full of explosives. All together [the During the Asian tsunami in 2004, up to N Enrolment rates in secondary school explosives] form a team. But if are nearly 30% lower in one explodes, they all L After the earthquake in 2010, A TI O conflict-affected countries than in explode… So I try not to tap the pregnancy rates in Haitian camps 28.5 box…” In many countries girls other developing countries, and are 45,000 were three times higher than the 17 are pulled out of school far lower for girls.14 11 million lower MILLION Colombian girl soldier, 2011 VI V average urban rate previously. during disasters, and are secondary-aged girls are out of school primary-age children out of school MORE WOMEN Two-thirds of these pregnancies EDUC A

15 SU R 18 19 76 theunlik stateely to rofetu rthen world’s girlsin conflict-affected countries in conflict-affected countries16 than men died were unplanned and unwanted FACT FILE CONFLICT & DISASTERS: GIRLS AND YOUNG WOMEN IN CRISIS SITUATIONS

In 2000 the UN Security Council Since 1995, international courts and Adolescent girls are largely Nearly a adopted Resolution 1325 which tribunals have recognised rape and other invisible in the response to reaffirmed the importance of forms of sexual violence as war crimes, emergencies despite the BILLION involving women at all levels of crimes against humanity or acts of torture. fact that both their age and children live in peacekeeping and security. their sex will increase their countries that vulnerability. Disasters do experienced conflict In 2009 the IASC gender marker

2 f

in 2013 or 2014 o

was created to evaluate how

t

not affect everyone equally, u

well humanitarian projects o OUN D and neither does war. In 2.9 1.2 3 14 20 address gender issues. In 2014 R

G times of upheaval, girls are BILLION MILLION the proportion of humanitarian increasingly subject to people were affected people were killed assistance allocated to projects

focusing ‘principally’ or But between 1992 and 2011 V Out of 20 current cases before the rape, trafficking and early 1 by disasters between 2000-2012 ‘significantly’ on gender equality women made up just 9% of B BAC K International Criminal Court, 14 include marriage. was only 12%4 peace negotiators5 G charges of sexual or gender-based violence6

A 2011 survey of sexual In 2012 there was a violence against women in 10% decrease in “It’s hard, others NO! the DRC found that Afghan civilian have nothing to eat, estimates of rape among casualties and they embrace women aged 15-49 meant being involved in approximately bad acts just to have something to eat, you don’t know what to do or who to 1150 Research from 2013 shows women raped every day talk to when that In 2012 the UN Office of an alarming increase in child happens.” In 2014 the Global Summit to End Internal Oversight received marriage amongst Syrian Anna, 13, Philippines, International Guidelines for Sexual Violence in Conflict agreed on 60 allegations of sexual refugee communities in after Typhoon tackling Gender-based Violence 48 4 13 practical steps to tackle impunity and abuse or exploitation by women women yet female Jordan three years into the Ondoy in 2009 in Humanitarian Settings have change attitudes towards the use of peacekeepers across 10 raped every raped every casualties crisis, and in some cases it been in place since 20057 rape as a weapon of war8 field missions9 hour 5 minutes10 increased by 20%11 has doubled12

GIRLS make up “There are very horrible things that happened and that I had to do… like take the life away of one or another person. Now that the war is over it is like a of the little box, a little box full of explosives. All together [the During the Asian tsunami in 2004, up to N Enrolment rates in secondary school explosives] form a team. But if are nearly 30% lower in one explodes, they all L After the earthquake in 2010, A TI O conflict-affected countries than in explode… So I try not to tap the pregnancy rates in Haitian camps 28.5 box…” In many countries girls other developing countries, and are 45,000 were three times higher than the 17 are pulled out of school far lower for girls.14 11 million lower MILLION Colombian girl soldier, 2011 VI V average urban rate previously. during disasters, and are secondary-aged girls are out of school primary-age children out of school MORE WOMEN Two-thirds of these pregnancies EDUC A

15 SU R 18 19 unlikely to return in conflict-affected countries in conflict-affected countries16 than men died were unplanned and unwanted 77 Tracing the past and y ar d

building the future Hai A nita by Anita Haidary

Anita Haidary is an Afghan women’s rights activist and co-founder of Young Women for Change, a non-governmental organisation aiming to empower and improve the lives of women in Afghanistan . She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in the USA in 2014, majoring in Film Studies and International Relations, while continuing to advocate for Afghan women’s rights .

ooking back it is clear to me that I anything from a girl’s laughter, to the Lhave been an activist since my school surma (eyeliner) in her eyes, to the way days. When I was in eighth grade, she wore her scarf. Why should such small despite the instability and insecurity of things about the way you look, dress or the country, I lived in a safe cocoon of move affect everything about who you fairness, confidence and equality that are? A woman is seen first as a woman, was passed down to me by my parents not as a human being; she is judged and grandparents. What I learned from always in terms of the expectations and them, however, was in conflict with what limitations placed on women by society. I was being told at school, which was If you choose not to conform you will that women were vulnerable, weak, and fall from grace in society’s eyes, and are could never be equal to men. This did not seen as unmarriageable. In simple words, describe what I saw at home so I started for me this was a personal battle, though protesting at school and this rebellion led I found out later that it is political, too. to detentions and low scores in exams. Many girls in my class believed that what To me, it was only logical and natural to our teachers taught us was how the world speak my mind and challenge what I was was and would always be. being told. Everything they said was in When I went to high school, I direct contradiction to my own beliefs remember girls always walking in groups, in equality and human rights for all. Life and reading in a school magazine that can become unbearable when society girls walk in groups to avoid harassment. I limits your freedom of movement and was very young so I did not have to worry expression and women in Afghanistan, about it too much but as I grew older I and in many other places, have had to understood how dependent and limited struggle for independence and equality. life is for women. You leave home to go At school I was told repeatedly that grocery shopping, you get harassed. A women are weak; that they are “like a friend of mine says if she could just walk piece of white cloth vulnerable to the one day without being harassed her dream slightest stain which will ruin its worth and would come true. I long for the time when purity”. This statement made no sense to I can sit in a park and read a book. These me. I simply couldn’t comprehend how things might sound so simple but life is the worth of a human being could be so about simple things. It is the small things fragile. This ‘stain’ could be caused by that make women feel weak; if you want

78 the state of the world’s girls Village north of Kabul, Afghanistan. icture s P s ano P ic/ z ana Sle ana L

section 4 : conflict and disaster 79 icture s P s ano P / s tian A l tian s ri Ch

an ice cream you have to wait for your I heard from my father was: “Do what By the father to come so he can take you out. Of you think is logical and avoid what logic Kabul River, course, you can go alone but you would does not accept.” My parents inspire me. Afghanistan. rather not go because sounds and catcalls They have had to work hard to provide will echo in your ears for hours. It can for us and to show people that despite get serious when girls and young women the fact that the daughters in our family are not allowed to go to school any more were being educated the family was still because they are followed by strange men. moral and decent. Educating girls is not so And it is always our fault. unusual now and other families follow in My friends and I meet more often now my parents’ footsteps. because I work and can hire a taxi. This was not true five years ago. If I wanted to Building the future see friends I had to wait for my father to Today I have high hopes for Afghanistan’s give me a ride. It is not that women can’t bright future because I know people are walk, but they have to get used to being tired of war and of the day-to-day struggle touched, called names and stared at. It is to survive which has dominated all our not easy; the constant and never-ending lives. People are exhausted, they just hang battle tires you out and finally you choose on and this emptiness and lack of energy not to go out at all. But for me giving up is has been the norm in Afghanistan for not an option. decades. Now, young people are looking My beliefs came from my parents. for more than that. They are looking for In defiance of ‘set traditions’ my father connection; they are seeking normal decided to send me and my sisters to life and progress. Afghanistan is not the the United States of America to study. country the world has known for the last He never put restrictions on the kind of 40 years; people are better educated and people we wanted to be; the only thing they have access to up-to-date information.

80 the state of the world’s girls They are less likely to be led and I am in eighth grade, she teaches the girls in optimistic for the future because young sixth and seventh grade. I met a young people, both girls and boys, are taking woman in Herat who was a journalist. more control over their own fate. She reported live on terrorist attacks I hope and dream of a day, and I from two different provinces but no one know it will come true, where all women knew of her in Kabul, or internationally, and girls are respected and treated as because she could not speak English. I humans not because they are mothers, met a woman in Jalalabad who helped sisters and wives but because they are women poets to collect their poetry and human. It’s their birthright to be respected print it. I met a woman who thought as human beings. This is what Young “charitable donations are a short-term Women for Change stands for: respect solution; women have to take matters for girls’ and women’s capacity, ability, in their own hands if knowledge and decision-making power. they want to progress”. I hope and dream of a day, I know this dream is not unique and all She started a business women in my country are fighting hard with 2,000 Afghanis and I know it will come true, to achieve it. Moreover, I know of men ($40) and within three where all women and girls who are equally fighting tirelessly to help years she was able people understand the importance of to employ four more are respected and treated as women’s involvement in society. Women women. Everywhere humans not because they are need all the support they can get and for women are making all of us to unite and make public space the effort to move mothers, sisters and wives more women-friendly so that women and forward, and every but because they are human girls are able to contribute in a meaningful woman in Afghanistan way. If society is respectful of and better understands that it will take time but for women, it is surely a respectful and only hard work will bring improvements. better place for all humanity. Women’s issues are not simply a family matter that shouldn’t leave the door of United we stand the house, but a national matter that both Despite some grim statistics about men and women must work on. domestic and other kinds of violence, life is getting better for women and girls in Campaigning for change my country. In the past, women did not Young Women for Change (YWC) is have the courage or the knowledge to part of that national effort and was understand that violence was out of the founded in April 2011 to work towards normal order and report it. Now women a better future. The idea was to found do report it, and therefore we see higher a social movement, and for that reason statistics. Women now understand the we announced on Facebook a meeting importance of their role in economic to be held in Kabul. We expected to development. They are part of businesses, see 20 young women but more than 70 they have joined the work force and they turned up. The idea behind the meeting generate income both outside and inside was to hear from young women and their homes. In the past, people have told girls about the problems they were me that this is only women in Kabul but facing and how this was affecting them. I disagree because when I have travelled We quickly learned that women living to Herat, Mazar and Jalalabad I have in cities, where they are most publicly met women who are more courageous active, deal with street harassment daily. than in Kabul and make things possible Our first project was to tackle this issue, out of almost zero resources, out of which was hardly acknowledged and nothing. They teach each other. For rarely talked about. We organised the example, if a neighbour’s daughter is first walk against street harassment in the

section 4 : conflict and disaster 81 history of Afghanistan, and in order to a journalist irresponsibly featured a story get permission to walk we had to register that accused YWC of wanting to convert the existence of YWC. So our movement young people to Christianity. During became a publicly recognised one and our poster campaign we used the sign the first of its kind in Afghanistan. The of women (O+ ) in one of the posters and walk was followed by different lectures he rotated the sign and explained that it and discussion sessions to raise awareness represented a cross. It was unbelievable about street harassment. This led to the and hard to fight. How could someone production of a documentary, This is My who claimed to be a journalist not City Too, which featured women, men understand that this was the universal sign and scholars discussing the issue of street for women? Our colleague was pressured harassment and how it can be solved. The by her family and society and Kabul documentary was produced to create a became a very unsafe place for her. debate among both men and women in Being a volunteer organisation was cities, schools and universities. great. It created a good The activities continued with a poster spirit amongst the group In a country as poor and campaign against harassment both online because everyone was and on the streets of Kabul and two motivated not by money vulnerable as Afghanistan demonstrations against honour killings. but by passion. But it you need everyone in the And then YWC built the first all-women isn’t easy to be an activist internet café to help women connect to in Afghanistan. I had family to work in order to the world. YWC held ‘sister sessions’; to spend 70 per cent survive, not to live with the first part consisted of a workshop of my earnings doing and training for women to learn more volunteer work and most a culture of isolation, about technology and social media and of our members did not limitation and violence the second was an opportunity for more work. It was hard to intimate and safe conversations about keep it all going. Women lack economic what women were dealing with every day, independence and are highly dependent on their challenges and solutions. This was the male members of their families. Girls to help women build a support network and women out on the streets campaigning around them. More film screenings took went way beyond what society accepts place in schools to stimulate discussion as appropriate. They were out demanding among young people about activism, their their rights, but at home they had to live role in society and what it means to be at the mercy of the money provided by male or female in Afghanistan. their families – even for their bus fares. We also put on a Fashion Show in a Young women were pressured to quit. well-known local restaurant called Sufi. They were in the uncomfortable position One of the reasons for this was that we of choosing between their passion and knew that women and girls were being their family. Most members had to leave harassed in tailors’ shops. You have to because they couldn’t afford it any more. have your clothes made and fitted so this We realised then that the organisation had has become an unavoidable experience to be supported financially in one way or for many of us. The most important another. Without funding only the elite – part of the fashion project was to train the well-off, who could afford fares and professional women designers and tailors food – would be able to take part. so women can go to them and avoid being harassed and molested. However, A common struggle there was a backlash against this and our We realised very quickly that Young members were threatened. One woman, Women for Change had to include men who was directly involved as a tailor, and boys. They needed to be part of was forced to flee the country because the movement because in Afghanistan

82 the state of the world’s girls s icture P ano s P i/ m ein Fate ein Ho ss historical progress for women has always to survive, not to live with a culture of Kabul, had to be permitted by men. It was male- isolation, limitation and violence which Afghanistan. run institutions that allowed women to has left women at the mercy of men and vote and be part of the system. Fathers the country still below the poverty line. allowed their daughters to take up their right to education, to healthcare and to The light at the end of the tunnel higher education. We had a policy that Afghanistan has been at war for a long every male must come with a female time; many people have lost all hope. family member and every female had When we talk of hope, it’s only a small to bring a male. It served two purposes: number of people that believe in a better first, women felt safe with their male future, mostly the young. It is important relations and the fact that male members for young women’s movements to have of the family supported their cause; a place and be visible in Afghan society, second, it helped the men to understand so that their rights are acknowledged and that we are all engaged in a joint fight, their abilities recognised. Women and girls a common struggle, and that women’s should be given the respect they deserve issues are not just women’s issues any in public and in their homes. more. There is even more to it than the It is vital that people find hope now, fact that women are entitled to their or it will not take long for things to be rights. Women who are educated help destroyed. We must all have the chance their families financially, so in terms of to try to improve the future with our hard economics it helps women and men work. There is a need for everyone to for women to be equal participants work and active women are the spark and in society. In a country as poor and light at the end of the tunnel that can help vulnerable as Afghanistan you need Afghanistan as a country to grow stronger everyone in the family to work in order and more stable.

section 4 : conflict and disaster 83 FACT FILE GIRLS IN CITIES: LOOKING FOR A BETTER LIFE

In 2008, for the “I was requested “The government don’t for marriage and do anything for girls on first time the street, they don’t in history, since my parents even think about them. didn’t want me to They should take them more than half get married, they 30% 40% by the hand and say ‘I of the world’s sent me here… of boys in of 15 to 19 am going to support you, 1/8 so that I could go Pakistan year-old girls I am going to help you, population – Girls may leave their migrated in Pakistan you are not alone’, but to school in the because of migrated no – they look at them OUN D 3.3 billion of the global homes in search of a 1in4 city.” as they would any other R population are better life; to find a job, work because of girls

G people – Girl migrant to compared to marriage, rubbish.” internal migrants.2 access healthcare, get an lived in Addis Ababa, 15 5 just over compared to under Jessica, 17, street girl More adolescent girls education or to escape 6 7 living in urban areas from Nicaragua 9 1 15% of girls 5% of boys urban areas. than boys are early marriage, violence EASONS WHY ? in Malawi are BAC K migrating into cities3 and sexual abuse4 R recent migrants8

A large study of the sex trade in Ethiopian cities found that “You have no one to take care of you. Nobody in the society respects 90% you or wants to

FE ? see you… People I don’t care whether L you die, whether R + 70% 9% you live.” HIV Plan International’s Urban of sexually exploited In some South African cities, One study in Accra found that Girl living on the Programme found that: In Lima, only 2.2% of girls In Kampala, 45% of girls 15 to 19 year-olds were girl female migrants are 1.6 times 70% of street girls have never streets, Kenya 13 In Delhi 96% of reported always feeling reported sexual migrants from rural areas more likely to be HIV-positive attended school compared to adolescent girls do not safe when walking in harassment when using A BE TT E or small towns10 than non-migrants11 only 9% of street boys12 feel safe in the city14 public spaces15 public transport16

A 2012 poll found that The Spring Rain Campaign in China aims to reduce the ‘For me a ‘better life’ vulnerability of girls and means having goods young women migrating from you would never get rural to urban areas by when staying in your E village… My living

D providing information to girl 43% migrants in railway stations. conditions are tough, but at least I earn As a result, 500cfa a day, a sum

US S I A survey in Bangladesh In many parts of the world that I would never get found that 84% of urban the remittances girls send within three months, girls and women said home and their increased if I stayed at home [in

In Cairo, 32% of girls felt of young women in London HE P L A girl is much more likely to go to they had ‘ever used’ 60,000 independence can mean the village].’’ T contraception as opposed that they are valued more that they could never had experienced street school if she lives in a city – school girls visited safe recruitment Young girl in Mali 24 talk to anyone about harassment during the attendance for adolescent girls is 37% to 57% of rural girls agencies and one-third and perceptions of them

17 18,19 ON 20 21 22 23 their84 safetythe conce staterns of the world’s girlspast year alone higher in cities than in rural areas and women found employment are changing FACT FILE GIRLS IN CITIES: LOOKING FOR A BETTER LIFE

In 2008, for the “I was requested “The government don’t for marriage and do anything for girls on first time the street, they don’t in history, since my parents even think about them. didn’t want me to They should take them more than half get married, they 30% 40% by the hand and say ‘I of the world’s sent me here… of boys in of 15 to 19 am going to support you, 1/8 so that I could go Pakistan year-old girls I am going to help you, population – Girls may leave their migrated in Pakistan you are not alone’, but to school in the because of migrated no – they look at them OUN D 3.3 billion of the global homes in search of a 1in4 city.” as they would any other R population are better life; to find a job, work because of girls

G people – Girl migrant to compared to marriage, rubbish.” internal migrants.2 access healthcare, get an lived in Addis Ababa, 15 5 just over compared to under Jessica, 17, street girl More adolescent girls education or to escape 6 7 living in urban areas from Nicaragua 9 1 15% of girls 5% of boys urban areas. than boys are early marriage, violence EASONS WHY ? in Malawi are BAC K migrating into cities3 and sexual abuse4 R recent migrants8

A large study of the sex trade in Ethiopian cities found that “You have no one to take care of you. Nobody in the society respects 90% you or wants to

FE ? see you… People I don’t care whether L you die, whether R + 70% 9% you live.” HIV Plan International’s Urban of sexually exploited In some South African cities, One study in Accra found that Girl living on the Programme found that: In Lima, only 2.2% of girls In Kampala, 45% of girls 15 to 19 year-olds were girl female migrants are 1.6 times 70% of street girls have never streets, Kenya 13 In Delhi 96% of reported always feeling reported sexual migrants from rural areas more likely to be HIV-positive attended school compared to adolescent girls do not safe when walking in harassment when using A BE TT E or small towns10 than non-migrants11 only 9% of street boys12 feel safe in the city14 public spaces15 public transport16

A 2012 poll found that The Spring Rain Campaign in China aims to reduce the ‘For me a ‘better life’ vulnerability of girls and means having goods young women migrating from you would never get rural to urban areas by when staying in your E village… My living

D providing information to girl 43% migrants in railway stations. conditions are tough, but at least I earn As a result, 500cfa a day, a sum

US S I A survey in Bangladesh In many parts of the world that I would never get found that 84% of urban the remittances girls send within three months, girls and women said home and their increased if I stayed at home [in

In Cairo, 32% of girls felt of young women in London HE P L A girl is much more likely to go to they had ‘ever used’ 60,000 independence can mean the village].’’ T contraception as opposed that they are valued more that they could never had experienced street school if she lives in a city – school girls visited safe recruitment Young girl in Mali 24 talk to anyone about harassment during the attendance for adolescent girls is 37% to 57% of rural girls agencies and one-third and perceptions of them

17 18,19 ON 20 21 22 23 their safety concerns past year alone higher in cities than in rural areas and women found employment are changing 85 men hold the power by President Jimmy Carter

s Jimmy Carter was the 39th President of the United d er l

e E e States of America (1977–1981) . His achievements Th / d include brokering the Camp David peace accords b o between Egypt and Israel, and establishing US diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic

Boccon-Gi of China . In 1982, he founded The Carter Center, y

ierr which works to advance peace and health Th worldwide . He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 . In 2014, President Carter published his latest book, A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence and Power .

n the nearly 20 years since voices heard in every sphere Ithe Beijing World Conference of life. Yet age-old patriarchal on Women, there have been structures and attitudes make both advances and setbacks for sustained progress difficult. It is women and girls.1 Many of the time that men and boys recognise 30,000 activists who gathered the part they must play in gender there have continued the struggle equality and join with the voices for equal human rights, making and actions of the women and important progress. More women girls who are trying to re-shape are rising up and making their society in the interests of us all.

86 thethe statestate ofof thethe world’sworld’s girlsgirls section 5 : men and boys icture s P s ano P e/ d Wa In a police cell in y b re u

Freetown, Sierra Leone. A

section 5 : men and boys 87 s icture s P ano P i/ zz iro o P m Giaco

Men hold the power in many of scriptures by selecting texts that Many societal structures are the institutions that govern us, depict women as inherently built around the expectation of and these institutions need to inferior or subservient to men.2 violence, and this is illustrated change the attitudes that sustain Alongside such patriarchal by the existence of brutality them in their current form. systems, violence in society in the family. Violence against Most societies were has also become normalised.3 women and girls happens far shaped by religious doctrine My nation, the USA, and other too often, from intimate partner mandated by male authorities, countries accept violence as a violence to honour killings. so attitudes and systems that way to solve problems – from The numbers are horrifying: promote male dominance the use of the death penalty globally, one in three women have become the norm. Such and mass incarceration in will be assaulted in her lifetime; doctrine came from religious addressing crime, to pre-emptive homicide of a woman as a result leaders who distorted religious and unjust warfare abroad. of domestic abuse is six times

88 the state of the world’s girls women to lift themselves out of attitudes and tolerance for poverty.6 Young girls also suffer violence among our young men under such societal structures. and women are not influenced More than 1.5 million girls by these engrossing experiences. worldwide are married each Violence is accepted in these year who are younger than 15 and many other spheres of life. years.7 Unbelievably, about 160 As long as this is true, abuse of million girls are missing around women and girls will continue. the world, as a result of selective Efforts to promote non- abortion of female foetuses violence within our families, or female infanticide, because culture, communities and families believe a son will be between nations must be a better provider than a girl in increased. Our churches, societies where girls are deprived mosques and synagogues can of education and gainful be a source of peace, justice employment.8 The abuses I and spiritual nourishment, but describe here pose an ongoing entrenched patriarchy often threat to public health and condones violation of women’s social progress. Our society has rights. Patriarchy is not new. It is become increasingly desensitised a system created and maintained to violence. by men of faith and politics who The recent Gamergate hold the levers of economic, controversy revealed the severe cultural and political power harassment of women who seek and who confuse strength and to expose and mitigate extreme masculinity with domination violence depicted in popular and brutality. Patriarchy must video games.9,10 Media critic be replaced by a system in Anita Sarkeesian has highlighted which equal human rights and how vicious treatment of women non-violence are promoted and is used as decoration in these accepted. This will happen if we games, giving the impression embrace the kind of love and that women have no reason to mutual respect exemplified and exist except to be brutalised.11 preached by the founders of Sarkeesian faced death threats the world’s great religions, and as a result of her work.12 A 2008 through the persistent efforts of Pew survey found that where those who speak out and work the internet is available, 97 per for a more equal and less violent cent of youths aged 12-17 years world.14 more likely when a firearm is in play video games on a regular Equal human dignity is a the home, illustrating the deadly basis.13 It defies credulity that human right, as codified in many consequences of permissive gun global treaties. It is my hope that laws; and one in five women in political and religious leaders the USA is sexually assaulted will step forward and use their during her time in higher Men hold the power in influence to communicate clearly 4,5 education. many of the institutions that violence against women and Poverty is also a factor girls must stop, that we are failing in these societal structures. that govern us, and these our societies, and that the time Women employed full-time in institutions need to change for leadership is now. the USA earn around 22 per cent less than men on average, the attitudes that sustain First published in The Lancet, making it much harder for poor them in their current form November 2014

section 5 : men and boys 89 Champions of Change

Kevin, 16, Guatemala Society tells us we should be sexist, tough, aggressive. But that’s not right. I told myself I had the power to change. But as you go along this path, there are obstacles, stones that trip you up and you fall. What makes a man a man are the good deeds he does; also, his way of thinking and his courage in facing up to problems. Hitting a woman or abusing a child does not make you a man. My first memory was when my father turned up in the house I was living in with my mother, and he was tight, he was drunk. When I saw him come in and start to hit her, I ran away. I wish I had been a grown-up. I wish I had been a son who was strong enough to have defended my mother, but I wasn’t, I was just a kid. My mother is the principal role model in my life. She fought for us, she saw us through. She looked for food if we had none. I learned a lot from her. I have learned never to give up. That day I saw my father hitting my mother was a very sad day for me. It left me feeling scared and distrustful, angry and sad, and a bit resentful about all I have gone through. That’s why I am so keen to talk to my father, to face up to my fears. It’s a hard stage you go through. But when you face up to it, you feel more free to be able to start down this road to change. I wish I had had two parents who were close. But that’s not how it was. I wish I had had a childhood with two parents who loved each other and who gave us the right to be able to be happy. Also, when I was a child, I realised that my mother, well, she also felt scared, and I felt scared as well. And I have always had this desire in my heart. If I were to turn out the way my father was, a violent man, my life would be a total failure, knowing all the suffering my mother went through with my other brothers. Change is not something you achieve overnight. It’s a long process. It goes on and on; it never ends, because we never manage to be perfect people. But we can strive after that perfection; we can try to achieve it.

90 the state of the world’s girls Kendir, 17, Dominican Republic Violence really scares me. Maybe because I had a really violent upbringing. But it does, it terrifies me. What marked me most in my childhood is a father’s love, that’s something I’ve always missed. Now more than ever, because I’m on the verge of taking certain decisions, and I need his support. I’m alone now, in this situation. But I feel I am up to it. You have to take a step forward and leave the past behind. I’ve never been a talkative person. I don’t like making anybody aware of what I feel, what I hold inside. Neither of my parents told me what they were feeling, they never taught me how. So I think that’s why I’ve always been shy. My mother had to marry when she was 13. Then she had us: she had my sister when she was 15, she had me when she was 17 and she was 19 when she had the youngest. She has told me that she always had to work when she was growing up. Today you look for today’s food, tomorrow you do the same; you follow the same path, you don’t think of a better future. My mother always gave me the support my father never gave me. All the time, the only education he gave me was that the man should be the breadwinner in the house. That’s what he did. He worked and worked to bring food into the house. But he couldn’t have cared less about his children’s need for a father’s love. I think my father hit me because he knew no other way to resolve things: that’s what they taught him. He wanted to instill in me the same roughness that he had, but I was a shy boy... How was I going to be rough? All he had to say was “shut up!” and I’d be shaking. He hit hard, to make me see that a man has to be a man, and he has to be strong. What he didn’t know was that what he was instilling in me was terror, fear, of him. I think my father hit me because his mother and father taught him that when a child disobeys he has to obey whether he likes it or not. And his parents learned that from their grandparents, and their grandparents taught them, and so on. What I am trying to say is, this has been handed down through the generations. It’s not easy for me to change this, but as of today I can say that from now on, it can stop. Instead of holding a grudge against my father, I can offer him something totally different: love. The love he never gave me. I’m going to make him see things in a new light: it’s not how he thought, blows don’t fix things, you fix them with love.

91 Elmer, 17, El Salvador Adolescence is a very important time for me, because when I was a boy, I just wanted to play. Now I have to look and see what’s up ahead. I’ve always lived with women: my grandmother, my mother, my sister and my niece. We’re a team. Me and them, we’re a team. They have been real fighters and I’ve learned to be a fighter too. They taught me how to express myself. I want to have a special, really trusting relationship with my sister. She’s 22, and she was really keen to start studying. She got through school, went to high school, she met a boy, they fell in love and they had a sexual relationship. Although the child’s father abandoned her, she kept on going. She’s always fighting for her. It’s her daughter and she loves her so much. But it was all so soon. It all happened so soon. My sister hid her pregnancy from us, and as it didn’t show, we had no idea until months later. Abandoning somebody who is pregnant. A coward does that; that’s not what a man does. Well, I’m not like the others in my way of thinking. I like to be that way, if people criticise me, let them. In this society, if a man expresses his feelings to his friends, they start to criticise him, they start insulting him, putting him down. Because they say that we men have to be strong, we can’t cry, we can’t express our feelings. Well, the fact is that I am so in love, I’m head over heels in love. And it makes me want to tell people. And that makes me feel good. We are in love, but they don’t allow us to see each other. We communicate through text messages. We must send around 300 messages a day, between the two of us. That’s 150 from me, 150 from her. She calls me “baby bear”, I call her “my little doll” and I tell her “I love you”, “I adore you”. And she says the same to me. I feel lots of mixed-up emotions, happiness, sadness because I’m not with her, fear that something might happen to her. The times I’ve been with her are so emotional. These are things that make me feel this is love. We young men are always anxious to have sex, but seeing what happened to my sister helped me analyse it a lot. So I don’t mind waiting. That is a step we have to take together; there’s no hurry. When I want to be alone, I grab my bike, I get away for a while to somewhere peaceful and I weigh up all I have to go through.

92 the state of the world’s girls Yelsin, 17, Honduras I’ve decided to be happy with who I am and one day I know I have to be a lawyer. Above all else, it’s to help my roots, where I was born, where I grew up, my family... It’s a long journey, it’s difficult but I don’t think it’s impossible. I’m on a correspondence course. School is only on weekends. So I make bricks to earn 100 or 200 lempiras, ie $5 or $10, and so I can go to Choluteca to study in the educational centre there. I have to do that. I can’t see how else to make money for school. I prefer to work two days rather than miss a weekend at school. I feel my education is worth more than anything else. I think economic problems are the No.1 problem that has ruined many people’s dreams. I have nobody who’s going to say to me, “Take this so you can study law”. So I know I have to work and work and study. The house I live in is built from adobe, from earth. It’s split up into a kitchen, a room with a desk I use for studying, a chair and, in the bedroom, my grandmother’s bed and mine. We only have water in the house every five days and there’s no electricity. Creature comforts, maybe there aren’t that many; inconveniences, quite a lot. I have a problem with my sight. It affects me quite a lot because I have to study, mainly at night. So what I do, I only have a desk I use for studying, a chair, I bring my light, a small gas lamp. I turn it on and I start studying.

ms two, five, up to six hours each night, only I have to rest il f a every 15 minutes because my eyes get tired. In spite of sm

/a all the problems I have, my marks are excellent: 100, 99, m marks like that. To have light would be a blessing for me. eo.co m i But I have to get used to what I have. v :// s A teacher taught me that we should never lose our ttp dignity. I feel I have dignity, I am different, I am free.

iola. h To make my dream reality, to achieve my goal, I have v er b to leave here and go somewhere else. Face new societies, make new friends, with new personalities. That’s why I want to improve myself, and struggle and face up to all that comes my way. ucer: Daniel Su d ro Champions of Change is a Plan International program working with young men across d P Latin America, who, growing up in violent environments, are often encouraged to conform to strict definitions of masculinity and what it means to be a ‘real man’ . It is a life-changing program that promotes non-violent definitions of masculinity by building MS. Director an

IL young men’s solidarity, respect and empathy towards girls and women . They learn that

A F it is crucial that everyone – boys, girls, women, men – join in the struggle for gender SM : A s equality and jointly reject discrimination and stereotyping . Gender equality is not a oto

h task for ‘lone rangers or superheroes’, but will be built progressively, by us all . ll p

A Watch the film here: https://plan-international .org/girlsreport4

section 5 : men and boys 93 FACT FILE WORKING WITH MEN AND BOYS: ‘EQUALITY MAKES ME HAPPY’

Over the past two “Having more equality makes decades there has me happy. I am a better been increasing friend, with closer interest in engaging friendships with both boys men and boys in and girls, and better achieving gender conversations. I am more able to be trusted – because equality. Previously, in our culture men are seen

OUN D men and boys were

as those who deliver HOO D Men in Bosnia who watched their R often seen as part of violence, trust is a difficult fathers take care of children, and G the ‘problem’, as issue between the sexes.” men in Brazil who were taught to Boys whose fathers are actively 2 HE R opposed to part of Luis, 21, from El Salvador T look after siblings, spent In 2014, 78 of 167 countries offered In Norway fathers are offered 45 involved in household chores are 1 A significantly more time caring the statutory right to paternity leave, weeks of paid leave compared to more likely to be involved BAC K the solution. F for their own children3 compared to 40 countries in 19944 two days in Rwanda5 themselves6

Globally A 2011 study found that 65% of A six-country study on men and violence 93% surveyed children from India and in Asia and the Pacific found that overall of men taking part in a Rwanda totally or partially study in India agreed that agreed with the statement: 49% OF THE MEN to be a man, you need who reported having raped a woman to be tough ‘A woman should did so for the first time when tolerate violence in order they were teenagers to keep her family 76.5% together.’ said that a man should have of girls aged 15-19 70-80% OF MEN the final say in all family have experienced violence A further 43% agreed who had raped were motivated by matters from an intimate partner. with the statement: a sense of sexual entitlement Rates vary regionally, from ‘There are times Boys who experience sexual violence in 72-97% 57.5% 16.6% in high-income when a woman deserves said that a wife cannot 27% of men from 1,738 interviewed countries to 43.1% childhood are themselves more likely to 9 did not experience any legal for a study in South Africa said they VI OLENC E refuse to have sex with

to be beaten.’ in South-East Asia7 be sexually violent later in life8 consequences10 her husband11 had committed rape12

“For every young man who recreates traditional and “Both men and women sometimes violent versions of should feel free to be manhood, there is another sensitive. Both men and young man who lives in fear of S women should feel free this violence. For every young R man who hits his female to be strong… It is time

partner, there is a brother or son TT E that we all perceive who cringes at the violence he gender on a spectrum, witnesses men using against As a result of Plan International’s Homicide rates for boys are higher his sister or mother.” ‘Champions of Change’ project, Girls outperform boys in not as two opposing sets than those for girls in every region of Gary Barker, PhD, International 91% of the young men involved educational achievement in Boys are still at a greater risk of of ideals.” Director, Promundo and Co-Chair, 70% of countries regardless of repeating grades and dropping 18 the world. In Brazil and Venezuela 14 reported that they found it much Emma Watson (2014) homicide is the leading cause of MenEngage Alliance easier to resolve conflicts the level of gender, political, out, even though girls are less 15 SCHOOL M A 16 17 dea94th amotheng ad stateolescent of btheoys13 world’s girls without using violence economic or social equality likely to start school FACT FILE WORKING WITH MEN AND BOYS: ‘EQUALITY MAKES ME HAPPY’

Over the past two “Having more equality makes decades there has me happy. I am a better been increasing friend, with closer interest in engaging friendships with both boys men and boys in and girls, and better achieving gender conversations. I am more able to be trusted – because equality. Previously, in our culture men are seen

OUN D men and boys were as those who deliver HOO D Men in Bosnia who watched their R often seen as part of violence, trust is a difficult fathers take care of children, and G the ‘problem’, as issue between the sexes.” men in Brazil who were taught to Boys whose fathers are actively 2 HE R opposed to part of Luis, 21, from El Salvador T look after siblings, spent In 2014, 78 of 167 countries offered In Norway fathers are offered 45 involved in household chores are 1 A significantly more time caring the statutory right to paternity leave, weeks of paid leave compared to more likely to be involved BAC K the solution. F for their own children3 compared to 40 countries in 19944 two days in Rwanda5 themselves6

Globally A 2011 study found that 65% of A six-country study on men and violence 93% surveyed children from India and in Asia and the Pacific found that overall of men taking part in a Rwanda totally or partially study in India agreed that agreed with the statement: 49% OF THE MEN to be a man, you need who reported having raped a woman to be tough ‘A woman should did so for the first time when tolerate violence in order they were teenagers to keep her family 76.5% together.’ said that a man should have of girls aged 15-19 70-80% OF MEN the final say in all family have experienced violence A further 43% agreed who had raped were motivated by matters from an intimate partner. with the statement: a sense of sexual entitlement Rates vary regionally, from ‘There are times Boys who experience sexual violence in 72-97% 57.5% 16.6% in high-income when a woman deserves said that a wife cannot 27% of men from 1,738 interviewed countries to 43.1% childhood are themselves more likely to 9 did not experience any legal for a study in South Africa said they VI OLENC E refuse to have sex with

to be beaten.’ in South-East Asia7 be sexually violent later in life8 consequences10 her husband11 had committed rape12

“For every young man who recreates traditional and “Both men and women sometimes violent versions of should feel free to be manhood, there is another sensitive. Both men and young man who lives in fear of S women should feel free this violence. For every young R man who hits his female to be strong… It is time partner, there is a brother or son TT E that we all perceive who cringes at the violence he gender on a spectrum, witnesses men using against As a result of Plan International’s Homicide rates for boys are higher his sister or mother.” ‘Champions of Change’ project, Girls outperform boys in not as two opposing sets than those for girls in every region of Gary Barker, PhD, International 91% of the young men involved educational achievement in Boys are still at a greater risk of of ideals.” Director, Promundo and Co-Chair, 70% of countries regardless of repeating grades and dropping 18 the world. In Brazil and Venezuela 14 reported that they found it much Emma Watson (2014) homicide is the leading cause of MenEngage Alliance easier to resolve conflicts the level of gender, political, out, even though girls are less 15 SCHOOL M A 16 17 death among adolescent boys13 without using violence economic or social equality likely to start school 95 ‘we must become cybernauts’: The digital divide in Latin America by Catalina Ruiz-Navarro

Catalina Ruiz-Navarro is a Colombian journalist and feminist, born in the Caribbean and based in Mexico City . As well as working as a communications coordinator, arro v a Catalina is a weekly columnist for the newspapers El N - z Espectador and El Heraldo in Colombia and Sin Embargo in Mexico . She is the Director and founder of Hoja

atalina R ui atalina Blanca (HojaBlanca .net), an online NGO magazine which C promotes and publishes new voices, and co-coordinator of the Latin American Network of Young Journalists . She has also been an editor for several print and online publications and is a published poet . @Catalinapordios

hen I was 11, we learned and visual arts. The closest I Whow to use the Logo came to systems engineering operating system in computer was probably maths, but it classes in Barranquilla. Since depressed me to think that if I didn’t have a computer at I studied maths I wouldn’t be home I had to write out all the attractive and I would end up calculations manually and I alone. Of course, that’s being would use pencil drawings and a really superficial. Or maybe it typewriter to do my homework. isn’t, because the need to feel We got our first computer at accepted and loved is no small home in 1996. At school it was thing. Perhaps I was just very always the boys who knew most young at the time and didn’t about computers. They were realise that my own choices the ones who studied systems were influenced by machista engineering. I studied philosophy prejudices.

96 thethe statestate ofof thethe world’sworld’s girlsgirls section 6 : new technology icture s P s ano P en/ ss anne h

Digital festival. Jo Jan

section 6 : new technology 97 As I grew up I wanted The new world that is in Colombia and our offices are to be a writer and in 2008 I in Bogotá and Barranquilla, our was set on having a column in being built is still seen as bloggers are in countries like the El Espectador newspaper something created by and China, Cuba, Mexico, Ecuador, (Colombian national daily) and France, Spain, the Netherlands, so I started a blog. Every week for men, whilst women USA and Argentina. Our group of I would send an article to the are portrayed as the editors and bloggers coordinate paper’s editor and if I didn’t hear organically and seamlessly, anything back, as was normally consumers – not creators – almost in imitation of the way the case, I would upload the of technology the internet works. There are article to my blog. Six months no advertisements on the site, later I got a call from the paper so our authors are free from the offering me a column. Back then coach who helps them to develop kind of indirect censorship you I didn’t know anyone in the their writing to the best of their see in other media; released from industry, but I managed to take ability. We also run training the logic of the market and the my first step in what would turn sessions for young people from tyranny of the ‘like’ button. out to be my whole career thanks underprivileged neighbourhoods to my blog and the amazing to create original content, New technology, old divisions connections you can make on the promote freedom of expression Latin America is one of the internet. Today I am a journalist and teach critical internet literacy regions in the world where and at the same time I have skills. women have the most internet a career in IT. I write opinion The magazine encourages access, although this is still only columns and try to contribute the creation of new digital 36 per cent of women.1 However, to public debate. In the modern content produced both on and what is clear is that technology world much of that debate for the internet; it supports is increasingly accessible and happens online. pluralism, giving a voice to those affordable, and there will soon be who are rarely heard and going infrastructure connecting even White pages, new voices beyond the physical barriers and the most remote geographical Shortly after graduating from confines of print media. Hoja regions. Young women urgently university, I came across an Blanca has created a safe space need the tools to enable them apparently unsolvable problem: for a lot of authors, especially to use this new technology in a the publishing world doesn’t young women from minority suitable and safe way. publish articles from young groups, who simply don’t have Like the real world, the people because it doesn’t know the right contacts to influence internet is not neutral territory, who they are, but at the same debate. By helping these new and as the report developed time, it doesn’t know who they writers to find a voice and for the Beijing +20 conference are precisely because they are develop their artistic language, stresses, girls and young women, never published. As a result, the magazine gives them a great while acknowledging the risks the national publications, printed or start to their working careers. internet poses, need also to seize digital, are always from the same Today we (and when I say ‘we’ I the opportunities it presents.2 celebrated authors, and there is mean ‘we women’, since most of There is the potential to create very little room for new talent. the people involved in this project new communities, gain new skills, In response, I set up Hoja Blanca are women) are proud of having access information, improve their (‘White Page’), an online NGO first published more than 150 self-confidence, live in safety magazine that seeks to give authors who are now successful and participate in democracy as unknown writers the opportunity in their field. active citizens. It brings also the to publish their work and so keep I think what I love most power to strengthen the capacity up a flow of new ideas and fresh about this project is that it is of the women’s movement and voices. Our authors are selected non-hierarchical and it doesn’t to challenge the patriarchal in open calls for contributors require your physical presence. nature of the ICT world. and each is assigned an editor- Although most of the team lives Despite increased visibility

98 the state of the world’s girls online apparent in some of the except her best friend who just private and public content. She successful initiatives that have lost hers, and now they have to posts most of her photos on run in recent years and efforts communicate via Facebook and Instagram where she has fewer like Feminist Hackathon to not the normal and more private followers, and if she wants more promote women on the web, the channel of Whatsapp. people to see them (including gender divide persists and this I talk to Lith over Skype her family) she uploads them on can be clearly seen in the fact during her school break. Facebook. that most ICT students and web She connects via the school I ask her, “How do you developers are men.3 The new secretary’s computer. She tells decide whether to add someone world that is being built is still me she spends about three as a friend on Facebook?” “It’s seen as something created by hours every day in front of the very instinctive,” Lith replies. and for men, whilst women are computer doing her homework “I add people I know and if I portrayed as the consumers – not and helping her mum with her don’t know them, I open their creators – of technology. work, but that’s not a long time profile page to find out what In trying to understand in comparison to her friends. She they are like, what they look like, why this is, I spoke to four uses Facebook, Whatsapp and what they post.” Lith is wary of Latin American women, three obscene photos, or photos that who work in technology and don’t look real – photos that are a schoolgirl. What do their too pretty or perfect – or bad experiences tell us about the spelling. Generally speaking, digital divide, and what is being she feels she should be as done to close it in Costa Rica, careful online as out on the Colombia and Peru? street: in both cases she is the one who must tell the difference between Lith good and bad and she “Those are things we say recognises the importance are difficult, so we leave of feeling supported and them for men ”. trusted by her mother. Lith considers herself BY 2.0 BY

Lith is 16 years old and a native of the digital world CC r/ lives with her mother in and thinks that the internet k Rebolo, a working-class barrio has revolutionised the way we lan/Flic y

(neighbourhood) in the city of communicate. She doesn’t feel D Barranquilla in the Caribbean she is being overly monitored region of Colombia. She goes Instagram; she has Twitter but when she surfs the internet to school at Don Bosco college, hardly ever uses it. She opened but she does know about the which is run by Salesian priests an account in Snapchat at one Snowden case and the ‘chuzadas and provides primary, secondary point, but although it’s popular del DAS’ (Department for and vocational education for amongst young people she didn’t Security Scandal4), where it young people in the area. Lith like it and decided to close it. came to light in the media how says there are three internet cafés Lith uses social networks to post the former national intelligence in her barrio and they are always fun photos and express opinions agency of the Colombian full of teenagers and college about politics in her country. She government was spying on students. When I ask her how doesn’t think that people should journalists and those who she and her friends have so much share all kinds of details about opposed ex-President Uribe’s access to digital technology, their lives on social networks and government. She doesn’t know she estimates that eight out of doesn’t think that they should be much about programming, but every 10 friends have a computer used to “let off steam”. It’s clear has an advanced Excel class and internet access at home. All by what she says that for her at school where the students her friends have smartphones there is a big difference between designed a programme to count

section 6 : new technology 99 the votes in the elections of the at the age of 13 and was hooked in the more technical courses. student leaders in every school from then on. Although she Many women work in database across Colombia. studied in an all-girls school management and others are For Lith there certainly is a where the closest thing to IT was teachers who have never worked gender difference in the use of a typing class, Sorey decided to in programming; they teach by technology. For example, she study programming and had the the book and you can tell that and her mother use the internet good fortune to attend a ‘Web they’ve never been programmers. to look for hairdos or recipes, and Design and Creativity’ workshop “For men, being a tech geek especially to communicate with in her first semester. She works is really cool, but women have each other. Lith thinks her male on the programme ‘Digital other things to care about.” classmates use the internet for Women’ (mujeresdigitales.org), According to Sorey, “at 22 gaming and to watch porn. This a platform of the Secretary or 23, they get married and start is backed up by several studies for Gender Equality of the to have other priorities; they which show that women around Government of Antioquia, which don’t want to spend all night the world used the internet uses technology to empower at work. They want to leave at much more for socialising and women through a combination of six in the evening and go home interaction, while men look for to their children. But men don’t diversion and distraction.5 have the same responsibilities. If When Lith finishes school a man has to stay late at work, she wants to study visual arts or he stays late. Working hours in graphic design and that’s why IT can be awful and that’s one she wants to learn to use of the reasons why women Illustrator and Photoshop. lag behind. It’s a career She admits that few girls where you always have to study software engineering be up to date; you can’t and explains why this fall behind. I have a lot of might be by quoting women friends who were something she read great programmers but recently: “It’s all about how were never prepared to, or CC BY 2.0

r/ girls are brought up and had the time to, keep their k the vision they have about knowledge up to date; in the /Flic s a s what they want and like in life end they fell behind and that a and what they don’t like and all affected their self-confidence.

Marcie C those things they think are good. There are other things out there Society gives women complexes that put women off: for example, and that’s why we don’t study journalism, training, technology almost all of the teachers are maths, science and all those and politics. men. I don’t know exactly difficult things we think have to Sorey admits that she never what’s wrong but something be done by men.” really knew why she decided to isn’t working because women study systems engineering, she are not choosing a career in simply liked the career. Drop-out programming.” Sorey rates amongst women are high: “But you’ve done really “I think they were bringing us “There used to be five women well,” I say. up to be secretaries ”. in a class of 30 and that seemed “I’m more like a man.” She okay to me, but now there laughs and then corrects herself: Sorey is a web developer and aren’t even that many.” She also “Not like a man, because I’m university teacher in the city points out that although a lot of me, I’m a woman. What I mean of Medellín in Colombia. She women study careers in software, is I have a lot of self-confidence, is 32 and has over 10 years’ many of them “only study the I like to work late, my passion experience in programming. Like administrative bit of software for programming is greater than Lith, she started using computers programming and don’t do well anything else. I don’t care about

100 the state of the world’s girls being dressed up or looking men-women ratio in all fields of they want to be part of it. At the pretty. I’m happy travelling all technology. start of the course the teacher over the place to teach code. “We are working in San tells the students that they have I prefer that to going out with Carlos with the entire chain and entered hell and challenges them someone, or going to a party, or ecosystem: from the municipal to see who will make it out the having children. It’s a question of government and National other side. The boys see this as personal choice and priorities. Women’s Institute, to universities, a challenge, whilst the girls ask “There’s a general concern the private sector, university themselves ‘do I really want to be in ‘Digital Women’ that women students, schools, boys and girls in this hell?’” are not driving technology. Even and their teachers, fathers and That’s why part of the the application women use on mothers,” says Kemly. “Girls face strategy of the ICT project, as smartphones to monitor their a hostile environment when it well as involving parents and periods was developed by a comes to technology. And by teachers in the process, is about man. Why don’t women use that I mean that not only is there creating university support technology to meet their own no incentive for girls to try out groups and networks of girls needs? Women are being left technology but rather there are who help the students so they behind; we aren’t taking part in a lot of things that drive them don’t drop out. The project the construction of the modern away, like the fact that a lot of also promotes more flexible world. Men wrote the laws of girls are caregivers, or have other timetables for students who are the old world and they didn’t responsibilities in the home, or pregnant or are already mothers. take any notice of us, and now are forced by parents or teachers And finally, since there is the same is happening with to adopt other more stereotypical an even bigger gender divide in software.” roles. If we don’t work in their rural areas in terms of access and immediate surroundings, it will infrastructure, the ICT project be very difficult to make a real promotes the collective use of Kemly change.” technology. “In remote areas, “We all have to get involved in The ICT programme supports we encourage the girls to work the solution . That’s the only way a total of 100 boys and girls in collectively; a computer or mobile to break stereotypes ”. 10 schools. Kemly explains that phone is used by several girls and there is a big difference between we put a stop to individualistic Kemly, from San José, Costa Rica, the fifth-year girls (aged 10 to technology and consumption.” is coordinator of the ICT project 11) and the 12 to 13-year-olds Kemly continues, “Whether ‘TIC-as’ (Costa Rican women in the year above. “Because the they live in the town or the are informally called ‘ticas’). The fifth-year girls still experience countryside, as girls grow up, project is run by the Sulá Bastsú things as girls and play like girls, the people who surround them Cooperative (sulabatsu.com) and they have fewer inhibitions must realise how ICT represents is supported by the UN Women’s when it comes to trying out an opportunity for development; Fund for Gender Equality, which technology and are more natural it can mean the chance of a job aims to create employment and working with computers. But and a decent income.” work experience opportunities when they start to develop and in the rural San Carlos area in grow into young women, it’s northern Costa Rica. The ICT as if they become conditioned Stephanie project works directly with in terms of how they should “It was about planting a seed ”. girls and young women in their behave: look pretty, not play so communities, encouraging them much, be attractive to boys and Stephanie is a software engineer to enrol in ICT classes and to take on more responsibilities specialising in software quality stay on until they graduate. in the home. It’s not that they control and an active member of The aim is to promote women’s think that they aren’t able, they different software communities leadership in the ICT sector. “We know they can do it, but they in Peru. She is co-founder of the are worried about what we call see that the ICT sector is a very project Women in Technology the 80:20 ratio, which is the masculine culture and aren’t sure Peru (witperu.org) that

section 6 : new technology 101 encourages women to participate identify with when it comes to women who decide to devote in the world of technology. women software developers; IT themselves to their children she “In today’s generation you careers are presented as difficult, sees as a structural inequality. see it less than when I was with a lot of numbers and maths, The responsibilities of parenting young, but even today girls of 15 and the pattern repeats itself.” are not shared by men and, as or 16 still ask me if my career is Stephanie had the good she says, “That’s not something tough.” fortune of growing up in a exclusive to systems engineering; Stephanie also runs a project different environment from it affects every profession.” called Coderise (coderise.org), a the majority of girls of her programme to empower young generation. Her father was a Not just a man’s world students to use technology fan of technology and there There are initiatives taking which, in the case of WIT was a computer in the house, place right across Latin America Peru, focuses specifically on which “was like a toy for me”. to incorporate women in girls. Coderise is an eight-week She was 12 or 13 when her information technology and to programme for schoolgirls up to family got connected to the demonstrate that it is not just a 17 years old, immersing them internet for the first time. T“ here man’s world. The reasons why in programming: “It’s not so were a lot of restrictions back girls and women decide to turn much about hard code but rather then, but the idea of having their back on technology are logical thinking and algorithms email, of being able to write to complex: prejudices, specific and then we move on to html someone and getting an answer sets of values and traditional and creating websites, trying back fascinated me. Having gender roles all come into play to encourage the girls to use information at hand instead of and make women think that technology to solve problems in a going to a library… I thought I programming is a hostile and creative way.” had a whole new world at my difficult field of work. This Stephanie says that fingertips.” situation doesn’t have anything Coderise4girls has an exercise Stephanie doesn’t think to do with technology in itself, where the students are asked that working hours have to be nor with girls being essentially to present a problem from so heavy in a programming more or less able in programming their community that needs career. “It’s the same in any or maths than boys. It is more to solving. The ideas are subject project you take on; there will be do with a machista environment to a vote; they pick leaders critical stages when you have to that discourages girls from and form work groups. This invest more time and stay up all participating in a whole number experience strengthens night working, but it shouldn’t of different fields; including, and leadership and fosters a sense of always be like that, not only in perhaps especially, technology. entrepreneurship amongst the technology but in any field.” Human history, culture girls who learn how to team- The drop-out of many and knowledge are formed build. They are also encouraged by a body of content that to develop a business model. defines the way we see the What’s more, the Coderise As girls and young women, world. Traditionally, history has programme organises role models been written by the privileged from the world of technology we must not settle for few and large swathes of the in Lima to come and talk to the being ‘cyber victims’, we population are marginalised. girls and also coaches them on They don’t produce content and shyness, aversion to change and must become ‘cybernauts’ therefore don’t influence the planning for the future. Parents and the hostility of the creation of culture. Even though are supportive of the project and these groups have freedom of say they have noticed positive internet, instead of expression they don’t exercise changes in their daughters. intimidating us, should it, and that perpetuates and “The digital divide has to do reinforces the same patterns with education from childhood. make more of us take up that keep the same groups in Girls have few role models to space on the web power and reproduces the same

102 the state of the world’s girls icture s P s ano P ianne Milton/ ianne L

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. of intimidating us, should make more of us take up space on inequalities and injustices. I 12-year-old virgins were being the web. Seizing ownership think that women who are in auctioned off on a web page of technology is an important the public eye and have access using PIN numbers. Reporting way to struggle and become to media are obliged to take on stories like this I’ve learned empowered. Digital media can be back space on the internet for that the vulnerabilities of the about communication, solidarity, women and girls, for minorities real world, the violence and the diversity, advocacy and defending and historically excluded machismo, extend into the virtual girls’ and women’s rights. groups. Only with this kind of world. The same old predators The world today and conscientious effort can we build who prowl for prey and engage tomorrow is being built by a virtual space that is less hostile in human trafficking have a zeros and ones and we are at a and alien to women and one powerful presence on social decisive point where women, and that is truly inclusive. media; inadequate digital security especially girls, can play an active The internet opened the door and data protection practices, and creative role in the present to my career, but on the way plus not being aware enough and future. It’s up to everyone in I’ve also personally experienced of the dangers, can leave girls all walks of life, from the rural to online bullying, constant troll exposed and vulnerable. the urban, in the virtual and the attacks, attempts at smear But, as girls and young physical world, to create a real campaigns and aggressive women, we must not settle for equality where gender doesn’t comments. The internet can be being ‘cyber victims’, we must lead to exclusion but to renewed as mean as it is kind. In 2013 in become ‘cybernauts’ and the creativity, based on diversity of the city of Medellín, for example, hostility of the internet, instead experience.

section 6 : new technology 103 Girls speak out: finding some answers Communication, information, education…

NICARAGUA “I’d encourage girls to complete education and to be aware of pregnancy, to not hold back their dreams.” “Actually, what I’d do first is to make publicity, explaining that the best is to study.”

PAKISTAN ZIMBABWE “If I had enough information then I wouldn’t become pregnant. I am 19 years “Some girls have no option but get old and I have small daughter. I spend all my pregnant through abuse and negligence. time in looking after her. I want to study further.” I would ask the government to create separate schools for them to go to so that “I will make a women’s organisation where I will tell they can get an education.” girls’ parents about early marriages, that they should first educate their girls, and I will ask girls to develop “Educate guardians, parents and the girl confidence in their selves.” child on the importance of being educated rather than being married at an early “I will raise my voice, with the help of media, not to age. Parents and guardians having marry girls at a young age. Give them more auer strong parental guidance of education, like boys, and give stopping early marriages.” ettina b b them respect in society.” plan international/ plan

104 thethe statestate ofof thethe world’sworld’s girlsgirls Communication, information, education…

ECUADOR “I would organise meetings with all the women my age to make demonstrations and marches about women’s rights, that we need information and to talk about topics considered by the society as taboos, to talk openly.” “Talks in the schools. Make them dynamic, because only talking is boring and tiring; make music and theatre, things to open girls’ minds.”

ZIMBABWE “Some girls have no option but get pregnant through abuse and negligence. I would ask the government to create separate schools for them to go to so that they can get an education.” “Educate guardians, parents and the girl child on the importance of being educated rather than being married at an early age. Parents and guardians having strong parental guidance of stopping early marriages.”

section 6 : new technology 105 Unity Fountain, Abuja, o mb a candlelit vigil for the a Ga

m Chibok girls. i h a R

106 the state of the world’s girls #BringBackOurGirls are by Bukky Shonibare b oni h S Bu kky

Bukky Shonibare is a Human Resource and Strategy Consultant in Nigeria . She is the Founder/ Coordinator of Adopt-A-Camp – an initiative that seeks to assist and support Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in northern Nigeria . She recently started a School-In-A-Bag Project aimed at reigniting the interest and quest for education among IDPs and other school-age children whose education is affected by conflict in Nigeria . Bukky is also a strategic team member of the #BringBackOurGirls movement in Abuja .

The cycle continues… credence in cultural norms and practices; Today’s girls are tomorrow’s women. and for a religious country like Nigeria, However, across the globe, governments religion also plays a critical role in what is and civil society groups still struggle deemed acceptable, or not, by God. to bridge the wide gap that exists For the average Nigerian girl child, between girls and women and their male her existence means dealing and coping counterparts. This is not a situation that is with the several challenges that come with rampant in only one part of the world; it being a girl, rather than living a life full of is reflected everywhere, albeit at varying opportunities to be explored. And for girl- degrees. Nigeria is no exception. child rights advocates, the daunting and Girls in Nigeria constantly face the never-ending struggle for the rights of the risk of being the primary victims of girl child has become a lifelong occupation cultural, traditional, religious and other for some, and an opportunity for others. faulty beliefs, which deny them their Both girls and boys should enjoy love rights, dignity, and an enjoyable living and protection from their parents and experience; this begins at infancy and from society, but the girl child is treated continues into the teenage years, and with utmost care. This is not so much an adulthood. expression of love, which would be the case This is reflected in virtually every with her brother, but from the perception sphere of a girl’s existence – social, that she is the weaker, more vulnerable, economic, religious and political. Girls face inferior and naïve of the two sexes. For torrents of issues: including discrimination instance, a boy may be allowed to climb a – the very challenge of being a girl – tree but a girl who attempts to do the same female genital mutilation (FGM); forced/ is told that this is not a ‘girly thing’. early marriage leading to several health This has, from generation to challenges; insufficient or outright lack generation, made many girls grow into of access to education; forced choice women who believe that there are of career; and abuse of different forms limitations and boundaries to what they (sexual, domestic, physical, psychological, can or cannot do. This becomes the very verbal and rejection/neglect). These all find fabric from which girls are made.

section 6 : new technology 107 Finding shelter in Nigeria. o mb a Ga m i h a R So we see a female pilot and look at Secondary School, in Chibok, Borno them twice because we believe she must State, northeastern Nigeria. Boko Haram be a superwoman to be able to consider stormed the school and abducted the girls such a profession. When we dig deep, while they were preparing for their last it becomes apparent that these are senior secondary school exam, between stereotypes formulated by those who have 7.30pm and 11.45pm on the night of 14 come before us, and as such have been April 2014. These were girls who had consciously and unconsciously passed on dared to seek education in a region that to today’s generation. The sad reality is we largely does not value the education of a are also passing the same attitudes to the girl child. For their parents, trying to make next generation. The cycle continues. sure that their girls went to school despite the security situation was seen as a bold Boko Haram – ‘Western step, and for the girls – a daring mission. Education is Forbidden’ In the week that followed the abduction, Into this struggle for equality and girls’ showing great courage, 57 of the Chibok rights comes Boko Haram, which literally schoolgirls escaped. Their friends are yet translates to ‘Western Education Is to be found. Forbidden’. This group of fundamentalists Before the abduction of the Chibok has gained ground over the past five girls, Boko Haram had abducted girls and years in the northeastern part of women, while attacking schools, markets, Nigeria, while spreading operations to religious houses and other soft targets. neighbouring countries – Chad, Niger, On 25 February 2014, the militant group and Cameroon – and perpetrating barged into the Federal Government heinous crimes – abductions, kidnapping, College, Buni Yadi, Yobe State, killing 59 sexual abuse, killings, trafficking and sex boys in the most heart-rending way – they slavery, as well as the displacement of threw explosives into the dormitories thousands and increasing the number of while the boys were sleeping, killing some orphans and widows. and burning the entire 24 classrooms One of the horrific acts perpetrated of the school. Boys who tried to escape by this group was the abduction of were slaughtered, their throats slit; some 276 schoolgirls from the Government died after being shot at close range, while

108 the state of the world’s girls others were burnt. In an understandable be their own daughters, nieces, sisters, or reaction to these murders, parents began even neighbours. The world connected withdrawing their children from boarding and responded. With the social media schools, while several others stopped their population covering governments, the children from going to school altogether. international community, institutions, Undoubtedly, Boko Haram has journalists, news agencies, key actors/ become a major contributing factor to the influencers and politicians, the message increasing percentage of out-of-school girls quickly travelled through every nook and and boys. It has had far-reaching effects cranny of the world. Responders believed on the Nigerian girl child, as education, not their faces and the #BringBackOurGirls really a priority for many families in the first placard would do something; so much place, is now seen as a dreadful venture so that solidarity and support came that puts their lives at risk. from all cadres of people and countries. Abubakar Shekau, leader of Boko Haram, #BringBackOurGirls Movement also released a video during the height of Upon the abduction of the Chibok the campaign, disparaging the hashtag, schoolgirls, the #BringBackOurGirls showing that even he was listening. movement erupted as an outraged Celebrities took response of citizens, mainly women/ turns to be counted People realised the girls mothers, who have had enough of the – from singers like killings of innocent and defenceless Alicia Keys to world could be their own daughters, children. The group staged its first protest leaders like the UK’s nieces, sisters, or even on 30 April to the National Assembly over Prime Minister David the handling of the attacks on children. Cameron, US Secretary neighbours. The world Prior to the on-the-ground protest, of State John Kerry connected and responded the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls had and his predecessor started trending on social media after one Hillary Clinton, US First Lady Michelle of its leaders and former Vice-President Obama and the Pakistani teenage of the World Bank’s Africa Division, education campaigner, Malala Yousafzai, Obiageli Ezekwesili, had, during the not forgetting Nigerian celebrities and opening ceremony of a UNESCO event personalities. The US President, Barack on 23 April, urged the audience to rise Obama, also heard and acted by sending up and say #BringBackOurDaughters, a specialist team to Nigeria to assess #BringBackOurGirls. Watching the event the situation and advise on the help the was a Nigerian lawyer, Ibrahim Abdullahi, American government could provide. who was tweeting the words of the former Time magazine puts it succinctly: “Over Minister. This became the first mention of the next few days, #BringBackOurGirls the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls on social went from 10,000 mentions a day to media. At the same time, Hadiza Bala 100,000 or 200,000. It jumped oceans, Usman, who became the convener of the and thousands of non-Africans began on-the-ground protest on this issue, was using it. Two weeks after its first use, independently gathering women, including #BringBackOurGirls had gathered two Obiageli Ezekwesili, to stage a protest as million mentions.” a way of calling on the government to Social media played a pivotal role in act and ‘Rescue Our Chibok Girls’. What ensuring that the Federal Government of the world saw on 30 April became the Nigeria, which had hitherto denied the convergence of the online rage which abduction, paid attention to the rescue Obiageli Ezekwesili ignited, and the offline of the girls and the general security of its rally, which Hadiza pulled together. citizens. The Paris Summit for security in In no time the hashtag gained Nigeria was held as a result, and actions for momentum. People realised the girls could multilateral collaboration were agreed upon.1

section 6 : new technology 109 So what was the real impact of northern Nigeria are unable to read a #BringBackOurGirls? Once the frenzy sentence, compared to less than 10 per started dying down, people began to cent in the South.5 Only four per cent of ask: how far can a simple hashtag go in girls in the northern region complete their actually bringing back the girls? What secondary-school education.6 do we mean by success? After all, the International responses have been girls were still missing. However, the geared towards tackling the apparent campaigners on the ground in Nigeria widening gaps in education as a result of who have been the main activists the insurgency. The Gordon Brown-led believed, and still do, that because the Safe Schools Initiative has gained some campaign attracted such attention, the ground in ensuring schools are safe for conversation will keep going. The spotlight children to attend. However, there is still in itself will have made a difference. Over the big question of how safe a school can time, the campaign, while continuing to be if the community is not safe. Although put pressure to bring back our girls, has the initiative seeks to evolved into the convergence point of our build community security When girls are valued less shared humanity and empathy for the groups to promote safe voiceless victims of violence and bigotry. zones for education, the than boys, women less than importance of political men, they face multiple Education for all? will and the prioritisation Of the 57 million out-of-school children of ending conflict is yet risks throughout their globally, Nigeria accounts for a shocking to be determined. The lives – at home, at work, at 10.5 million, the largest number in the girl child in northern world.2 The importance of girl-child Nigeria needs more than school, from their families education cannot be overemphasised, and psychological security; and from strangers. yet six million (57 per cent) of children there must be actual not in school are girls.3 Findings show and visible safety that Gender-based violence is that girls drop out of school earlier than would both motivate girls a major consequence of their male counterparts for reasons like to return to school and bullying, distance to school, harassment, encourage their parents gender inequality discrimination or punishment at school, to support that decision. sexual harassment or other dangers at or on the way to school, and, of course, Girls at risk school fees and costs.4 When girls are valued less than boys, School drop-out by girls is worst in women less than men, they face multiple the areas of northern Nigeria where Boko risks throughout their lives – at home, at Haram is most prevalent. To prevent the work, at school, from their families and incessant killings of innocent children from strangers. Gender-based violence is through attacks on schools in a region a major consequence of gender inequality. that has the worst literacy rate worldwide, It is a worldwide phenomenon and its lawmakers, alongside school leaders prevalence in Nigeria is alarming, though and community chiefs, had to make the largely unreported. Such violence is difficult decision to close about 85 at-risk physical, domestic, sexual, psychological schools, affecting nearly 120,000 students and verbal. A lot still has to be done in and possibly causing a permanent end educating and empowering girls with to the educational quest of some of the formal education and life skills while affected pupils. Even in localities where sensitising them on their rights and the schools are open, parents were reported available legal instruments needed to seek to have stopped their children from going redress. More importantly, perpetrators to school. As a result, approximately must be stopped, laws enforced, and the 66 per cent of 15 to 19-year-old girls in practice made completely unacceptable.

110 the state of the world’s girls o mb a Ga m i h a R

Although the Child Rights Act (CRA) of 36 states have not done this. Even where Residents fleeing 2003 raised the minimum age of marriage they have, the provisions of the law are from towns for girls to 18, in Nigeria, 16 per cent of girls not always adhered to – children’s rights occupied by are married by age 15, and 39 per cent by are still abused and violated, with little Boko Haram are age 18.7 In the northwestern region, where or no judicial enforcement. A dauntingly evacuated by early/forced marriage is most prevalent, poor judicial process has made the CRA the Borno state 48 per cent of girls are married by age 15.8 at best unusable and, at worse, a fiction; government, Data also shows that 82 per cent of young protecting the rights of a child – especially Nigeria. women between ages 20 and 24, who are the girl child, who is the primary victim uneducated, attest to being married off by of child rights abuse and violations, has 18 years old, compared to 13 per cent who become painfully dismissible. For this we have at least secondary education.9 Most are all responsible. Discrimination only of their husbands are much older than they hits the headlines when the actions of are, and the huge age difference between extremists are being reported, but for too the child-brides and their spouses also many girls and young women, it is part of takes away the girls’ autonomy and ability their everyday lives. to contribute to decision making, affecting In conclusion, today’s girls can become their sense of relevance, confidence and powerful, responsible contributors to the self-worth. nation’s economy if all of Nigeria pulls its Nigeria, as a signatory to the weight and puts resources together to Convention on the Rights of the Child achieve this. Social media has been shown (CRC) and the African Union Charter to be a force that can unite people across on the Rights and Welfare of the Child continents. The Federal Government needs (CRCW), has pledged to treat all children, to take heed and take action. No girl (or girls and boys, as human beings with boy) should have to choose between rights that must be respected, protected going to school and staying alive. Girls and upheld. The national government also everywhere have the right to an education, passed its own Child Rights Act. But to to be free from violence and to enjoy be enforceable, national legislation has to equality of opportunity – the right to a be adopted state by state and 26 out of fulfilling life.

section 6 : new technology 111 FACT FILE GIRLS AND NEW TECHNOLOGY: BENEFITS AND RISKS

In recent years the Technology and social media have International Girls in ICT Day encourages “We saw the girls to consider studies and careers in ICTs. spread of the internet been used to improve awareness of harassment of adolescent girls and mobile telephones episode of Since 2012 in low-income Meena countries has created The Girl Hub Harass repairing the new opportunities for Map project in Egypt aims tractor and we to encourage people to girls and young thought we 111,000 speak out when they see girls and young women

OUN D women. However, it has this happening. In the first could do it too.” Communications for Development have taken part in more than R also increased risk in year the website had Young woman, G 76,000 visits and received initiatives such as the Meena series terms of online Bringing 600 million additional developed by UNICEF are an effective way Orissa, India 4 bullying, harassment women and girls online could 1,100 reports of harassment2 of changing attitudes to gender issues

BAC K and sexual exploitation. boost global GDP by and girls’ empowerment through pop 3,500 $13-18 billion1 culture using video, radio and cartoons3 events held in 140 countries5

“No one controls where we go with the internet. It is a way of us escaping from our closed society. It is vital to us. It gives us SMS messaging is an effective way of liberty.” S spreading information. Between 2009 Young woman, Internet child abuse is easy to A woman in a low- to and 2012 a mobile-based literacy 9 In the US 23% of females perpetrate and hard to trace. middle-income country is In sub-Saharan Africa there programme in Pakistan supported Mauritania reported cyberbullying, Vulnerable adolescent girls are preyed 21% less likely to own a are almost twice as many men 4,000 women and girls to build their compared to on by adults who, while pretending to ACCES S mobile phone than a man6 as women on the internet7 literacy through SMS messages8 DANGE R 11% of males10 be a friend, ‘groom’ them for sex

Of the calls about sexual abuse to Childline in the UK “We can use the S E X internet to find out 60% how to combat a relate to online exploitation while problem. We can

N I S M alert everyone to the damage being 40% The Everyday Sexism project started in 2012 done… We can also involve face-to-face interactions with the idea that sharing experiences online use ICT to contact Increasingly online campaigns The digital mapping project would bring about change offline. When the the international A recent study in Canada found are emerging using social media ‘SafeCities’ uses a downloadable British Transport Police incorporated the stories community to ask that 85% of victims of online for protest. #BringBackOurGirls mobile phone app that allows users to about harassment on public transport into their for their help.” 82% KI NG AC TI O 16 sexual exploitation were girls and training processes, reporting of sexual offences Adela, 18, Bolivia of callers did not realise they were A was shared 5 million times report unsafe spaces, find out about 11 15 12 T 13 14 112the avtheerage state age w ofas 1the3 world’s girlsbeing targeted for sexual abuse in 4 months support services, and take action on London Transport increased by 35% FACT FILE GIRLS AND NEW TECHNOLOGY: BENEFITS AND RISKS

In recent years the Technology and social media have International Girls in ICT Day encourages “We saw the girls to consider studies and careers in ICTs. spread of the internet been used to improve awareness of harassment of adolescent girls and mobile telephones episode of Since 2012 in low-income Meena countries has created The Girl Hub Harass repairing the new opportunities for Map project in Egypt aims tractor and we to encourage people to girls and young thought we 111,000 speak out when they see girls and young women

OUN D women. However, it has this happening. In the first could do it too.” Communications for Development have taken part in more than R also increased risk in year the website had Young woman, G 76,000 visits and received initiatives such as the Meena series terms of online Bringing 600 million additional developed by UNICEF are an effective way Orissa, India 4 bullying, harassment women and girls online could 1,100 reports of harassment2 of changing attitudes to gender issues

BAC K and sexual exploitation. boost global GDP by and girls’ empowerment through pop 3,500 $13-18 billion1 culture using video, radio and cartoons3 events held in 140 countries5

“No one controls where we go with the internet. It is a way of us escaping from our closed society. It is vital to us. It gives us SMS messaging is an effective way of liberty.” S spreading information. Between 2009 Young woman, Internet child abuse is easy to A woman in a low- to and 2012 a mobile-based literacy 9 In the US 23% of females perpetrate and hard to trace. middle-income country is In sub-Saharan Africa there programme in Pakistan supported Mauritania reported cyberbullying, Vulnerable adolescent girls are preyed 21% less likely to own a are almost twice as many men 4,000 women and girls to build their compared to on by adults who, while pretending to ACCES S mobile phone than a man6 as women on the internet7 literacy through SMS messages8 DANGE R 11% of males10 be a friend, ‘groom’ them for sex

Of the calls about sexual abuse to Childline in the UK “We can use the S E X internet to find out 60% how to combat a relate to online exploitation while problem. We can

N I S M alert everyone to the damage being 40% The Everyday Sexism project started in 2012 done… We can also involve face-to-face interactions with the idea that sharing experiences online use ICT to contact Increasingly online campaigns The digital mapping project would bring about change offline. When the the international A recent study in Canada found are emerging using social media ‘SafeCities’ uses a downloadable British Transport Police incorporated the stories community to ask that 85% of victims of online for protest. #BringBackOurGirls mobile phone app that allows users to about harassment on public transport into their for their help.” 82% KI NG AC TI O 16 sexual exploitation were girls and training processes, reporting of sexual offences Adela, 18, Bolivia of callers did not realise they were A was shared 5 million times report unsafe spaces, find out about 11 15 12 T 13 14 the average age was 13 being targeted for sexual abuse in 4 months support services, and take action on London Transport increased by 35% 113 ‘When I was a child’ by Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal El Saadawi is an internationally renowned writer, novelist, medical doctor and fighter for women’s rights . She trained as a doctor (Cairo University), later becoming Cairo’s Director of Public Health . She has taught g in universities worldwide and received several international itMa awards and accolades for her work in human rights . Her L LE B

A writing has influenced five generations of women and men, S paving the way for dissidence, rebellion and revolution, and she has often suffered imprisonment, exile and death threats because of her beliefs . Nawal El Saadawi has written over 40 books in Arabic and lives in Egypt . Her works of fiction and non-fiction have been translated into at least 40 languages throughout the world .

hen I was a child, I used to But my mother said: “The Whave a secret diary. It was ancient Egyptian goddess Isis was my only friend. I used to hug the goddess of wisdom and Eve it at night, when the universe was the first one to reap the fruit went to sleep. In my diary, I of knowledge. She became the wrote about things that did goddess of knowledge.” not satisfy God or my religious In my childhood diary, I education teacher. My teacher wondered how the mind could be used to speak in the name of an exclusively masculine faculty Allah and say: “The mind is a while knowledge and wisdom masculine faculty which females are feminine qualities. Was this are lacking.” reasonable? s e g a y Im ollection/Gett icture C E P F e LI Th / y r d an b L

Bo Egypt, 1942.

114 thethe statestate ofof thethe world’sworld’s girlsgirls section 7 : final words

section 7 : final words 115 Most of what I used to My mother set me free supported me, too, seeing that hear was not only unreasonable I had outshone my brother in but contradictory. My rural from fear of eternal education and learning. grandmother, who couldn’t damnation. She also Through painful experiences write and couldn’t read even the in love, marriage, divorce and Quran, used to say that God is encouraged me to write, motherhood, I overcame the justice and that we recognise Him unlike my teacher, who culture and the norms of my through the mind. parents and our patriarchal and Despite this, I believed that punished me for doing so hierarchical society. I did not limit God was unfair to me every what I read to the curriculum second of my life. He preferred stupidity, certain kinds of beauty imposed by our oppressive my brother to me in everything, and female tenderness. government, not only in school even though God was the one I might have lost my self- but in society at large; thanks who created me to be a girl and confidence and my mind to my free reading, I grew up, made my brother a male. completely because of that. evolved and recognised how fake I wrote in my secret I could have ended up living these opposites are: masculine/ diary: “God is unfair.” Then I at the bottom of the social feminine, mind/body, sky/ immediately erased what I wrote ladder, like most of the girls of ground, God/Demon, spiritual/ for fear of getting burned in the my generation, had it not been material, black/white, ruler/ fires of hell. for my mother, who managed ruled or master/slave. My mind I started to feel confused to preserve part of her own evolved and my self-confidence between two assumptions: childhood rebellion. She aspired grew through individual and either God is fair but my mind is to a better life for me than the group rebellion against injustice incomplete and can’t recognise one she had led. She whispered in the family, in society and in God’s wisdom, or God is unfair in my ears, saying, “There is no the country. I continued reading and I have a sound mind. burning hell.” and writing about what destroys But the last sentence made This is how my mother set restrictions and taboos. I went on everyone mad at me, including me free from fear of eternal travelling and exploring different my grandmother, my mother, my damnation. She also encouraged cultures and countries. father and my male and female me to write, unlike my teacher, teachers. Education, culture, who punished me for doing so. ‘Honour’ and female the radio, law, religion, ethics – She supported me during the genital mutilation everything around me was based different stages of my life and The idea of the feminine has on the absolute certainty of, and rescued me from forced marriage changed over the years due to ultimate belief in, God’s justice. when I was 10 years old. My the sexual and social tragedies This is why I began to doubt mother insisted that I continue that women and girls were myself and my mind so that I too with my university education exposed to but never spoke could believe in God’s justice. at the Faculty of Medicine. She about. Egyptian girls used to be A girl’s lack of self-confidence refused to make me stay at killed if they didn’t bleed when is due to the social and religious home to help her out with the they had sexual intercourse on upbringing and the intellectual cooking, as my father advised. their wedding night. The concept restrictions imposed on her from My mother bore all the fatigue of ‘honour’ was linked to those early childhood. This leads to and the sore fingers that resulted few drops of blood. low self-esteem and to the girl from washing the dishes for nine Egyptian girls also undergo feeling physically, psychologically children and their father, just so the dangerous practice of female and mentally weak. Hence, that I could continue with my genital mutilation (FGM) because she surrenders to orders and higher education. it is claimed that it preserves blindly obeys them. She accepts So, thanks to my mother’s virginity and chastity. and internalises all the foolish support, I regained my self- In the middle of the 20th gender-attributed characteristics confidence and a belief in my century, liberal views began of femininity, such as shyness, sound mind. Later on, my father emerging through the pens of

116 the state of the world’s girls male and female pioneers. These childhood, between the ages of freedom nearly as great as the began to change traditional seven and 11. freedom of girls in Europe and views on gender, especially At the end of 2012, for the America. They even dress in among some educated Egyptian first time, the United Nations modern clothes that partly reveal families. (UN) issued a clear resolution their chest or legs. Sometimes New ideas and awareness banning all forms of FGM. But, a girl will cover her head with about the dangerous according to UN statistics, more a colourful veil decorated with consequences of FGM began to than 140 million women in 26 beads (according to the fashion), increase. By 2008, this compelled countries still suffer from FGM. yet her stomach shows above the Egyptian government to pass her tight jeans. An upper- and a law criminalising FGM. Increasing inequality gaps and middle-class girl will also study This same law also granted contradictions at the Egyptian University or the single mothers the right to Inequality in Egypt has escalated American University in Cairo; she register her son or daughter in the past 40 years due to the will have male friends and have under her name only, and also increasing control of external sexual relations before marriage gave her child the right to a birth colonial capitalism, internal and then get married after having certificate and to enrol in school. tyranny and the rise of radical surgery to restore her hymen, or Before that, a child whose religious groups. Poverty rates will buy an imported, artificial father was unknown used to be have also increased, and women hymen. deprived of the right to a birth have been the most affected. In general, the Egyptian certificate and was stigmatised Gender-based discrimination girl feels torn between the and labelled an ‘illegitimate prevails economically, politically consuming values of the child’. and socially. free global market and the These partial changes in The majority of poor ethical dogmatism of religious Egyptian law could not have Egyptian people still adhere to fundamentalist groups; except for taken place had it not been for old traditions combined with a few, who have the awareness, the long struggles of female radical religious views that have courage and self-confidence to pioneers. They were jailed, sent been on the rise over the past 40 challenge and defeat this double into exile and defamed. They years along with the spread of corruption. paid an expensive price for corruption, the sex trade, and the liberty. Thanks are also due to trafficking of human organs. In Women and the law the struggle of revolutionary the free market, everything has Much of women’s oppression in women’s organisations that were become a commodity, including Egypt is enshrined in two laws exposed to assault, closure or girls’ and women’s bodies. which are based on religious confiscation under the rule of The contradiction between principles: the Personal Affairs oppressive regimes. prevailing values in Egyptian Law and the Family Law, which But although FGM has been society has become severe. A relates to marriage, divorce, outlawed in Egypt since 2008, working-class girl wears a veil and inheritance. The Egyptian the law is not enforced, due to from childhood. She goes to Personal Affairs Law is based on a lack of government will and primary school dressed in a veil. Islamic principles in the case of poor management in the face of When she gets married, she stays Muslims, and the Coptic principles deeply rooted traditions that have at home to look after the family. in the case of Christians. In both been passed down generations She gets exposed to domestic religions, the wife is subordinate since the time of slavery. Even violence, beating and oppression to masculine values that favour today, FGM continues to affect because she is dependent on men just because God created Coptic Christian and Muslim her husband. If ever she starts them to be males. girls alike. Only a few educated to work, it is just to increase the Even working women remain families stop their daughters family’s income. subordinate to their husbands, undergoing FGM. The vast On the other hand, the according to the existing Family majority (more than 90 per cent daughters of high and upper Law, which grants husbands of girls) undergo FGM during middle-class families enjoy a the right to divorce their wives

section 7 : final words 117 s icture s P ano P ett/ k ric or P Iv Protesters in Tahrir Square, Egypt, 2011. “civil and unified” and applied to all Egyptians, whether male or without any reason and to marry developed following the January female, Muslim or Coptic. This four wives at the same time. It 2011 and June 2013 revolutions, law should be founded on the also allows husbands to beat their stipulates in Article 2 that Islam is principle of equality between wives to teach them discipline, the religion of the State and that men and women in terms of justifying this by one of the verses Islamic law is the main source rights and duties inside and in the Quran. A woman’s share of for legislation. But the reality outside the family. any inheritance is half of a man’s, reveals that all laws in Egypt are So far, these demands have even if she is the breadwinner civil laws and are not derived been in vain. But they might of the family. Children carry the from any religious laws – with the be achieved one day, provided name of their fathers, while the exception of the Personal Affairs that the individual and group names of mothers fade out of Law or Family Law. revolutionary struggle continues. family history. A father can sell After the January 2011 off his adolescent daughter by revolution, the fear barrier was Women and the ‘Arab Spring‘ marrying her off to a man 50 broken. The voice of women During the 2011 revolution, or 60 years – or, sometimes, became louder during protests thousands of men and women even more – her senior. This is in and strikes. One of their came to Tahrir Square in Cairo. At exchange for a number of pounds demands was the modification of night they slept in tents: men and – the so-called dowry. the Personal Affairs Law and for women, old and young, Muslims The Egyptian Constitution, a new Family Law that must be and Christians. Not a single man

118 the state of the world’s girls harassed a woman; nor was There is still a hope in the the fact that the new Egyptian there a single incident of theft, constitution, developed after the nor a church burnt. The Egyptian future that hasn’t faded two revolutions, prevented the people revealed their ancient or been extinguished. establishment of parties based culture, one that is deeply rooted on religion. Such parties are in history and goes back more This hope is reflected in intellectually backward. They than 7,000 years to the time of movements of young people hide hostility towards women. Isis, the goddess of wisdom and And they force women to wear a knowledge; Maat, the goddess of from all over the world veil that shows only their eyes. justice and law; and Sekhmet, the goddess of medicine and health. whole world, is ruled by power, Hope for the future But when President not justice. Yet the oppression Despite the attacks against the Mubarak fell on 11 February of the girls in prison became a revolutionary youth by internal 2011, the Military Council took flagrant symbol that mobilised and external forces, there is still over, headed by Field Marshal public opinion within and beyond a hope in the future that hasn’t Tantawey. The oppression of Egypt, and increased people’s faded or been extinguished. This the revolutionaries, whether awareness of the need to hope is reflected in movements men or women, started. Some continue with the struggle. of young people from all over the were killed; others were dragged Thus Egyptian women played world. The revolution continues, through the streets. They were an important role during the despite being scattered. It also attacked by male thugs January 2011 revolution, a role continues to seek to achieve who suddenly appeared in Tahrir which continued during the June its four goals of Freedom, and other squares. Women 2013 revolution. This revolution Independence, Justice and and girls began to be harassed, achieved some successes. It Dignity. something that had been totally succeeded in toppling the Although I’m over 80 years absent during the first days of the heads of a religious political old, I still reach out and touch my revolution. regime based on corruption and childhood diary. I still remember The new regime started by hierarchy, but it didn’t manage my childhood as though it were burning down churches, killing to change the hierarchy, or the yesterday. I still see my mother revolutionaries on the streets institutions of the regime that coming back to life and laughing and in the squares, and harassing control the people, especially as though death did not exist. women, who were attacked women and the poor. I hear my mother laughing as I by thugs hired by the ruling During 2014, there were new used to hear her when I was a power, accusing them of moral initiatives in Egypt in order to child. She had a unique laughter corruption. During their peaceful increase the number of female that was different from all march on International Women’s representatives in the new other laughter in the world. Her Day, 8 March 2011, some were parliament to 100 seats (out of a laughter used to invade my body, arrested and jailed in the military total of 542 seats in parliament). make me feel warm, as though it prison, where, in order to have But achieving 50 per cent of the were a ray of sunshine in winter. their virginity checked, they were seats (the percentage of women It is similar to my daughter’s subjected to physical abuse. in the database of electoral laughter, to my own, and to the Yet this did not discourage votes) is very unlikely to happen laughter of all the girls around the imprisoned girls and women; under the male-dominated me; of the youth who took part it simply increased their rage. political power that rules over in our revolution. Not a day One of them, Samira Ibrahim, the political and religious parties, passes without hearing one of raised the issue by filing a lawsuit culture, education and the public them saying to me: “Your book in court against those who institutions of the state. has changed my life.” were responsible for checking Instead, the religion-based This is my life’s reward: one her virginity in prison. In the parties have become stronger that is able to erase the pains and end, no official was punished; in Egypt since the fall of the suffering I experienced during the patriarchal law in Egypt, and the Muslim Brotherhood, despite different stages of my life.

section 7 : final words 119 Pakistan. lan international P

120 the state of the world’s girls voices of hope: charting the future

by Sharon Goulds and Sarah Hendriks

n these pages we have heard from on gender-based violence at school and Imany different people, young and old, in the community, about early marriage writers and activists, politicians and and early pregnancy. Most importantly, economists. We have heard from Nigeria these 4,219 girls across three continents and Afghanistan, from Sierra Leone and were asked what could be done to combat Colombia, from Egypt, the United States the challenges they face, and to identify and Pakistan. Mariane Pearl and Sally who should be primarily responsible to Armstrong tell the moving and inspiring make sure that something is, indeed, stories of the many girls and young done. The young woman in Pakistan who women they have talked to from different said “girls should take their own decisions cultures and countries and with diverse about their lives. They should get a proper opinions and experiences. In our final education and both the government story, Joanne Harris takes us inside the and family members should agree about life of a young girl, Ngok – which means this” pinpoints clearly where the action the crocodile – working the River Congo. for change must begin and who the key In all the stories we have heard and the actors should be. places we have been there is a perhaps As we scrutinise the primary surprising amount of optimism. Voices research findings of ‘Girls Speak Out’, are angry, and often sad, but also full we find a clear consensus in many of energy, passion and hope. “There is areas. Participants from four different still,” as Nawal El Saadawi writes after 70 countries told us quite unambiguously that years of activism, “a hope in the future adolescent girls are becoming more valued that hasn’t faded or been extinguished.” in their communities than they used to be, Discrimination against women and girls is and the vast majority, 88 per cent, agree acknowledged and vividly illustrated by all that girls have more opportunities in life our contributors, but nobody is resigned than their mothers did. to it. For this report Plan International, “I have more opportunities in life than my mother working with Ipsos MORI, also did at my age” commissioned research with 4,219 girls in four countries – Ecuador, Nicaragua, Pakistan and Zimbabwe.1 We asked them specific questions on four areas that thousands of adolescent girls in these countries had identified in an earlier ✔ ✘ research study, ‘Hear Our Voices’, as the Agree 88% Disagree 6% most pressing issues in their lives.2 In this year’s continuing study, ‘Girls Speak Out’, we asked girls about their perspectives

section 7 : final words 121 Overall, this sense of optimism is at How often would you say that girls are encouraged by their its highest among girls who have spent parents to succeed at school as much as boys? more than nine years in school and there 7 17 may well be a link between girls feeling 86 more valued and the recent emphasis 77 on education for girls. The research also Zimbabwe Ecuador reveals that most girls feel that their parents encourage them to succeed at 9 Never/Seldom 5 Sometimes school as much as they do their sons. In 8 Zimbabwe, 86 per cent of girls agreed that 9 Often/Always this was true, although the figure fell to 57 57 per cent in Pakistan. Pakistan Nicaragua So there is progress. 83 But these important successes mask 23 20 an unacceptable failure. Girls’ actual lives, as we also know from our research, still demonstrate a significant lack of equality and opportunity. Large numbers of girls How often would you say that girls and boys share the across all four countries told us that they housework equally? have little control over the decisions that 14 35 determine their fate, that they need more 26 information to avoid early pregnancy and 32 marriage, and that they lack the confidence 60 Zimbabwe Ecuador to stand up for themselves when they 33 would like to. Among the girls we Never/Seldom interviewed, only 37 per cent believed that Sometimes they were often or always given the same 15 Often/Always opportunities as boys to get on in life. 18 47 Across all four countries, adolescent Pakistan Nicaragua girls painted a consistent picture of the 19 67 ways their lives are limited. Most girls do 34 not feel they have as much opportunity as boys to use the internet and social media. They also take on more domestic work, which is not shared equally with How often would you say that girls feel confident to speak boys: in Ecuador, 35 per cent of girls said up and be heard when in the presence of boys and men? household work is ‘never’ or ‘seldom’ 25 29 shared equally, and this rose to 67 per 34 cent in Pakistan. 34 Overall, only one in three girls Zimbabwe Ecuador across the four countries have the 41 37 confidence to speak up and be heard in Never/Seldom the presence of boys and men. This is Sometimes Often/Always deeply striking: being seen and heard 29 and having the confidence to speak 42 out is the cornerstone to equality and Pakistan Nicaragua 31 empowerment. 22

Throughout girls’ responses, violence, 40 36 or the fear of violence, is a pervasive theme. For example, girls consistently see early or forced marriage as a factor

122 the state of the world’s girls in increasing the risk of violence: 68 per make decisions about their own lives. cent of the 4,219 girls interviewed in this Among girls with at least nine years study said that girls who marry young in school, 56 per cent are less likely to would be more likely to experience experience family and social pressure to violence in the home. Their mobility and marry young. Findings in Pakistan also freedom is also very much restricted by suggest that the greater number of years the fear of violence; many girls think a girl spends in education, the more likely they should not go out after dark and she is to agree with statements relating to that what they wear directly causes the equality and empowerment, to recognise harassment they face. the negative consequences of early marriage and pregnancy and to believe What’s to be done? that abuse and violence against women Across the research it is very clear that (in various guises) is unacceptable. Girls girls have a solid grasp of the constraints across other countries are also well aware in their lives, and of the of the value of education. solutions that will bring As one young woman from Are girls your age given about real change. As Zimbabwe told us, girls as many opportunities expert witnesses, they have want the society they live in as boys to get on in life? told us unequivocally what to recognise this too: “The needs to be done. So what community should value a do girls want in response girl’s education and have to the injustices that Always Never equal job opportunities they face? Girls want 18% 18% for them as much as their parents to listen the boy child. Girls to them more, to should be taught on support them more Seldom how to speak out Often 17% and, although they 19% and be heard in the are determined to community.” help themselves, they Sometimes In relation to also want the problem 28% early pregnancy, early of violence recognised by marriage and gender- their communities and the based violence, it was national authorities. the plea for information, and Again and again the ‘Girls’ Speak communication in school, at home and Out’ study points to the power of in the media, which was prioritised education. Across the research, data above any form of legislation or policy consistently shows that at least nine years change. Programmes of education, safe of education plays an important role spaces, awareness campaigns, breaking in protecting girls from early marriage, taboos, building confidence, “calling increasing their confidence and their the police and breaking the silence” awareness of their rights. Girls who and, as one young woman in Pakistan spend more years in school feel more put it, “education about self-esteem” valued in the community, negotiate their were called for again and again. It is relationships on more equal terms and are these voices that need to be heard by less likely to blame themselves for their the policy makers and legislators if the experiences of violence in school, on the empowerment of women and girls is streets or at home. to be key to the future success of the In Pakistan there is a positive Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). relationship between completing education and an increased sense of Freida Pinto on tackling inequality: agency by girls who are better able to https://plan-international.org/girlsreport5

section 7 : final words 123 Taking responsibility for change although girls in Zimbabwe want tougher penalties Throughout the research, it is striking that girls see for boys and men who abuse girls. Only in Ecuador the key to changing their lives for the better to be the is the role of men, in this case fathers and male care- responsibility largely of themselves and their families, givers, given any real importance. rather than of the government or community and These responses display little faith in the rule of religious leaders. The only exception to this is the way law or the work of the state authorities and put far they view the role of the police as critical in protecting too much onus on girls and young women to change them from violence. Otherwise, it is the education of the world around them. They also demonstrate, girls, their own empowerment, which is seen as driving though to a lesser degree in Nicaragua, how girls progress and unlocking change. This perspective is look to the personal, rather than the political, to in many ways heartening, but it nevertheless reflects bring about change. It shows us clearly that the some lack of understanding of the structural and importance of what goes on inside families – what institutional barriers that have impeded the progress attitudes they inculcate, and how they value their of gender equality for generations. It is society, not girls – cannot be under-estimated. just girls, that needs to change. In Ecuador one young woman urged girls to With the exception of Nicaragua, it is the family “make friends with your mom” so that she can and girls themselves, not the state, who are seen as guide you; in Pakistan there is the sense that “our primarily responsible for improving the lives of girls. elders take all decisions”; and in Nicaragua nearly In Ecuador and Zimbabwe, mothers and female care- half of girls feel that a supportive attitude from givers top the list; in Pakistan it is girls themselves, families towards young girls who get pregnant is very and in Nicaragua it is the police and security services important. The primacy of the family in perpetuating followed by girls themselves. There is little sense of gender inequality is often ignored and what happens the responsibility of the perpetrator to end violence, in the privacy of people’s homes and hearts is of

Who should be responsible for improving the situation for girls in the area where you live?

Prompted Suggestions Ecuador Nicaragua Pakistan Zimbabwe

Mothers and female care-givers 63% 35% 54% 54%

Girls themselves 33% 47% 61% 49%

Police or security services 46% 51% 38% 42%

Fathers and male care-givers 56% 27% 46% 7%

Government/Ministry for the family (Nicaragua) 19% 39% 19% 24%

Community based organisations for women or girls 15% 14% 19% 43%

Religious leaders/community leaders 14% 26% 14% 22%

Schools/school teachers 17% 17% 18% 22%

Wider family members, such as aunts or uncles 5% 25% 11% 32%

Boys 5% 17% 12% 2%

Top few mentions Lowest number of mentions

124 the state of the world’s girls course difficult to know and therefore hard to change. Because I am a girl The girls we spoke to reflect this dilemma; they look In last year’s ‘Because I am a Girl’ report we to their own empowerment, but they need their looked at the need for structural change and at the families to support and value them if they are to be embedded strength of discrimination against girls able to speak out, be heard and become full citizens and women across the world. Legislation alone will with equal rights and responsibilities. not be enough to bring about change, though it needs to be there. Policy change, advocacy efforts Hearing their voices and even additional resources will not be enough, Overall, the picture that emerges of girls’ lives and though they too need to be there. Fundamentally, their solutions to the challenges they face is one change will only come about when the value of girls’ of great complexity. When we listen carefully to lives dramatically improves, when everyone in society what girls and young women are saying, they are values girls and believes in their potential. This does telling us very clearly that discrimination starts at mean changes to legislation, policy and institutional home and that one of the things they need, if they resources, yes. But it also means that established are to achieve equality and realise their rights, is attitudes which hold girls down and keep girls back supportive and supported families. It is not just must be overturned. This year, the voices of the girls who need to be educated, but families and report speak to hope, to renewed opportunity and to communities and the men who run them: “I would the potential transformation of girls’ lives. Mariane teach them [men] that as you respect your females Pearl speaks for many when she says: “I have now you should have to respect other females” as one read, seen and heard hundreds of stories of women young woman in Pakistan commented. and girls and I have never failed to find a will to seek Much of the evidence we have demonstrates change, at often high personal costs, for the sake of the gaps on the ground and the importance of others... The changes that are under way are indeed understanding who we are talking about and to. All unprecedented as women and girls claim their rights girls have rights, but their route to realising them to their lives, their bodies and their story.” will differ according to their class, age, location, With the voices of girls ringing in our ears, now family life, disabilities and sexual orientation. From is the time to understand that they themselves want our own research it is clear that there are differences to learn, lead and decide how they wish to live their from country to country and, within countries, from lives. If the global movement for girls’ rights becomes region to region. Girls in rural areas face different truly local, led by girls and young women in many challenges from those in urban areas. The context different places and spaces, dealing comprehensively of discrimination is as important as the fact of with the underlying causes of gender injustice, there is discrimination itself if change is to be brought about. It hope for a renewed future for men, women, girls and is imperative that the voices of adolescent girls inform boys. There is no magic bullet or universal solution, the implementation of the Sustainable Development but progress has been made and in the years ahead Goals and that they give specific attention to the most we can and must listen to girls as they speak out. We marginalised, acknowledging the multiple forms of must move forward alongside this generation of girls discrimination that many girls experience. and young women as they take their place as equal In addition to the clear emphasis on the family, members of a transformed society. these voices also talk about the responsibilities At Plan International in the coming years we of police and security services to keep girls safe. pledge to work with girls, and with women, boys They talk of campaigning and collective organising and men, for girls’ rights; to campaign alongside and of the role of women’s groups in sticking up them, to design programmes that listen to their needs for and protecting girls. They speak in fact to the and opinions and to prioritise the education they so responsibility of all of us, from legislators and state obviously value. ‘Because I am a Girl’ is now the banner authorities, to family and community members, to for change, no longer the reason why you learn less, bring about real change. eat less and are valued less. In 2007 a 15-year-old Girls will speak out, as we know from our girl in Nepal told us that despite all her efforts, her research, but are we listening? And is there the will, parents “only have praise for my brother”. In the years and the funding, to put into practice some of the to come we must ensure that her daughter, and girls recommendations that they spell out? everywhere, will never utter those words.

section 7 : final words 125 Finding some answers: Girls Speak Out 3

Throughout our research we asked girls not just The issues of continuing education while what they worry about and how their lives are pregnant, and returning to school after having a restricted but also what they think should be baby, were identified by girls in some countries done, and how their lives and opportunities can as a core challenge. For example, young mothers be expanded and improved . They had a lot to say in Pakistan were least likely to return to school and many of their ideas are below . The detailed after giving birth. And only 18 per cent of girls in research report can be found online at Zimbabwe felt that they could continue to go to plan-international org/girls. school while pregnant. The desire for information on pregnancy and Young mothers sexual and reproductive health is a dominant In ‘Girls Speak Out’, having children too young is a theme. The overall picture that emerges from the pressing concern. Adolescent girls know it disrupts research is a demand for more openness about their education, affects their health and limits sex and for more creative ways of talking about their choices in life. As one girl in Nicaragua put sexuality, contraception and pregnancy. When it, girls should be encouraged “to complete their we ask very specifically “what should be done?”, education and to be aware of pregnancy, to not girls ask for “a sexual education programme”, for hold back their dreams”. talks about “sexuality topics”, for access to and

Nicaragua. z are v uel A l uel g nternational/Mi lan I lan P

126 the state of the world’s girls What girls want: dealing with early pregnancy

Prompted Suggestions* Ecuador Nicaragua Pakistan Zimbabwe

Supportive attitudes of families and communities 62% 46% 45% 57% towards girls who get pregnant Alternative education opportunities 48% 44% 40% 64% to complete secondary education Better access to affordable healthcare 51% 46% 50% 38% services for young mothers Girls with babies or young children 46% 44% 34% 54% being allowed to return to school Boys/fathers helping girls with 33% 54% 49% 16% childcare and domestic chores

Childcare services at school, such as nurseries 27% 45% 24% 21%

Access to government money for child support 20% 20% 24% 44%

Top few mentions Lowest number of mentions *Respondents chose three out of seven suggestions.

knowledge about contraception: “I would give out woman from Ecuador tells us: “I would organise condoms so that they are not ashamed to ask for meetings with all the women my age to make them ”. demonstrations and march about women’s rights, In Ecuador and Nicaragua girls want more that we need information and to talk about topics education on contraception and sexuality, considered by the society as taboos, to talk with campaigns in schools and in the media: openly ”. “First I would carry out prevention campaigns Girls in all four countries saw early pregnancy regarding pregnancy and sexually transmitted as dangerous to their health and many also diseases, since they do not know what having reflected on the responsibilities of motherhood: sex can bring ”. In Pakistan, girls are asking for “I would give them talks; provide them with more information about the risks and problems more information about the risks . It is a huge of getting pregnant at a young age as well as responsibility to have babies at an early age ”. information about how to prevent pregnancy. For girls who do become pregnant, it is Education and information also emerge as a strong emotional and practical family support, the theme in Zimbabwe; nearly half of girls (47 per opportunity to finish secondary education, and cent) focus on the need for education on sexual access to healthcare that are top of the list of what health and contraception, with almost two-thirds they want. Alternative educational opportunities, also asserting that this education should focus on enabling girls to complete secondary education, is teaching girls to abstain from sex at a young age. seen as more important than receiving government Zimbabwe is the only country where abstinence money for child support. Girls in Pakistan pointed is seen by girls as a solution to early pregnancy. to the importance of affordable healthcare It is also the country where levels of equality in services, and in Zimbabwe they highlighted the relationships appear to be low. importance of policies which will enable young In several countries there is an emphasis mothers to return to school. also on collective action, working with women’s Interestingly, support from boys and groups and breaking down taboos, as this young fathers does not come across as a top priority

section 7 : final words 127 What girls want: tackling child marriage

Prompted Suggestions Ecuador Nicaragua Pakistan Zimbabwe

Girls having more confidence to raise issues 61% 43% 34% 42% with their family or in the community

Girls having access to better quality secondary education 41% 47% 45% 42%

Girls being able to decide for themselves 30% 59% 26% 47% when and who they marry

Families and communities valuing girls’ education more 38% 41% 42% 35%

Girls having access to paid and 39% 29% 26% 30% dignified work opportunities

Media campaigns that oppose child marriage 24% 25% 33% 24%

Discussing the issue of early marriage with men and boys 32% 20% 30% 19%

Better national laws to prevent child marriage 19% 13% 32% 36%

Community leaders publicly condemning child marriage 6% 21% 17% 21%

Top few mentions Lowest number of mentions

in any of the countries. However, some of their half the girls in Pakistan and Nicaragua, and 40 per recommendations show a more widespread cent in Ecuador and Zimbabwe, say that education acknowledgment of the role of boys and men: is the key factor in child marriage prevention. one girl from Ecuador suggests raising “awareness Specifically, it is access to quality secondary among the boys as sometimes they are more education that is most important to adolescent guilty than the girls”. girls and it is girls who are currently in school who see the value of education as a core solution to Child marriage early marriage, more so than those who are not: Girls consistently point to the issue of child, early “Education is very important so I will tell [other and forced marriage as one of the most pressing girls] to complete their education so that they can concerns in their lives. In analysing the solutions do anything in their life, and then they won’t need that girls proposed across the four countries, anyone’s help” commented one girl from Pakistan. there is a coherent emphasis on building girls’ While girls focus their solutions on both their confidence, choice and empowerment. Girls own empowerment and education, they also see everywhere say they need to be in control of this that wider changes in society need to be led by important decision in their lives. And they need the those in power. In particular, girls overwhelmingly confidence to speak up and have their voices heard assert that families and communities must change on this matter. Almost half (47 per cent) of girls in how they value girls’ education. Girls in Ecuador Zimbabwe feel that the core solution is for girls to highlight the important role that parents play in be able to decide for themselves when and who preventing early marriage, and the significance of they marry. involving parents and girls together in discussions Girls overwhelmingly also pointed to the about marriage. In Pakistan, girls place particular power of education as an important factor in emphasis on how families and communities value preventing child, early and forced marriage. Almost girls’ education. Twenty-nine per cent of girls

128 the state of the world’s girls What girls want: tackling violence and abuse in the community

Prompted Suggestions Ecuador Nicaragua Pakistan Zimbabwe

Girls having someone they trust who they can talk 37% 52% 51% 49% to if they experience any abuse or violence Girls feeling able to report violence or abuse to community 37% 37% 41% 44% leaders, local authorities or police without being afraid Girls having better access to information and 41% 43% 46% 35% training to protect themselves from violence Governments and the police acting to tackle problems 38% 48% 35% 36% with alcohol or drug use in the local area Working with boys and men to educate them about the 33% 33% 30% 27% harmful effects of violence and abuse towards girls Tougher penalties for boys or men who abuse or are violent 38% 38% 33% 48% towards girls or women, such as longer prison sentences

Families and communities valuing girls the same as boys 30% 28% 39% 20%

Safe places and groups where girls and women can share 38% 20% 13% 36% information and experiences related to violence and abuse

Top few mentions Lowest number of mentions

in Pakistan call for education that would teach asked whether it would be better for a girl not to parents not to force their daughters into marrying tell anyone that she had been raped, the numbers at a young age: “I guess we should explain to all decline in most countries. In Pakistan 67 per cent parents, because if they are sensible they will take of girls choose silence. the right decision and we can solve this issue, When it comes to public transportation there otherwise it is not possible ”. are some shocking statistics. A large number of Girls want to see educational programmes and respondents in each country believe that girls campaigns in the community that explain the risks should not travel on public transportation without and consequences associated with child marriage. a male family member or friend travelling with “I would have media campaigns to fight against them. In Ecuador, about a quarter of girls accept marriage at an early age due to its consequences” this, whereas the numbers more than double in was one recommendation from Nicaragua. Pakistan, with over half not believing that they have the right to catch a bus, train or tram without Violence against girls at home and in the a male escort. When asked if they agree that community girls should not be seen in public after dark, the Girls are unequivocal in not accepting violence majority of girls in each country either ‘agree’ or from husbands and partners and very aware of are unsure. In Zimbabwe, 90 per cent of girls are their rights in this area. The vast majority of girls either in agreement or uncertain if girls should be (80-100 per cent) across all countries disagree that seen in public after dark. it is ever acceptable for a boy to hit or use violence When we asked girls what should be done against them. Girls overwhelmingly reject the use about the violence and abuse that they face in of violence at home – women should not put up their communities, the most popular response with it. This came across particularly strongly in across nearly all countries was the need for the two Latin American countries. However, when someone that girls trust to talk to when they

section 7 : final words 129 experience any abuse or violence. This links to spaces for them to talk to each other that are seen another popular response: to be able to report as more crucial to ending violence. violence to police, community leaders or local authorities. One girl in Nicaragua said: “I would School-related gender-based violence gather all girls to talk on this subject and tell School-related gender-based violence (SRGBV) is them they should not remain silent if they are a critical issue across the four countries. Mostly, being abused ”. girls are of the view that violence in and around Again, working with men and boys to put a schools is a violation of their rights. Despite this, stop to violence is a low priority, as is improving nearly 20 per cent of girls in Pakistan either don’t the value of girls among their families and know or agree that in certain circumstances it communities. Most important to the girls we may be acceptable for a teacher to ask a girl spoke to is their own agency and power; giving for sexual favours in exchange for good grades. girls “martial arts training so that they can protect On average, around a quarter of girls across all themselves and no one can hurt them” or “setting four countries either agree or aren’t sure if a girl up safe places and groups where girls and women is at fault if a male student or teacher sexually can share information and experiences” are two harasses them. Importantly, a large number of key suggestions. girls do not believe that there is anyone that they Nearly half of girls advocate for better could report abuse to without putting themselves access to information and training to protect in danger. themselves from violence. Only in Zimbabwe are In all four countries girls point out that the tougher penalties for the abusers one of the top government has a responsibility to tackle the recommendations. Although girls in all countries issue of violence against girls in schools and that do mention legislation and the role of the police a national action plan should be put in place to in protecting girls and keeping communities combat it. Nearly half of girls identify the need for safe overall, it is empowering girls to defend a clear and easy-to-use complaints process, with themselves, and to speak out, and providing safe around the same number calling for stronger police

What girls want: keeping safe at school

Prompted Suggestions Ecuador Nicaragua Pakistan Zimbabwe

Schools having clear and strong rules that harassment, 47% 45% 41% 56% violence and abuse are not acceptable at school Schools having a clear and easy to use complaints process, so 45% 50% 33% 51% girls report situations of violence in a safe and confidential way The government having a national action 44% 41% 34% 44% plan to end violence and abuse in school Improvements to make the school more secure, 30% 47% 59% 24% such as protective fencing and security gates Police or security services taking action when cases of 39% 38% 33% 45% violence or abuse at school are reported to them Having separate toilets or latrines for 30% 43% 44% 20% girls only that are safe and clean Schools having rules for teachers, which do not allow 39% 14% 14% 48% relationships with students and exchanging sex for grades

Schools recruiting more female teachers 15% 21% 22% 9%

Top few mentions Lowest number of mentions

130 the state of the world’s girls e m nnie Mpalu A nnie nternational/ lan I lan P Zimbabwe.

or security service responses to reported cases of of girls in Pakistan felt that their schools were not violence. This shows that, faced with violence in providing adequate safety. their schools, girls feel unsupported. The solutions that girls identify to eradicate More than any other option, though, girls SRGBV are not simplistic; they show a prioritise schools having clear and strong rules comprehensive strategy across a diverse range of that ban harassment, violence and abuse. It is girls priorities. They give schools themselves a large part themselves who point to the ways that SRGBV has of the responsibility to keep girls safe – though, become institutionalised and must be eradicated perhaps surprisingly, increasing the numbers of through comprehensive action at all levels. This female teachers was a low priority across all four must include stronger national action plans at the countries. government level, a solution that 40 per cent of If we are to find lasting solutions to the issue of girls identified. gender justice, listening to, and acting upon, these It is interesting to note that the concept of voices is essential in bringing about change. This physical improvements around the school to holds true not just for schools and governments improve student safety shows a wide diversity of charged with eradicating school-based violence support from the girls. While only around 20 per against girls, but across all sectors of society and cent of girls in Zimbabwe found safer toilets or across all the issues that girls have identified as stronger gates to be necessary, nearly 60 per cent disempowering and discriminatory.

section 7 : final words 131 Girls speak out: finding some answers Empower girls…

PAKISTAN “I will make a system in which girls can raise their voice. They should be able to solve their problems.” “I would establish an organisation for women, to give them training so that girls can protect themselves from boys.” “Give martial arts training; it’s helpful for the protection of girls.”

ZIMBABWE “Facilitate workshops that educate girls on sexual matters. Contraceptives should be available at schools. Friendly counsellors should be available.” “I would empower young girls to have an attitude that resists peer pressure.” auer ettina b b plan international/ plan

132 thethe statestate ofof thethe world’sworld’s girlsgirls Empower girls…

NICARAGUA “Give girls enough information regarding sexual development, and not to compel them, so they can make their own decisions.” “Advise them to talk with their parents, to tell them they feel alone, ask them to talk to them.” “Encourage and improve family communication to approach sexuality topics.”

ECUADOR “I would tell them to become friends with their moms so they can guide them and give them counselling, so when girls need to make a decision they can take advice from their parents and not regret it later.” “I’d tell parents to build trust so their daughters can tell them about their problems.” “I would have a radio or TV show to catch girls’ attention, where they can participate and their family and social reality are heard.”

section 7 : final words 133 134 the state of the world’s girls te te River Song y by Joanne Harris s on/K ert b o

Joanne Harris gave up teaching in 2000 to become a full-time writer and has written 14 rap hy g er R er novels, including Chocolat, which was made into an Oscar-nominated film, two books f oto

of short stories and three cookbooks with Fran Warde . Her books are now published in Jenni Ph over 50 countries and have won a number of British and international awards . She plays bass guitar in a band first formed when she was 16 and still lives in West Yorkshire, a few miles from where she grew up, with her husband and daughter .

here’s always the river. That’s what Maman hair into little plaits and cornrows to catch myself T Jeanne says, with that look old people get when a man. That’s the catch for you, girl, she says, not they’re talking about something you can’t possibly some nasty old devil-fish that you couldn’t eat understand, like how an aeroplane stays in the even if you could pull it in. But I can look after air, or why the Good God made the tsetse fly. It’s myself, and I don’t have to do what Maman Jeanne her answer to everything; complaints, questions, tells me. Besides, like she says, people may come tears. There’s always the river. The river is and go, but the river is always there. always there. There are four of us here, work- I should know: I’ve watched it all my working the rapids. Monkey, Catfish, life. I know its moods; like a fierce dog Hollywood Boy and me. Of course those that will sometimes play, but goes for aren’t our real names. But names are the throat if you take the game too far. I secret things, full of power. They call know the fishing-spots and the best places me Ngok – the crocodile – because I’m to swim; the rapids and the shallows; the such a good swimmer. And swimming, of islets and the sands and where they shot course, is what we do. the last hippo, years ago. To hear them Right at the edge of our patch, talk, you’d think everyone in Brazzaville there’s a place called Les Rapides. It’s was there that day – if so, that old hippo a big place, all white, with a balcony should be right there in the Bible, next to looking out over the water. Before the the miracle of the foufou and the fishes. war a lot of people came here, but Still, says Maman Jeanne, fishermen and now it’s never more than a quarter full: hunters are born to lie. businessmen in their grey square-shouldered suits, Maybe it’s the river makes them do it. or pretty ladies with dyed hair and flouncy dresses, It’s true that stories collect here. Like the water soldiers, officials, even the occasional mendele – hyacinth, they float downriver from the North, white men here for business, I suppose – it’s been a dividing and flowering as they go. The story of the long time since any actual tourists came here. They Three Sorcerers, or the Eagle Boy, or the Devil Fish, come to eat, of course – trois-pièces with pili-pili so huge it can snap a hippo’s spine, or swallow a and fried bananas; baked squash with black rice crocodile in a single gulp. That, at least, is true; I and peanut sauce; crocodile with foufou and beans. have a devil-fish tooth to prove it, traded (for a It makes me dizzy even to think about so much cigarette and half a stick of chewing gum) from food; and there are tomatoes swimming in oil, a boy on one of the barges. It’s longer than my and riverfish stew and saka-saka and fresh crusty

S finger, and I wear it round my neck on a piece of white bread and hot-fried chicken and manioc and

ORRI wire. Maman Jeanne says I shouldn’t; there’s bad peas. They come to eat – of course they do – but IE M K magic in a devil-fish tooth, and anyway, it’s not they also come because of the river, because of the AC right for a ten-year-old girl to be hanging around rapids. From here you can see right across for miles those river barges. and miles, right into Kinshasa where you can see

TRATION BY J If she was my mother, says Maman Jeanne, the fires burning across the water and the river is S

ILLU she would teach me to cook and sew and work my a wild thing, prancing and rolling from boulder to

RIVER SONG 135 boulder and hurling up great gouts of spray. Not – is close to the bank, sweeping and doglegging as wild as Hippo Island and the giant yellow-grey breathlessly between the rocks. The second – the jumble of broken water beyond, but wild enough, Swallow – is much further out, and to reach it you and it sounds like – have to swim outwards in a wide curve, skirting a Like elephants crossing, says Maman Jeanne. sinkhole and a bad drop over some big boulders. Big brown elephants with feet like palm trunks. Of You have to be strong – most of all you have to course I’ve never seen an elephant, but in the city be quick, because no one can swim against the zoo there’s a skull the size of a lorry cab, all chalk current; all you can hope for is to use the current to and honeycomb, one splintery tusk lolling from the swing you far enough out to reach the safety of the toothless mouth. corridor. But if you miss by even an arm’s length, Like Sunday morning, says Monkey; like then the current whips you – with a shake-shake- cathedral voices; like dancing; like drums. Like snap like a dog with a rat – right into the sinkhole. helicopters, says Catfish, when he says anything at If you’re lucky and it spits you out again, the ride all. Mortars and shells and the washboard clatter ends with a quick scuttle down a bumpy little of gunfire. Or the noise, says Hollywood Boy, of a rockslide and no harm done – except maybe for a radio between stations, that eerie, dead sound of skinned backside and the sting of laughter from the rushing and whispering, scratching and stirring. riverbank. It happens sometimes, though never to The river has a song for everyone, says Maman me. And sometimes – well. Better not to think of Jeanne; and no song is ever the same. that. The Good God harvests his crop, That’s why they really come: not for the says Maman Jeanne, and all your tears food, or the view or the shady veranda will never bring back a single seed of it. under the mango trees, but for the river, The third ride is almost a legend. Far, the sound and the swell and the surge of far beyond the others – perhaps three the river song. I know; and the others are times the distance between the Swallow the same. Even Catfish, who is fourteen and the bank – it can only be reached and thinks he knows so much more from the Swallow itself. Halfway down than the rest of us. There’s more to our to the stonebreakers’ flats, the current business than just business. divides over a big pink rock, which we call Which is not to say we are not the Turtle. The Turtle’s shell is round, and professionals. Some people carve wood on one side there’s a good smooth ride for a living; some turn to the Army; some into the mainstream. On the other, there work the markets, or the cabs, or the are underwater rocks – ankle-biters, we side of the road. We work the river. More call them – but if you’re fast – and lucky – precisely, we work the rapids. I reckon you could break away from the Swallow and Our rapids are a highway for all kinds of trade. ride the river’s great round shoulder into the Deep. Fish trappers, stonebreakers, washerwomen, I’ve never done it, though I’ve charted its path, thieves. I know them all: boys with nets, old men using river junk and clumps of hyacinth, and I’m in pirogues, scavengers with poles and sacks. almost sure I could. No one else has, as far as I Downriver is the shallow place where Maman know; Monkey says there are crocodiles, but he’s Jeanne takes her washing. It’s a good swimming just scared. With his crooked leg he doesn’t swim hole, too, for babies and women, but we don’t as well as the rest of us, and never even rides the swim there. Oh no. We swim further up, from Les Swallow. But he has a rubber ring from a truck tyre, Rapides to the stonebreakers’ flats, and we don’t and fits it just as neat as a bird on a nest, so Catfish let anyone else work our strip. We earned that strip, lets him come. I don’t think that’s fair – if it had Monkey, Catfish, Hollywood Boy and me. Especially been me, you bet he wouldn’t have allowed it – but me; partly because I’m the youngest, but mostly Catfish is the General, and we have to do what he because I’m a girl. And, as Maman Jeanne says, says. I don’t always like that – it’s especially hard girls don’t dare, girls don’t bare, and most of all, being a Lieutenant when even Monkey’s a Colonel girls never, ever ride the rapids. – but Catfish is pretty fair in most other things, and There are three corridors dividing the rapids besides, who else would have let a girl join in the on our side of the river. One – we call it the Slide first place?

136 the state of the world’s girls And so, every day between nine and five, we ghosts and sorcerers. I’ve never seen any. Papa meet up under the balcony at Les Rapides, and Plaisance hasn’t, either, and he comes every day in we practise our moves. Easy ones, to warm up, his pirogue. I have seen some pretty good catfish, with Monkey on his rubber ring and the rest of us though; and I’m glad the others stay away. Besides, bobbing along yelling. Then comes the trick-tricky I like being on my own. stuff – high dives, star-jumps, crocodile, with all of Maman Jeanne has a shack near the other bank. us in a long unbroken chain. We stop mid-morning She lives there with Maman Kim, her daughter, and for a rest. A snack, too, if we can get it; perhaps Petite Blanche, her granddaughter. Maman Kim’s a dough-ball or a slice of cold manioc scrounged husband used to live here, but doesn’t any more. from Maman Jeanne. Sometimes there are small There’s a story behind it, but that’s man-woman green mangoes on the trees over the veranda, and bizness, as Maman Jeanne says, and doesn’t interest we throw sticks at them until one falls down. After me much. Papa Plaisance has a shack, too, with twelve, though, the company starts to arrive, and a vegetable patch and a workshop under the big we have to be good, or risk losing our business. mango tree. Papa Plaisance is Catfish’s uncle. He Like I said, we work the river. More precisely, makes pirogues, or used to, before the war came, we work the people: and if you ask me, anyone beautiful slim pirogues that sliced through the water who can afford to spend a couple of thousand CFRs without a sound. He’s the one who taught me how on a meal is fair game. It isn’t begging – we’d never to ride the current and how to paddle from the beg – but we can’t stop them watching stern to keep the little boat from tipping us, can we? And if sometimes they drop over. He goes out a long way, right into a coin or two, or a chicken bone, or a the rapids, and sets his traps among the piece of bread, then where’s the harm in ankle-biters. Sometimes I have to help that? Maman Jeanne doesn’t like it; but him; but it’s dull work compared to riding she turns a blind eye. It’s a wage like any the rapids, and he never pays me anyway, other, after all, and it’s more fun than so I sneak past him when I can, and make breaking rocks. my way alone upriver. I was born somewhere upriver. That Today I got to Les Rapides early, an was before the war – I can’t remember hour after daybreak. The others weren’t the name of the place, or anything much there yet, and I sat on the bank and about it, except that there was a house waited, chewing on a piece of bitter with palm thatch, and chickens running bamboo-shoot and watching the river for around it, and my mother used to carry devil-fish. There was no one else around, me in a sling on her back, and there except for an old man with a pirogue, was a smell – not city smells but a forest-smell – of and a few birds flying low over the brown water. wet mud and trees and rushes and steam from I’d been there for an hour before Monkey turned the manioc-pots. Maybe that’s why I ended up on up with his rubber ring, and by then I’d already Hippo Island; it’s a fair long walk into town each gathered that something was wrong. I’d have day, but it feels good to be out of the city at night known it even without the way Monkey looked and to hear the river song as I go to sleep, with its at me, all sideways and sly-fashion, with that little choir of frogs and peepers. smile that means bad news for someone not him. No one else goes there much, except the He’s always been jealous of me, I know. Perhaps fishermen. It’s supposed to be bad magic. Papa because I’m a better swimmer; perhaps because Plaisance says it’s the spirit of that last hippo, my legs are long and straight, while he has to walk waiting for his chance to be avenged. Maman short and twisty-style on his crooked foot. Jeanne says it’s because things happened there “Where the others, Monkey?” I said. during the fighting. She won’t say much, but I “Coming soon,” he told me. “Papa Plaisance can tell they were bad, because normally Maman call us round. Give us dough-balls for breakfast.” Jeanne can talk the legs off a centipede. Still, that Well, that was a surprise, for a start. Old Papa was a long, long time ago, three years at least, never gives out food for free. I wondered what he and the island is a good quiet place now. But wanted, and why he’d asked my friends to eat, but most people keep away, and there are stories of let me go to Les Rapides alone.

RIVER SONG 137 “Papa says you wasting time,” said Monkey, between tears and devil-fish rage. “You can’t stop bringing out the remains of his dough-ball and me if I want to be here.” beginning to eat it. “He says there’s money to make But he could, and he knew it. Three against on the river.” one; besides, on land they were bigger and older “What, fishing with him? I leave that to the and stronger than me, even coward Monkey with ones who don’t swim so well.” the bent foot. Still, I didn’t care. Let them try, if Monkey’s eyes narrowed. “Well,” he said, they were men enough. I fingered my devil-fish “Papa say he don’t want you hanging around here tooth on its wire and prayed; devil-fish, send me any more. He tell Catfish. You work for him now. your spirit to make me strong. No more Rapids.” “Go home,” said Catfish. I could hardly believe it. “Papa Plaisance, he’s “You want to stop me? You just try.” And then not my family,” I said. “He has no right to decide a sudden inspiration halted me, fresh and strong what I do. Just because Catfish’s uncle says so, as a voice from God. God or devil-fish, anyway, doesn’t mean I have to do his work for free.” I couldn’t tell, but it was so clear that it took my “He tell Catfish,” repeated Monkey stubbornly. breath, and then I started laughing, gaspy-style, till “I tell you.” the boys must have thought I was crazy. “But this is my business,” I said, hearing the “Why you laughing, Ngok?” said Hollywood silly little shake in my voice. Boy, looking a little uncomfortable now. He should “Not any more,” said Monkey. “The be; I’d seen him try the Swallow just last Rapids belong to the Catfish gang.” week, and he took it wide, bumped over There was a silence as I let that the Turtle and ended up on his face in a flow past me. Monkey ate his dough- mudhole. Catfish is better; but Monkey ball, watching me with that look in his never tries the long rides, and I knew I eyes, expecting me to cry, perhaps, I could beat any of them – maybe even don’t know. Anyway, I didn’t give him Catfish – on a good day, and with the that satisfaction. “You just the errand- devil-fish tooth to bring me luck. boy,” I told him haughty. “Where’s the “You want the Rapids for yourself?” General?” I said, still laughing. “We’ll make a deal, He gave a shrug in the direction of boy. We see who’s the best. We let the the stone-breakers. “Don’t go there, river decide.” Ngok,” he warned as I began to climb That made them stare. Monkey down towards the path. “You not looked scared; Hollywood Boy laughed. welcome.” Only Catfish was quiet, serious. “What “You want to stop me?” I shot over my you mean?” he said at last. shoulder. “I mean a challenge,” I said. “The Catfish gang Monkey shrugged again, and followed me at a against the Ngok gang. Winner takes the Rapids. distance, limping. “You’ll see,” was all he said, and Loser goes back to Papa Plaisance.” even then I pretended not to hear him. Monkey sniggered. “You got to be crazy,” he I found the others down by the rock-breakers. said. Catfish wouldn’t look at me, and Hollywood Boy “Crazy perhaps, but I can swim like a was playing jump-stone across the swim-hole and crocodile.” pretending cool. “Monkey tells me you don’t want Catfish frowned. He doesn’t say much, and me on the Rapids any more,” I said, attacking when he does, people listen. He was the General, straightaway, before Catfish could find his voice. after all, and he knew that a good General can Catfish said nothing, just picked at his feet and never turn down a challenge. Do that once, and wouldn’t look. people start to think you’re afraid. Twice, and “Cat got your tongue?” I said. nobody obeys orders any more. Three times, and Catfish muttered something about not wanting you’re a dead man. to hang with little girls. “What kind of a challenge?” “The Rapids are mine as much as yours,” I said, “The big one,” I said at once. “The Deep.” hearing that sound in my voice again, half-way There was a long silence. Then Catfish nodded

138 the state of the world’s girls once. “Okay,” he said, and without looking back at Today, there was none of that childishness. Monkey me, he stood up and began to walk upriver towards sat on the bank and watched, his legs tucked into Les Rapides. his rubber ring; Hollywood Boy sat hunched under Reaching the swimming place, I thought the the arch of Les Rapides, and Catfish and I observed Deep looked darker and more distant than ever the river, occasionally throwing in objects – a plastic before. The river was already swollen from last bottle, a piece of wood – to gauge the speed and week’s rain; patches of water hyacinth, some as the course of the distant Deep. large as boats, rushed by on the sour-smell water. In Neither of us wanted a practice run. It would a month the long rains will come; then the Rapids have shown weakness, somehow; though I knew it will be too dangerous to ride, even for a good made our chances of success so much smaller. By swimmer. During the rainy months even crocodiles rights we should have done the Swallow a dozen die in the tumbling rapids. Now was too soon for times or so before we even attempted the Deep that time, though not too far away either, and I was – but only the heat of my anger was keeping me beginning to feel a little nervous as we reached our there in the first place, and I didn’t want the river to strip – no customers eating there now, not yet, but put a damp on that before I was ready. a waiter laying out tables under the big mango tree, Twenty minutes, and I could feel it beginning to and the smell of roasting something drifting down ebb. Catfish was still watching, testing wind speed from the open kitchen. and water, occasionally glancing quick-quick at me “You sure?” said Catfish, looking at to see if I’d lost my nerve. I prayed again me. His face was calm, but I thought he to the devil-fish god – speed, courage, was sweating; maybe the heat, or maybe luck – and shot Catfish a big, bright something else, too. Monkey stood at his smile. I don’t know whether it fooled side with the rubber ring under his arm, him; either way I wasn’t waiting any his eyes round open with all the whites longer, and I stood up, tucked my skirt showing. around my legs and tied it in place and “You scared?” I said. said: “Ready?” Catfish shrugged, as if to suggest “You crazy, man,” said Monkey with that the Deep was just another long gloomy satisfaction. “If the river don’t ride to him and not the biggest, furthest get you, the crocodiles will.” and most dangerous section of the near “Crocodiles don’t like fast water,” I Rapids. said, looking beyond him towards the far “Okay then.” We looked at each corridor. You could hardly see it now for other. reflections; a bare strip, smoother than “You first.” the rest, simmering gold in the distant haze. It was “No, you.” pretty, I thought; pretty like the back of a shining His face was like wood, stiff and brown and snake. And like the snake, it had a bite. expressionless. “Okay, then. We go together.” “Still ready?” He was counting against it; I “No, man,” said Hollywood Boy in dismay. could see it in his eyes. “That’s too risky!” In a way, he was right; those “As ever,” I said, and both together we stepped long rides were safer when taken alone, for the back to give ourselves maximum run. One-two- distance has to be calculated absolutely precisely, three steps, hands almost touching, and we were and even an inch to the wrong side can mean a at the edge; a fourth and I flung myself far out into lethal sweep into a sinkhole’s gullet, or a battering the air, riding far beyond the Slide, landing feet-first run over the ankle-biters. Two swimmers together with a plunk of air onto the tail of the Swallow. will clump, like weed islands, breaking the current I sank, went under; felt the tow of the river, far and risking disaster. greater beneath than on the surface, and pulled “All right,” I said. “Both together.” my feet up fast. Catfish was somewhere very close, Even on a day with nothing to prove, we I knew; but I couldn’t afford to look for him just practise before we try the big runs. A couple of runs then. With all my strength I stretched out, leaning down the Slide, perhaps; a crocodile or two, some forward, kicking my feet, reaching for the current jumps, and then we are ready to try the Swallow. like a life-line. Downriver the Turtle shrugged its

RIVER SONG 139 giant pink shoulder out of the water and I struck out The Deep! I could see it now, and in my path; for the Swallow, knowing that if I reached the Turtle the curve of my course would lead me straight from the wrong side I would miss the opening, and towards it now, using the very speed of the river be dragged into a mess of sinks and ankle-biters – to fling me across, as a boy may use a purse-sling that is, if the river didn’t crush me like a rotten egg. to throw a stone. I opened my mouth in a blaze of Behind and to the left of me, further into the triumph – Wheee! – then I sat on the river, hugging corridor, I could sense Catfish striking and panting. my knees the way Monkey does when he rides his He was strong, but he was heavy, too; I raised my rubber ring, and let the river take me, far out and feet from out of the drag-water and kicked along far away, into the corridor. ahead, light as a lily. Neither of us spoke; there was It felt like flying. Flying and falling and dreaming water in my nose and mouth; water in my eyes and all in one; with the heavy water riding black on all I could think of was the corridor that drew me, yellow-brown beneath me, and small pieces of river spinning and gasping, closer to the Turtle and the debris stinging and lashing against my burning skin. sink on either side. But it was a wonder; for a moment there I was not Bump-bump-bump. A little bump-slide, a string simply in the river; I was the river; I sang its song; of round rocks scattered under the surface like the and the river sang back to me in its many voices, bones in a skinny man’s spine. I rode and if I’d wanted to, I believe I could have them, losing speed and breath, and then swum all the way over to Kinshasa and the Turtle was already on me, its smooth nothing – not even crocodiles – could sweep of Swallow ride on the bank side, have touched me. its rough tangle of uncharted territory And then I looked back. I shouldn’t on the other. I took a deep breath. have done it. I was almost there, my Braced – and kicked out at the Turtle fingers combing the skirts of the Deep. just as the river swelled me over the top, But I looked round, perhaps to check if pushing out with my long strong legs Catfish had seen my triumph, and the joy and boosting myself into the unknown. fell away from me in a sudden cold. The current was stronger here than ever Catfish had slipped, as I’d first before, sucking at my legs in hot-cold thought, into the crookleg gully that led bursts, and there were stones here, back to the Swallow. If he’d stuck to that stones and rocks I did not recognise, run, he would have been all right; it was striking my feet and legs and skinning my a straight, smooth channel that bypassed left shin from instep to knee. the Turtle and brought the swimmer back Ankle-biters. I’d expected no less; but these into the long, clean corridor towards the swimming were whole-body ankle-biters, reaching up out of hole. But Catfish hadn’t stuck to the run. Instead the depths like the teeth of the river. I tucked my he had tried to boost himself back; a desperate, legs up, kicking, and still they bit; behind me, Catfish impossible move against the current. The river had cried out, but I could not see why. And still the Deep stopped him; first tumbling him onto his back, then seemed twice as far, twice as fast as ever before, dragging him back towards the Turtle, the rocks like some road in a story about castles that move and the black sink between. Too late, Catfish had and countries that vanish overnight only to reappear understood his mistake; I could see him clinging, somewhere else, on the other side of the world, all round dark head and skinny arms, round an perhaps, under a magic cloud-carpet of snow. exposed spike of river rock as over him the water Once more I prayed to the devil-fish tooth – heaved and hurled, bucking like some bareback bring me far, bring me fast – and boosted myself creature that does not want to be ridden. I saw all as hard as I could away from the rocky strip. Beside this in an instant; the angry river; Catfish clinging and behind me, I saw Catfish do the same; but as on for his life; the gullet of darkness below. With I shot forward I saw him slip – slide away towards a little more speed, he could have made it past the a crookleg gully that swept back into the Swallow sink; but he had lost his momentum and his nerve. – while I sailed ahead of him, quick and straight as Now he clung, slip-slipping on the greasy stone, one of Papa Plaisance’s pirogues, over the danger and wailed soundlessly over the howl of the river zone and into fast, smooth water. song.

140 the state of the world’s girls Before me, the Deep was an arm’s length away. This was the time to speak, I thought. To reveal Its song too was deafening – come to me, Ngok – how I’d touched the Deep – actually touched it with but there too was my old friend, and though it tore the tips of my fingers, like a mythical fish no one me inside to abandon the dare, I knew I could not ever catches except in dreams. If I told them, then leave him to be swallowed by the sink. I’d be General. Catfish would go home to Papa I pushed away, back into the rocks. For a second, Plaisance. Les Rapides would belong to me. the Deep clung to me, singing its song; then it spat Catfish still wasn’t looking at me. His face me out as hard as a child spitting out a pawpaw looked closed, like a rock. seed, and I shot away, skimming the rocks with my “Well?” said Monkey. “Did you win?” knees, towards the Swallow. It was risky, I knew. I There was a long silence. Then I shook my would have to follow Catfish most precisely, and head. “Nah,” I said. “I nearly did, but the Swallow without losing momentum, grab him from where pulled me in. Call it a draw, man. Nobody won.” he clung without letting the sink inhale us both. A Hollywood Boy looked disappointed. “Hey, second’s miscalculation, and we would go under, Ngok,” he said. “You lost your magic tooth.” never to surface. An inch to either side, and I’d miss I reached for it then, but I already knew it was him altogether. I prayed to the devil-fish one last gone. Maybe the river took it back; or maybe it was time – oh please, devil-fish, may my aim the spirit of the devil-fish, taking what be true – and taking a deep breath, sitting was due. squarely on the wave and with my lungs We still work the river, the four of filled to bursting, I skidded down the final us; Catfish, Monkey, Hollywood Boy and run at top speed towards Catfish. I. There was a little tension with Papa He must have seen what I was trying Plaisance at first, but Maman Jeanne to do. He grabbed my hand and dropped unexpectedly took my side – unlikely, I’d his grasp from the rock, and I let my have thought, but it seems Papa was in speed take us both, like bottles on the her bad books over some unpaid work. water, shooting right over the nasty sink- The river is ours again, for the hole and into the harrow of ankle-biters. moment – at least that strip of it that runs “Hold on, Catfish!” I could hardly from Les Rapides to the stonebreakers’ hear myself over the river song. But his flats – and we work it every day, though hand was in mine and I held tight, both no one has ever attempted the Deep of us yelling as the rocks bit into our legs since then. Maybe we will again, some and feet. The river was laughing now, I day. Catfish is still the General, though he could hear it; a low chuckle of rocks and pebbles, doesn’t give orders in quite the way he once used to, like drums around a campfire. And the Swallow was and I’ve seen a gleam in Hollywood Boy’s eye that smoothing out again; slowing, easing out towards tells me there may one day be another challenge. the swimming hole. The stones fell away under our Not from me, though. Not again. Foolish to imagine feet; Catfish dropped my hand and began to swim, I might ever have been a General – it’s bad enough slow and limping-style, towards the shallows. trying to keep up with the boys – though I can see it The others were waiting there for us, unsure of in their eyes sometimes; that awe, that knowledge of what they had seen. “What happen, man?” said something dared, some secret glimpsed, some glory Monkey impatiently, as Catfish and I lay out on the almost won. One day, perhaps, I’ll find it again. dry stones of the rockbreakers’ flats and examined Meanwhile there’s always the river, as Maman the cuts and scrapes on our legs. Jeanne says, with its sleepy silences and its terrible I looked at Catfish. He didn’t look back. His rage and its song that keeps on going, and going, face looked closed, more wooden than ever, except and going, carrying spells and dreams and stories for a big scrape over one eye that had probably with it all the way into the belly of Africa and out come from his hitting that pointy rock. again into the open undiscovered sea. “Did you reach the Deep, Ngok?” said Hollywood Boy, his voice quivering with excitement. From A Cat, a Hat, and a Piece of String by Joanne “I thought I saw you, maybe, but you were too far Harris, published by Doubleday. Reproduced by for me to be sure –” permission of The Random House Group Ltd.

RIVER SONG 141 References Section 1

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Countries.’ Intel, 2012. html?_r=0 (accessed 9 June 2015). 18 GSMA. ‘Mobilink Reshaping Education and the Lives Of 15 See: Fallows, Deborah. ‘How Women and Men Use the Women and Girls in Rural Areas through Mobile Technology.’ Internet.’ Pew Research Center, 28 December 2005, http:// GSMA, 2012, http://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/ www.pewinternet.org/2005/12/28/how-women-and-men- mobilink-reshaping-education-and-the-lives-of-women- use-the-internet/ (accessed 9 June 2015). and-girls-in-rural-areas-through-mobile-technology (accessed 18 June 2015); UNESCO. ‘Mobile-Based Post #BringBackOurGirls Literacy Programme.’ UNESCO, http://www.unesco.org/uil/ 11 elysee Presidence de la Republique. ‘Paris Summit for Security litbase/?menu=14&programme=125 (accessed 18 June 2015). in Nigeria – Conclusions.’ Elysee Presidence de la Republique, 19 Gadio, C.M. ‘Exploring the gender impact of the World Links http://www.elysee.fr/declarations/article/paris-summit-for- Program: Summary of the findings of an independent study security-in-nigeria-conclusions/ (accessed 6 May 2015). conducted in four African countries.’ World Links, 2001. 12 uneSCO. ‘Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2013/4. 10 Zweig, J. M. Dank, P. Lachman, J. Yahner. ‘Technology, Teen Teaching and Learning: Achieving Quality for All.’ UNESCO, Dating Violence and Abuse, and Bullying.’ US Department of 2014. Justice, 2013. 13 uniceF. ‘Koranic schools in Nigeria join the drive for universal 11 cybertip. ‘Online Luring.’ https://www.cybertip.ca/pdfs/ education.’ UNICEF, http://www.unicef.org/education/ CTIP_LuringPrevention_InterventionSheet_en.pdf (accessed 18 nigeria_78459.html (accessed 8 May 2015). June 2015). 14 British Council Nigeria. ‘Gender in Nigeria report 2012 12 childLine. ‘Caught in a Trap: the impact of grooming in 2012.’ improving the lives of girls and women in Nigeria.’ British Child Line, 2012. Council Nigeria, 2012. 13 BBC News. ‘#BBCtrending: What happened to 15 British Council Nigeria. ‘Gender in Nigeria report 2012 #BringBackOurGirls?’ BBC News, 24 September 2014, http:// improving the lives of girls and women in Nigeria.’ British www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-29353137 (accessed 9 Council Nigeria, 2012. February 2015). 16 British Council Nigeria. ‘Gender in Nigeria report 2012 14 office of the Secretary General on Youth. ‘In Rio de Janeiro’s improving the lives of girls and women in Nigeria.’ British favelas, a new online tool tackles violence against women and Council Nigeria, 2012. girls.’ Office of the Secretary General on Youth, http://www. 17 unFPA. ‘Marrying Too Young End Child Marriage.’ New York: un.org/youthenvoy/2013/08/in-rio-de-janeiros-favelas-a- UNFPA, 2012. new-online-tool-tackles-violence-against-women-and-girls/ 18 ityavar, Dennis and Inuwa Bakari Jalingo. ‘The State of Married (accessed 18 June 2015). Adolescents in Northern Nigeria.’ Action Health Incorporates, 15 Bates, Laura. ‘Sharing stories of sexism on social media is 21st- Working Paper, 2006 Citing: National Population Commission century activism.’ The Guardian, 6 February 2015, http://www. (Nigeria). 2000: Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey 1999. theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/womens-blog/2015/feb/06/ Calverton, MD: National Population Commission and ORC sharing-stories-of-sexism-on-social-media-is-21st-century- Macro. Data are for 20-24 year-olds. activism (accessed 18 June 2015). 19 unFPA. ‘Child Marriage Profiles: Nigeria.’ UNFPA, http:// 16 plan International. ‘Highlights from the Girls’ Fast talk on the www.devinfo.info/mdg5b/profiles/files/profiles/4/Child_ Potential of Information and Communication Technologies in Marriage_Country_Profile_AFRNGA_Nigeria.pdf (accessed 8 Girls’ Empowerment and Development.’ http://www.c4d.undg. May 2015). org/system/files/Ms.%20Sarah%20Hendricks%20Plan%20 International.pdf (last accessed 28 April 2015). Measuring progress: Girls and new technology, facts and stats 11 intel. ‘Women and the Web. Bridging the Internet Gap and Section 7 Final words Creating New Global Opportunities in Low and Middle Income Voices of hope: charting the future Countries.’ Intel, 2012. 11 plan International & Ipsos MORI. ‘‘Girls Speak Out’: a 12 the Girl Effect. ‘Case Study: Harass Map – Changing Attitudes four country survey of young women’s attitudes and to Harassment and Assault in Egypt.’ Girl Effect, http://www. recommendations for action.’ Plan International, 2015. girleffect.org/media?id=3066 (accessed 28 April 2015). 12 See: Plan International. ‘Hear Our Voices Technical Report: 13 Marcus, Rachel and Ella Page. ‘Changing discriminatory norms Do Adolescent Girls’ Issues Really Matter?’ Plan International, affecting adolescent girls through communication activities. A 2014. Review of Evidence.’ ODI, 2014; UNICEF South Asia. ‘Meena 13 plan International & Ipsos MORI. ‘‘Girls Speak Out’: a Communication Initiative.’ UNICEF, http://www.unicef.org/ four country survey of young women’s attitudes and rosa/media_2479.htm (accessed 19 February 2014). recommendations for action.’ Plan International, 2015. 14 Marcus, Rachel and Ella Page. ‘Changing discriminatory norms

148 the state of the world’s girls About the campaign

Plan’s Because I am a Girl Campaign is working The power of this is astonishing. It saves lives to create a world that values girls, promotes their and transforms futures, releasing the incredible rights and ends injustice. potential of girls and their communities. We are A quality education is crucial to this mission and working with girls, communities, traditional leaders, Because I am a Girl will support four million girls to governments, global institutions and the private get the education, skills and support they need to sector to address the barriers that prevent girls from move themselves from poverty to opportunity. completing their education. Globally, one in three girls is denied an education by the daily realities of poverty, Plan’s ‘Because I Am A Girl’ campaign is calling for: discrimination and violence. Every day, young girls are taken out of school, forced into marriage and Goal 1: Girls’ education to prioritised by world subjected to violence. leaders Not only is this unjust, it’s also a huge waste Goal 2: Girls’ completion of a quality secondary of potential. Millions of adolescent girls are being education to be a major focus of international denied their right to education at the time when it action can transform their lives and the world around them. Goal 3: Funding for girls’ education to be increased Progress has been made in terms of increasing Goal 4: An end to child marriage the number of girls enrolling in school, but the Goal 5: An end to gender-based violence in and quality of the education that girls are receiving around schools remains poor in many countries. Goal 6: Girls and boys to participate in decision- Plan’s experience over more than 75 years has making and inspire those with power to take action. shown that real change can take place when girls and their education are valued. Supporting girls’ The ‘State of the World’s Girls’ annual reports education is one of the single best investments provide tangible proof of the inequalities which we can make to help end poverty for everyone. still exist between girls and boys, and support the Providing a girl with at least nine years of quality campaign with specific girl-oriented evidence. The education means she is: reports give concrete recommendations for the campaign to take forward on ways to tackle gender • less likely to experience violence, marry or have inequality and ensure that every girl is able to children while she is still a child herself realise her full potential. • more likely to be literate, healthy and survive Because I am a Girl will drive a global into adulthood, as are her children movement to transform power relations so that girls • more likely to reinvest her income back into her everywhere learn, lead, decide and thrive. family, community and country • more likely to understand her rights and be a Join in and take action at: force for change. plan-international org/girls.

references 149 Where Plan International works

FINLAND SWEDEN NORWAY DENMARK NETHERLANDS CANADA UNITED KINGDOM IRELAND BELGIUM GERMANY SWITZERLAND

UNITED STATES JAPAN SPAIN CHINA FRANCE ITALY NEPAL SOUTH KOREA MYANMAR EGYPT HONG KONG PAKISTAN INDIA VIETNAM HAITI DOMINICAN REPUBLIC MALI SENEGAL NIGER LAOS GUATEMALA HONDURAS BANGLADESH NICARAGUA SUDAN EL SALVADOR GUINEA-BISSAU PHILIPPINES GUINEA THAILAND SOUTH SIERRA LEONE ETHIOPIA CAMBODIA SUDAN SRI LANKA COLOMBIA LIBERIA UGANDA BURKINA FASO KENYA ECUADOR GHANA TOGO RWANDA INDONESIA BENIN TANZANIA PERU BRAZIL NIGERIA TIMOR-LESTE CAMEROON MALAWI ZAMBIA BOLIVIA ZIMBABWE PARAGUAY AUSTRALIA

MOZAMBIQUE

Donor Countries

Programme Countries

Programme and Donor Countries

Plan International OFFICES

Plan International Headquarters Plan International Inc Plan International Liaison Office to the UN Duke’s Court, Block A Duke Street Region of Eastern & Southern Africa (RESA) Headquarters Woking Methodist Ministries Centre 211 E. 43rd St., Room 1200 Surrey GU21 5BH Block C, Oloitokitok Rd, Lavington New York, NY 10017 United Kingdom P. O. Box 14202-00800 USA Tel: (+44) (0) 1483 755 155 Nairobi, Kenya Tel: 001 917 398 00181 Email: [email protected] Tel: + 254 714 637 217 Email: Web: plan-international.org Email: [email protected] / [email protected] [email protected] Plan Regional Office of the Americas Plan UN Liaison and Advocacy Office Building 112, Ciudad del Saber Plan – West Africa Regional Office Rue de Varembe 1, 5th Floor Clayton, Immeuble Seydi Djamil Angle CH-1202 Geneva Panamá Avenue Cheikh Anta Diop x Rue Leo Switzerland Republica de Panamá Frobenius Tel: +41 22 749 15 20 Box: 0819-05571 Fann Residence Email: Tel: +507 317 1700 Dakar, Senegal [email protected] Email: [email protected] Tel: +221 33 869 74 30 Email: [email protected] Plan International, African Union Liaison & Plan Asia Regional Office Pan Africa Program Office 14th Floor, 253 Asoke Building Plan EU Office Suite 102, TK Building, Sukhumvit 21 (Asoke) Road Galerie Ravenstein 27/4 Bole Sub-city, Klongtoey Nua, Wattana, BKK 10110 1000 Brussels Kebele 03/05 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Thailand Belgium Tel/Fax: +251 923-929-810 Tel: +66 (0) 2 204 2630-4 Tel: +32-2-504-6050 Email: Email: [email protected] Web: www.plan-eu.org [email protected]

150 the state of the world’s girls Plan Canada (Toronto Office) Plan Italy 245 Eglinton Ave. East Via Torri Bianche 3 Palazzo Larice,

FINLAND Suite 300 20871 Vimercate MI, Italia SWEDEN Toronto, Ontario M4P 0B3 Tel: +39 039 684870.1 NORWAY Canada Email: [email protected] DENMARK NETHERLANDS Tel: +1 416-920-1654 CANADA UNITED KINGDOM Email: [email protected] Plan Japan IRELAND BELGIUM 11F Sun Towers Centre Building GERMANY Plan Canada (Ottawa Office) 2-11-22 Sangenjaya, SWITZERLAND 39 McArthur Avenue Setagaya-Ku Ottawa, ON K1L 8L7 Tokyo 154-8545, Japan UNITED STATES JAPAN Canada Tel: +81-3-5481-3511 SPAIN CHINA FRANCE Tel: +1-800-387-1418 Email: [email protected] ITALY NEPAL SOUTH KOREA Email: [email protected] MYANMAR EGYPT Plan Korea HONG KONG Fundación Plan #912, S Block, H Square, PAKISTAN INDIA VIETNAM HAITI DOMINICAN REPUBLIC MALI Carrera 15 #87-86 231, Pangyoyeok-ro, SENEGAL NIGER LAOS GUATEMALA HONDURAS BANGLADESH Bogotá, DC Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, NICARAGUA SUDAN EL SALVADOR GUINEA-BISSAU PHILIPPINES GUINEA THAILAND Colombia Gyeonggi-do, SOUTH SIERRA LEONE ETHIOPIA CAMBODIA Tel: +571- 236-2186 Korea, 463-400 SUDAN SRI LANKA COLOMBIA LIBERIA Email: [email protected] Tel: +82-2-790-5436 UGANDA BURKINA FASO KENYA ECUADOR Email: [email protected] GHANA TOGO RWANDA Plan Denmark INDONESIA BENIN TANZANIA Borgergade 10, 2. sal tv. Plan Netherlands PERU BRAZIL NIGERIA TIMOR-LESTE 1300 Copenhagen K, Denmark Stadhouderskade 60 CAMEROON MALAWI ZAMBIA Tel: +45-35-300800 1072 AC Amsterdam, Netherlands BOLIVIA ZIMBABWE Email: [email protected] Tel: +31-20-549-5555 PARAGUAY Email: [email protected] AUSTRALIA Plan Finland Kumpulantie 3, 6th floor Plan Norway MOZAMBIQUE 00520 Helsinki Tullins Gate 4C Finland Postboks 1 St. Olavs Plass Tel: +358-9-6869-8082 0130 Oslo, Norway Donor Countries Email: [email protected] Tel: +47-22-031600

Programme Countries Email: [email protected] Plan France Programme and Donor Countries 14 Boulevard de Douaumont Plan Spain Immeuble du Beeotop C/ Pantoja 10 75017 Paris, France 28002 Madrid, Spain Tel: +33-1.44.89.90.90 Tel: +34-91-5241222 Web: www.planfrance.org Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Plan International Australia Plan Sweden Level 18, IBM Tower Plan Germany Textilgatan 43 60 City Road Bramfelder Strasse 70 120 08, Stockholm Southbank D-22305 Hamburg Sweden VIC 3006 Germany Tel: +46-8-58 77 55 00 Australia Tel: +49-40-611400 Email: [email protected] Tel: +61-(0)3-9672-3600 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Plan Switzerland Plan International Hong Kong Badenerstrasse 580 Plan Belgium Room 201, Marina House CH - 8048 Zurich, Switzerland Galerie Ravenstein 3 B 5 68 Hing Man Street, Shau Kei Wan Tel: +41 44 288 90 50 1000 Brussels Hong Kong Email: [email protected] Belgium Tel: +852 3405 5305 Tel: +32 (0)2 504 60 00 Email: [email protected] Plan UK Email: [email protected] Finsgate, 5-7 Cranwood Street Plan India London EC1V 9LH Plan Brazil E-12 Kailash Colony United Kingdom National Office New Delhi 110 048, India Tel: +44 (0) 300 777 9777 Av. Roque Petroni Jr, 1089 Tel: +91 11 46558484 Email: [email protected] Salas 112 e 114, Brooklin Novo Email: [email protected] São Paulo - SP Plan USA CEP: 04707-900 Plan Ireland 155 Plan Way Tel.: +55 (11) 3956-2170 126 Lower Baggot Street Warwick, Rhode Island 02886-1099 Email: [email protected] Dublin 2, Ireland USA Tel: +353-1-6599601 Tel: +1-401-7385600 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]

151 About Plan International

Plan International is an independent global child- children’s immediate and humanitarian needs, such rights development organisation committed to as in times of disasters, conflict and emergencies, enabling vulnerable and marginalised children (and we work together to transform laws, policies and young people) to be free of the effects of poverty. practices to help secure more long-lasting changes By actively connecting committed people with in children’s lives. powerful ideas, we work together to make positive, We see a direct link between fulfilling rights deep-rooted and long-lasting changes in children’s and ending child poverty. We know that when girls and young people’s lives. and boys and their communities have the skills, For almost 80 years, we have worked with knowledge and confidence they need to claim their children, communities and partners to identify and rights, they are in a stronger position to challenge actively challenge the deep-rooted causes and the effects of poverty and to participate in creating effects of inequality and social injustice that hold lasting changes in their lives and the lives of others. children back from achieving their full potential, We recognise that discrimination against girls from the local to the national and global level. and women is one of the main underlying causes of As well as preparing for and responding to child poverty. While girls and boys have the same entitlements to human rights, they face different Studying mechanics in South Sudan. challenges in accessing them. By investing in girls and young women, and improving access to their rights, we can make a significant impact on ending poverty, not only for the girls themselves but also for their families, communities and countries. Everyone benefits, including boys and men. As a catalyst of social change, we work with, inspire and support children and their communities around the world to collaborate in powerful partnerships through high-quality and effective programmes. Together we work to ensure the services children are entitled to are available, strengthened and protected. We are committed to ensuring every child has the opportunity to grow up empowered, healthy, educated, protected, valued and respected, in their own community and beyond. Before acting, we listen, learn and reflect. We harness the local knowledge, wisdom and ideas of children, their families and communities and combine these with our broader collective knowledge and development experience to generate practical and adaptable solutions. We then connect these with the people and partners e who share our quest for social justice. Using tried and tested methods, as well as bold, innovative solutions, we address the ever-changing challenges children and young people face.

plan-international org. lan international/Jiro Os lan international/Jiro P

152 the state of the world’s girls