Education for girls [Archives:2007/1035/Opinion]
By: Yasser Al-Mayasi
Education is the pillar of development for any country aspiring to advance and prosper. It is an important factor in the success of human development programmes. Despite the fact that education is one of the simplest human rights, many children around the world, mostly girls, have no access to education according to UN statistics.
A large numbers of girls in the Arab world have no access to education due to multiple economic and social causes while Yemen ranks unfortunately high as one of the countries where education is poor and girls face numerous difficulties and obstacles to social advancement. Even girls who are enrolled in schools find that the social and economic conditions of their families compel them to drop out of schools and stay at home. Although the government and NGOs have laboured intensively to improve education for girls such efforts have not yielded substantial fruits. The organizations and society as a whole should exert greater effort in this respect particularly as the illiteracy rate of Yemen's female population exceeds 80 percent.
Although education for girls in Yemen has faced various barriers and difficulties the insistence of many young women to continue in their education has brought them academic success. Such women then contribute in different areas of Yemeni life thereby providing examples of the success and ambition of Yemeni women. Such is the positive impact of education upon women and Yemeni society.
One educated young woman even managed to tackle the issues of revenge killings and land disputes between two tribes in Khawlan district, east of Sana'a, despite cultural barriers to such a role. The land dispute lasted for two years until the young woman took the initiative herself to resolve the conflict between the two families concerned. She did so by cleverly circumventing the patriarchic structure of the village thanks to her job as a teacher in a school for students belonging to both tribes. The media have not publicised or popularised the issue nor have they praised the young woman for her efforts. The media must contribute to raising public awareness of the role that education plays in conflict resolution as well as commending the female teacher who played such an integral role in a conflict in which the judicial and security authorities were, for the most part, impotent. For now, have we received a glimpse of the potential contribution that education for girls will make to social stability, conflict resolution and the future of Yemen.
Yasser Al-Mayasi is a Yemeni journalist specialized in children and business. [email protected]
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