Do you ever think about how lucky you are that here in America our minds belong to us? Our bodies are supposed to, but sometimes things happen. I am always on the look out for interesting articles and media regarding women and girls. This one really tugged at my heart strings and made me angry that women and girls around the world still do not have full ownership of who they are or of their bodies. Women Educating Women, Inc. wants you all to take note and join this cause not just in your hearts but in your actions and make things happen now!
I saw this in The Vancouver Sun blog and feel the more of us that pass this along, the more voices we will gather:
Amina is an 11-year-old girl from Afghanistan who was married off to an older cousin: essentially, sold by her family for $5,000. They used the money to buy a car for their son.
Yasmin is a 12-year-old Egyptian girl who was raped by a stranger. When her mother took her to the police station, the most the authorities could do was to offer to get her some money from the man.
Wadley is a seven-year-old Haitian girl with a wide smile who loves school. After the 2010 earthquake, the school closed, but she wouldn’t give up on trying to attend the new school, even though her mother couldn’t pay for it.
These are three of the nine children from nine countries whose stories are told in Girl Rising, an unusual documentary that looks at the problem of educating girls in the developing world. Director Richard Robbins paired each girl with a woman author from her country, who wrote a version of her story. Each was then re-created as a short film, and narrated by an actress — the voice cast includes Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Cate Blanchett and Alicia Keys. Go to rest of story…
