WHAT WORKS
IN GIRLS’ EDUCATION
BY GREG MORTENSON CAI CO-FOUNDER
The teacher at a CAI-supported literacy class in Kabul, Afghanistan, leads her female students of all ages in a reading lesson. Classes take place in the teacher’ s home.
The year 2014 was one of triumph and tragedy for girls’ education.
One night this past April, 276 high school girls in Chibook, Nigeria, were kidnapped by the terrorist Boko Haram and are still missing. On May 6, Baba Ghulam Faroq, headmaster at CAI Saw village school, in Naray district, Kunar province, Afghanistan, and a strong advocate for girls’ education was blown up by a remotely detonated mine as he walked to school. He was murdered by Pakistan Taliban( TTP), who did not want girls in school. However, his death did not stop the Saw girls from going to school, and the community is more resolved than ever to support girls’ education. On Oct. 1, a dedicated“ lady” teacher, nicknamed“ Madam Honey,” was killed when militants lobbed a grenade into her classroom in Pakistan’ s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa( KP) Province. The militants staged the attack to punish her for allowing third- and fourth-grade schoolgirls to attend classes without wearing a dupatta( headscarf).
These are only the tip of the iceberg with regard to all the tragedies and terror inflicted on girls who seek to improve their life through education.
The tragedies are many, and the heartache of losing these girls and dedicated educators will never go away. But the year 2014 also brought an incredible triumph for girls education: Malala Yousafzai, a 17-year-old girl from Swat Valley, Pakistan, who was nearly killed by the Taliban at point-blank range in October 2012, received the Nobel Peace Prize. All of us at CAI and all those we serve are excited and happy that Malala has received the Nobel Peace Prize. Congratulations Malala, you rock! And we are grateful that the global community has finally acknowledged you as an enduring symbol that girls’ education should be our top global priority, and the way to lasting peace and prosperity.
This year, I begin the third decade of dedicating my life to promote literacy and girls’ education in rural communities of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. After spending
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