“Day of the girl” means nothing when girls are still at risk
October 11 is the International Day of the Girl Child. All around the world, girls face specific challenges that keep them from living full and equal lives — girls have less access to education and healthcare all while experiencing more discrimination and violence.
This day is important because it provides a platform for our advocacy, raising awareness about the issues girls face. It also reminds us — do we need reminding?! — to support, encourage, and empower girls. They are agents of their own lives and deserve a world where they can thrive.
It’s on us to help them get there!
In reality, girls are far from living full and equal lives. 119 million girls are denied access to education, limiting their opportunities and contributing to poverty cycles. In rural areas around the world, many girls are denied education due to cultural norms and limited access to schools. Girl-child marriage still happens at alarming rates — approximately one in five worldwide. When a girl is forced into marriage, she abandons her education and compromises her health and well-being. The problems can last for generations. Girls face specific forms of violence including sexual and domestic abuse, trafficking, and discrimination.
Let’s get granular for a second. In Afghanistan, The Taliban’s restrictions on girls’ education have had a devastating impact on their access to education and their life choices. Girls are currently banned from attending high school and university. 1.4 million girls are missing out on critical education.
In Niger, girls face one of the highest rates of girl-child marriage in the world, with many married off before the age of 15. In countries in conflict, like Yemen, families may resort to this practice to secure their daughters’ safety and survival. Poverty and violence leave them no choice.
Girls in the Democratic Republic of Congo face magnified risk of sexual violence, often used as a weapon of war. Femicide, the killing of women, is a serious problem in Mexico, with many girls and young women murdered. In the US, ranking 34th for femicide internationally, the intentional murder of women because they are women still isn’t classified as a crime. Meaning, it’s nearly impossible to hold perpetrators accountable.
And right now, in Palestine and Lebanon, a war is being waged against children — both girls and boys. In a recent poll of doctors, nurses, and paramedics who volunteered in Gaza, 83% had seen children deliberately TARGETED and shot point-blank by snipers in either the head or the heart. 84% of them had also seen “nearly universal psychic distress in young children.” Many reported children with suicidal tendencies and visible trauma. Meanwhile, newborns are still dying of malnutrition and dysentery due to purposefully-blocked food aid and deliberately-destroyed clean water infrastructure. Over 11,300 children in Gaza have had their childhoods stripped away, and that’s a very conservative estimate because the “official” death toll has remained stagnant for months despite intense bombing and starvation.
In Lebanon, the crisis is just beginning. Schools are closed. People are displaced, homeless, hungry. Girls are on the streets, forced to sleep next to men they don’t know. They face specific risks and have urgent needs — protection, shelter, food, health — that are not being met as a result of constant Israeli bombardment. Current estimates indicate that 127 children have been killed. Meanwhile, Netanyahu threatens “Gaza-like” violence and destruction, and the rampage continues.
So, what do we “celebrate” in these circumstances?
If we’re not protecting and supporting all girls — all children — we are failing. And girls deserve better.
*For more, sign up here: www.LinaAbiRafeh.com. Trust me, I’ve got lots to say!
