Pashtana's Lesson Summary

In the article titled “Pashtana’s Lesson” by Beth Murphy, she records the story of a 15 year-old Afghani girl who has a fiery passion for acquiring knowledge and pursuing education, but old traditions oppress her devotion to study. Pashtana is in the 7th grade at an all girls school which has been rejected by the elders in their community, asked to be torn down, or turned into an all boys school. Her mother strongly enforces studies on her children because she never went to school herself and she doesn’t want her children to end up blind to things in the world like her. In order to support her mother and three younger siblings financially, Pashtana is being forced by her uncle and father to marry her first cousin which is not uncommon, the

There is a slight glimmer of hope when the school year ends and the girls all receive their report cards. They stand eagerly in the hallway, none of them can break their gaze at the slips of paper in their teacher’s hands. Pashtana finishes 15th in her class and in this moment looks forward to a new year in the 8th grade. Unfortunately, Pashtana and her family were living off of $7 a week, a dollar to spend a day. She soon got married to her cousin and has not been back to school since their last day. Her friends at the school and Beth Murphy have not seen her and have lost touch with her. Her teachers assume she will be back to continue her studies and eventually graduate, but for now, Pashtana is another one of the 3 million girls in Afghanistan who do not attend school. This story is not only unique to Pashtana, frequently, girls are taken out of school to marry wealthy men in their community or relatives. However, more girls are attending and staying in school while being engaged or married. Hopefully, in the the future, this compromisable trend will continue and give new light to the gloomy days that seem to be a constant in

Pashtana said she would rather die than not go to school and acted on her words. Her education is limited and she doesn’t have all the recourses to make school easier, yet she still loves and wants all the knowledge she can get. While I sit in my three story private school, a clean uniform free of holes or loose seams, my macbook air in my lap, the smell of cookies rising up from the cafeteria, wishing to be anywhere else but there. No one has beat me because I want to go to school, no one has forced me into a marriage, I’ve never put my life in jeopardy for the sake of education. Pashtana’s life and choices made me take a moment to stop and reflect on my own life and how fortunate I am to have what I have. We dread the thought of school because to us it is a chore, it’s a hassle, it’s something that messes with our sleep schedule, it is something that gets in the way of lounging around and binge watching Netflix. Pashtana doesn’t take her school and education for granted because she does not have the same liberties we do. While we enjoy driving into the city and shopping over the weekend, Pashtana unwillingly makes wedding arrangements with her cousin. While we complain about our mom nagging us to clean our room, Pashtana is getting beaten by her father because she wants to learn more about the world. While we have stocked fridges and pantries and