Women Strive for Education and Equal Rights

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The Quran states: "That man can have nothing but what he strives for" (QS. 53:39). The word ‘man’ used in this verse not only covers the patriarchal nature, but the androgynous nature of humans as a whole. Women were once considered property of men; even if not as property then only as pinch-hit for male labour. The highest rank given to a woman was of one who bore male labours and fed them. No voting rights, no right to run for office, or the right to own property of their own. Male members of the society were allowed to marry as many women as they yearned for while women had to adhere to monogamy just to stop the property from being transferred to someone else’s’ children. Women had to strive a lot to get a pinch of rights. Even today no one places power in a dish to be presented to women. They have, yet, to acquire more apart from basic right of suffrage. They have yet to learn to take power. Women needed to stand up to get proper rights to education. If Malala Yousafzai, at the age of 16, could stand up publicly to proclaim rights to women education without the fear of getting brutalized then why can’t other women? Instead of whining about not getting rights to education why don’t women stand against all the forces stopping them from acquiring education? It’s not about self interest, but about the fate of later generations too. An uneducated woman is not only oblivious of her basic domestic rights, but also about how significant it is for her to take care of her health for her children. It is because of such uneducated women who convey the same message of inequality to their male children that leads to a more oppressive patriarchal society. An educated woman exactly knows how wrong practices like Karo kari (honor killi... ... middle of paper ... ...thus stimulating the same belief of inequality among men. A woman always has to stand up for herself to take power, either through education or through intelligent manipulation. She needs to take power instead of waiting for someone to present it to her in a dish. The world may go against her, even harass her. There are so many spiders to frighten Miss Muffet away, but it’s her own decision either to leave her curds and whey and run away, or to save it for her and her daughter to enjoy. She needs to prioritize which level of harassment she can absorb. It’s time for every woman to answer a question: Is getting disowned by her family or society more harassing or is she alright seeing when her own daughter gets beaten up by her husband… Works Cited In Afghanistan, Women Strive for Education and Equal Rights Critical Insights: The Canterbury Tales

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