Monday, August 11, 2014

Women's Rights Are Human Rights

Women's Rights are Human Rights.

Apparently that statement, sent over the internet, was enough to ignite physical protests in some countries.


The 200 girls kidnapped from a Nigerian high school, by a group whose sole goal is to frighten parents into not educating their girls, are still missing.

Fewer than 5% of girls in sub-Saharan Africa finish high school.

Each year of primary school education in a developing country raises a girl's eventual wages by 10-20%. Each year of secondary school raises them 15-25%.

A girl from a developing country who stays in school 7 years marries 4 years later, has 2.2 fewer children, is less likely to be subject to forced sex and more likely to use contraception than girls who leave school early.



Two days ago, in Syria, a woman accused of adultery was stoned to death. The man with whom she committed adultery was not punished.


One in seven girls in the developing world is married before age 15.

Girls ages 10-14 are five times as likely to die in childbirth as women ages 20-24.

I have on a my desk a small photograph of a Afghani child bride. She wears elaborate makeup on her pre-pubescent face. She bites her lip; her eyes are full of sorrow.

Women's Rights are Human Rights. 

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