Malala’s friend Amina is bright, passionate and a fierce advocate for girls’ rights.
Malala’s friend Amina is bright, passionate and a fierce advocate for girls’ rights. At 19, she lives in Northern Nigeria — one of the most dangerous regions for girls — attending the Federal College of Education. She writes: “I am the first of eight children in my family. I have two brothers and five sisters. I live in a peri-urban community in Northern Nigeria. We have a public primary and secondary school, but the few roads in my community are very bad. Members of my community are predominantly Muslims and speak the Hausa language.”
When Amina was only 12, her father’s uncle urged her father to marry her off, claiming that education was useless. But Amina refused to accept this as her fate, so she spoke out and stayed in school, completing her secondary education at Centre for Girls Education (CGE). “My mother encourages me to attend school regularly and doesn’t force me to hawk or do house chores when I am supposed to be in school like some mothers do. My father supports my education, too. He allows me to be in school instead of marrying me out as suggested by family and community members,” she says.
Yet, Amina is luckier than most girls because she has the support of her parents. “My parents are different from other members of my community because they have had post-secondary school education, which means that they know the importance of Western education. When a woman is educated for example, she will make sure her child attains a higher educational level than she does. In my community, not everyone supports girls’ education. People prefer boys to become educated than their female counterparts because they believe that girls will get married when they are 12 or 13 years old and move to their husband’s house. So her education will only benefit that family. Also, most of the parents are peasant farmers and cannot afford to pay school fees. Insecurity is a major problem girls encounter in my community. We fear either being raped or injured by drug addicts on our way to school.”
Amina won’t let her fear stop her from going to school. She never walks alone and makes sure to get home before dark because her education is too important. “I make sure I attend school regularly, pay good attention in class and study hard at school and at home.” Besides, Amina wouldn’t want to miss out on her favorite subject — biology. “I love the teacher and I usually perform excellently in the subject,” she said. Of course, there are things that annoy her about school, too, like “when I have so much classwork and so little time to complete it, or when I am punished by my teachers because the class is noisy.” But the pros always outweighs the cons. “I love being in the company of my friends and always look forward to closing time when we will all walk home, chatting about so many things that happened in school.”
Education has helped transform Amina’s life and now she’s helping transform the lives of younger girls by serving as a mentor at CGE, so other girls can follow in her footsteps. Amina and Malala share the same dream: to one day see that all girls in the world are in school. She hopes to follow in Malala’s footsteps as well. She writes, “In the future, I see myself going to different parts of the world, telling people about the right of every to education like Malala is doing presently. Being onstage with Malala to receive the Nobel Peace Prize last December was such a great inspiration for me to continually and tirelessly fight for girls’ education, especially in my community. It has equipped me to speak to girls at my youth club about the importance of education by sharing my wonderful experience at Oslo.
I encourage everyone, most importantly parents, to support girl child education. Educating a girl means educating the entire nation. My advice to every girl is: dare to be educated, it’s your right.”
Source: malala.org
