To go, or not to go

In a theater play the girls of seventh and eighth grade of the school in Khanot expressed their hope for a better future with this praying gesture.








The last couple of weeks I've been reading a lot about the system of education in Sindh. Inspite of all its shortcomings, I've learnt that there has been a positive development: girls education has become a phenomenon that can be seen in the tiniest of towns. 2 to 3 decades ago it was unheard of; girls were predestined to marry at an early age, and until that time, they were needed in and around the house. And if they weren't needed, they had to stay in or around the house.
But this has changed and girls go to school. A liberating experience in many ways. One that I particularly like has to do with sports. Pakistani men might be surprised to hear, but many girls love cricket just as much as they do. And they play well. But going to a wicket somewhere in town and having a game is not possible. They would be told off and chased away. Cricket isn't for girls. But on the schoolyard they can play, and they do so with fury.

During one of my visits, I portrayed graduates of a Sojhro model schools - the schools that are run by the Indus Resource Centre with the help of national and international donors - together with their mothers. For all of them goes that the daughters get to go to school, whereas their mothers never got the chance.


(Shahista with her mother Nazul.)


(Munir with her mother Nazira)


(Sofia with her mother Mai Sughar)

A change like this doesn't happen 'naturally', although it is all so natural that women and men get equal chances. It only happens because a handful of courageous individuals are willing to stick their neck out. I had the honour to meet with one of them: Mr Suleiman.
He decided 35 years ago that his daughters would go to school. Being a small merchant in grain, Mr Suleiman didn’t have much to spend, but every rupee that wasn’t predestined for food or shelter went to the education of his children. That this wasn’t a decision that he made lightly, can be understood by some of the reactions his family members gave him. When he announced his plans, he gave them the option. Either you accept my choice, or you tell me to go away. He was literally prepared to leave his hometown, the place where he had grown up, in order to let his daughters go to school. His family members didn't make him leave, but they did break off all relations. For years the family lived more or less isolated.
Now that his 9 daughters are educated and have jobs, the same family members have changed their attitude regarding girls’ education and see Mr Suleiman as a role model.


(Mr Suleiman)