It is no secret that females in developing countries are often unable to receive a proper education. With a lack of education comes unexpected risks, including reduced health, a decline in family income, and even a higher risk of trafficking and exploitation ("Girls' and Women's Education - Expertise - International - World Education, Inc."). For many women in underdeveloped countries such as Arab and Afghanistan, attempting to achieve an education could put their lives at risk. Two women, Laura Boushnak, and Shabana Basij-Rasikh discuss this issue in two different TED talk videos. In the first, Basij-Rasikh discusses how Afghan women should be able to earn a proper education, and tells the story of how her father fought for her to have that. …show more content…
Even though they are not directly affected by it, men also have a large impact on the impact of education for women in Afghanistan. “Behind most of us who succeed,” says Basij-Rasikh, “is a father who recognizes the value in his daughter and who sees that her success is his success…in the context of a society like in Afghanistan, we must have the support of men” (Basij-Rasikh). Basij-Rasikh also speaks of the time in which it was illegal for her to attend a real school due to the reign of the Taliban. She says there would be times when she would want to quit, but her father would say to her, “…you can lose everything you own in your life….But the one thing that will always remain with you is what is here, and if we have to sell our blood to pay your school fees, we will. So do you still not want to continue?" (Basij-Rasikh). Fathers of the girls who attend SOLA are also very supportive of their daughters. One of them, whom she calls Ahmed, but cannot say his real name for protection purposes, was nearly killed by a roadside bomb while taking his daughter to school one day. When he arrived home that day, he got a call from someone threatening to kill him if he sent his daughter to school again, to which he simply replied, “Kill me now, if you wish…but I will not ruin my daughter's future because of your old …show more content…
Umm El-Saad is a young woman who was illiterate when she and Boushnak first met, but she is now able to read and write. The second woman, Asma, is a bioengineering student who says she has “always dreamt of discovering a new bacteria. Now, after the revolution, we have a new one every single day" (Boushnak). What Asma is referring to is not, in fact, actual bacteria, but the rise of fundamentalism in Tunisia, another issue that is especially difficult for women. Boushnak says that the last woman, Fayza, affected her the most out of each woman she met. “Fayza was forced to drop out of school at the age of eight when she was married…. At 14, she became the third wife of a 60-year-old man, and by the time she was 18, she was a divorced mother of three” (Boushnak). Despite all the obstacles in her life, Fayza is now 26 years old and attending a