Event Post

For my event for Women’s Studies, I went to see the key note speaker for Atlas week, Shobana, give her key note address. The topic of her speech was “Dare to Educate Afghani Girls”; Shobana herself is Afghani, and was only a bit older than most of her college-age audience. She told of how, as a child, she and her family had risked their lives to provide she and her sisters with an education, even whilst the Taliban was in power. Though times in Afghanistan have changed for the better, it is still difficult and dangerous for girls to get an education. Shobana started the first all-girl boarding school that Afghanistan has ever seen. I found her speech to be incredibly inspiring. I am familiar with literature that Americans have written to promote the education of girls, but I found her story to be especially moving as it was she herself that had risked her life as a child, her family that had put themselves in danger. There is a clear tie between this event and Women’s Studies, as feminism is in support of the empowerment of all women, and there are few things as empowering as an education.