girls
Indian Girls Throw Punches at Poverty
Countries: India
An article in Friday's Wall Street Journal looks at how boxing is giving Muslim girls in India an alternative to their "practically scripted" life.
For many of these girls, the Wall Street Journal says life goes like this: "they stay home, help their mothers, and get married so they aren't a burden to their families anymore."
Sabihal Hussain, a women's studies professor at a New Delhi university explains how boxing is opening up new doors for the girls.
They find (boxing) as a way of coming out from conservativeness. They have very limited role — poor Muslim women — in the public sphere. So thes women, these boxers, they find a way to come out and this is an outlet for them to fight poverty.
The boxers train hard and those that are good enough to compete internationally, fight for cash prizes. But for many girls, boxing can be a gateway into a job with the the police or land them a college scholarship for a spot on the university sports team.
Delicious
Digg
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Facebook
Google
Yahoo
Gross Inadequacies in Afghani Education
You would think that female access to education within one country would be roughly the same. Not so for Afghani girls trying to get ahead.
Radio Free Europe explores the deep inadequacies in education offered to female Afghani students. Educational opportunities are vastly different for female students in northern provinces and their female counterparts in southern Afghanistan.
The problem emerges not only from a lack of funds, but increasing lack of security due to the Taliban's presence in the south. Schools have been burned down by members of the Taliban and female teachers terrorized or killed.
The connection between education, female economic empowerment and poverty alleviation is essential and the growing inability of female students in the south to access safe educational opportunities worrisome.
Read the article and also check out what Mercy Corps is doing in Afghanistan.
Recent comments
on A 'Rising Star' in Economics
on A 'Rising Star' in Economics
on What's the world's most serious problem?
on Beyond Savings and Loans
on Liberia Ordered to Pay $20 Million to Vultures