Save Education!

As can be seen from the previous two blogs, the videos about the Taliban taking over schools, and this picture, people are concerned and want to save the education of children, especially women in the Swat Valley.
I believe the Pakistani Government should be more involved and try to force the Taliban back to help save the education. It is hard enough for people in rural areas to have a school to go to and the Taliban is making it even tougher for students to go to school. Women in these areas are often not allowed to go to school because if there is a school men are usually the first to be allowed to go. The Pakistani Government needs to help the people in the Swat Valley, especially women attempting to go to school. The more people who are educated in Pakistan, the more the country will improve and eventually become a developed nation in the world.

Fatima Jinnah- Karen

A (Bara-Dari )Monument at Fatima Jinnah Park in Islamabad
Fatima Jinnah is most well known for her political support to her brother Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the leader of Muslim India, and founder of Pakistan but she did much more than that during her life. After the death of their father, Fatima was encouraged to finish school by her brother, and later went on to attend the Dr Ahmad Dental College in and opened her own dental practice in Calcutta when it was frowned upon by society for women to have a professional career. Although she was supported by her brother in this decision, most of the rest of her family was opposed to it. Later in life she joined the All India Muslim League and helped to form the All India Muslim Women Students Federation in 1941 in Delhi. She even went on to run for the Presidency of Pakistan in 1965. She died in 1967 of heart failure but it is speculated that she was actually murdered. Her legacy lives on in many schools and other national monuments that are named after her and in the political history of Pakistan. She will no doubt be a woman to look up to in the fight for women's rights for decades to come.

The Taliban Are Taking Over Schools!

This video talks about the closing of schools and the rules put in place by the Taliban on schools in the Swat Valley. Women who are attempting to go to school cannot do so without adhering to the regulations put in place by the Taliban. This is a major problem in Pakistan currently because women do not often get the chance to go to schools in rural areas, especially in the Northwest Frontier Province.

Women and Education in the Swat Valley- Karen

This is a video showing girls in the Swat Valley who want to go to school and are preparing to fight the Taliban to do so.

Women, Education, and Poverty

It really sad how in certain areas in Pakistan, women are forbid to go to school. In most Pakistani culture women are still label as mothers and wives therefore their place is to be at home only. As one of the third world and the poorest countries, you may think that these are might be the reasons that prevent women to enroll in schools. Sadly, this is not the case. Most Pakistani family believes that education is not part of the women's world; men think that women just have to be at home; cleaning, cooking, and taking care of their children. In one of the article that I read for our research paper, it is said that education is the most important essential to help the country from poverty but yet women are not allowed to get an education let alone expected to help the country to reduced the percentage of poverty in Pakistan. So I was just wondering, if these men were willing to let their girls to go to schools, will it help Pakistan in terms of building up their economics for the better?

Three Cups of Tea: Food- Karen

I was amazed this week of the foods that we cooked and about what I have learned about food from Three Cups of Tea. The things that Greg Mortenson tried while he was in Pakistan makes our class look less than adventurous in what we ate this week. I would be especially reluctant to try what was described as sheep organ stew. I would also have a hard time swallowing butter tea. From Greg's description of the first time he had it in the mountains when Mouzafer made it for him, it sounds supremely unpleasant. Ingredients of Paiyu Cha (the Balti name for butter tea) includes mar (rancid yak butter), salt, green tea, baking soda, and goats milk. Those ingredients mixed together sound less than pleasant to me so for now I think I will stick with restaurant made Indian food, and homemade Mattar Queema, made with beef. Also, I like the thought of a eating a hearty breakfast rather than the sweet masala like tea and chapatti bread the Pakistani eat each day, so eggs and bacon it is for me. Bon Appetite!

Women's Roles in Three Cups of Tea- Karen

After reading more of Three Cups of Tea, it amazes me what women in the book are like. People treat Greg Mortenson as an outsider even after people know what Greg Mortenson is planning to do for the mountain villages in Pakistan. Some people just turn away from him and act as though they don't see him, others gawk at him because he is so tall, but the women are especially fascinating. Even when Greg travels with other Pakistani men who obviously trust him, women do not dare to look at him. They use their veils to cover their faces as to escape Greg's wandering gazes. Or the children who do not know that they should not talk to the stranger are polite and shake his hand when he introduces himself in Balti. The girls seem to question him, and his motives, but eventually they wrap their hands in the veils they are wearing so they too may shake his hand, and are overly cautious when they are near him.
So far the children are the only real interaction Greg has had with the opposite sex while in Pakistan. Other females in his story are either in the kitchens of the homes that Greg visits, or they are non-existent. It is frustrating to see that women, especially in the more rural villages of Pakistan follow customs so closely. From what we have seen and heard about women in more urban settings, they live with their families and are allowed to be more free with the choices they make in their daily lives.
It is scary to think about not being able to make my own choices and having elders make them for me so I hope that in the near future women across the globe start sticking up for themselves and changing the way that they are treated so they may know what it feels like to live a fuller life.

Improving Education to Reduce Poverty

For our class we have been reading "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, and I have realized that it goes very well with the social issues topic my group and I have been studying. Mr. Mortenson fell in love with a small village in Pakistan on the border of K2, the second biggest mountain in the world. He realized how badly they needed a school and took it upon himself to find the funds needed to build a school for the children of the village. Upon building a bridge and school for the village he realized almost all the other villages in the northern areas needed schools and so with the help of another climber they started an organization to help build schools.
While researching education in Pakistan I realized that schools are still in great need in the northern areas and also in other rural parts of Pakistan. Many children cannot go to school in the rural areas because there are not schools within walking distance or they have to stay at home to help their family in the fields so they will have enough food to eat for the winter. Because of the numerous amount of children and adults with little to no education it causes a high population of individuals who are illiterate. With so many people in the country not being able to read, write or perform basic mathematical skills it allows people who are literate to "take advantage" or sometimes tell them the wrong thing because they would not know the difference. This is especially a problem when electing new leaders or going to a market to buy goods. Illiterate people would not be able to read anything about politicians, but only know what others tell them or what they hear the politicians say.
Schools are very important to put throughout Pakistan because the more people who become literate, the more they will be able to understand and comprehend what is going on in the world and hopefully they would be able to improve the conditions in Pakistan to improve the standard of living. People in Pakistan live in very poor, impoverished conditions because so many of them are illiterate. If more schools could be built and students got an education, the next generation could help Pakistan thrive and become more industrialized to improve their standard of living.