International Women’s Day and the Justice of Female Education
On this year’s International Women’s Day, it is appropriate for the American University of Kurdistan (AUK) to champion female education in the global context. Each day classes are in session at AUK, females learn and participate alongside their male peers, just as in the United States, just as is proper for their own intellectual and professional development. However, there are places (not so far from Kurdistan) where females are denied access to school beyond the primary years, as it has been determined that only the most limited and basic education is sufficient for them.
There is an employee at AUK hailing from a country where female education has recently been greatly restricted, and these restrictions are particularly upsetting to him because he is the father to several daughters who elsewhere would be considered “school-aged.” AUK Content Writer Michael Collins, to advocate for educational access for females everywhere and mark the occasion of International Women’s Day, decided to ask this AUK employee – who wishes to remain anonymous – some questions about the educational environment in Iraqi Kurdistan. The interview appears immediately below.
Q: What is the importance of female education?
A: “It is really, really important, and from the Islamic religious perspective the right to education for females is in the hadith ‘Seeking Knowledge Is Mandatory for Every Muslim.’ Without education for females, the economy and society will not reach their full potential.”
Q: I have heard you say before you would seriously consider moving your family here. What are the “pull factors” making Kurdistan an attractive place for the raising of your family?
A: “There are many reasons for this. One of the reasons is to allow my kids to explore different cultures. The second reason is to give them a chance to be educated regardless of gender. Thirdly, Kurdistan is peaceful and has hospitable and loving people.”
Q: What is your message for the AUK community?
A: “The AUK community can act as a family and pool its resources to make the university a leader in research and instruction in the Middle East region.”
The American University of Kurdistan stands for the education of females in the Middle East and everywhere else in the world. An educated world is a better world; when about half of the population is deprived of an appropriate education, though, the world is hamstrung, if not at a standstill. The education of females, irrefutably, raises the productivity and peacefulness of the planet. March 8 may be the most fitting occasion each year to call attention to the work left to be done for female education, but it is a cause worth mentioning and fighting for every day, until the necessity of equal educational opportunities for females and males is as respected everywhere else as it has been at AUK since its 2014 establishment.
Happy International Women’s Day!