Pakistan

Real lives

One story out of many: Education changes a girl’s life

© © UNICEF Pakistan/Zaidi

Asma Bibi is happy to be in school

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, 13 December 2004 – In a classroom full of fifth-graders, Asma Bibi – 14, and tall for her age – towers over her classmates. But she doesn’t mind. Asma is very happy just to be in school.

Until she was nine, Asma lived in a country village with no school. At that time, she was expected to follow in the footsteps of her four older sisters and marry young, without learning how to read or write.

Then chance intervened. Her family moved to Tibi Larren, a suburb of the Punjab town of Rahim Yar Khan, where there is a girls’ primary school.

Asma’s favourite subject is math. Her parents are now as happy as she is about her schooling. “My family loves that I’m getting an education,” she says.
                                                         
Previously, the family’s daughters all entered purdah (the practice of being dressed from head to foot in clothes so as to completely cover the skin, as per some Islamic customs) at the age of 10. After that, they never left the house unless accompanied by a male relative.

But now, times are changing. Not only does Asma walk the few blocks to school alone, she has chosen to discard the all-encompassing burka (the garment usually worn by women in purdah) her mother and sisters wear in favour of a veil that covers only her face.

Despite a government commitment to introduce free universal primary education in Pakistan, cultural dictates and her family’s below-poverty line status might have conspired to keep Asma at home - if it had not been for her parents’ determination to educate at least one daughter.

Asma’s father is an invalid who does occasional work installing hand pumps. Her 10-year-old brother works as a porter after class. People ask how he can carry such heavy loads. He tells them he has to do it to bring in the money.

Unfortunately, poverty may well put a brake on Asma’s hopes.

“We don’t usually allow our daughters out - so it’s quite something that she attends school. But I don’t see how I will manage to keep her on there, as only the primary classes are free. Anyway, the middle school is too far away. She can’t go there in the chinchi (motorized rickshaw) on her own. And if one of her brothers accompanies her, I’ll have to pay double the fare, which we can’t afford,” said her mother, Aziz Khatoon.