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A girl attends a protest as part of the Fridays for Future movement to call for action against climate change in Turin, Italy.
OPINION: This may have been missed, with the cycle jam-packed with news right now, but today is International Girl’s Day.
In fact, even if it wasn’t an election year in the middle of a pandemic, you may not yet know that such a thing exists. Hell, I was a girl once, and the existence of a day reserved for raising our voices and experimenting is a first for me.
That’s not good enough, World. Let’s change that.
An annual UNICEF campaign, it’s a day to celebrate the incredible force for good and change that young women and girls can be, and to focus on the issues they face. We literally can’t do that enough; here are five reasons why:
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“MY VOICE, OUR FUTURE THE SAME”
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Young women at a Black Lives Matter protest.
That’s the theme of the day this year, celebrating the powerful voices of young women and girls around the world as they fight for their futures.
“Let’s seize the opportunity to reimagine a world better inspired by teenagers, energized and recognized, counted and inverted,” says the UN page. Go ahead.
THE FUTURE IS FEMININE
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Keeping girls in school around the world is one of the keys to ending global poverty.
There are more than 1.1 billion girls in the world. Many of them will grow up in poverty.
According to Oxfam figures prior to the Covid-19 crisis, 700 million fewer women than men are in paid employment. The outlook now is even more dire.
This is not just a global problem. Here in Aotearoa-New Zealand, women are hit the hardest by coronavirus job losses. For girls to have a future, we must continue to fight for equality.
FACING VIOLENCE
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A young woman protests sexual violence against women and girls in Bangladesh.
According to the UN, every 10 minutes a teenager dies from violence; it is the second leading cause of death for women and girls ages 10-19.
Around the world, girls face sexual violence, trafficking, repressive gender roles, child marriage, female genital mutilation, harassment, gender and sexuality shame, and entire social structures designed to belittle and oppress them. .
International Girl’s Day aims to highlight these heartbreaking statistics and shed light on the horrible burden of violence carried by so many young women and girls.
No girl is left behind
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Children attend an Arabic lesson taught by Palestinian schoolgirl Fajr Hmaid, 13, as schools are closed due to the coronavirus disease.
UN statistics show that worldwide a quarter of all girls between the ages of 15 and 19 neither study nor have a paid job. Both important weapons in the battle against poverty, it means that many young women will not be armed to face the future.
“By 2021, around 435 million women and girls will live on less than $ 1.90 a day, including 47 million pushed into poverty as a result of Covid-19,” says the UN. That’s not good enough.
Protecting access to education for girls and young women is critical to ending global poverty.
THE FACE OF SOCIAL CHANGE
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A group of girls marching in the Global Climate Strike in Durban, South Africa.
If the last decade has an emblem, it is a teenager with a loudspeaker.
From Greta Thunburg’s fiery advocacy for the environment, to Malala Yousafzai’s defiance of the traditional oppressive roles of women and girls, to Zee Thomas, Tiana Day, and Shayla Turner leading the Black Lives Matter marches in the USA. , Young women and girls are at the forefront of social media. change.
The need to empower more young women to speak out against the injustice they see in their lives and communities is a cornerstone of this year’s Day of the Girl.
