Fate of an Accomplished Girl

She woke up with so much enthu­si­asm, antic­i­pa­tion, and joy. It was the day her dreams were going to be true. The fresh morn­ing breeze was filled with excite­ment and essence of her dreams. She breathed the fresh air and felt relieved. It was the day she was going to grad­u­ate, it was her con­vo­ca­tion cer­e­mo­ny. She chose her best dress to wear for the spe­cial day. She was ready, look­ing so beau­ti­ful and gor­geous as she had nev­er looked before. She start­ed revis­ing the speech she was going to deliv­er as the high­est achiev­er, the best stu­dent. She read it aloud in front of the mir­ror and felt con­fi­dent. The last thank­ing words were for her par­ents and she would say these and sur­prise them in front of every­one. The most beau­ti­ful moment for her was just about to start.

She had already received so many job offers. She knew which one of them she was going to accept. She knew that she would become a lec­tur­er. Mean­while she would also work as a women’s rights activist. She would moti­vate her stu­dents to pur­sue their dreams. She always want­ed to be a source of help and inspi­ra­tion for oth­ers, par­tic­u­lar­ly for girls who are in dire need of that. She was thank­ful to her par­ents because it was only pos­si­ble because of them.

She was so excit­ed that she was not able to have break­fast. Laugh­ing and smil­ing, she along with her par­ents arrived at col­lege. She was shiv­er­ing with joy when she entered the great hall. The cer­e­mo­ny began, the chief guest arrived, and soon the degrees and gold medals were dis­trib­uted to the posi­tion hold­ers and then it was her turn. She was called to the stage in the chant­i­ng slo­gans of her class fel­lows and the claps of the audi­ence. She gained strength and start­ed her speech on the impor­tance of women’s edu­ca­tion and work. She added, “I am stand­ing here because of my par­ents, they always stand by me, they make me believe in me, they make me feel that I can do the impos­si­ble, they are my back­bone and when­ev­er I fall down they make me stand.”

It was the most amaz­ing day of her life. Her teach­ers con­grat­u­lat­ed her par­ents, they were so proud, she could tell by look­ing into their eyes.

They came back home, she was excit­ed to tell her par­ents about the job offers and her future plans that she had in her mind for so long. As she approached her dad and mom, they told her how proud they are and that they had decid­ed some­thing for her for her own bet­ter­ment. They told her that they have found some­one for her, who is of her age and has a respectable job. They also said that he earned so much that she would nev­er have to do a job and be stressed about mon­e­tary issues, he owned a house and have no fam­i­ly so he would be a per­fect match. Her qual­i­fi­ca­tion match­es best to his, and hav­ing him as her future hus­band will be so help­ful for her. She was numbed with this shock­ing news; her feet were hard to move, she felt she could not breathe any more, she could not feel any joy any more, and the smell of the fresh air was gone. Her joy­ous tears were now replaced by tears of grief, and she found her­self total­ly con­fused. She thought her par­ents were sup­port­ing her because it was her right to get edu­ca­tion, not so that she could mere­ly get mar­ried to some rich per­son. She thought her par­ents were with her because they want­ed her to accom­plish her dreams, but wait a sec­ond, they didn’t want her to do the job, and it was just to find the right match.

Why do girls have to meet such a fate? If you think that she did not deserve this, then why do you choose the same for your own daugh­ters? Have you ever ques­tioned that? Have you ever thought of her dreams, her desires, and her right to do what she wants? Edu­ca­tion is the right of every human being – a girl or a boy. Most impor­tant­ly a girl needs edu­ca­tion for her self-esteem; so that she can rec­og­nize her poten­tial and can dis­tin­guish between right and wrong.