Marzia had put together a bucket list of things she wanted to do:

To meet Elif Shafak,

To see the Eiffel tower

To ride a bike

To walk in a park at night

To learn how to play guitar

To visit at least six countries

And to write a novel.

Marzia, along with thirty other girls was killed in a suicide attack on an education institute in Kabul last week. Living in Kabul, she probably wouldn’t get to meet Elif Shafak or see Paris. However, even the simplest of things like riding a bike or walking in a park was unimaginable for her and it is for millions of girls in Afghanistan. Attending school is a dream not only in Afghanistan.

Mao Zedong the chairman of the Chinese communist party said, “Women hold up half the sky”. This was a slogan that they used during the cultural revolution in the 1960s implying that women are equal to men they are a key resource who can contribute to the economy and growth of a country.

Women’s education is considered one of the most important factors for sustainable development. From China to Bangladesh statistics show that girls’ education is associated with development, economic stability, and social equality. The economic and social contributions of women are greater in countries where women are educated.

The new regime in Afghanistan has banned girls’ education.

Sometimes I think well that’s Kabul, that’s Kandahar. It is far away from Quetta. Or is it?

In Balochistan, only 22% of the girls of school-going age make it to primary school. Less than 30% of the women in rural Balochistan are literate with literacy being someone who could just spell their names. Two-thirds of the province’s population is rural.

Why are the girls in Balochistan not in schools? The data and research identify many factors such as poverty, access to schools, trained teaching staff, and low quality of education. But the truth is in our society the girls are the “honor” of the family, but they are not the “priority” of the families.

Pakistan ranks 167 out of 170 countries in the Women, Peace, and Security Index next to Afghanistan, Iraq, and Yemen. Our girls are not safe outside and in their homes. In a society that claims women are their honor, women are not secure. The streets are not safe, and neither is home. The same index shows that Balochistan had the highest rates of organized violence and intimate partner violence in the past year.

Just some years back I remember women being buried alive in an act defended by our Senator.

How many of us have heard of women being killed in the name of honor by a male member of their family or tribe? The birth of a daughter is not celebrated here. Girls are named Bus Bibi, Khatima, or Balanasta so that subsequent pregnancy delivers a boy. The girl’s education is not a priority neither are the girls’.

But there is some hope, the hope comes from recent protests in neighboring Iran. Where women have come forward for their fundamental rights. Seeing girls protesting in Isfahan and Tehran brings some hope to women in the region be it Balochistan or Afghanistan. The women are rising,

Afghan women have been protesting across the country following the attacks on an education institute in Kabul. The women of Pakistan braved death threats to protest in the Aurat march And Baloch women are holding sit-ins for their loved ones.

Marzia was never able to fulfill her dreams, of studying, playing the guitar or walking in a park, but maybe in some distant future girls in this region will be able to.

The protests in Iran may be the start of social change that is needed in the region. A change leading to a society where girls are not “honor”, but girls are “priority”. Where “zan” is not an asset but an active productive part of the society and economy.  Where girls do hold half the sky. A world where they can walk in Park and ride a bike.

Baraye Zan, Zindagi, Azadi!