On the occasion of International Day of the Girl (October 11), here’s remembering world’s six bravest girls who walked against the wind, inspired the world, and made people stand up and take notice…
Malala Yousafzai
Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head by a Taliban militant for demanding that girls be allowed to receive an education. She was 12. On her 16th birthday, she delivered a speech at the UN calling for worldwide access to education prompting the UN to dub it “Malala Day”.
“Let us wage a glorious struggle against illiteracy, poverty and terrorism, let us pick up our books and our pens, they are the most powerful weapons. One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world. Education is the only solution. Education first,” she told the General Assembly.
At 17, she became the youngest-ever winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. She celebrated her 18th birthday recently by opening a school for Syrian refugee girls. A fund set up in her name helps children in education around the world.
Ruby Bridges
Ruby Bridges was 6 when she became the first African-American child to integrate a white Southern elementary school – the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans – having to be escorted to class by her mother and federal marshals due to violent mobs.
As soon as Bridges entered the school, white parents pulled their own children out; all the teachers refused to teach while a black child was enrolled. Only one person agreed to teach Ruby and that was Barbara Henry, from Boston, Massachusetts, and for over a year Henry taught her alone, “as if she were teaching a whole class”.
Her family suffered racism too. Her father was fired, her mother was banned from the grocery store, and her grandparents were evicted from their home. None of that stopped Ruby. Bridges’ bravery paved the way for continued Civil Rights action. In 1999, she started Ruby Bridges Foundation to promote “the values of tolerance, respect, and appreciation of all differences”. In 2001, Ruby was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Bill Clinton.
Anne Frank
Anne Frank was a Jewish girl whose family, along with four others, spent over two years hiding in an annex of rooms above her father’s office in Amsterdam to avoid the Nazis during World War II. Before going into hiding Anne received a diary as a gift on her 13th birthday. In her diary, she wrote her daily experience during her days in the hiding.
After two years, all of them were arrested and deported to Nazi concentration camps. In March of 1945, seven months after she was arrested, Anne died. She was 15. Since it was first published in 1947, Anne Frank’s diary has become one of the most powerful memoirs of the Holocaust. Its message of courage and hope in the face of adversity has reached millions. For many she is their first, if not their only exposure to the history of the Holocaust.
Nujood Ali
In February 2008, Nujood Ali, 10, was married to a man three times her age so that her family could escape the economic burden of raising children. She was raped and beaten by her husband for two months after which Nujood escaped her husband’s home and took a taxi to a courthouse in Sana’a to file for divorce. A compassionate judge heard Nujood’s story and had both her father and husband arrested. She was then assigned to human rights lawyer Shada Nasser as her counsel, who successfully made her case in a court that granted Nujood a divorce from her husband in 2009.
Nujood’s courageous decision to end her marriage was a historic event for Yemen – she was the youngest girl in Yemen to be granted a divorce. As Nujood says, “I’m a simple village girl whose family had to move to the capital, and I have always obeyed the orders of my fathers and brothers. Since forever, I have learned to say yes to everything. Today I have decided to say no.”
In November 2008, Glamour magazine named her and Nasser “Women of the Year” alongside Hillary Clinton and her predecessor Condoleezza Rice. Her unforgettable story of tragedy, triumph, and courage was sold as a book I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced.
Helen Keller
Alabama-born Helen Keller was growing up deaf, blind, and unable to communicate until Anne Sullivan taught the girl how to read Braille and communicate, opening up the world to her and forever changing the way disabled people are treated. Keller became the first deaf and blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.
She is remembered as an advocate for people with disabilities; she was a suffragist, a pacifist, an opponent of Woodrow Wilson, a radical socialist and a birth control supporter. In 1915, she and George Kessler founded the Helen Keller International organization devoted to research in vision, health and nutrition. In 1920, she helped to found the American Civil Liberties Union.
Katie Stagliano
In 2008, 9-year-old Katie Stagliano brought a tiny cabbage seedling home from school as part of the Bonnie Plants Third Grade Cabbage Program. As she cared for her cabbage, it grew to 40 pounds. That gave the Summerville, South Carolina, girl an idea. She donated it to help feed 275 people at a local soup kitchen. Katie now has numerous gardens and has donated thousands of pounds of fresh produce to organizations that help people in need.
“I want more people to get involved, more people to help in the fight against hunger. Growing vegetables is fun and it so great to help people. If I can do it anyone can. It doesn’t take a huge garden just a pot on your front porch with one vegetable plant can make a difference. If people (I hope lots of kids too) could grow even one vegetable plant and donate the harvest to a local soup kitchen we could make a huge difference in the fight against hunger,” she writes.
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