World Literacy Day: Dark days don’t stop the determined

Despite a medical condition, Sadaf became her family’s first degree holder.

LAHORE: “I couldn’t see anything. It was all black. I lost consciousness and when my family took me to the hospital, the doctor advised me to stop reading,” says Sadaf Nosheen, a part-time teacher at an NGO funded school in Minhala, a village some 30 kilometres outside Lahore.

“My eyesight started weakening when I was in the tenth grade. I would get constant headaches but I could not give up on my education,” adds 22-year-old Sadaf who is the eldest in a family of 12. Currently pursuing her master’s in Economics, Sadaf juggles a day job and gives free tuition to children in her neighbourhood as well.

“My mother keeps telling me that I might go blind but I just have a year left; so I pray to God that he lets me see just a little longer so I can complete my degree,” she playfully adds, while positioning her thick glasses. Sadaf excelled throughout her early schooling; however after the eighth grade, she suffered from a dilemma faced by many adolescent women in Pakistan: The government school she attended didn’t offer classes for girls beyond the eighth grade. Since most families in her village married off their daughters at an early age, the next best option for an unmarried girl was to give a helping  hand to her mother in the kitchen and with domestic chores.

Sadaf was teetering on the brink of a similar fate when a teacher at her school spotted immense potential in her and convinced her parents to send her to a nearby NGO-funded private school. At first, Sadaf’s father was reluctant to send his daughter to an institution with an ‘English’ environment but “after assurances from Sadaf to perform all the household chores before going to school, we gave her the permission to attend the school,” Sadaf’s mother says, adding that since Sadaf was on scholarship, her education wasn’t a financial burden on the family.

Sadaf’s hurdles wouldn’t end there though. “The biggest critics were the villagers and our family elders. They would tell my father that it was wrong of him to send me for higher studies since giving independence to a woman weakened their character, but my mother fought on my behalf,” Sadaf adds.

Even though her life at home and school, compounded with her loss of sight, often got too chaotic, she secured good enough grades to earn a scholarship for a bachelor’s degree. “I was happy and sad at the same time. I knew the task ahead of convincing my parents would be harder this time around, since I would have to go to Lahore for higher education,” Sadaf’s parents initially refused but after much nagging and promises by Sadaf to maintain her ‘family’s honour’, she was given permission to attend a college in Bhagwanpura, some 15 kilometres from her village.

Be that as it may, her struggle to achieve her goals, similar to that of other women striving to go beyond their given societal roles in Pakistan, seems to be a never-ending one. Sadaf went on to earn her bachelor’s, becoming the first generation of college graduates in her entire family. However, given her thirst for knowledge, the buck didn’t stop there. After failing to convince her parents this time around, she is now privately studying for her master’s in Economics. “When I tell people that I study on my own, they don’t believe I can do it without any outside help. But I will prove them all wrong,” says Sadaf enthusiastically.

According to United Nations estimates, less than 40 per cent of women are currently literate in Pakistan, whereas the total literacy rate is 56 per cent. According to a recent report by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the country has some of the world’s largest gender disparities in education. It states that young girls are less likely to enter the school system and more likely to drop out of primary school, and few make it through secondary school. The report cites poverty, labour demand, cultural practices and attitudes to girls’ education as reasons for gender inequalities in Pakistan.

Sadaf is certainly the exception to the rule as millions of girls in Pakistan may never have the privilege of even finishing primary school. Reminiscing about the difficult times that passed her, Sadaf says she will strive to give her siblings everything that she never had.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 8^th,  2011.