Hannah Hogan

How can geography help you?

Geography being such a broad subject can help so many people in a
variety of diferent ways and can be applied to almost any situation;
from volcanic eruptions to tourism to wheres the nearest train
station? However want to focus this essay on how geography can
help me in particular regarding my gender and opportunities! am a
"# year old white heterose$ual female% living in Great &ritain
attending a si$th form college and studying my second year of '
levels! (ow let us switch to Hadiya% a ") year old girl living in
*ongo% 'frica who is already married and e$pecting her +rst child!
Hadiya has no control over her own body% her own temple! ,he has
no control over her se$uality% her choice in motherhood% in marriage;
she is seen as powerless! -his is simply horri+c! am not trying to
write or sound li.e a charity advert% or a poster% but what is
terrifying to me is that could be Haidya! ,o could my sister! ,o
could my bestfriend! ,o could my mother!
n this essay am going to investigate how girls in diferent
countries are unable to have the same rights and power as men are%
and as am in my country! want to .now why this is the case; why
in some countries girls are not entitled to education% but in some
such as my own it is the norm and what there is we can do about it
and why girls are stripped of their human rights regarding their
bodies! n this essay Geography is going to help me gain awareness
of the situation that hundreds of thousands of girls that are just li.e
me are living in throughout the world!
/et us start of with 'frica% a huge continental island brimming with
"!""" billion people! 'ccording to the 0nited (ations 1opulation
2und 30(12'4 womens participation in politics has greatly improved
in most 'frican countries% allowing them some participation in legal
systems as men are! 'frica now has 5 female heads of state giving
young 'frican girls much needed role models% however women still
only own "67
th
of parliamentary seats and ministerial positions in
,ub ,aharan 'frica though this is still progress as the numbers of
8uali+ed women are increasing due to many being able to remain in
school! 9wanda has the most female members of parliament in the
world at 7#: and reserves a percentage of parliamentary seats for
women!
(evertheless huge problems still remain! -hroughout 'frica% women
are still unable to ma.e informed decisions about their se$uality and
reproduction! n many areas young girls are impregnated as soon as
their +rst period starts! am now going to focus on one major issue
of compliance in 'frica afection millions of young girls! 1ractises
such as female genital mutilation 32G;4 are carried out simply
because they always have been and are traditional% or because
neighbouring countries participate so others do also! 2emale genital
mutilation is carried out on young girls between infancy and "7
years of age and has no social or health bene+ts according to the
<orld Health =rganisation 3<H=4 and is carried out due to social
Hannah Hogan
norms and the pressure to conform to what other people are doing
and is also seen as a rite of passage to prepare a girl for adulthood!
ts thought to prevent girls from performing >illicit se$ual acts due
to the pain this would cause and the fear if someone found out! -he
fact that women are butchered in such a way that they become
fearful of their own bodies and are controlled in what to do and what
not to do with their bodies shows how far behind 'frica is in
achieving e8ual rights for women! (ot only is this process inhumane
and barbaric but there are no medical reasons or bene+ts for this
procedure! /ong?term injuries resulting from 2G; include cysts%
infertility% increased ris. of childbirth complications and death%
recurrent bladder and urinary tract infections as well as severe pain%
shoc.% haemorrhage and bacterial infection following the procedure!
=ver ")7 million girls alive today have been cut in the )@ countries
in 'frica and the ;iddle Aast where 2G; is concentrated according
to the <H=!
-he graph 3ta.en from the <H= website4 shows the percentage of
women aged between "7?B@ who have undergone 2G;% this is
shown to be of the highest percentages in Guinea% Agypt% ;ali
,udan% Aritrea and Athiopia! @@: of women in Guinea have had their
genitals mutilated and @#: in Agypt! -he trend on the graph shows
that more women have undergone 2G; than those women who
have had one daughter who has undergone 2G; suggesting that
most of these mothers who have undergone the procedure are not
putting their daughters through the horrendous practise% though a
signi+cant proportion still are! n ;ali% #5: of women aged "7?B@
have had " daughter who has undergone 2G; and CC: in
;auritania% which is still a signi+cantly high proportion of daughters
still undergoing 2G;! -he trend appears to decrease in countries
such as (igeria% Denya and the 0nited 9epublic of -anEania% even
reaching as low as 7: of women aged "7?B@ have undergone 2G;
with appro$imately )?5: of women with " daughter undergoing the
procedure!
2rom the data we can conclude that 2G; is still a huge issue in
some countries such as Guinea and Agypt but is only present in
small numbers in others such as (iger and other countries are in the
Hannah Hogan
middle such as the *Fte dvoire! <hy is this the case? <hat is being
done about it?
-he 0(21'?0(*A2 joint programme on 2emale Genital
;utilation6*utting is being carried out in "# 'frican countries! n
)G""% )%#BB communities across 'frica made public declarations to
abandon 2G; compared to 7@C communities in )G"G% decreasing
the number of girls having to undergo 2G;!
+rst heard about 2emale Genital ;utilation last year at "C years of
age from a magaEine a customer gave me whilst was wor.ing over
the summer! (o one had educated me in this before; had no idea
this even e$isted let alone the sheer number of girls that have been
forced to undergo this barbaric procedure! 'ngelina Holie helped to
raise awareness of this issue on her visit to *ongo and heard the
stories of young girls and boys who have e$perienced se$ual
violence! Her own adopted daughter Iahara would probably have
been a victim of se$ual violence of 2G; if she had grown up in her
home country of Athiopia! ' huge celebrity raising awareness does
inJuence lots of people to donate% ta.e part and just help raise
awareness of these problems on our earth that are happening to our
fellow humans!
-he use of social media has played a huge role in raising awareness
of 2G;; a letter from a ") year old girl from Gambia now living in
/ondon with her family described her fear and terror that she felt
when she found out her sister had had her genitals mutilated on a
visit to her grandmother and aunts house one wee.end in Gambia!
,he was so afraid of being sent bac. to Gambia and this happening
to her she told her class teacher who encouraged her to write to
A8uality (ow! really hope you can help me% not to have my private
cut% she included in her letter! -his letter too. to -witter and circled
social media websites for wee.s helping to raise awareness to
people li.e me whom have had no previous .nowledge of this issue!
-here are several campaigns against 2G; such as the Kesert 2lower
=rganisation and )L -oo ;any that aim to eliminate 2G; in all
countries! hope to have raised more awareness in this article as
this issue is something very important to me and believe every girl
should .now about this!
,everal issues remain in 'frica regarding gender e8uality such as
education! -he ;illennium Kevelopment Goal 5M -o 1romote Gender
A8uality and Ampower <omen has been achieved to a certain
e$tent as the world has achieved e8uality in primary education
between girls and boys% however e8uality hasnt been achieved at
all levels of education as barriers still remain to secondary education
for girls! 'lso women are limited to certain jobs as they cannot gain
necessary s.ills needed due to them not being able to continue to
further education! -he ;aharishi ,econdary ,chool for Girls in
0ganda was founded in )GGL recognises the importance of
education to empower women and escape poverty and now consists
of L5 students who are hugely enthusiastic!
Hannah Hogan
Girl 9ising and Kay of the Girl compiled statistics showing the
importance of education for girls lives;
Aducated mothers are twice as li.ely to send their child
to school
a child born to a literate mother is 7G: more li.ely to
survive
girls with an education will marry an average of B years
later and have )!) fewer children reducing economic
and ecological pressure
the number one cause of death for girls "7?"@ is
childbirth
' girl with an e$tra year of education typically earns
)G:
more as
an adult
-he graph
shows that in
,ub ,aharan
'frica% the
number of
children out of
school%
primarily
female has
decreased from
)7 million in
"@@@ to "#
million in )GGL%
however the
progress is
slow and millions of girls are still unable to gain access to
education and vital s.ills simply because they are female!


-he graph shows
globally that literacy
rates for males are
signi+cantly higher
than females! ;ost
recently% in )G"G the
male literacy rate was
@"!@: and the female
literacy rate was
LC!L:% so is still
signi+cantly lower than
the male literacy rate!
However the overall
trend of literacy rates
in both men and
women is increasing; in
women literacy rate
has rose from #L!C: in
"@L7?"@@B to LC!L: in
)G"G showing a
positive trend that will
hopefully .eep rising!
Hannah Hogan
Graphs ta.en from -he <orld &an. <ebsite
t is important to note also that gender ine8uality does not only e$ist
in 'frica% whilst it may be most concentrated there% it is a global
problem occurring on every continent in diferent ways! -he recent
speech of Amma <atson for the He2or,he campaign highlighted the
ways in which men and women are une8ual in the 0D and also in
richer countries; gender ine8uality is not limited to poorer countries!
,he also highlighted how men are also une8ual to women in some
ways% such as not feeling comfortable to e$press their feelings in
some cases and the pressure of behaving in certain ways to be
classed as a >man! ,ocial media also played a huge role in raising
awareness of these issues as many celebrities posted photos with
the hash tag NHe2or,he as did many women and men worldwide
uniting people from across the globe for one cause; to be e8ual!
-o conclude% gender e8uality seems to us as an obvious human right
and normal lifestyle% and we forget living in a country as fortunate
as the 0D that others around the world do not have the same basic
privileges that we have! <e must not forget our fellow humans who
are sharing this planet with us and we must% as educated people use
the .nowledge and resources we have been provided with share
with others so they can learn% to reach the main goal of helping
those who are sufering and dont have access to their basic human
rights that they so rightly deserve!