WUNRN
Why a Daughter is Not an Apology
January 31, 2012
By: Joanna
Hoffman, Special Projects Manager
Last week, 22 year-old
Storai Mohammed was strangled
to death by her husband and mother-in-law for giving birth to a girl, and
not the son they had demanded of her. Her husband fled, but his mother was detained
and told police that Storai “felt guilty” for bearing three daughters and
committed suicide.
In
What is needed now,
more than ever, is a fundamental re-positioning of how girls and women are
perceived, with an understanding that these changes must come from within
cultures. We know that girls and women are powerful
forces of change; that their unpaid labor contribute up to one-third of
world GDP; that every year of a girl’s education delays her marriage, reduces
the number of children she has, and decreases her children’s mortality rates by
up to 10%; and that the world loses as much as $15 billion in productivity from
maternal and newborn deaths. We need to ensure that global leaders and
decision-makers are aware of these facts, understand them, and incorporate them
into national policies.