Syria’s Children - A Generation Without Education

*This was the brief I wrote for Amnesty International’s Children’s Rights Network in light of the UN Human Rights Commission’s High Level Panel Discussion on Children’s Rights. The direct link to the blog network is: https://www.amnesty.org.uk/blogs/childrens-human-rights-network-blog

Last year, at a high-level panel discussion at the Human Rights Council, The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein summed up the Syrian war as “the worst man-made disaster the world has seen since World War II”.

Since the start of the war in 2011, 13 million people have been left in need of humanitarian aid. 6 million people have been left internally displaced while 5 million people have fled Syria. These numbers are expected to rise.

Throughout the conflict, Syria’s children have been subjected to numerous human rights violations under international humanitarian law. These include being targeted by indiscriminate weapons, being victims of civilian attacks, becoming separated from their parents through large scale displacements, and their inherent right to life being destroyed. They are being left without basic needs. Thousands have no access to education.

The right to education

All children have the right to an education. This is enshrined in treaties such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and The UN Convention on the Rights of The Child. Syria is party to both – and before the war 97% of children attended primary school and 70% attended secondary school.

But the ongoing war has eroded this basic right. We don’t need statistics to make us understand the extent to which the conflict has destroyed the ability of children to have access to education and opportunities.

Stolen childhood

Potential doctors, lawyers, engineers, activists, teachers, scientists have been forced to stop dreaming and accept a horrific situation no child should find themselves in. Young boys are joining armies to fight in a war where peace is out of sight, and young girls are being exploited as sex slaves. This brutal war has stolen an entire generation of education and childhood from those caught up in it.

Furthermore, schools are being attacked and used as military targets by both governmental forces and the U.S. backed coalition. When a school becomes a target instead of a place of sanctuary for children to learn, we must ask ourselves how things have been allowed to get this far.

We need answers for Syria’s children

Considering the United Nations Commissions of Human Rights’ High Panel Discussion on violations of rights against Syrian questions, there are a few questions which should be addressed:

1) How do we answer to the fact that an entire generation of children have been left without access to education?

2) What will become of the Syrian socio-political and economic infrastructure if the future of Syria – the country’s children – are not able to contribute to society due to the educational barriers?

3) How will we deal with problems of intersectionality? For example, these educational barriers are likely to affect girls differently to boys. What do we need to do to create specific solutions?

4) How can the United Nations facilitate host countries to enhance the quality of education given to refugees?

5) When will the international community take an active role to initiate peace processes in order to stop the conflict?

6) When will states decide that the United Declaration of Human Rights, which was created with the intention to ensure atrocities taken place in World War II do not occur again, actually does count for something?

Finding a way forward

Dialogue on the human rights situation in Syria must continue. It is a positive step towards ending the conflict for future generations.

However, we also need a more active role to be played by the international community. We need to show that the human rights of children – and all Syrians – really matter. These actions could include sanctions, pressuring the Security Council to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court, and continuing to assist civilians either through providing aid or taking in refugees.

Passive debate on potential solutions is not enough. We must send a clear message that the injustice being done to Syria’s children is unacceptable. They should have the freedom, and the human right, to finally live – not just to survive.

Aim High and Be Unapologetic: Why Culture Shouldn’t Interfere With Your Ambition

It’s 2018 yet in many Muslim communities women who are pursuing their own individual ambitions are deemed as intimidating or self centred. Somehow, our desire to pursue our own dreams and goals means that we can’t hold it down in the kitchen, cater for a family or only care about our well being according to cultural backward mentalities passed on through generations.

I’m pretty sure most of us women who have been pursuing some sort of goal whether it be educational, entrepreneurial or some other innovative vision have heard the typical illogical nonsense by family relatives; my experience of statements have included things such as “what will she even do with this much education?” or “how will you find a husband for her if she’s pursuing so much?” or things along the lines of “is it not time for her to get married?”. Apparently as soon as a woman are born the next big achievement for her is to get married and have children. Now, marriage is a beautiful thing and so is having a family but why is our desire to fulfil our own dreams used as an indicator on our worthiness of getting married by our communities? Why is my ability to be a mother, a nurturer and a good wife somehow linked to me wanting to create an identity for myself? This logic has never made sense to me. Surely, being a woman working hard for her ambitions and fulfilling her goals is likelier to inspire the children to do the same and follow in the footsteps of their mother.  Seeing my mother who worked all her life but still came home to fulfil her duties as my mum and wife showed me that a woman doesn’t need to choose between her career and family, and not only that it created a much stronger bond between my mother and I.

What I simply cannot understand is as a woman the late nights of studying, working hard and dedicating yourself to your passions is somehow never equated to a man’s hard work. Why are our communities so insecure about a woman’s success that they feel the need to restrict her from achieving her potential? Importantly, we need to ask ourselves how the world is meant to improve if many talented women are being restricted from utilising her skills, education and intelligence in order to improve society due to backward cultural mentalities.

The problem for me is that when communities impose restrictions on a woman’s ambition or potential, ultimately what is happening is Muslim women are being reduced to the most minimalist versions of themselves. This then stops women from having the courage to dream big, the fact of the matter is if we are to see Muslim women in higher institutional places we need to break this cycle of imposing barriers within our communities. We cannot fully put the blame on external institutional obstacles if we cannot enable women to prosper and reach their potentials within our own communities first.

When you keep hearing backward cultural opinions, it’s sometimes natural to question your ambitions and ask yourself if “you’re too much” or if you're going outside the norms of what is correct, I know I certainly have felt like this when being faced with such mentalities. But to all the women questioning if they should go ahead with what they truly want to do, I would say please do not let cultural reasons stop you from achieving your dreams. You have every right to create your identity and fulfil your own journey. Most of all do not feel guilty for aiming high, in fact always aim for the top and never settle for less in terms of how much you can achieve. If there are women out there who have a fear that their ambitions will make them somehow overqualified or unworthy for marriage, I would say dismiss these fears because a true man will never be intimidated by your greatness, he will support your growth and never utilise any opportunity to step on your dreams due to his internal insecurities.

Your hopes, dreams and ambitions count for something. As Muslim women we should be courageous and bold when aiming in order to dismiss and break stereotypes imposed upon us, we should be aiming to make the success of Muslim women the norm rather than an exception. There are opportunities, especially with the growth of technology and interconnectedness between people all over the world, therefore utilise what is around you in order to pursue your passion. The conflict between cultural expectations and our own expectations of ourselves will be there however we have a responsibility to be strong and take ambitious steps forwards in order to create not just a more equitable society for ourselves but also for our daughters.

DREAMS & GOALS: YOU ARE YOUR BIGGEST SUPPORTER

Keeping motivated and staying on top of your progress can be really difficult. Not only do we lack confidence in ourselves internally at times to really give it our all, the world around us can drain us of any desire to carry on. It’s hard at times to encourage yourself, keep your mindset strong and to fully believe in your potential. However, each and every one of us has an inner drive and determination which we can utilise in order to get where we want to be whether this is be in terms of our education, career or general self development etc. No one wakes up every morning feeling motivated and we all have our down days which may carry through to long periods of time. But there are a few things we can do to limit the extension of demotivation in our lives. Here are some tips to help you out when you feel like giving up.

REMEMBER WHY YOU STARTED

It is vital you always remind yourself of why you wanted to achieve your goal in the first place. Are you trying to achieve something in order to give something back to your family? Did you want that dream job because it was a means to launch the career you have worked ever so hard for? Did you study a specific subject to use it after to make a positive impact in the world? Was the business you began a means of creating something for yourself? Are you working on the path of self development in order to better your character as a human being? Whatever the reason is we all begin with a reason to achieve a specific thing. Personally, it has always helped me think back on why I started out when I have my days of demotivation. Taking my mind back to basics and thinking of my original motivations of pursuing my ambitions has always enabled me to recharge my emotions in order to feel more positive about the purpose of my journey.

DON’T RELY ON OTHERS FOR VALIDATION

Sometimes it is easy to fall into a negative way of thinking asking yourself “what is the point of doing all this hard work”. This is because at times we all feel unappreciated by our surroundings and the people we deem close to in our lives.  But what you need to remember is that you cannot expect and should not seek validation or approval from others. Yes it is nice to feel appreciated by people we love and expect to have our corner, however you need to understand that validation from other human beings is not constant, therefore your ability to keep going forward will be affected negatively if you rely on others a huge amount for your motivation.

You may get people who will always have something negative to say and attempt to discourage your progress. Pay these people no attention and I truly do mean this, pay them no attention whatsoever because not every event in your life deserves a retaliation - as Michelle Obama said ‘when they go low, we go high”. Be grateful for the support you do get from individuals but don’t enable any lack of support to stop you from achieving what you really want to do. It’s great to have a people behind you advocating your cause further and we should all feel lucky if we have such people in our lives, but ultimately you are your biggest supporter.

SEPERATE DREAMS AND GOALS

Dreaming big is great and I would encourage everyone to dream big but of course the next step is to actually making these dreams come true. For me dreams have been visions of how I expect my life to look like, while goals to me are steps I have taken in order to make my dreams come true. These normally include small tasks I need to do daily; fulfilling smaller goals on a regular basis will give you a prolonged sense of accomplishment and the drive to enhance your development. Becoming a goal orientated person really helps driving the process forward because you discipline yourself to complete certain tasks by a specific deadline.

It is a worthwhile reminder that you do indeed have to work hard and maintain the goals that you set out for yourself, the results you seek will not come easy to you and in my opinion they shouldn’t either. Going through a challenging process of keeping up with your goals not only is an amazing character building opportunity but it will make you appreciate your achievements far greater than something which comes easy.

REJECTION IS GOOD - TRUST ME

I have lost count of the amount of times I have been rejected and honestly these setbacks were the best things which have happened to me. Not only did they ground within me a sense of resilience and determination, they also made me realise that without such rejections I would not be as grateful as I am now with what I have.

We all get rejected but the way we use rejections to make is what makes people successful. Sometimes it takes a lot of time to accept and adjust to being told “no” in our lives, after all we are human and being told that we cannot have something we want isn’t the best feeling in the world. But ‘no’ isn’t always a bad thing and most of the time it means you are being diverted to something better which is in alignment with where you truly need to be. It’s important that you convince your mind and heart that being rejected is not a personal attack against you as a person, there are most likely numerous other reasons why you were rejected from something. So do yourself the biggest favour and do not doubt yourself, rather use rejection as a means of staying strong, confident and motivated to keep doing better.

TAKE CARE OF  YOURSELF

Now this might sound like a cliche to say but honestly it is such an important aspect. When we try and reach some sort of achievement we may become so invested in the final result that we often forget ourselves in the process of it all. For example, when I was doing my final year undergraduate law exams, I really stopped paying attention to and taking care of myself because I was just too preoccupied with getting good grades, by the end of my last exam I was so drained I became physically sick because of it all. Looking back at that I realised I did not have to do that to myself in order to reach by desired objective, since then I have paid more attention to me and it has been one of the best decisions I have made.

My advice would be not to forget about yourself in the process of achievement because you are the most important part of the overall journey. Don’t disregard your own well being and internal self love because it will only make you feel down and demotivated. Have that day out with your family or friends, buy that outfit you really like, make sure you eat well, pamper yourself whole heartedly with no guilt , or just have a day where you do nothing at all apart from read your favourite book in book with plenty of ice cream. You get the drift, sometimes take out time to do things which you enjoy because if you feel good on the inside about yourself this will definitely reflect on how you implement your actions on the outside.

ROUNDING IT UP

Life does not always go as planned and as human beings we can be prone to give up or feel like our efforts are going to waste. There are various things in life which we have zero control over, but there are also a lot of things that are within our control which we can use in order to fulfil our purpose and potential. A key aspect that is within our control is choosing not to give up and supporting ourselves. No matter how difficult things get or how many obstacles which may be presented in front of us ultimately giving up is our choice. So if you are reading this and feel like there’s no point of you continuing to achieve what you wanted - do not give up. Take a break if you need to, recharge your mind if you need to but use the choice that you've been given to not give up in a positive manner in order to get where you need to be. You’ll thank yourself for it WHEN not IF you reach your ambitions.