Years ago, when the United Nations decided to dedicate a day to girls, its goal was simple yet profound: to remind the world that millions of girls are still deprived of the most basic human rights—to education, to safety, to choice.
International Day of the Girl appeared on the calendar to say: even in the 21st century, being a girl in many parts of the world means living with fear, with restriction, with discrimination. On the surface, this day is about hope, but in reality, it is a bitter admission of a historical injustice.
Yet, as time passed, the meaning of this day got lost in the shiniest slogans and most beautiful campaigns. Major corporations used the occasion for advertising; governments built a humane facade for themselves with emotional messages; and media outlets spoke of girls’ progress, without asking what percentage of the world’s girls even have the opportunity to live a life free from fear.
While in one corner of the world, a girl in new clothes recites a poem at her school celebration, in another, a girl in Gaza searches through rubble for a piece of her notebook. The modern world speaks of girls’ rights with its right hand, while its left hand manufactures the weapons that burn the future of those very girls.
In official news, that girl’s name might just be a number in the casualty statistics, but in her mother’s eyes, a whole universe of hope and dreams has collapsed. If International Day of the Girl is to have any meaning, it must be the voice for all the girls who have no platform—girls who have no place in Western media nor are considered in power-hungry policies.
Girls in forgotten villages, in war-torn shelters, or in the silent alleys of Gaza, who are still breathing, watching the world with tired eyes.
Perhaps for them, the world is just a wish, not a reality. And perhaps International Day of the Girl, if it is to survive, must be redefined:
- Not a day for slogans and advertising, but a moment to feel shame for what is happening to half of humanity.
Faaze Aghamohammady