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The Girl Child

Shujuan.
Shujuan, as her mother's second daughter, was an unwanted baby from birth; a baby that almost didn't survive beyond childhood. Shujuan fell victim to superstition and the Chinese bias in favor of male children. To avoid fines and other penalties, her mother, Liu, did not register the baby's birth. When Shujuan was five months old, the mother gave her to another family to raise. After her mother gave birth to a third daughter, Shujuan returned to her parents' home in a village on the edge of a prosperous city. Around the same time, a fortune teller told Liu her inability to bear sons and her husband's lack of success as a truck driver were Shujuan's fault. Subsequently, Shujuan was given only a rough cot to sleep on, deprived of food and severely beaten for 'misbehavior'. When Shujuan's parents took the other two daughters out to dinner, Shujuan was locked up at home. When it was discovered that Shujuan had gone onto the balcony to beg neighbors for something to eat, she was beaten for almost half an hour before someone intervened and she was taken to hospital. "I gave birth to my daughter. She's mine to raise and mine to beat as I see fit. If she doesn't die I will have to die," retorted her mother.

Shujuan's abuse worsened until her mother strung the six-year-old by her hair from a ceiling fan, pulled out her fingernails and finally beat her nearly to death before Shujuan once again was rescued.

Shujuan now has no teeth, no fingernails and her eyes and lips are swollen. But she now can speak and sing songs. Her doctor reported, "We are not only treating her physical injuries, but also the trauma to her mind."¹

Statistics:

• More boys survive than girls.
• More boys learn to read and write than girls.
• More than twice as many boys receive medical treatment as girls. 
• An estimated 100 to 140 million girls and women in the world today have undergone some form of female genital mutilation, and 2 million girls are at risk from the practice each year.⁶
• Every year in Africa two million girls are circumcised, which is five girls per minute.³
• In Bangladesh, India and Pakistan the discrimination of girls results in more than one million death cases.²
• At least one in three girls and women worldwide has been beaten or sexually abused in her lifetime.⁷

 

An invisible part of her society, her culture and religious heritage have reduced her to being child worker, child bride, child mother--everything but a child person. She is virtually a nonentity. Most likely her life will be one of misery, pain and slavery.

The girl child receives no recognition in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, China and other parts of Asia, as well as in Africa and some countries in the Middle East.

How does this discrimination manifest itself?

• In some communities, the daughter gets her meal only after the son has had the best part.
• Her own mother may kill her while still in the womb, believing that she is a bane and economic burden to the family, not a 'good investment'. If given the chance to be born alive, she is met with mourning instead of joy. Even more saddening, the people closest to her are the very first to reject, exploit and neglect her.
• Education is a privilege usually denied the girl child. In many countries tradition dictates that education is for boys only and that girls belong in the home. Most parents believe it is useless to send a daughter to school because in the end she will only get married and look after her new family's needs. So, while still young, she is subjected to heavy household chores, working in the fields, looking after younger brothers and sisters, cooking, fetching water and performing other heavy work.⁴
• The girl child often suffers the physical maiming and emotional trauma of female genital circumcision. In most countries in Africa young girls are subjected to female circumcision to ensure their virginity until their marriage. Circumcision involves the unsanitary practice of removing girls' external genitalia by a painful operation, often with the use of unsterilized instruments, such as a sharp stone or a dull knife. Many girls are forced to undergo this procedure face a lifetime of complications such as painful menstruation and urinary tract infections. Even death from tetanus may result from the use of unsterilized instruments.⁵
• In some cultures, girl children are sold as brides without their assent. 

The girl child will live in a world where she is the lowest rung of priorities, living a life of servitude, with no rights and never a person to be reckoned with.

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Refernces:

¹Children in Crisis, Phyllis Kilbourn, MARC Publications, 1996
²ibid.
³Global Action Against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)
⁴Children in Crisis, Phyllis Kilbourn, MARC Publications, 1996
⁵Global Action Against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)
⁶World Health Organization (WHO)
⁷United Nations Cyber Bus, The Millennium www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/briefing/girl/