GOREE ISLAND, Senegal (AP) — As a child, Ndeye Awa Diop was so shy she couldn't look people in the eye.
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GOREE ISLAND, Senegal (AP) — As a child, Ndeye Awa Diop was so shy she couldn't look people in the eye.
GOREE ISLAND, Senegal (AP) — As a child, Ndeye Awa Diop was so shy she couldn’t look people in the eye.
Raised in rural Senegal, she learned to embrace what was traditionally expected of girls across the predominately Muslim West African nation. They should be seen but not heard. They should obey their elders.
But her life turned upside down when as a 12-year-old she was accepted into the country’s first elite boarding school for girls, on Goree Island off Dakar, the capital.
“So, here I am, coming here completely shy. I didn’t even dare raise my hand in class,” said Diop. She was homesick, crying. Over the years, the sisterhood of classmates helped. Now she is 19 and president of the student council, and about to graduate.
“I learned to be a leader,” she said.
Women in Senegal have to navigate a complex social landscape. Patriarchal norms are increasingly challenged by women empowered by progressive legislation that requires half of political parties’ candidates to be women and, at least on paper, guarantees women’s access to land ownership.
Senegal also has made enormous progress in girls’ education. The vast majority of girls are enrolled in primary education, at a rate higher than for boys.
But girls are more likely to drop out. Less than 20% make it through high school. As a result, for every 100 boys who can read and write, just 84 girls can.
“The current challenge isn’t access to school for girls, but rather the completion of schooling up to secondary level and, of course, the transition to the job market,” said Maissa Abdellaoui, a girls’ education specialist with UNICEF.
If money is tight, families tend to prioritize keeping boys in school, even if girls show more promise, experts say. Girls tend to skip school when they start menstruating. They are also more likely to get married and have children as teenagers.
The school’s namesake resisted the label of feminist
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