It can be easy to take for granted that almost 60 percent of UNC students are women. This is hardly the case throughout the world — many women are disenfranchised and denied access to education.
UNC campus chapters of national organizations ONE and She’s the First will host a screening of “He Named Me Malala,” a film about the lack of female access to education, tonight to raise awareness about the issue.
The movie is about Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai, a Pakastani activist who has spoken out in support of female access to education since she was young. The film follows the events leading up to the Taliban targeting Malala in opposition to her advocacy.
Smriti Singh, the educational events chair of She’s the First, said they have been planning to screen the documentary for a long time.
“Malala proved to us that we can do a lot more than we think. We are young, but that doesn't mean we're less of in potential, influence or authority to make change,” she said. “She experienced firsthand what it's like to watch students be threatened at her school, slowly dwindling in numbers, running low on resources and morale. And yet, she still values educational so highly.”
Maggie Berra, a sophomore who’s been involved with She’s the First since its inception in 2015, said education correlates with women’s ability to break the cycle of poverty in low-income countries.
“The reason that this movie is so important is because the whole goal of She's the First is to sponsor girls’ education and hopefully give them a chance to be the first person in their families to graduate from secondary school,” she said.
Jonah Lierz, president of ONE at UNC, said ONE advocates for nonprofit, non-partisan interest groups to increase foreign aid.
“Our main goal is to eliminate extreme poverty and curable diseases by 2030 by pressuring politicians into making smarter policy goals,” he said. “Right now we’re supporting the Malala Fund because budget appropriations are coming up soon.”
