Educational Media Reviews Online

Girl Rising is an organization that supports education for girls. This film tells the stories of girls from nine different countries written by different authors. During the intermission between each five-ten minute tale, the filmmakers present facts about the education of girls—the benefits to the girl, her family, her city, and her country. Unfortunately, the people who need to see the movie will never see it—because they need the money now and feel that they can’t afford to invest the time to educate a girl.

In the developing world, education is rarely free, like it is in the United States, and parents have to choose between eating and sending their children to school. They often make the choice to educate only their sons and send their daughters out to work as soon as possible.

In some instances, the girl leads the charge of her own education, like Wadley in Haiti. She challenges her teacher to let her in class, although her mother hasn’t paid the tuition. In the post-2010 earthquake chaos of Port au Prince, Wadley (all of eight years old) promises her teacher that she will come every day to the outdoor classroom until her teacher lets her stay. Despite the teacher’s words, the very subtle smile belies the teacher’s true feelings about Wadley’s desire to learn.

Girls traded for goats or cows or cash may be the norm in many developing nations, but there are parents (fathers, too!) who have seen the value in educating their daughters. The parents of Ruksana in India left their village to offer their daughters more opportunities in the city, but they can’t afford even a one-room shack. They live on the street and use every cent to pay for their daughters’ tuition because they know a good future depends on a good education.

Of course, not every story has a happy ending. Millions of girls are still uneducated and married off at age eleven. Millions of girls are still sold or bonded as servants because their parents want to focus their limited resources on their sons. Millions of girls are raped and sold on the streets as prostitutes because they are now considered worthless by their families.

However, this movie does leave the viewer with hope. The last tale is told from an Afghanistan perspective: girls who have been shunted aside or raised to be servants to their brothers and fathers are fighting back, like Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan. They are going to school; they are struggling for the right to be educated. It is inspiring to see.

Yes, Girl Rising has an agenda—to educate girls—but it’s not a lost cause, nor should it be a controversial one. The benefits far outweigh the costs: better health, better standard of living, longer lives, more contribution to their families and towns.