Page 489 - El État de los derechos humanos en el desarrollo sostenible
P. 489

EL ETAT DE LOS DERECHOS HUMANOS EN EL DESARROLLO SOSTENIBLE












                  Education
                  Only men had a say and thought that schooling was not important for girls who would any

                  how get married and then become housewife. To learn something else would be just a waste

                  of  time,  they  thought.  No  girl  could  therefore  study  something,  and  even  if  she  did

                  occasionally, she was not  able to apply  her  knowledge  because  her  job after  marriage was
                  confined  to  the  kitchen  stove.  Others  thought  that,  if  both  boys  and  girls  were  to  go  to

                  school together, the boys would be distracted from learning by the beauty of the girls and

                  would then think about love and  marriage rather  than knowledge  and this would not be
                  good for society.

                  45% of Cambodian women were reported as being illiterate in 2004. 16% of Cambodian

                  girls were enrolled in  lower secondary schools in  2004. Many Cambodian girls have been

                  kept from education due to several factors. One factor is that they are needed at home to
                  take care of younger siblings, perform household duties, and support the head of the home.

                  Other factors include extreme poverty, the prohibitive distance of schools from many rural

                  houses, and sometimes even fears for their safety when traveling alone from home to school.
                  Women are increasingly present in Cambodia's universities. As of 2004, 20% of graduates

                  from universities were female.[1]


                  Luckily, this time is now behind us. In modern, technological society and its new thinking,

                  both  boys  and  girls  go  to  school.  Men  and  women  have  nowadays  the  same  rights  and

                  freedoms, and also their labor has the same value. Unfortunately, this modern concept is not
                  yet accepted in all parts of the country, particularly in rural areas where old traditions still

                  prevail. Here you find that “women still belong near the kitchen stove”.[2]















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