女性受教育权不可剥夺

Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe – H.G. Wells

人类历史日益演变为一场教育与灾难之间的竞赛——赫伯特·乔治·威尔斯(H.G. Wells)。

Sick and tired of the supposedly “negative propaganda being pedalled against hardline Muslims by a 14-year-old girl, members of the Pakistani Taliban decided to do something about it. They shot her in the head. Malala Yousafzai’s “crime was to advocate girls’ education. That, and her admiration for US President Barack Obama, led the Taliban’s chief spokesman to describe her as “a symbol of the infidels and of obscenity. His organisation has in the past busied itself blowing up dozens of girls’ schools and beheading ideological opponents, presumably in the cause of piety and decency.

巴基斯坦塔利班成员对马拉拉·优素福扎伊(Malala Yousafzai)针对强硬派穆斯林的所谓“负面宣传感到憎恶和厌烦，于是决定做些什么。他们开枪击中了她的头部。这位14岁女孩的“罪是提倡女童教育。这一点再加上她对美国总统巴拉克·奥巴马(Barack Obama)的仰慕，使得塔利班的首席发言人把她形容为“离经叛道与下流的象征。过去，塔利班忙着炸毁几十所女子学校，斩首意识形态的敌人，打的恐怕就是虔诚与正派的旗号。

The attack on Malala, who has now been flown to Britain for emergency treatment, has galvanised moderate opinion in Pakistan. Mass rallies have been held to pray for her recovery and many of Pakistan’s leading religious groups have joined in condemning the attack. The outpouring is reminiscent of the national shock that greeted images of Taliban flogging women in the Swat valley three years ago and support for a subsequent military assault against extremists.

马拉拉现已被送往英国接受紧急治疗，而对她的攻击则在温和的巴基斯坦舆论中掀起波澜。巴基斯坦国内民众举行集会，为她的康复祈祷，许多主要宗教团体也纷纷谴责此次袭击行为。这种情形让人回想起三年前，当时塔利班在斯瓦特(Swat)河谷虐打女性的照片引起全国震动，民众纷纷支持对极端分子采取军事打击。

Before she was flown to the UK, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the chief of army staff, visited Malala in the Peshawar hospital where she was being treated. Gen Kayani, who called the attack “a heinous act of terrorism, said: “Islam guarantees each individual – male or female – equal and inalienable rights to life, property and human dignity. Given the circumstances, he would have done well to add “education.

马拉拉在被送往英国之前曾在白沙瓦的一所医院接受治疗，巴基斯坦陆军参谋长阿什法克·帕尔韦兹·卡亚尼将军(Ashfaq Parvez Kayani)对她进行了探望。卡亚尼将军将攻击称为“凶残的恐怖主义行为，他说：“伊斯兰教保障每个人——无论男人还是女人——拥有平等、不可剥夺的生命权、财产权和尊严权。鉴于当时的情况，他加上“受教育权可能更好一些。

It has taken the bravery and eloquence of a 14-year-old girl to highlight a crucial development issue: female education. A 2004 study on girls’ education* found that Pakistan ranked bottom of 17 Asian countries. The study measured four criteria, including girls’ enrolment and five-year “survival rates at primary school. Of a possible rating of 100, achieved by Japan, South Korea and Singapore, Pakistan scored just 20. That put it below Laos, at 26, and Myanmar, at 34.

一位14岁的女孩用她的勇敢和口才，让女性教育这一至关重要的发展问题成为舆论的焦点。2004年一项关于女童教育的调查*显示，巴基斯坦在17个受调查的亚洲国家中排名垫底。该调查通过四个指标衡量，包括女童入学率和小学五年“巩固率。日本、韩国和新加坡获得了100分的满分，而巴基斯坦仅得20分，尚不及26分的老挝和34分的缅甸。

The study had some interesting conclusions. First, Asia is divided into two fairly distinct groups, with one half doing well, the other badly, and not much in between. Among the better performers, China, Thailand and Indonesia are grouped with the advanced countries already mentioned. India is firmly in the lower half. It has a score of 41 compared with 89 in China.

调查得出的一些结论很有意思。首先，亚洲呈现出两极分化、优劣分明、两头大中间小的情况。表现较好的国家包括中国、泰国、印度尼西亚和之前提及的发达国家。印度显然处于表现不好的国家之列。比起中国的89分，它只获得了41分。

There is a correlation between girls’ education and national wealth, but some poorer countries – notably China and Sri Lanka – do much better than their per capita income would predict. Countries with strong basic education often go on to do well economically. Japan’s remarkable success after the Meiji Restoration drew much of its vigour from an educational push that made it almost fully literate by 1910.

女童教育和国民财富之间具有相关性，但一些较贫穷国家（尤其是中国和斯里兰卡）的表现却远高于其人均收入所揭示出的水平。基础教育强国往往在经济上也大有作为。日本在明治维新后取得巨大成功，很大程度上源于大力推行教育的结果——到1910年，日本的文盲率几乎降为零。

Countries with a history of communism or central planning tend to do better than those without. China, Vietnam and the central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union do well. The correlation is not perfect: communist Laos fares abysmally. Countries that have experienced a recent conflict do badly, though they can buck the trend. Vietnam does well and Sri Lanka, whose 30-year civil war only recently ended, does even better, with a score of 94.

曾实行共产主义制度或中央计划体制的国家通常比没有实行过的国家表现要好。中国、越南和中亚地区的前苏联加盟共和国表现优秀。这种相关性也并非完美：共产主义国家老挝的表现便极其糟糕。近期经历过冲突的国家成绩不佳，但也有例外：越南的表现不错，而最近才结束持续30年之久内战的斯里兰卡的表现甚至更好，它取得了94分的成绩。

Does female education matter? Study after study shows that it does. Female literacy improves health and enables women to assert their legal rights. A recent study in Mexico, Nepal, Venezuela and Zambia found that literate women are far more likely to understand and act on health messages.**

女性教育重要吗？一项又一项的研究给出了肯定的回答。提高女性识字能力可以改善健康状况，使女性能够维护自己的合法权利。最近在墨西哥、尼泊尔、委内瑞拉和赞比亚进行的研究显示，识字的女性更有可能理解健康信息并相应采取行动。**

Education also affects fertility rates. Literate women tend to marry later and have smaller families. There can be marked differences within countries. Amartya Sen, a Nobel economist, says that in the Indian state of Kerala, where girls generally go to school, women have, on average, 1.7 children against more than four in many other parts of India.

教育还影响生育率。识字的女性往往婚龄较晚，家庭规模较校同一个国家的不同地区可能会存在显著差异。诺贝尔经济学奖得主阿玛蒂亚·森(Amartya Sen)说，在女童普遍接受教育的印度喀拉拉邦(Kerala)，每名女性平均生育1.7个子女，而在印度其他许多地区，女性平均生育子女数超过4个。

There appears to be a correlation, too, between educated women and a decrease in sex-selective abortions. Putting more girls in school is the single best remedy to the tragedy of millions of “missing women, though the link breaks down in China where the one-child policy has distorted the picture.

女性受教育似乎还与选择性堕胎的减少存在相关性。让更多的女童进入学校，是避免千百万女性“失踪悲剧的最佳手段。不过，由于受到一胎化政策的影响，这二者在中国缺乏相关性。

Prof Sen also warns against what he calls “illiberal and intolerant education. He argues that religious schools – including madrassas, the Islamic schools that flourish in Pakistan – often spring up to fill a vacuum left by the lack of state education. Schools in the Arab world, he points out, have a rich tradition to draw upon beyond religion, including “the great secular accomplishments in mathematics, science and literature which are part and parcel of Arab history.

阿玛蒂亚·森教授还对他所称的“狭隘偏执的教育提出警告。他认为，宗教学校，包括在巴基斯坦蓬勃发展的伊斯兰学校“madrassa，通常会大量涌现以填补国家教育匮乏留下的空白。他指出，阿拉伯世界的学校拥有汲取宗教以外事物的优良传统，包括“在数学、科学和文学领域取得的伟大世俗成就，它们是阿拉伯历史的重要组成部分。

Parents and children in poor countries understand the intrinsic value of learning and the tangible benefits that can follow. Anyone who has seen children trekking miles to school along dirt roads knows it, too. That was – and is – Malala’s message. More than her hero Mr Obama, hers is a conviction worthy of the Nobel Peace prize.

穷国的父母和子女明白学习的内在价值及其带来的切实利益。任何看到孩子们跋涉好几英里土路去上学的人也知道这一点。这就是马拉拉过去以及现在传递的信息。她的信念证明了她比自己的偶像奥巴马更配得上诺贝尔和平奖。

*A Scorecard on Gender Equality and Girls’ Education in Asia 1990-2000

*《1990-2000年亚洲性别平等与女童教育评分表》( A Scorecard on Gender Equality and Girls’ Education in Asia 1990-2000)

**Literacy and Mothering: How Women’s Schooling Changes the Lives of the World’s Children. New York: Oxford University Press

**《识字能力与教养方式：女性教育对世界儿童生活的改变》(Literacy and Mothering: How Women’s Schooling Changes the Lives of the World’s Children)， 牛津大学出版社(New York: Oxford University Press)纽约出版基地出版