She Shines with the Radiance of a Thousand Suns

Have you ever stopped and really thought about the world? Attempted to pause time even for a second and think about how privileged our society really is? Because compared to the past, we live almost like royalty. I once knew this woman who I had and still have the pleasure to call my Nana; she taught me many important life lessons, including to never play the victim in order to obtain the status of a strong, independent woman but, the most valuable lesson I learnt from her was that education is the key to success.

Recently, I finished Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns, and the messages he portrayed deeply resonated with me, as they acted as a reminder of what my Nana used to constantly preach. It is from this novel, my Nana, one education-based film, and one inspirational speaker known as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, that I have decided to speak about one of the most important aspects a person can have.

Khaled Hosseini’s novel outlines not only the importance of being educated in a toxic world, but the importance of an educated woman. In Hosseini’s fiction, Mariam stands up to the man she was forced to marry even though society wished her to conform and be a "typical woman" who lived in Afghanistan. Hossieni's novel covers the time period from the early 1960s through to the early 2000s, and women during this time lived in the shadows of men. His work particularly focused on two women, forced to marry men they didn't know at the young age of 14, thus permanently ruining their lives. Mariam (one of these two women, whom I briefly mentioned) becomes sick of conforming to societies standards and stands up against her abusive and emotionally manipulative husband. Even though her rebellion ends up in tragedy, as she ends up trading her life for wanting to physically vocalise the low standards she lived in, I believe, that, unfortunately, this was the best path she could have taken, as nobody ever made a difference by not saying or doing anything to change a situation.

Hossieni's creation of Mariam further shares many personality traits with my Nana. She was also brought up in a patriarchal society, in which her parents wished her to become a stereotypical housewife; however, she rebelled against them and earned the title of a manager, proving that women like herself can still gain a powerful reputation. Likewise, I believe it was her that started off the trend of wanting to learn, which is still prominent in my family even after she has died, especially with the women in my immediate family. My mother is an exceptional example of showing you have to work hard and become well-educated to achieve your end goals—she is now one of the best nurses to date in my eyes. She, like my Nana, has never relied upon anybody else to help her become one of those strong women that women everywhere preach about.

Another figure that I believe to have changed the way people view education is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. His famous "I have a Dream Speech" has inspired thousands of people, but there are specific lines of King’s appeal that particularly stood out to me: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." This opinion, which Dr. Martin Luther King boldly shared in 1963 has become apparent even in today's society: I found myself relating to King’s wise words when reading Hossienis fiction, as the way Mariam stuck up to her husband was a way of showing how she too was an equal.

Likewise, I found myself relating King's enlightened words to Lewis Gilbert's film Educating Rita. The main character, Rita, in this production holds the dream of wanting to become an educated woman. Despite her being in a lower class and society pressuring her to merely marry a man and become a housewife, she showed that by holding the truth of wanting an education she was also an equal. Spoiler alert: by the end of the picture, Rita achieves high grades and is able to move forward academically. But, most importantly, Rita's confidence reminds me most of my Nana.

Not only did my Nana strive to be the best version of herself but, she also wore her views on the outside, making others learn from her—especially myself: I believe myself to be in a fortunate position as I am currently studying a subject that I adore and pursuing a career that I have only ever dreamed about. I also want to take my position and vocalise how important it is to grasp the opportunity to educate yourself when you can. Within this article, I have referred to the idea of working hard for something no matter how society has "viewed" or "placed" you and, used the fictional characters of Rita and Mariam and the not-so-fictional, but by far superior, character of my Nana to present this. However, I now want to focus upon the truths some in the 21st century seem to hold.

How often have you seen a child outside the school gates or outside their house on a morning crying to their parents that they don’t want to go to school? How often have you yourself thought about calling in sick to school or work because you simply "can’t be bothered to go?" How often have you heard somebody claim that going to school isn’t cool, and that it would be more fun to just stay at home? This needs to change. I recently came across a video on my Facebook timeline that included a gentleman expressing the idea of getting involved with the wrong kinds of people; he claimed: ‘You show me your friends, and I’ll show you your future." Those people who tell you that school isn’t "cool enough," or those who tell you that you aren’t worthy of an education, are actually the ones that are uncool. It is because of my love of literature, the film Educating Rita, the inspirational speaker Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and most importantly my Nana, that I believe gaining an education is easily the best gift you can give yourself.