Raising a daughter — and advocating for girls’ education

Since the Syrian conflict began in 2011, over 1 million Syrian refugees have fled to neighbouring Lebanon. Even in their new homes, Syrian refugees face countless threats from poverty to risks of exploitation and abuse. Syrian refugee girls especially face the risk of early marriage — which often forces them to drop out of school.

With a grant from Malala Fund, Hiba is advocating for laws that will raise Lebanon’s minimum age of marriage to 18 so more girls can remain in school.

In this video, Hiba shows viewers her life as an education champion in Lebanon, where she holds workshops with her organisation Naba’a to educate girls about child marriage and gender-based violence. Hiba hopes her work will inspire her 4-year-old daughter to become an independent woman in the future.

Hiba Hamzi is part of Malala Fund’s global network of education champions who are working in countries such as Lebanon where girls struggle to go to school. Like Malala and Ziauddin Yousafzai, these local activists and educators present the strongest challenge to barriers that keep girls out of school. Threats to girls’ education — like poverty, war and gender discrimination — differ between countries and communities. Champions like Hiba understand these challenges and are best placed to identify, innovate and advocate for policy and programmatic solutions.

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