A 17-year old pregnant and married South African girl was banned from school a month ago due to student protest over her continued attendance while pregnant.
Sodiqua Solomons fought the school's
decision and won the right to continue attending classes at her school,
but has since applied to continue as a private candidate, appearing at
school only to hand in assignments and take year-end exams. Fellow students were
outraged because they had to share a classroom with a married girl and
they also blamed
Sodiqua for being the reason why some of their privileges
for the year, a trip and a ball, were cancelled (the privileges have since been restored).
Clearly
we are talking about a far different cultural scenario than what I am used
to, living as I do in a country where high school girls almost
routinely become pregnant (the U.S. has the highest teen pregnancy rate
in the western world, even though that rate is dropping), and where the
majority of those don't finish high school. The fact that Sodiqua
has
the opportunity and the drive to finish her education says a lot for
her and her cultural atmosphere (an obvious value of education), but
the apparent social stigma placed upon her seems harsh and unjust.
Sodiqua is Muslim, however, and while the article didn't state whether
he school is solely Muslim as well, if it was or if the majority of the
students also are Muslim, that could certainly account for the apparent
stigma surrounding her, as her status as a married person moves her to
another world entirely from the unmarried girls of her school.
