2013 was the year I completed my high school studies in Saudi Arabia from a Pakistani school. I didn't just graduate from high school, I became an adult in real terms when I had to face the harsh realities of life. I was born in Pakistan, and at the age of two my family moved to Saudi Arabia, where private university studies are not accessible for middle-class expats like me or my family. My first effort was to enter Saudi Arabia's public university, but unfortunately no university offered admission to non-Saudis. The entire experience was heartbreaking in subjugating myself as a human being in the place I considered my home. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayIt wasn't enough to stop me, so I decided to study in Pakistan, where university studies were not expensive. This decision was difficult for my traditionalist parents to digest, the idea of their daughter living alone was petrifying for them, and for me too, but the motivation for studies overcame the fear of living alone. It took me a year to get them on the same page and then in 2014, I enrolled for BBA at UET Lahore. I choose the BBA out of curiosity about the far-reaching effects our socioeconomic background has on our quality of life and the opportunities we receive. How important finance is in decision making, only to realize that wasn't everything. In Pakistan and Saudi Arabia a much bigger problem than finance was “rights”. Almost everyone, in one way or another, has been deprived of their rights in both Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Whether it is the general public in Saudi Arabia who have no right to express their opinion (having experienced first-hand the terrors of kafala, the visa sponsorship system, or in Pakistan, where the name of free speech, feelings of minorities are being hurt every day. Gender inequality in both countries is deeply rooted and women are not even allowed to have their own opinion. What's even worse is that women happily accept these traditions as they have no idea about theirs rights and their opinions been trained. As I write this essay I can hear the echoes of my mother's words "Good girls from respected families do what their male guardians tell them" or "You must learn to compromise your desires to be a good wife" During my studies in Pakistan, I came across so many stories that fueled my desire to change the world I lived in. When my family moved to Saudi Arabia, I lived in a culture where I interacted with people of different backgrounds and customs, one of my best friends was from Bangladesh and the other from Egypt. To adapt to my adopted country, I was able to make friends and excel in English, learning communication skills and flexibility to value multiculturalism and diversity. I have learned to appreciate that each individual has their own strengths and talents. And everyone has the right to be what they want to be. The main problems lie in the lack of awareness that people in these two countries are not aware of their basic human rights. This is where education comes back. Last year I volunteered to teach in a public school and realized that access to quality education remains condoned. Our contemporary education system is outdated and simply focuses on the process of reproducing facts, thus it is unable to meet the challenges posed by a rapidly changing world. Pakistan.
tags