want an iPhone, xbox, PlayStation or chocolate, but just want a book and a pen."
Malala’s growth programme was set to achieve its highest levels, when beaming, in 2014, she announced on Twitter that she had been admitted to Oxford University: "I’m very excited," she wrote. She was happy to achieve her dream of being able to study. On her website www.malala.org, through a non-profit organisation, she collects funds for educational programmes throughout the world.
On 10 October 2014 Malala was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize together with the Indian activist Kailash Satyarthi. She was seventeen years old and the youngest winner of a Nobel Prize for the struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education.
The story of Aberash. The courage to change
Aberash was 14-years-old, a teenager, when she was kidnapped by a 29-year-old farmer who took her to a hut and brutally raped her.
The man’s intention was to force her into marriage. He hoped to get her pregnant and make use of the rule derived from telefa, which according to ancient tradition makes kidnapping socially acceptable when the misdeed is followed by a wedding to put things right.
The girl, however, had no intention of yielding to such an imposition, nor to overcoming the affront she had suffered.
She was left alone in the hut and when her kidnapper left, promising to return soon, she realised there was a gun in the house. It belonged to her tormentor who used to hang it on a hook. Aberash, who hated that prison, took the gun and fled.
Her kidnapper returned home and realised that the girl was not there, so he looked for her with some of his friends. He found her and tried to grab her, but she wriggled free, then she fired the gun and killed him.
The story took place in 1996, in Ethiopia, in a rural area, many hours journey away from the capital Addis Ababa.
Aberash was accused of murder. She had the entire village against her, including the kidnapper’s mother who found it natural to abduct a girl to then marry her. "It’s something everybody does – she said – because it’s part of our tradition".
The trial ended two years later with an acquittal for legitimate defence, and the case of Aberash gave rise in Ethiopia, to a provision which considers anyone who kidnaps a woman, for the purpose of forcing her to accept a remedial marriage, as an outlaw; even more so if the case involves a child.
This was a legal breakthrough of utmost importance in a society that has always considered the kidnapping of adolescents and subsequent forced marriage permissible.
The role of the lawyer Meaza Ashenafi was decisive for the success of the trial. The legal defence and help of the association of women lawyers (Andinet Women Lawyers Association) – founded by Ashenafi herself – obtained an effective result that symbolised the redemption of the wrongs suffered by Aberash, and was a warning for those who mistakenly believed they could use violence against girls with impunity.
Once she had released Aberash, Meaza Ashenafi entrusted her to the association she co-founded, for a journey of assistance to overcome the pain still alive in her heart.
However, the girl had to leave home, her family and go to Addis Ababa to be far away from the accusations of the inhabitants of her village.
It was too risky to remain in a place where her kidnapper’s father demanded that Aberash be killed and buried next to his son.
The new criminal code and an acquittal do not serve to make it clear to the tribal society in which the unfortunate fact happened that the inalienable rights of women and girls do exist: self-determination, the right to study, to choose their own destiny. Democratic principles which Aberash’s father, the village teacher, and a few others, argued with drawn swords in defence of the girl. Two men as allies in a patriarchal society may be just enough to hope for a better future, and Aberash trusts in the support of those who understand her, to dream of a change in her life and in the lives of the other girls who live in her country.
Meaza Ashenafi: the fight for women’s rights
Ms. Ashenafi, the lawyer responsible for Aberash’s acquittal, has campaigned for many years for legal reform on public education and information for the rights of women and girls.
Born in 1964 in Ethiopia, in a rural village 800 km from Addis Ababa, she was brought up by her father – the mayor of his town – with firm educational principles and a schooling plan for her, her brothers and her sisters.
Meaza soon realised that she wanted to study law. At 17 she was admitted to the University of Addis Ababa, and was the only girl in a class of fifty men, just as in 1986, she was the only woman who graduated in law at her university.
Meaza Ashenafi is currently involved in the work of the African Centre for Gender at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, and in the creation of the African Women’s Rights Observatory.
And in November 2018 her appointment was announced as head of the Supreme Court, the highest legal institution in the country. The Ethiopian Parliament unanimously approved her candidacy.
After the recent historical election of Zewde Sahle-Work to the presidency, the country in the Horn of Africa chose a woman for the first time for such a prestigious role.
Ethiopia is changing, including under the pressure of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed who gave impetus to his country’s reform programme by deciding that 50% of the executive of Addis Ababa should be composed of women.
A fine example for all African countries which can consider the patriarchal model of marginalisation of women in political and institutional roles outdated.
Difret, the courage to change
Aberash's story inspired the film "Difret, the courage to change", in which the little girl is called Hirut Assefa. The film’s narrative is inspired by the true story of Aberash Bekele.
Produced by Angelina Jolie and directed by Zeresenay Berhane Mehari, the film was presented in the United States, where a petition of 135 thousand signatures was delivered to Catherine M. Russell, US Ambassador for global women's issues, by the international organisation Girls Not Brides, which interacts in various fields on the problem of child marriages.
In the summer of 2018, from the 25 to 27 June in Malaysia, Girls Not Brides convened the largest gathering of civil society supporters committed to putting an end to child marriage.
The organisation’s common goal is to allow all girls, all over the world, to realize their potential. To feel free to choose what is best for their life: to study, to gain professional experience, to grow up believing in themselves.
A film to let the world know about the strenuous fight against child marriages
Difret, the courage to change is considered a commendable film. Below is the online review published on "Game Surf ":
"Women’s emancipation is a topic that cinema has begun treating in an increasingly disruptive way – writes Roberto Vicario listing various western films on this subject – Difret, the Courage to Change, however focuses on what is, perhaps, an even more dramatic topic when compared to the emancipation that western women fight for, and that is the total annihilation of any human
