Education as a Vaccine asked female students to share what it is like, navigating tertiary institutions as adolescent girls and young women. Here are some responses we got.



Generally, it is difficult being a woman. It is even more difficult being one in a world where men feel they can take advantage of you because they have the power to decide your fate.

The zeal for women to become successful has triggered increased interest in female education and with it, another location where men attempt to take advantage of women. Personally, as a female student in the tertiary institution, I always have to double-check the makeup I apply, the type of braids I make, the length of my skirts, the elasticity of my trousers, the color of my outfit. All these, just so my presence does not command attention or cause people to judge me if something happens. As I later learned, none of it matters; even though I dress as basic as possible, lecturers still notice me.



Even if I wanted to, I cannot dress flamboyantly because my course has a strict black and white dress code and an additional necessity for societally approved decency. As a fresher, what could I have been doing to attract the attention of Dr. Bami, a lecturer whose classes I was not even taking? When I finally asked how he knew me, he said, ”I notice”. Notice Kwa! It took the intervention of my parents to stop him from hurting my education after several rounds of embarrassment and harassment within the campus because I turned him down repeatedly.



This got me wondering, what can a young girl actually do? How can one look decent and still get harassed? Why are we caught in a situation of looking at the mirror for hours debating the innocence or guilt of our dressing? These and many more are questions that run through my mind all the time.



It is really difficult finding a balance and coming out of school without a case of harassment from the lecturers. While I have never had issues passing my exams because I am a woman or been deprived of certain roles because of that, I have always stepped out praying that no man looks at me and sees the need for me to be taken advantage of. I should be able to get an education without the crippling fear of getting harassed every time I leave for school.



I should not have to get an education while walking on eggshells. On more than one occasion, I have let marking errors go even when it meant me rewriting a course, all in a bid to avoid visiting a lecturer’s office but how feasible is this plan of mine and how long can I do this for?





-ANONYMOUS.

Read more: https://frontlinenews.com.ng/16-days-of-activism-against-gender-based-violence-education-as-a-vaccine-speaks-to-female-undergraduates/