Malala Yousafzai Scholarship Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. JEFFRIES. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, the distinguished gentleman from Rhode Island, for yielding and for his leadership.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 4508, a bill to expand the pipeline of women and girls in Pakistan entering higher education.

At home and abroad, women and girls face barriers to obtaining education, hindering their ability to fill their potential. Barriers include the cost of education, inadequate infrastructure, violence, cultural norms, and gender discrimination. As a result, today at least 500 million women and girls across the globe struggle with literacy.

In Pakistan, the hurdles that women and girls face when seeking education are especially pronounced. In late 2008, Malala, whose name this bill is in honor of, began making the case for education for women and girls in Pakistan. Despite objections from the Taliban, she continued to advocate this cause at great personal risk.

On October 9, 2012, Malala was on the way home when the Taliban ambushed her bus and shot her in the head. Remarkably, she survived. Instead of stopping her efforts, she continued to speak out, to stand up, and to step out, becoming a world-renowned figure in the fight for education.

As she said before the United Nations General Assembly: ``So, let us wage a glorious struggle against illiteracy, poverty, and terrorism, let us pick up our books and our pens, they are the most powerful weapons. . . . Education is the only solution.''

In October 2014, Malala became a corecipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for her struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education.

To this day Malala continues her work in this area.

Still, despite all the progress that has been made, only 32 percent of primary school-age girls are in school in Pakistan. After primary and secondary school, the rate of higher education enrollment for girls drops down to just 9 percent. Less than 6 percent of women 25 and older attain a bachelor's degree or equivalent in Pakistan.

The U.S. Agency For International Development's Merit and Needs-Based Scholarship program currently funds full tuition and stipends for financially strained Pakistani youth to complete a bachelor's or master's degree at partner universities across Pakistan. This legislation would ensure that at least half of those scholarship recipients go to Pakistani women. Empowering girls with access to education is not just the right thing to do, it is the smart thing to do for Pakistan and for the global community.

I want to thank Chairman Engel and Ranking Member McCaul of the Foreign Affairs Committee for their leadership. I also want to thank Congresswoman Ann Wagner for her tremendous leadership and for her partnership on this legislation to support every girl's right to an education.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

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