60 Stunning Photos Of Girls Going To School Around The Globe

Every child deserves an education.
Students walk past a U.S. soldier in Baghdad's Ameen district on October 14, 2008.
Students walk past a U.S. soldier in Baghdad's Ameen district on October 14, 2008.
Thaier Al-Sudani / Reuters

Nelson Mandela once said: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

And it’s true, education is one of the greatest resources the world has to offer. Unfortunately, young girls and women ― half of world’s the population ― are rarely given the same opportunities as boys to learn, study and succeed.

Globally, 65 million girls are not in school. Out of the 774 million people who are illiterate around the world, two-thirds are women. There are 33 million fewer girls in primary school than boys. And education really does save lives: If every woman around the globe had a primary and secondary education, childhood deaths would be cut in half.

To celebrate International Women’s Day and honor the importance of global education, we’ve rounded up 60 photos of girls going to school around the world.

The photos feature girls of all ages from Iran to Somalia to the U.S. to Japan getting an education ― something all children should have a right to, no matter their gender.

1
India
Waseem Andrabi/Hindustan Times/Getty Images
Kashmiri school girls playing during recess in Kulhama district, Bandipora on August 11, 2015 in Srinagar, India.
2
Somalia
SIMON MAINA via Getty Images
Pupils walk on September 10, 2013 inside the Gambool high school in the Garowe region, Somaliland. The school is a project funded by the European Commission and has the capacity for 1,750 pupils both boys and girls. As key partners, Somalia and the European Union (EU) will be co-hosting a High Level Conference on A New Deal for Somalia in Brussels on September 16, 2013.
3
Japan
Reuters
School girls, wearing surgical masks, cross a street at lunch time in Kyoto, western Japan November 19, 2014.
4
Philippines
Lorgina Minguito / Reuters
A woman accompanies some students as they wade in the shallow part of a rocky beach to their school to attend the first day of classes in Sitio Kinabuksan, Kawag village, Subic, Zambales Province, north of Manila June 1, 2015.
5
India
Jonas Gratzer/LightRocket/Getty Images
Children sit on the ground with a temporary roof to protect them against the strong sun in a small village called Bilwadi in the state of Rajasthan. The children who come from nomadic families are 6-14 years olds who are taught mathematics as well as reading and writing in Hindi. This photo was taken on October 29, 2014.
6
Iran
Behrouz Mehri/AFP/Getty Images
Iranian school girls observe Members of Parliament discussing a draft to limit photographer's and cameramen's access to cover parliament's open sessions in Tehran on February 27, 2013.
7
South Africa
Siphiwe Sibeko / Reuters
School girls walk past riot police standing guard outside Hillbrow magistrate court during an appearance of students who were arrested during a protest demanding free education at the Johannesburg's University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, October 12, 2016.
8
The United States
Brian Snyder / Reuters
Precious Perez listens during a class on United States history at a high school in Chelsea, Massachusetts January 24, 2014. Sixteen-year-old Perez has been blind since birth. She lives in Chelsea, Massachusetts, a working-class city on the outskirts of Boston. Her life is both like and unlike that of many of her contemporaries, blind or sighted. She walks with a friend to their public high school in the morning, takes voice lessons, plays goalball, and spends her time on social media. Picture taken January 24, 2014.
9
Hong Kong
ANTHONY WALLACE via Getty Images
School students walk down a street in Hong Kong on July 4, 2016.
10
Brazil
Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images
Girls attend a class at a school in the forest in Xapuri, Acre State, in northwestern Brazil, on October 8, 2014.
11
Iraq
HAIDAR HAMDANI via Getty Images
An Iraqi school girl walks up the bank of a river after crossing the waterway on a small wooden boat in the district of Al-Mishikhab, some 25 kilometers south of the holy city of Najaf, as they head to school on April 1, 2015. According to Iraqi women in this area boat is one of the only ways for them to travel.
12
Syria
Bassam Khabieh / Reuters
A girl carrying a school bag walks in eastern al-Ghouta, near Damascus October 21, 2014.
13
China
Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images
Chinese children attend a class at the Jinqao Center Primary School in Shanghai on September 1, 2014.
14
Afghanistan
Sham Marai/AFP/Getty Images
Afghan schoolgirls board a bus in Qara Zaghan village in Baghlan province on May 7, 2013.
15
Kenya
AFP via Getty Images
Two school girls walk towards a commuter train in Kikuyu, Kenya, on September 13, 2016. The railway in Kenya has a long history, with the British laying the country's first rail in 1896.
16
Russia
Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP/Getty Images
High-school graduates celebrate the last day of their classes in Moscow's Red Square on May 25, 2011.
17
Gambia
Thierry Gouegnon / Reuters
Two school girls walk at Kairaba avenue in Banjul, Gambia January 24, 2017.
18
Haiti
Thony Belizaire/AFP/Getty Images
Brazilian UN peacekeepers distribute juice and crackers to students at the Immaculate Conception School February 6, 2013 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
19
Bangladesh
Thomas Trutschel via Getty Images
Savar, Bangladesh - April 13: Girls in school uniform walking along a road after school on April 13, 2016 in Savar, Bangladesh.
20
Iran
Ahmed Jadallah / Reuters
School girls walk down the street in Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's birth village of Aradan, east of Tehran, March 12, 2008.
21
England
Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Withington Independent Girls School students celebrate getting good grades on their A level exams on August 15, 2013 in Manchester, England.
22
Morocco
FADEL SENNA via Getty Images
A Moroccan girl walks to the school in Taghzirt, an isolated village in the el-Haouz province in the High Atlas Mountains south of Marrakesh on March 4, 2016.
23
Pakistan
A. Majeed/AFP/Getty Images
Pakistani school girls pray for the early recovery of child activist Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head in a Taliban assassination attempt, at their school in Peshawar on October 12, 2012.
24
Spain
Marcelo Del Pozo / Reuters
School children wearing costumes walk during a school excursion to a permanent exhibition at Velazquez research centre in Seville May 11, 2009.
25
Sri Lanka
Lakruwan Wanniarachchi/AFP/Getty Images
Sri Lankan Muslim school girls stand on the edge of a sea port in Colombo on May 20, 2013, after traveling from their town of Kalmunai, over 231 miles away.
26
Germany
Konzept Und Bild/Ullstein Bild/Getty Images
Students of the 7th and 8th classes swimming during a school triathlon on June 19, 2010 in Berlin, Germany.
27
South Korea
Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images
Students take the annual Scholastic Aptitude Test at the Poongmun high school in Seoul on November 13, 2014.
28
Central African Republic
Thomas Koehler/Photothek/Getty Images
A student stands in a classroom at a school in the capital city of Bangui, Central African Republic on March 12, 2014.
29
Cuba
STR/AFP/Getty Images
Cuban schoolgirls read during class on November 13, 2012 in Havana.
30
Ecuador
Eitan Abramovich/AFP/Getty Images
Girls pose at a rural school at La Palizada in Tulcan, Carchi province, in Ecuador close to the Colombian border on November 7, 2012.
31
China
Liu Jin/Getty Images
A class of students run during a physical training exercise at the temporary campus of the "Walking School" of Xu Xiangyang Education and Training Group on December 22, 2005, on the outskirts of China's southwestern city of Chengdu.
32
Kosovo
Chris Hondros/Getty Images
A Kosovo Albanian girl answers a question in a sociology class at Sami Frasheri high school in Pristina, March 2007. (At the time Kosovo was in the process of formalizing its independence from Serbia.)
33
Zimbabwe
Raphael Huenerfauth/Photothek/Getty Images
A young schoolgirl listens to a concert at the Glen Forest Development Centre on December 3, 2012 in Harare, Zimbabwe.
34
North Korea
Eric Lafforgue/Getty Images
Primary School students in North Korea on May 16, 2009.
35
Iraq
Thaier Al-Sudani / Reuters
Girls walk past a U.S. soldier on a patrol with the Iraqi police in Baghdad's Ameen district October 14, 2008.
36
China
China Photos/Getty Images
Students read outdoors at the Jigmei Gyaltsen Girls Welfare School on April 21, 2006 in Maqin County of Guoluo Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China. The Jigmei Gyaltsen Girls Welfare School, established in 2005, was built to provide free education for impoverished female students in pasturing areas. The school currently has about 96 students and 10 teachers, teaching Tibetan, Chinese, mathematics, art and other courses.
37
Kenya
Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images
Schoolgirls participate in a lesson in Kilifi, Kenya on June 31, 2010. The students are part of an initiative called "Moving the Goalspost" which sponsors female students from the Kilifi district where drop-out rates are high due to early marriages, teen pregnancy and a traditional bias towards educating male siblings over female.
38
Nepal
Education Images/UIG/Getty Images
School girls in orange uniforms walk to school along a trail around Manaslu Trek, Nepal.
39
Bangladesh
Majority World/UIG/Getty Images
Children learning their lessons at home, in a village in Netrok.
40
Indonesia
Beawiharta Beawiharta / Reuters
Students hold on to the side steel bars of a collapsed bridge as they cross a river to get to school at Sanghiang Tanjung village in Lebak regency, Indonesia's Banten village January 19, 2012.
41
Cuba
Konzept Und Bild/Ullstein Bild/Getty Images
School girls wearing school uniforms on the way home on June 1, 2009 in Trinidad, Cuba.
42
Afghanistan
Wally Skalij/Getty Images
Afghani girls raise their hands to answer a question in math class.
43
Kenya
Noor Khamis / Reuters
Girls walk to school during the early morning in the Kibera slums in Kenya's capital Nairobi February 15, 2013.
44
Vietnam
Chau Doan/LightRocket/Getty Images
H'mong students exercise at Hoang Thu Pho primary school in Bac Ha, Lao Cai, Vietnam.
45
France
Patrick Hertzog/AFP/Getty Images
Girls hug each other on the first day of school outside the European School of Strasbourg in Strasbourg, France on September 1, 2015.
46
Mozambique
Thomas Trutschel/Photothek/Getty Images
Students in school uniforms pose for a photo on September 29, 2015 in Beira, Mozambique.
47
Mexico
RONALDO SCHEMIDT via Getty Images
Two girls walk after receiving their meal at the Adolfo Lopez Mateos school, in Villa de Zaachila, Oaxaca State, Mexico on July 5, 2016.
48
Gaza
Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images
Palestinian school girls walk during a sandstorm in Gaza City on September 9, 2015.
49
Yemen
Mohammed Huwais/AFP/Getty Images
Yemeni girls listen to their teacher on their fist day of school at a public institution in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on November 1, 2015.
50
South Korea
Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images
Students wearing traditional hanbok dresses bow as they attend a graduation and coming-of-age ceremony at the Dongmyeong girl's high school in Seoul on February 12, 2015.
51
Gaza
MAHMUD HAMS via Getty Images
Palestinian girls walk past buildings which were destroyed by Israeli strikes on their way to school in the Shejaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City on September 14, 2014 on the first day of the new school year.
52
India
STRDEL/AFP/Getty Images
Indian schoolchildren pray during morning assembly at their school in Shimla on December 17, 2014, as they pay tribute to slain Pakistani schoolchildren and staff after an attack on an army school in the restive city of Peshawar.
53
Mexico
Pedro Pardo/AFP/Getty Images
Children play during a break after returning to school following a two-months strike of teachers due to criminal threats, in Acapulco, Mexico on January 27, 2015.
54
Yemen
Mohammed Huwais/AFP/Getty Images
Yemeni schoolgirls attend an anti-mine and unexploded ordnance awareness campaign in a school in Sanaa on December 17, 2014.
55
The United States
Ann Hermes/The Christian Science Monitor/Getty Images
Students listen to instructions during a coding class at The Young Women's Leadership School of Astoria in New York on September 17, 2015.
56
Bangladesh
NurPhoto via Getty Images
A school going girl walks through a water logged street in Dhaka, Bangladesh, 01 October 2013. Climate change in Bangladesh is an extremely crucial issue for last decade.
57
Ghana
Melanie Stetson Freeman/The Christian Science Monitor/Getty Images
School girls head home through their cocoa-producing village on November 11, 2015 in Akyekyere, Ghana.
58
Thailand
Thierry Falise/LightRocket/Getty Images
Young female students in a "pondok," a school providing general and religious studies on June 29, 2015 in Narathiwat, Thailand.
59
The United States
Katherine Frey/The Washington Post/Getty Images
A girls' track team runs through traffic as they travel to McKinley High School where they practice on May 28, 2013 in Washington, DC.
60
Russia
Alexey Sazonov/Getty Images
Cadets laugh on the bench in the garden of the Defence Ministry Girls Boarding School on September 9, 2008, in Moscow, Russia. Russian President Medvedev took the decision in January 2008 to create an academy for the daughters of Russian servicemen serving far away from the capital, without the opportunity for a good education and for those who lost their father in post-Soviet armed conflicts.

This Women’s History Month, remember that we have the power to make history every day. Follow along with HuffPost on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in March using #WeMakeHerstory.

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