Honoring Every Girl: An Islamic Call to Protect, Educate, and Empower

Every year on October 11, the international community observes the International Day of the Girl Child, established by the United Nations General Assembly through Resolution 66/170. The Day provides an opportunity not only to recognize the challenges girls continue to face, but also to listen to their voices, affirm their dignity, and invest in their ability to learn, grow, participate, and shape their own futures.

The theme for 2026, “End child marriage and invest in girls’ rights,” was developed through consultations with girls, girl-led organizations, civil society, and United Nations partners. It draws renewed attention to the conditions necessary for girls to enjoy a secure childhood and adolescence and to enter adulthood with education, health, confidence, and meaningful opportunities.

Girls and the Future of a Young World

The importance of investing in girls becomes even clearer when we consider global demographic trends. UNICEF reports that approximately 641 million adolescent girls between the ages of 10 and 19 live in the world today. They represent an enormous reservoir of human potential, creativity, knowledge, leadership, and service.

At the same time, the demographic center of the world’s younger generations is increasingly concentrated in lower-income societies. More than half of the world’s approximately 1.3 billion young people aged 15–24 live in low- and lower-middle-income countries. Their share is projected to rise from 59 percent in 2025 to 69 percent by 2050, with much of the growth occurring in sub-Saharan Africa. Many of these countries are part of what is commonly described as the Global South.

This demographic reality has particular relevance for Muslim communities. Many Muslim-majority societies are part of this young and rapidly changing demographic landscape, especially across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. The future of millions of girls in these societies will therefore be shaped not only by governments and educational institutions, but also by families, religious communities, and the social norms that faith leaders and religious institutions can help influence. This gives Muslim scholars, religious leaders, educators, and faith-based organizations a particular responsibility to affirm the dignity of girls, support their education and development, challenge harmful practices, and help create environments in which their God-given capacities can flourish.

These figures mean that the opportunities available to today’s girls will profoundly influence the future of families, communities, economies, and societies. Whether girls are educated or excluded from education, nourished or neglected, protected or exposed to violence, listened to or silenced will shape not only their individual lives but the future of entire generations.

A Daughter Is a Gift, Not a Burden

Islamic teachings address the dignity of girls from the very beginning of their lives. The Quran describes both daughters and sons as gifts bestowed by God. “To God belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth. He creates whatever He wills. He grants daughters to whom He wills and grants sons to whom He wills”(42:49). The Quranic language is significant: daughters are described as a gift—hibah—from God. Their birth is not a misfortune to be endured, but part of the divine gift of life.

The Quran therefore sharply condemns the attitude of those who regard the birth of a girl with shame: “When one of them is given the good news of a daughter, his face darkens, and he is filled with suppressed grief. He hides himself from people because of the ‘bad news’ he has received: should he keep her in humiliation or bury her in the earth? How evil is their judgment!” (16:58–59).

The Quran does not merely condemn an ancient practice. It confronts the mentality behind it: the assumption that a girl is less valuable, less worthy of celebration, or less deserving of resources and opportunities than a boy.

Giving the Silenced Girl a Voice

One of the Quran’s most powerful images concerning girls appears in its description of the Day of Judgment, “And when the girl buried alive is asked: for what sin was she killed?” (Quran 81:8–9). Remarkably, the Quran places the victimized girl herself at the center of the scene. The question is addressed to her, while those responsible for the injustice stand morally accused.

This Quranic image carries a continuing ethical message. Girls should not merely be spoken about; their voices should be heard. Decisions affecting their education, well-being, safety, development, and future should not treat them as invisible recipients of decisions made entirely by others. Listening to girls does not mean abandoning the responsibilities of families or communities to guide, educate, and protect them. It means recognizing that protection should help develop their judgment, confidence, knowledge, and capacity to participate responsibly in the decisions that shape their lives.

Daughters in the Teachings of the Ahl al-Bayt

The teachings of the Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them) directly challenged social prejudice against daughters. Imam Jafar al-Sadiq (p) said, “Daughters are good deeds, while sons are blessings. One is rewarded for good deeds, while one is questioned about blessings” (Al-Kulayni, al-Kafi, vol. 6, p. 6, Bab Faḍl al-Banat, hadith 8).

In another striking report, when Imam al-Sadiq (peace be upon him) learned that a man was unhappy because a daughter had been born to him, he said, “I have heard that a daughter was born to you and that you were displeased with her. What burden is she upon you? She is a fragrant flower for you to cherish, and her provision has already been provided for. The Messenger of God (pbuh&hp) himself was a father of daughters” (Al-Kulayi, al-Kafi, vol. 6, p. 6, Bab Fadl al-Banat, hadith 9).

These teachings sought to transform social attitudes toward girls at their roots. A daughter is not an economic liability, a source of shame, or a person whose future deserves less investment. She is a human being entrusted to the care of her family and community, possessing God-given dignity and capacities that should be allowed to develop.

Protecting the Years of Growth

Honoring girls requires more than rejecting discriminatory attitudes. It requires creating the conditions in which they can develop their God-given abilities. Girls need meaningful access to education, adequate health care and nutrition, protection from violence, exploitation and trafficking, freedom from discrimination, and opportunities to develop their intellectual, spiritual, social, and professional capacities. Particular attention must be given to girls affected by poverty, armed conflict, displacement, disability, or other conditions that place them at greater risk of exclusion.

Education is central to this responsibility. When a girl is deprived of education, she loses far more than classroom instruction. She may also lose opportunities for economic independence, knowledge of her rights, access to information about health, participation in public life, and the ability to make informed decisions about her future.

Investment in girls should therefore never be understood simply as preparation for one predetermined social role. The purpose of education and development is to enable each girl to discover and cultivate her abilities and to contribute meaningfully—as a believer, family member, scholar, professional, citizen, caregiver, leader, or in the many other roles through which human beings serve God and society.

Marriage Requires Consent, Maturity, and Understanding

The 2026 International Day of the Girl places particular emphasis on marriage practices that deprive girls of the ability to develop and make meaningful choices about their futures. From an Islamic perspective, marriage is not a casual arrangement. The Quran describes the marriage bond as a “solemn covenant,” “And they have taken from you a solemn covenant” (4:21). A covenant carrying such profound personal, moral, familial, and legal consequences should not be entered into through coercion or without meaningful understanding.

In Shiʿi jurisprudence, consent is expressly recognized as a condition of marriage. The Islamic Laws of Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali al-Sistani state that the man and woman must consent to the marriage and also refer, in discussing a girl’s capacity to marry, to rushd, maturity understood as the ability to recognize what is in her own interest.

These principles remind us that concern about harmful marriage practices should not be reduced merely to a numerical discussion about age. The deeper questions are whether a girl is being forced or pressured, whether she possesses sufficient maturity to make such a consequential decision, whether she understands the rights and responsibilities arising from the marriage contract, and whether her consent is genuine, informed, and free from coercion.

No girl should be pushed into marriage because of poverty, family pressure, social convention, fear, or circumstances that leave her without a meaningful choice.

God says, “Do not compel your enslaved women to prostitution, if they seek chastity, in pursuit of the temporary gains of worldly life. And if anyone compels them, then God is, after their compulsion, Forgiving and Merciful [to them]” (24:33). Although this verse addresses a different practice rather than the marriage contract itself, its rejection of coercion and exploitation for worldly benefit reinforces an essential ethical principle: vulnerability, poverty, and the interests of others must never be used to override a girl’s dignity and meaningful choice.

Families and communities have a responsibility to ensure that marriage does not interrupt the essential processes of education, personal development, physical and psychological well-being, and the formation of mature judgment.

Investing in Girls Is Investing in Our Shared Future

A girl who is safe, educated, healthy, respected, and confident is better positioned to contribute to her family, community, profession, and society. Conversely, when girls are denied education, silenced, subjected to violence or coercion, or deprived of opportunities to develop their abilities, entire communities lose part of their human potential.

On this International Day of the Girl Child, I.M.A.M. calls upon families, religious institutions, educators, civil society organizations, and policymakers to renew their commitment to the dignity and flourishing of every girl.

Our responsibility is not simply to protect girls from harm, but also to create the conditions in which they can learn, question, develop judgment, discover their talents, participate, and grow into adulthood with knowledge, dignity, faith, and genuine agency.

The Quran transformed the question surrounding the girl from “Why was she born?” to “By what right was she harmed?”

The question before us today is: What are we doing to ensure that every girl has the opportunity to develop and realize the capacities that God has placed within her?

References

1. United Nations General Assembly, Resolution 66/170, International Day of the Girl Child, December 19, 2011.
2. UNICEF, International Day of the Girl 2026: End Child Marriage and Invest in Girls’ Rights.
3. UNICEF, Girl Goals: What Has Changed for Girls? Adolescent Girls’ Rights over 30 Years, 2025.
4. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, World Population Highlights 2026: Youth.
5. The Holy Quran, 42:49; 16:58–59; 81:8–9; 4:21.
6. Al-Kulayni, al-Kafi, vol. 6, Bab Faḍl al-Banat, hadiths 8–9.
7. Office of Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali al-Sistani, Islamic Laws, “Conditions of a Marriage Contract,” rulings concerning consent and maturity.