Disability Issues
Dr Christine Peta
FOR millions of girls around the world, disability compounds the discrimination they already face simply for being female.
A girl with disabilities lives at the intersection of gender and disability – a space where some of the most entrenched inequalities in our societies quietly take root.
According to the United Nations, an estimated one in five females globally live with some form of disability, with a significant proportion being girls and young women.
Today, October 11, Zimbabwe will be commemorating the International Day of the Girl Child, an occasion set aside to amplify the voices of girls, celebrate their achievements and confront the barriers holding them back. Within this observance, it is critical to focus on a group whose struggles and strengths are too often invisible: girls with disabilities.
UNESCO reports that girls with disabilities are among the least likely people globally to attend school, complete their education or transition into meaningful employment.
In many low-income countries, literacy rates among girls with disabilities fall far below those of both their non-disabled peers and boys with disabilities.
This gap is not a matter of ability; it is entirely a matter of access.
In communities where stigma runs deep, a girl born with disabilities may be hidden from public view and denied the chance to play, learn or simply be a child.
Families facing poverty frequently prioritise the education of sons over daughters, leaving a daughter with disabilities as the first to be left behind when resources are scarce. A girl who cannot physically reach a classroom — or who faces mockery if she arrives — learns quickly that the world was not built with her in mind.
Furthermore, girls with disabilities are disproportionately vulnerable to violence, including sexual and gender-based violence, often at the hands of those meant to protect them.
They also face heightened risks of exploitation and forced sterilisation.
Their health needs, particularly sexual and reproductive healthcare, are routinely ignored by systems that assume they are asexual or incapable of making decisions about their own bodies.
When they seek medical care, they frequently encounter prejudice rather than support.
Yet it would be a profound injustice to reduce these girls to statistics of suffering. Across the globe, girls with disabilities are leading, creating, organising and imagining a better world.
They are students who defy low expectations to become lawyers, scientists, artists and athletes. They are friends, daughters, sisters and future leaders.
What they need is not pity, but strategic investment: accessible schools, inclusive healthcare, safe public spaces and a seat at every decision-making table.
Countries like Zimbabwe that embrace inclusive education demonstrate that when classrooms are designed for diversity, all children learn better.
Legal reforms that criminalise forced sterilisation protect bodily autonomy, while community awareness campaigns help dismantle the stigma that confines girls to the shadows.
Gathering data disaggregated by both gender and disability ensures that no girl remains excluded from policy and practice.
The International Day of the Girl Child is a call to action that must place girls with disabilities at its centre.
We must ask hard questions of our schools, hospitals and communities:
Do our classrooms welcome every girl?
Do our laws defend her dignity?
Do our communities recognise her full potential?
The answer can no longer remain “not yet”.
Girls with disabilities are not waiting for the world to become perfect before contributing their talents; they are already present, vocal and determined.
Today, let us commit to a world where disability is never a barrier to opportunity and where every girl can dream freely and live fully.
Dr Christine Peta is a disability, public health, policy, international development and research expert. She can be contacted on: [email protected]
