Empowering All Girls: The True Meaning of Freedom

Each year, I select a university student to join me on a journey aimed at highlighting critical but overlooked issues. For 2025, the chosen companion is Sofia Barnett, a recent graduate from Brown University and an emerging journalist. Her initial essay focused on West African girls resisting the practice of female genital mutilation. This follow-up article calls for Western feminism to deepen its commitment to addressing the challenges faced by women worldwide.

Reporting from Sierra Leone, Sofia shares her observations.

In Makeni, Sierra Leone, girls return from school clutching their notebooks, their uniforms neat but faded, their shoes coated in dust. Many trek several miles along damaged roads just to reach their classrooms. Their futures hinge on a precarious balance—not only of determination but also on what sacrifices they are forced to make to continue their education.

Numerous girls leave school because they cannot afford sanitary products. Some resort to exchanging sexual favors to pay for basic supplies like notebooks. While some express pride in the small sums they earn—perhaps seven U.S. dollars a night—this is not genuine empowerment but exploitation disguised as choice.

Tity Sannoh, a young woman from the coastal town of Tombo, explained that the cycle often starts with menstruation. Girls there depend on boyfriends to help them manage their periods, she said, adding, “If you give them something, they expect something in return.”

In Liberia’s village of Vonzua, 16-year-old Safieyatu Kiadii dropped out of school after her father passed away. Now the sole caretaker of her mentally ill mother, she lives with her in a single-room home. Though she is not ready for motherhood, she has a birth control implant and aspires to become a nurse.

When asked how girls acquire knowledge about their bodies, most said they do not. Mabinty Thoronka, 19, from Freetown recounted how her mother’s only explanation of menstruation was, “If you let a boy touch you, you will become pregnant.”