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News Like most poor women in African nations, the majority of
Maasai women in Kenya are destined to live a life of poverty and
cultural oppression. Just one generation ago, less than 20
percent of Maasai women in Kenya enrolled in school. Today, even
with free primary school education in Kenya since January 2003,
only 48 percent of Maasai girls enroll in school, and only 10
percent of girls make it to secondary school. Typically, Maasai
girls are circumcised between the ages of 11 to 13 and soon
afterwards married to a man chosen by her father in exchange for
cattle and cash. A Maasai woman will never be allowed to
divorce, except in the most egregious cases of physical abuse,
and will never be allowed to marry again, even if the husband
her father chooses is an old man who dies when she is still in
her teens. Instead, she becomes the property of one of her
husband's brothers. She will be one of multiple wives, and will
have many children, regardl