国家地理 女性是如何改变卢旺达的(4)

Born a refugee in Tanzania to a family that fled Tutsi persecution¹ in 1959, Emma Furaha Rubagumya remembers her grandfather scolding her father for allowing her to start high school instead of getting married. Her grandfather, she says, feared that "she (was) not going to be a good woman" if she continued her studies instead of marrying and having children. The "big fight" between the two men before she entered college was another episode "that I cannot forget in my life."

艾玛·弗热哈·卢巴高米亚出生于坦桑尼亚一个难民家庭，她的家人逃过了1959年的图西族大屠杀，她还记得爷爷因为父亲允许她去上高中，而不是逼她结婚而斥责了她的父亲。她说她的爷爷担心如果她继续学习而不是嫁人生子的话，她会变成一个坏女人。两个男人在她进入大学前的这场争论，成为她生命中又一件不能遗忘的事情。

Today, Rubagumya, 52, is a first-term parliamentarian. Elected in 2018, she leads parliament's Committee on Political Affairs and Gender². Her grandfather, who died in 1997, did not live to see her elected to parliament, but he did meet her husband and three daughters.

现在卢巴高米亚已经52岁了，正在国会担任第一任期的议员。她2018年当选，现在领导着政治和性别事务委员会。她的爷爷死于1997年，没能看到她当选国会议员的那一天，但是他见到了她的丈夫和三个女儿。

She remembers that during the battles over her education, her mother did not intercede³ on her behalf because "the way society was set then, she wouldn't go in front of her father-in-law to argue for me." Her mother and grandmothers were "just women in villages, cultivating lands, taking care of their children. They never went to school." But today, she says, "do you think I would not argue for my children to be educated? Do you think that my children would not argue for themselves to be educated? Even many women villagers would tell you that... they see educating their children as their first priority."

回忆起关于教育问题的那场争论，她说她的妈妈并没有为她说话，因为当时的社会背景下，她不可能为了我违背她的公公。她的母亲和祖母都是村里很善良的女性，她们种地，照顾孩子，从来没有去过学校。但是今天她说：“你觉得我不会为了让我的孩子接受教育而去争论吗？你觉得我的孩子她们自己不会为了接受教育而反抗吗？甚至很多女性村民都会告诉你，她们把让孩子接受教育当作第一要务。”

1 persecution   

n. 迫害,烦扰

参考例句：

• He had fled from France at the time of the persecution. 他在大迫害时期逃离了法国。
• Their persecution only serves to arouse the opposition of the people. 他们的迫害只激起人民对他们的反抗。

2 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

3 intercede   

vi.仲裁，说情

参考例句：

• He was quickly snubbed when he tried to intercede.当他试着说情时很快被制止了。
• At a time like that there has to be a third party to intercede.这时候要有个第三者出来斡旋。