Women’s Education in Afghanistan

When the Taliban captured Kabul in August, a bleak future dawned on girls and women across the country. Despite the Taliban’s promise to be supportive of women’s goals under Islamic law, the deadly crackdown on the progress of women’s rights has already begun.  

The Taliban regime, like the older one that ruled from 1990-2001, upon capturing the capital, shut down the Ministry for Women’s Affairs and replaced it with the Ministry for Protection of Virtue and Vice. Later, they announced that women cannot go out in public without a male relative or without being fully covered, and female workers have been instructed to stay home. Education, politics, sports, freedom of expression, and whatever else requires women venturing outside with a voice has been banned by the government, punished by beatings or floggings.  

Afghan Women in Veils
Afghan women in veils with the words “Taliban vow to respect women We can still see We can still watch We can still notice We will no longer accept.” Source: Flickr

Education and Occupations 

Girls’ education in Afghanistan took a lot of effort to achieve, but many obstacles, specifically financial security and accessibility, still stand in the way. Knowledge gives individuals mobility and power to decide their future for themselves — a source of pride that Afghan women have fought for. In Afghan villages and cities alike, many women and girls would work for low wages in poor conditions to finance their education, and now these efforts and opportunities have been ripped away.  

Pride is now fear. After the fall of the Afghan cities Kabul and Herat, the Taliban prohibited girls over 6th grade from attending school and segregated universities between genders. Boys were allowed back weeks ago, but no indication was given to girls — a silence that told them to stay home. The regime previously stated that education will resume under the laws of Islam. Even if girls can go back to school, they may not learn certain subjects such as engineering, vocational education, cooking, and government studies.  

Dreams of becoming pilots, surgeons, activists, and lawmakers have evaporated for Afghan girls, and women already educated under a democratically controlled Afghanistan are seeing their lives turn on their heads. A university student who was supposed to graduate with two degrees from the American University of Afghanistan and Kabul University frustratedly remarked that she must hide any IDs, diplomas, and all evidence that she received a higher education, throwing away decades of work for her career. If she does not do so, she risks the lives of herself and her entire family. 

A class for girls in a village school outside Jalalabad, Afghanistan.
A class for girls in a village school outside Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Source: Flickr

The Taliban is not their only issue, however. Many female political figures remaining in Afghanistan fear retaliation from men they jailed or sentenced. Despite the years of progress since the last Taliban occupation, women in powerful roles still made men in Afghanistan uncomfortable. The Taliban has not instituted strict restrictions on law and order  allowing incidents of physical and sexual violence against women to increase. 

Female Workers 

Women have taken to streets demanding their rights back as the Taliban prepares to deal with international questioning for their rise to power. Although once numerous after the fall of Kabul and Herat, protests are now few and far between. Organized protests were broken up by the Taliban’s gunshots, beatings, and killings in early September, effectively dampening the morale of activists. Now, the regime demands prior registration with a detailed account of the event and any slogans that are to be chanted, decreasing the right to assembly in the nation. 

Female journalists, teachers, activists, and especially judges are also being targeted by the oppressive regime. It is common practice for the Taliban to break into homes of instrumental feminist voices and threaten their families, and the United States’ promise to protect Afghan women activists from the Taliban has fallen flat.  

Former Afghan legislator Fawzia Koofi fled Afghanistan to Qatar after she was placed under house arrest and guarded day and night by the Taliban. Parliament members Shagufa Noorzai and Homa Ahmadi escaped to Athens, Greece, along with 177 other high profile female lawyers and judges with help from the Melissa Network and Human Rights 360. Even though activists like Koofiand Noorzai are far from their home country, they have already started networking to protect the rights of women and girls from where they are. 

In late August, 15 members of the inspiring 20-member Afghan Dreamers fled Afghanistan, with 10 arriving safely in Mexico City, Mexico, and 5 in Doha, Qatar. This all-girls robotics team made waves after winning multiple international robotics competitions in the United States and becoming a luminescent symbol of the potential of girls in science, mathematics, and engineering. These girls left with the hope of continuing their education and competing in robotics tournaments. Some girls voluntarily stayed behind to help education efforts in Afghanistan. They all hope that their achievements and stories will empower girls in their home country to fight for their education and convince the regime to adapt to a new generation of women. 

Private Afghan universities require girls to wear an abaya and niqab.
Private Afghan universities require girls to wear an abaya and niqab. Source: Flickr

Education as a Human Right 

The Taliban violated many articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Article 26 proclaims that basic and fundamental education should be free, compulsory, and equally accessible. Education is stated as the driving force to foster respect for human rights and personal freedoms all over the world which is crucial for women to rise from societal restrictions. 

The head of the Afghan Women’s Network, Mahbouba Seraj, emphasizes that Afghanistan is not the same country that the Taliban left. Women will not sit and stand by while they try to take away their rights. Over 6 million women have established their presence in traditionally male-dominated fields such as media, medicine, law, and government. She believes that the gender equality movement in Afghanistan will prevail over the Taliban’s resistance.  

Earlier in October, the United Nations Human Rights Council voted to approve a rapporteur on the grounds of Afghanistan to investigate and report civil and human rights violations. The European Union’s ambassador to the UN cited particular concern for the restrictive actions of the Taliban against women and girls. In addition to the UN, the public can offer donations to other international human rights organizations that are also working on the safety of female Afghanistan officials and girls seeking to continue their education such as Amnesty International, CARE, and Women for Afghan Women.

Kenyan Parliament in crisis after failure to attain the two-third gender rule

by Grace Ndanu

A photograph of dozens of African women at a leadership conference
African Women Leaders Network (UNHQ). Source: Creative Commons

Gender inequality has existed since the Old Testament time. In Kenya, we see that even before the British colonialists came, the society was ruled by men. African men made the decisions in the society and set the rules that the community was to live by. This was through the council of elders that existed in most societies. Few women occupied public positions of power. The one common position that did hold some power was the position of medicine woman. In every community there are cultural practices that are regarded as a must. Among the Maasai there is a practice by the name Female Genital Mutilation, which is supposed to prepare a girl for marriage. This practice is usually ordered by the girl’s father, and it is expected to be performed by a woman.

Historically in Kenya, the place of women was largely in the house and revolved around looking after the welfare of her homestead. Basically this meant doing all the house chores and taking care of the old and the children. Men, on the other hand, were generally their own masters. They dictated what is permissible and what was not. Men were the warriors of the community, decision makers, and heads of families, and in that capacity they dictated what was expected of the family. For example, where I come from we have a council of elders, which is comprised of men only. This council directs everything that is going on in the community, starting from which girl is old enough to get married to which man is she supposed to marry. This could mean an eleven-year-old girl is forced to marry a seventy-year-old man. When these men are in their meeting no woman is to be seen around. The resistance to women based on their gender has remained the facilitating tool for keeping inequity against women. Recently I discovered that Kenya has the lowest female representation in the whole of Africa with 9.8%, compared to Rwanda 56.3%, Tanzania 36.0%, Uganda 35.0% and Burundi 30.5%. In South Africa women represent 55%, meaning they have the capability of being good leaders and we have an opportunity to prove this.

The Kenyan constitution of 2010 promotes the participation of women and men at all levels of governance and make provisions for at least 1/3 of the seats in county assemblies as well as at least 1/3 of the seats of the senate. The constitution also provides for the enactment of legislation to compel political parties to be democratic and have women in their decision making organs. Article 81(b) of the constitution provides that “not more than two-thirds of the members of elective public bodies shall be of the same gender.” But that is not the case.

African women dressed in colorful robes standing in an unfinished building. They are doing an inspection.
Central African women inspecting building for microfinance project. Source: Creative Commons

However, despite all the difficulties that hinder women from public participation there is finally a light. Through the constitution, Women and men have the right to equal treatment, including the right to equal opportunities in political, economic, cultural and social spheres. The two-thirds gender principle was articulated in the 2010 Constitution; however, the country marked the 10th anniversary of the constitution last month, and nothing has happened so far. In clause (6) (b) of the constitution it states that, “the chief justice shall advice the president to dissolve parliament.” Therefore the top Kenyan Judge who is nearing the end of his term as Kenya’s second chief justice under the new constitution just advised the president to dissolve parliament due to failure to enact the law that provides the gender balance. I think this was a really brave step. In his letter to the president he included,” Kenyans must be ready to suffer, if only to hold elected parliamentary representatives accountable”. This left the representatives uncomfortable and started to challenge the chief justice. I have faith he will win.

Last semester I had a unit by the title Women and Governance. In this unit I learned that stereotypes lock out women, especially in countries like Kenya that are highly patriarchal. Until recently, women have had a more difficult time getting elected to these political positions.  Last year, a candle was lit in one of the famous universities in Kenya when the University of Nairobi) elected the first chairlady (president) in history. I hope many young ladies were touched and inspired like I was. The difficulty of being elected as a political leader is associated with the possibility that voters may be more comfortable with electing women to the legislature than to executive office. This difficulty appears to be due to stereotyping of candidates and of political offices based on the expected policy issues that these offices address. For example, female candidates are expected to be warm, gentle, kind and passive. Male candidates on the other hand are perceived as tough, aggressive and assertive. As a result, voters view male candidates as more competent than female candidates when dealing with issues associated with the executive branch, such as security and economics. For example when elections revolve around security and crime issues, voters tend to view women as ill-equipped to deal with such issues. Thus they do not vote for women.

Inequality and discrimination, whether based on race, colour, language, religion or sex often takes similar forms in practice; however, there are specific characteristic of discrimination against women that do not occur elsewhere. Sex, attitude, beliefs, prejudice and myths are much more deeply rooted in the basic structures and human behaviour than are many other customs, norms and traditions (for example, that women should never speak or give opinions where men are present). This is more like shutting them up because society is comprised of both men and women and if they have to give opinions publicly they will have to stand with their heads up before women and men, which is more disliked by men.

I believe that the time has come for people to realize and appreciate that women have both a right and obligation to actively participate in political leadership. Also women themselves must believe in themselves and come out of their comfort zone and start doing what is necessary. And they will be great.