Girls ’ Education : Finding a way forward under Taliban rule by Molly Shapiro
Afghanistan ’ s recent fall to the Taliban has brought global attention to the immense challenges girls and women living in conservative cultures face in accessing education . While there have been enormous gains in female education in Afghanistan since the U . S . -led incursion in 2001 , millions of female students around the country may be forced to drop out of school or banned from attending should the Taliban move forward in imposing its strict interpretation of Islam .
The situation is even more fraught for girls in rural areas . Even during the 20 years of progress in girls ’ education , gains were confined primarily to cities . Until the Taliban seized control in mid-August , 45 % of girls in urban areas attended secondary school . In remote , rural areas that tend to lean more conservative , only 17 % of girls advanced to secondary school .
For the past 20 years , Central Asia Institute ’ s programs have focused primarily on remote communities located miles and mountains away from more cosmopolitan urban centers . There , government schools are few and far between , and often out of reach for girls and boys alike . Even where education is available , antiquated attitudes towards the role of women and girls as confined to domestic responsibilities such as doing chores and rearing children have prevailed over centuries . Strict interpretations of Islam that require girls and boys to be separated from one another past the age of 12 also persist . These beliefs have made it much more challenging for girls living in remote , conservative areas to receive an education .
For CAI , working in these remote , conservative areas means that we and our partners have had to learn to bridge the cultural divide and implement strategies for making girls ’ education possible .
LOCATING EDUCATION IN THE HEART OF THE COMMUNITY
One of the biggest challenges in educating girls and boys in the remote , mountainous regions of Afghanistan is that there are few formal government schools located nearby . This means that children have to travel long distances to attend classes , which creates a unique barrier for girls living in conservative cultures . Girls must be accompanied by a male relative and cannot travel alone in public . In addition , their parents understandably worry about the dangers their daughters might confront on the road . And poor families with few resources to educate all of their children often favor boys over girls when it comes to who has the privilege of going to school .
Community-based education ( CBE ) is designed to solve these problems . CBE involves setting up a classroom in the heart of the community , such as in the home of the teacher or another member of the community or in a local building or mosque . Girls ’ parents are far more comfortable enrolling them in classes that are more private and located right in the village where students live . It is no surprise that CBE has proven to be one of the most effective strategies for educating girls in Afghanistan over the past 20 years .
WORKING WITH THE COMMUNITY TO GAIN TRUST AND ACCEPTANCE
Setting up informal education opportunities to reach remote communities also requires gaining the trust and acceptance of community members . Mustafa , the deputy director of one of CAI ’ s partner organizations in Afghanistan , explains the intensive groundwork that must be done to engage with conservative communities that are resistant to
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