Girls' Education: The Antidote to Terrorism

Accessing school in the rural villages of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan can be a harrowing experience for a girl.
The nearest school may be a three- or four-mile walk on dangerous roads where she is subject to harassment from men she passes. The threat doesn’t always come from strangers, and often she is hiding her schooling from a male relative who will beat her, burn her or even kill her for attempting to do something as harmless as learning to write her name.

The cornerstone of women’s equality is education—but access to classrooms, school supplies, and teachers is often scarce in the places that need it the most. UNICEF reports that 65 million girls were out of both primary and lower secondary schools in 2013. There is a myriad of reasons girls miss out on education from poverty to war and displacement, to violence or lack of resources.

Cultural and familial norms may limit access to education through threats of violence and shame or ridicule, even when resources are available. Villages deep-seated in tribal customs and conservative traditions expect women to care for children, tend to household duties, and serve their husbands. A woman who challenges these norms by going to school can be seen as shameful or immodest, damaging the honor of the family. Men are expected to control their women, and violence is a common way to punish transgressions.

According to a report by Global Rights, a human rights organization, an estimated 90 percent of women in Afghanistan suffered physical, sexual, or psychological violence or forced marriage, most of it perpetrated by family. The situation is similar in Pakistan with an estimated 70 to 90 percent of women subjected to domestic violence. Admitting to domestic violence in the family is taboo in these developing countries, so many women don’t report their abuse. If they leave their husbands or families, they will be exiled with no resources and no place to go.
Not all men and families are opposed to their wives, daughters and sisters attending school. Many men, especially those who have had schooling, see the value in women’s education as a way to help support their families. However, violent resistance is still common, especially in rural and conservative communities where most detractors are themselves uneducated.

Despite this, sentiment towards girls’ education has been shifting in Central Asia for many years. Many more communities are making the change to support women’s literacy and girls’ education, despite the violence and threats. Central Asia Institute (CAI), a nonprofit organization based in the U.S., works with partners in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan to build schools, provide teacher trainings and promote education for girls in some of the most remote areas of the world.

Please click on the link below to read the complete article.

Links:

• Ms. Magazine Blog Full Article
• Learn more: CAI Website

The Unstoppable Revolution Starts With Girls' Education

There is a quiet revolution taking place in the mountains, along the streams, in the cities, and the small villages throughout Central Asia. This revolution has nothing to do with warlords or violent clashes. It has everything to do with books, pencils, and empowering women. This movement is an unstoppable revolution for girls' education. All through the region, girls and women are determined to go to school. Education gives them a future; it's the key to becoming unstoppable.

This past spring, our communications director, Hannah White, witnessed first-hand the moments these women and girls realized that, with education, nothing can stop them. She brought back stories and photos to share the Unstoppable Revolution with our supporters and friends. You are making this women's education revolution unstoppable. 

You can read these stories in a photo essay featured in the lastest Journey of Hope magazine, but here are a few bonus images and stories from the many women and girls who have picked up chalkboards and books to declare themselves unstoppable. 

Gulobshoeva Zarnigor, is a teacher at a CAI-supported kindergarten in Tajikistan.  CAI teacher trainings help make her unstoppable, "The training helped a lot. Now teachers talk less, kids are happier, and they learn more."  Before CAI teacher-training courses, Gulobshoeva and her fellow teachers had outdated lessons from the former Soviet Union. Now they use stories to keep the kids interested and create interactive lessons. 

Salima wants to be a doctor to help victims of landmines. She attends the third-grade level class at one of CAI's Quick Learning Centers (QLC) in Kabul.  QLCs are programs designed to help older students who have never attended school to catch up to their peers before they enter a classroom.  The class has 30 students, all of whom are girls.  They are broken up into five or six groups, each with a student team leader.  Salima is one of the group leaders, and she's determined to remain unstoppable until she reaches her goal.

Anisa is also attending the QLC and wants to be a policewoman who protects people when she grows up. Anisa accidentally dropped a brick on her foot the morning before this photo was taken, but it didn't keep her from being unstoppable, "I hurt my toe. It is hard to walk, but I wanted to come to class."

Empowering Women and Girls Through Education

All over Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan, girls and women are empowered to be part of this unstoppable revolution for girls' education. Some of them go to school despite disapproval from their families or long treks to the nearest classroom. They want to read and write, they want to have careers, and they want to help other women find what makes them unstoppable too. 

Links:

• Journey of Hope magazine