Disputes Over Compulsory Female Schooling

In a traditional society in which girls' education has been banned in recent years, proposals to make female schooling compulsory in the new draft constitution are proving controversial.

"What business does the government have with women's education when it can't even take care of other things?" demanded Sayed Najibullah, a Kabuli moneychanger in his early thirties.

"Families themselves know best whether to sent their daughters to school or not. This is the decision for the family. We are not so helpless that we hand authority over our sisters to the government."

Najibullah himself studied only to primary-school level and when the time comes to get married, he'll be looking for an illiterate bride as he is suspicious of the morals of any woman who has spent much time outside the house.

Khanom Gul, a housewife in her fifties who is queuing up at the education ministry seeking a job as a school caretaker for one of her sons, agrees, adding that her husband would never allow such a thing, whatever the law says.

"I have five sons and three daughters, and my sons go only to the mosque," she told IWPR. "He hasn't even allowed our sons to go to school because he says that all the books are Satanic and that they are leading people from Islam to atheism, with the country currently occupied by atheists and Americans."

But girls' schooling does have its advocates, particularly among educated city-dwellers.

"We support this announcement of compulsory studies for women, which will help root out illiteracy in our country," said Mah Gul Noori, principal of a girls' school in Kabul which is now has an overflow of students taught in tents.

Biology teacher Laila also backs the move, while emphasising that it will need to be handled sensitively. "People view it as interference in the affairs of their families," she said. "Implementation of this policy should therefore be handled carefully so as not to create problems, and so that families will let their daughters go to school."

Maryam, who is now an 11th grade student after attending a secret school under the hardline Taleban regime which banned all female education, says that particular attention needs to be paid to the provinces, where many families think that educating girls is "outside the Afghan framework".

And while families may question the use, and propriety of educating girls, most religious scholars are clear that knowledge is for all.

Maulawi Sayed Amir, who is known for his traditionalist views, including arguing that mingling with non-Muslims is forbidden, told IWPR, "Everybody should be educated, on condition that the teacher knows about Islam, meaning that their teaching should be Sharia, or lawful."

He pointed to the hadith - a saying attributed to the Prophet Muhammed - that says, "Seeking knowledge is obligatory for every Muslim man and woman."

In the draft of the new constitution which will be debated at the Constitutional Loya Jirga later this month, Article 43 provides for nine compulsory years of schooling, with an obligation on the state to expand educational opportunities throughout the country. The next article specifically mentions promoting education for women.

Under the previous constitution of 1964, which is currently in force as an interim measure, only six years of schooling - where even that was available - was compulsory, although in practise many families remained reluctant to send their daughters to school.

The Soviet-backed regimes in the Eighties saw some expansion in the educational opportunities available for girls in the main centres, but the years of civil war between various muhajedin factions in the first half of the Nineties saw numbers drop off dramatically because of security fears. The Taleban regime then banned girls from school altogether.

Today, Sayed Eshraq Husseini, administrative deputy at the ministry of education estimates that 50 per cent of girls in Kabul, and up to 37 per cent of those in the provinces, are at school.

Husseini believes that widespread illiteracy - estimated at 70 per cent nationwide - has been a major cause of disunity in the country, and says that messages supporting girl's education are getting through.

"Before there were no schools for boys, but now we have schools for both boys and girls in the provinces," he said.

Shukria Barakzai, a member of the commission which drafted the constitution, admits that enforcing the proposed rules will take time. But she believes that as families see the benefits of having confident women who are well-schooled in religious and social matters, they will want their daughters to take part.

"People will not oppose something which is to their advantage. Instead, they will help implement it, especially if we have separate schools for boys and girls," she said.

Barakzai hopes that the additional years of compulsory education, over and above the provision in the 1964 constitution, will allow academically gifted girls to shine so that their families may even consider higher education.

However, there are fears that the omission of a clause in the 1964 constitution specifying that higher education was to be provided free by the state could harm women's opportunities.

Permila, a third-year university student in her twenties, despairs of the changes, saying that while men can get decent paying jobs as manual labour, women have very few options unless they have an education.

She also fears that women would not be able to afford fees if these were introduced, "Women will be more disadvantaged. The boys can go and work to earn their fees, or else their families may give them the money. Girls will sit at home."

Farida Nekzad is an IWPR reporter in Kabul.