Years after the US-led military intervention defeated the Taliban, around 2/3rds of Afghan girls still were out of school (Human Rights Watch, 2017a). Since regaining power in August 2022, the Taliban has banned girls from secondary and tertiary education again (Hadid, 2022). These events have intensified an already dire situation, leaving the future of Afghanistan’s women uncertain and jeopardizing the country’s developmental progress.
Prior to this, an Afghan government report (from 2015) indicated that the number of children attending school exceeded 8 million. However, Human Rights Watch disputed the accuracy of these figures in a report released a few years after (2017a). This is common among post-conflict governments due to displacement and unaccounted populations. This potential inaccuracy is noteworthy because it represents a negative trend in Afghan education as a positive one.
Women protesting the ban on education (Amiri, 2023).
In addition to UN pressure, the Afghan government has legal obligations to supply education to its population. In the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Afghanistan ratified that it would ensure women equal rights, including in education (Human Rights Watch, 2017b). This obligation highlights the need for Afghanistan to prioritize and uphold its commitment to equal education. The failure to do so directly violates Afghan women’s rights and impedes the country’s progress toward development.
The Taliban: Brief History
The Taliban was formed in the 1990s by Islamic guerrilla fighters who promised stability after years of conflict (Maizland, 2021). Their beliefs stem from the harsh interpretations of the Pashtuns’ pre-Islamic tribal codes, which require women to be covered entirely, have a male chaperone, and be denied education. In 2001, a U.S.-led invasion ousted this government, and Afghanistan began to see improvement. But by 2021, US troops began withdrawing from Afghanistan, and the Taliban were able to regain control of the country – immediately reinstating these codes.
Education under the Taliban
Afghanistan was already struggling to close gaps in education between boys and girls after the Taliban in 2001. When leaders removed women and girls from schools, this set the country even further back. Additionally, to deter women and girls from attending schools, the Taliban began targeted attacks, such as acid assaults, sexual harassment, and kidnappings (Human Rights Watch, 2017b).
Afghan women protest Taliban rulers, from Pakistan, on International Women’s Day (Yousafazai, 2023).
Simultaneously, existing problems inside and outside Afghan schools were intensified.
Inside schools (Human Rights Watch, 2017a):
Lack of female teachers
Overcrowding
Gender segregation
Poor infrastructure (60% of schools do not have toilets/drinking water)
Outside school (Human Rights Watch, 2017a):
Gender-based violence
Partner violence
Higher costs of attendance
Increased rate of child marriage
What does this mean for development?
Excluding half a population from education significantly reduces a country’s development. Already in Afghanistan, this has resulted in:
Losses of up to 5% of Afghanistan’s GDP due to restricted opportunities for women (UNDP, Maizland, 2021).
Increases in women arrested for “violating” discriminatory policies (Amnesty International, Maizland, 2021).
Higher rates of child marriage (Maizland, 2021).
3.5 million children out of school – 85% being girls (Human Rights Watch, 2017b).
These statistics, plus increasing child/maternal mortality rates, will deprive communities of significant contributions and lead to societal unrest. How does Afghanistan expect to move forward when all of these factors work together to keep women and girls from education?
What is being done?
Women for Women International (WFWI) is combating this endemic. Through this organization, women can join others like them and learn to improve their health, understand their rights, and continue their education (Women for Women International, 2023). WFWI is creating an environment of learning that aims to enhance women’s well-being. Although WFWI is focused on reaching sustainable development goal 5, they recognize that women play a crucial role in realizing all SDGs.
WFWI’s Stronger Women, Stronger Nations program has reached over 125,000 women in Afghanistan. This program has significantly impacted populations of women. One woman, Nasima, attests that since she joined this program, she learned basic math, how to save money, and began sewing dresses. She uses her extra money to buy food and items for her family (Women for Women International, n.d.). Similarly, women who graduate from the program report understanding their rights better and having taken action to share the effects of violence against women in their communities (Women for Women International, 2023).
WFWI was forced to pause aid due to the Taliban’s control. However, since December they have been able to reopen their community centers/schools at reduced levels. Working alongside local communities and UN agencies, WFWI continues to advocate to end this education ban (Women for Women International, 2023).
Education empowers women and girls to understand their rights and take action against violence while enhancing development. International organizations, like WFWI, must continue to work with Afghanistan to ensure women’s rights are protected and access to education for all is facilitated.
Hadid, D. (2022, December 21). Taliban begins to enforce education ban, leaving Afghan women with tears and anger. NPR. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2022/12/21/1144703393/taliban-begins-to-enforce-education-ban-leaving-afghan-women-with-tears-and-ange
Human Rights Watch. (2017a, October 17). “I Won’t Be a Doctor, and One Day You’ll Be Sick” | Girls’ Access to Education in Afghanistan. Retrieved from Human Rights Watch website: https://www.hrw.org/report/2017/10/17/i-wont-be-doctor-and-one-day-youll-be-sick/girls-access-education-afghanistan
Human Rights Watch. (2017b, October 19). Afghanistan: Girls Struggle for an Education. Retrieved from Human Rights Watch website: https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/10/17/afghanistan-girls-struggle-education
Women for Women International. (n.d.). My Name is Nasima: Life Changing Lessons. Www.womenforwomen.org. Retrieved from https://www.womenforwomen.org/stories/my-name-nasima
Yousafazai, S. (2023, March 8). On International Women’s Day, Afghan women blast the Taliban and say the world has “neglected us completely.” Retrieved from www.cbsnews.com website: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/international-womens-day-afghanistan-taliban-women-protest-say-world-neglected-us/
In my last post I advocated for nonformal learning programs as a uniquely qualified tool to combat harmful cultural norms like female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), and more broadly, gender equity. Today I bring you just such a program: Tostan, founded in Senegal and now also operating in The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, and Mali.
Established as an NGO in 1991, Tostan was not created to end FGM/C. Rather, founder, Molly Melching, under the mentorship of famed Senegalese scholar Dr. Cheik Anta Diop, envisioned it as a nonformal literacy program, operating in local languages. At a time when formal education in Senegal was offered only in French, this set Tostan apart. Melching recognized and embraced the importance of meeting people where they were, both linguistically and culturally. By 1995, a curriculum transformation was underway. The Tostan team, in working closely with participants, had discovered that learner-introduced questions on democracy and human rights were creating what Paolo Freire called, “generative themes”. A generative theme being one that unlocks for critical examination that which has previously been assumed to be “natural”, or “unchangeable”, to begin the work of separating that which is nature from that which is human construct.
Because the Tostan facilitators were receiving similar questions across multiple locations, they adapted their modules to include interactive explorations of democracy, human rights, and health early in the first year of learning. This adaptive, learner-led approach to creating curriculum is a central characteristic of nonformal learning programs, and why Tostan has proven so powerful.
In my interview with Diane Gillespie, Ph.D. in Cultural and Psychological Studies in Education and long-time qualitative analyst for Tostan, she described the critical component of nonformal learning programs like Tostan as their ability to awaken the capacity to aspire. She explained that Dr. Arjun Appadurai reasoned that development had failed in many ways because the resource poor were not given the opportunity to meaningfully aspire to the future, they lacked the navigational skills, not the intelligence. Which is why Tostan’s first step for learners is a visioning exercise. Learners draw and verbally describe their vision for their community, how they would like it to be.
This is followed by an exploration of their place in relation to others, as an individual, a community, within the nation, and finally the world. And within this conversation a very important moment arises: learners begin to identify the roles they each play. Gillespie describes how “the women come up and say ‘I sweep the room, or cook millet….and the man is a religious teacher’” and this is where “the light comes in, where ‘those were learned roles’” comes into focus” for the first time. And in this moment, the recognition of what is man-made versus what is natural starts to take hold, the process of loosening the grip of cultural norms begins.
Learners then revisit the visioning exercise, in which they pictured a vibrant healthy community. They are now able to recognize that in order to reach that goal, people will need to take on different roles, and because the roles are human constructs, the roles can indeed be changed. This is where transformation of consciousness emerges.
The next step is understanding how to analyze a problem and address it effectively. Because FGM/C is tied to marriage customs, it is not enough that one family or one village decides to stop cutting their girls. The intermarrying groups must accept brides who are not cut. And so the work of advocating and organizing for change becomes the next phase for the learners, action.
This is one of many areas where other organizations stumble. What enabled Tostan to move forward was the value system Melching had adopted at the outset, a philosophical standard for nonformal approaches. Tostan demonstrated respect for the people by teaching in their language and with sensitivity to and inclusiveness of their culture and customs. They did not arrive trying to teach people French, telling them what they needed. For this reason, many elders respected their approach, and trusted the intentions of the organization. One such elder was Imam Diawara, whose advocacy in 1998 on behalf of ending FGM/C resulted in his village and their intermarrying villages to publicly pledge their abandonment of FGM/C, 13 villages in all. The journey of creating their newly envisioned future was underway.
By 2008, a USAID evaluation of Tostan’s work found that “a striking change” could be seen in the villages. Tostan undoubtedly empowered communities to action. The villages had not only remained united in their abandonment of FGM/C, but even more powerfully, they now viewed this previously deeply imbedded practice as obsolete. A second evaluation performed by UNICEF in the same year found that, in villages which had been working with Tostan, a mere 30% of girls had been cut. In stark contrast, 69% of girls in similar villages which had not participated in the Tostan program had been cut. Further, as of 2021, 5,700,000 people from 9,517 communities had publicly declared an end to FGM/C. This does not mean that every individual has abandoned the practice, as the UNICEF report demonstrates, but it can be said that every participant has now been able to critically examine their beliefs and make informed decisions for their well being and that of their children.
It is important to remember that the original Tostan literacy program did not generate, nor seek to generate, these large, mobilized efforts. Rather, action arose out of communities who asked their facilitators to help them investigate democracy, human rights, and health. Through the synergy created by this examination and exploration, they self-mobilized. It was the adaptive nature of nonformal learning programs that enabled this shift in curriculum. And through the trust earned by grounding the program in local language and culture, another cornerstone of nonformal learning, Tostan created a space that felt safe for learners to interrogate their beliefs. It is through this nonformal framework that communities are emerging, one step closer to gender equity on a long and arduous path.
When it comes to addressing issues of gender equality in education, one organization that is working to educate, organize and empower their communities is Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendra (NBJK). Established in 1971, NBJK aims to create a just society where everyone’s needs are met without discrimination or exploitation (NBJK, n.d. a). NBJK’s programs are implemented throughout India and encompass key development areas like health, education, agriculture, economics, and civil rights (NBJK, n.d. b). NBJK characterizes its approach to development “as a liberating force for achieving social justice, economic growth, and self-reliance” (NBJK, n.d. a). Their diverse portfolio of programs has allowed NBJK to carry out targeted interventions in rural communities that address multi-dimensional national issues locally. One of NBJK’s most successful programs is focused on improving gender equality and girls’ education.
In India, the underperformance of girls in education can be attributed to a number of factors, including social stigma, poverty, safety, cost, distance, and child marriage (NBJK, n.d. c). For example, in the eastern state of Jharkhand, where NBJK is based, an estimated 45% of girls drop out of primary school, and that number is higher in rural areas, where around 85% of girls drop out (NBJK, n.d. c). These competing factors contribute to a vicious generational cycle where young girls drop out of school and fail to reach their full potential. NBJK sees working at the grassroots level as a pathway to transforming gender in education through multi-stakeholder engagement with international organizations, local schools, parents, and students (Gupta et al., 2002, p. 33).
In collaboration with UNICEF, NBJK’s Jaagriti Initiative was launched to change conceptions of gender norms amongst students, parents, and teachers. The Jaagriti Initiative tackles gender equality in education by adopting a transformative approach and adapting it to the individual, family, and community (UNICEF. 2020. p.16). The initiative was administered in 100 schools across India and involved three components:
Transformative gender education:
Integrating gender into the curriculum creates an environment for teachers and students to critically examine and discuss inequalities associated with “gender roles, norms, and dynamics” (Locke et al. 2022. p.2). The curriculum covers “understanding gender, productive and reproductive roles, double work burdens, gender-based discrimination and violence, patriarchy and taking action for change” (UNICEF. 2020. p.24). This broad spectrum of knowledge helps build a foundation of awareness and action.
Gender-focused co-curricular activities:
Biweekly extracurricular activities supplement the material learned in school and reinforce their newly acquired knowledge through various activities that promote community-building and learning (UNICEF. 2020. p.24). By combining education with action, the Jaagriti Initiative helps establish new norms that support gender equality in a positive environment (Locke et al. 2022. p.2).
Family engagement:
Recognizing that families significantly impact the norms students develop, the Jaagriti Initiative engages families through monthly sessions to share the materials students learn in school (UNICEF. 2020. p.24). By sensitizing parents, the Jaagriti Initiative changed parents’ position from observers to participants of change (UNICEF. 2020. p.68). Parental outreach helps “transform the underlying social structures, policies, and broadly held social norms that perpetuate gender inequalities” (Locke et al. 2022. p.2).
The Jaagriti Initiative draws its strength by aligning itself with the transformative gender approach to education. This approach is based on the reshaping of the education system and curriculum to uproot gender inequality by shifting “norms, practices, and structures, which [reproduce] gender” (Locke et al. 2022. p.3). By leveraging the school environment, the Jaagriti Initiative promotes a transformative solution to addressing gender inequalities that engages not only students and teachers but also those outside the walls of a classroom.
As a result of their efforts, in 2021, NBJK engaged 10,655 students through their education program (NBJK. 2022. p.3). In evaluating the Jaagriti Initiative’s impact, NGJK found that “65% of girls and 74% of boys reported a greater awareness of gender biases, stereotyping, discrimination, and inequality” (UNICEF. 2020. p.24). Moreover, compared to baseline data, the Jaagriti Initiative saw the most significant changes in attitudes among boys and fathers. Boys and fathers experienced a 16% and 11% shift in attitudes when asked if “boys are naturally better than girls in studies” (UNICEF. 2020. p.25). Additionally, boys and fathers reported a 21% and 8% change in attitudes when asked, “it’s more important to educate boys than girls” (UNICEF. 2020. p.25). By positioning gender equality as a primary education component, NBJK, through its Jaagriti Initiative, has begun laying the groundwork for an “inclusive and socially just education system” (Locke et al. 2022. p.4). Furthermore, by engaging various stakeholders, NBJK has expressed its commitment to achieving gender equality beyond the classroom and into the larger community by shifting “norms, practices, and structures, which reproduced gender-based inequities” (Locke et al. 2022. p.4).
References
Gupta, R. Whelan, D. & Allendorf, K. (2022). Integrating Gender into HIV/AIDS Programmes. Department of Gender and Women’s Health. (pp. 1-53). World Health Organization.
Over 129 million women and girls are excluded from education worldwide (UNICEF, 2019).
Education plays a vital role in society. Particularly, access to secondary education creates significant economic growth and development. Investing in education directly affects growth, health, and infrastructure, which contributes to the success of society (The World Bank, 2018). According to the World Bank, education not only promotes human development in areas such as increased health and poverty reduction, but it increases employment, creates innovation, strengthens institutions, instills social cohesion, and drives long-term economic growth (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, 2011).
The importance of access to secondary education is crucial. If every child had access to secondary education, the child mortality rate for children under five would fall by 49%, individual income would increase by roughly 10% each school year attended, and early pregnancies would decrease by 59% (Cahill, 2019). Additionally, there would be a significant decrease in child labor and gang violence (Buechner & Su, 2022). Most shockingly, according to UNESCO, if all children completed secondary school, the global poverty rate would be cut in HALF (2017). Secondary education not only helps society advance economically, but it also increases the overall health and happiness of a population – which is essential for the prosperity of a people.
So what happens when half (if not more) of that population is left out?
Wouldn’t that mean: half as much growth, development, and prosperity?
Correct.
Women and girls are at the forefront of gender inequality in education.
In 1948 education was declared a human right in article 26 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, 2011). Today, that right is still not guaranteed. Women and girls remain negatively affected by the implementation of laws and policies that prohibit or restrict them from access to education.
Child marriage and birth rates decline as the education of women and girls increases (Delprato, 2022).
Research shows that growth and development flourish when girls have access to secondary education. Access to education for women and girls (Cahill, 2019):
Allows them to attain higher-earning jobs/become self-sufficient
Empowers them to make their own choices
Increases their participation in society
Creates peaceful social interactions
Restricted access to education forces girls to rely solely on the male population for economic and social security. This results in earlier, increased child marriages and higher birth rates (Delprato, 2022). Educating girls equally reduces gender norms that drive boys to drop out of school to earn an income and support a family. Keeping children in schools reduces child labor and gang violence (Buechner & Su, 2022).
While there has been a movement toward gender equality in secondary education, millions of girls are still not enrolled in formal education (UN Women, 2022).
What is being done?
In 2015, the United Nations created the sustainable development goals (SDGs). These are a call to action by 2030 to have the world enjoy peace and prosperity (United Nations Development Programme, 2023). SDGs 4 and 5 focus on access to quality education and gender equality. These goals aim to ensure inclusive and equitable education for all while achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls. Major targets of these goals emphasize ending discrimination against women and girls and ensuring all children complete primary and secondary education with effective, quality learning (United Nations, 2022).
Trends show more boys AND girls attending secondary school (UNICEF, 2022)
While there have been significant increases in access to education, and we are seeing more girls in school now compared to 15 years ago, significant inequalities still exist off-paper (United Nations Development Programme, 2023). In many places where education is “allowed” for girls, they still face gender-based violence on the way to school and within school buildings. In addition, many countries underreport gender parity in their education systems, and when school is in session, how much quality learning is really taking place (Human Rights Watch, 2017)?
If one girl is left behind, significant gaps exist in a nation’s development and, in turn, the world’s development (UN Women, 2022). With advances in education technology (EdTech), education is becoming more easily accessible. The benefits of this must be realized to end this deeply rooted inequality.
Governments worldwide need to take the correct steps to realize the right to equal education. They can create policies to ensure that local governments, communities, and people work together to assist children in the fight for equal, accessible education. With international assistance, governments can build better infrastructure, train teachers, and implement strategies that work to end discrimination (Human Rights Watch, 2017). These issues must be addressed and adjusted for a more productive and peaceful society.
References
Buechner, M., & Su, T. (2022, September 2). 10 Reasons to Educate Girls. Retrieved from UNICEF USA website: https://www.unicefusa.org/stories/10-reasons-educate-girls/40311#:~:text=Girls%20who%20complete%20a%20secondary
Delprato, M. (2022, February 2). Education can break the bonds of child marriage. Retrieved from World Education Blog website: https://world-education-blog.org/2015/11/18/education-can-break-the-bonds-of-child-marriage/
Human Rights Watch. (2017, October 17). “I Won’t Be a Doctor, and One Day You’ll Be Sick” | Girls’ Access to Education in Afghanistan. Retrieved from Human Rights Watch website: https://www.hrw.org/report/2017/10/17/i-wont-be-doctor-and-one-day-youll-be-sick/girls-access-education-afghanistan
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank. (2011). Learning for All. Retrieved from https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/27790/649590WP0REPLA00WB0EdStrategy0final.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
UNESCO. (2017). Reducing global poverty through universal primary and secondary education. UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). Retrieved from https://uis.unesco.org/en/files/reducing-global-poverty-through-universal-primary-secondary-education-pdf
UNICEF. (2022). Secondary Education. UNESCO Institute of Statistics Global Database. Retrieved from https://data.unicef.org/topic/education/secondary-education/
United Nations. (2022). Goal 4 | Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Retrieved from sdgs.un.org website: https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal4
United Nations Development Programme. (2023). The SDGs in Action. Retrieved from UNDP website: https://www.undp.org/sustainable-development-goals/gender-equality
How nonformal learning experiences are uniquely equipped to move communities closer to gender equity, through their foundation on the examination of assumptions and absorbed value systems which create the learner-led shifts in cultural norms necessary to end deeply embedded practices such as female genital mutilation.
I first began hearing people talk about Nietzsche in high school: mostly teenage boys pontificating in basements full of smoke on “how cool he was, man”, and how he taught them that “nothing matters”. I now find myself wondering if those boys had ever actually read Nietzsche. Things very much mattered to him. One of his chief concerns was his realization that humans have a propensity to absorb and accept as their own value systems, those which were created by the powerful to act as invisible yokes of control. In essence, our ideas today about what is “natural” or “unchangeable” have been handed down to us through the generations, having been created by other humans to serve their own interests. He beseeched us to find the courage to question our reality and placed the highest value upon creative action: for one to separate what is nature from what is construct, to then discard the imposed ideas which do not serve us, and ultimately to build a value system reflective of who we are, not how others perceive us. For Nietzsche, a teacher’s role in this process was to unlock your ability to think for yourself, to ask critical questions, and to unleash the creative ability to not only imagine a new reality for yourself, but the agency to go forth and create it. And all this he was writing back in the 1870s and 1880s. Those boys were right about one thing, he was cool, man.
I wasn’t expecting Nietzsche to come to mind as I sat contemplating what levers of power needed prodding to bring an end to harmful practices like female genital mutilation. Yet he did. His ideas, which predate terms like “cultural hegemony” and “social constructs” by a hundred years, point to the heart of the matter. Human beings must be given the space and tools to deconstruct their cultural norms, taking with them what works, casting off all else. Teachers should act as facilitators in this transformation of consciousness, unleashing the critical examination skills which underpin the formation of just societies and remain inadequately addressed within the structure of formal education.
The institution of formal education is inarguably an integral avenue for development. Access to quality education is a key path along which women around the planet have been progressing as they step ever closer to gender equity. Yet, for as much as we have worked at moving the bar, some practices and behaviors seem firmly entrenched, perhaps even unchangeable. Female genital mutilation, sometimes referred to as cutting (FGM/C), is one such practice.
The UNFPA defines FGM/C as “a practice that involves altering or injuring the female genitalia for non-medical reasons”. FGM/C is classified into four forms “ranging from partial or total removal of the clitoris, the outer or inner vaginal lips, to narrowing the vaginal opening by partially sealing it up”. Lifelong complications are many and can include painful menstrual periods, painful urination, painful intercourse, dangerous infections, and increased rate of newborn deaths, not to mention psychological trauma.
The persistence of FGM/C is reflective of gender inequalities and the power of social norms. Separated from homes of origin by over 6,000 miles and an entire ocean, the rate of FGM/C in immigrant communities within the United States remains high. In 2013 alone, the PRB estimates there were up to 507,000 women and girls within the US who had either undergone FGM/C or were expected to.
And despite growing global outrage, FGM/C not only continues to be practiced, but is happening to younger and younger girls, and is now being provided as a service by some health-trained practitioners. This encroachment into the officially sanctioned health sector is concerning as it increases the perception of normalcy and acceptableness.
So how can nonformal learning programs counter these practices which have persisted despite countless efforts to teach and regulate individuals into stopping? Where the student participating in the formal institution of education focuses primarily on the acquisition of new information and skills with the explicit end-goal of entering the ranks of the gainfully employed, nonformal learning opportunities are able to focus on awakening critical consciousness. As Nietzsche might have explained it, had he been alive in the 21st century: creating the framework and opening the space for individuals to recognize that their assumptions of what is natural and unchangeable are in fact human constructs, is the first step in moving people towards emancipation.
Further, learner-led critical examination will reveal those assumptions and values which are neither healthy for the individual nor the community, and in fact hinder their journey towards equity. Once learners are able to separate nature from human constructed practices and ideas, they are able to understand that, as other human beings before them created these expectations, so too can they create their own. Armed with this revelation, they can then begin the work of removing from their reality those practices which do not serve them. A practice such as FGM/C is a prime example. But this transformation of consciousness is not arrived at through traditional education institutions. This is about opening the safe space for dialogue and the critical self-examination of assumptions, not treating individuals as passive vessels into which information can be poured.
In my next post we’ll look at Tostan, an organization in Senegal helping communities across Africa begin their transformative journey, with teachers as facilitators, there to unlock the innate human capacity to examine and create. The results are more than promising.
