Women lag behind in education in rural Pakistan. There are several barriers that limit girls’ educational attainment. While there is a paucity of credible research on girls’ education in rural Pakistan, existing studies identify three main barriers: cultural barriers, economic barriers and policy/state barriers. These barriers are further divided into sub-categories such as misinterpretation of religion, gender disparities, distance to school, mix-gendered schools, feudal culture, decision making, poverty, transportation, low educational budgets, powerful male characters in the curriculum and poor recruitment and retention of qualified female teachers. Despite these many obstacles, many interpretations of the problem of girls’ education point to Islam as the key barrier.
This paper makes the argument that it is the misinterpretation of Islam that has created many of these barriers. Acquisition of knowledge is equally important for both genders in Islam. Neither the Quran nor the narrations of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) discourage women’s education. This presentation concludes with recommendations on how to address these misinterpretations and suggestions to improve the equality of educational opportunities for females in rural Pakistan.
This presentation may be useful for the rural educators, researchers, international educators and educators who are interested in gender education.
Of Interest to: Online and distance education, K-12 educators, Researchers
