A Comparative Study of Cultural Barriers to Girls’ Right to Education in Bamyan and Kandahar Cities

Abstract

By taking control of Afghanistan, the Taliban regime has closed schools and universities to girls and denied them the right to education beyond the sixth grade. The Taliban government has declared the lack of a suitable environment that is compatible with Islamic standards as the main reason for opposing the education of girls. While the majority of Sunni and Shiite jurists and religious scholars do not agree with the Taliban ruling. An example of such a restriction is not seen even in the most traditional Islamic countries such as Saudi Arabia. Many views consider the Taliban’s policy towards girls’ education as a result of the traditions and cultural values ​​of the Pashtuns. Based on this, the present research, with a comparative study of the cities of Bamyan and Kandahar, tried to investigate the cultural barriers to the right to education for girls in these two cities, which represent the two largest ethnic groups in Afghanistan. Qualitative method was used in this research and data was obtained through the analysis of questionnaires. The questionnaires of this research were set up in the online form of Google and were given to the respondents using the “available” method. According to the findings of the research, cultural factors are the main obstacle to girls not having access to the right to education, which is not allowing families, wrong culture and traditions, insecurity, lack of morale, unfavorable economic situation, early marriage, lack of awareness, inappropriate educational environment, lack of family encouragement, Men’s pessimistic view of girls, and the weak perception of girls compared to boys in society, were identified as the most important.