State-Sponsored Ignorance: How Pakistan Keeps Pashtun Women Uneducated
- Ali Khan
- Dec 6, 2024
- 3 min read
“I tell my story not because it is unique but because it is not. It is the story of many girls.” These words by the youngest Nobel Prize laureate, Malala Yousafzai, described the feelings of thousands of Pashtun girls without a chance to get an education. The deprivation of education of girls, especially Pashtun girls, lies in the terrible fate of the Pashtun lands that have been conflict-ridden for as long as one can remember. These girls are silenced and subjugated. Much of the interplay is observable in these lands where oppression, injustice, and state-sown seeds of conflict combine in rather interesting ways. Addressing education for Pashtun women is a multifaceted issue tied directly to Pakistan’s politics. It is not only a question of literacy but a planned marginalization that has ensured that the children, especially the women of the community, remain out of school.
The presence of the Taliban has long eroded the Pashtun belt. Who created the Taliban? Where did they come from? As simple as they might seem, these questions lead to answers that are, to this day, very difficult for some to digest. Because of their strict imposed Islamic principles, influenced by their fundamentalist view, the Taliban put severe restrictions on women in many aspects of their lives, including education. These limitations saw a mixture of tyranny and violence against women in many different forms. For example, in the Swat Valley, the Taliban were reported to have closed over 400 schools, most of which were girls’ schools. Female teachers also faced severe danger and persecution during the Taliban’s administration. The people in favor of women’s education were often targeted and threatened, verbally or even physically. This intimidation played a part in keeping a culture of fear and oppression as women stopped pursuing employment.
It is significant to know here that these beliefs were never those of Pashtun leaders of the past or even the general Pashtun population. Education for women has been highly emphasized by many Pashtun scholars, including Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (famously known as Bacha Khan). Bacha Khan’s famous quote, “Education is both for men and women. Depriving women of Education is the height of stupidity,” exemplifies his belief. Before the partition, Bacha Khan formed the Khudai Khidmatgar movement to fight non-violently against the British presence in India. The movement was to transform the Pashtun society internally. Had it been successful, the rest of the country would not have been familiar with many ethnic stereotypes surrounding the Pashtun population.
One can not sideline the role of the Pakistani state in keeping the belt uneducated. The state’s neglect of the education sector in Pashtun areas is one of the main ways it is responsible for the lack of education among Pashtun women. In many Pashtun communities, particularly for girls, there are not enough schools, and those that do exist are frequently in poor shape and have little funding. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the literacy rate for females is only 36.6%, compared to the national average of 47%, according to the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement (PSLM) survey (PSLM 2018-19). In the previously Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), where the female literacy rate is just 7.8%, this gap is even more pronounced (UNESCO 2017). Furthermore, The absence of educational facilities clearly indicates the state’s neglect of the education sector in Pashtun communities.
Pashtun girls’ struggles to attend school are not simply about literacy rates or access to education; they are a result of extensive state planning that has worked until now. Bacha Khan is just one example of the Pashtun community’s fortitude and tenacity in facing hardships. There is a reason why we don’t see a single paragraph on the life of this great leader in any state-circulated curriculum, who, if not higher, stands shoulder to shoulder in history with Jinnah. The struggle for women’s education in Pashtun society is about much more than it seems; it is a struggle against structural inequality and the freedom to develop intellectually and socially.