Traditional and Cultural Obstacles against Girl’s Education in Afghanistan: Why Prohibiting Girls’ Education in Rural Areas is Gender-Based Violence

Accessing education for girls has been and remains a significant concern in Afghanistan, in particular in rural areas. This paper focuses on the obstacles to girls’ education in such areas. Feminist theory and literature is used to examine how culture, traditions and social customs create barriers that limit girls’ access to school and to analyse the impact of patriarchal society and the unequal balance of power between women and girls/men and boys. Without achievement of girls’ human right to education, and given the patriarchal nature of the country, other forms of social, economic, and cultural opportunities and rights are restricted. In this sense, restricting access to education is a form of gender-based violence in that it perpetuates other forms of gender-based violence against girls and women. It is important that strategies to address girls’ education make more explicit links between education, freedom from violence, and human rights. Both education and girls’ and women’s safety are recognized as human rights; they are protected by laws and policies at the national and international level. However, legal rights are constantly being broken. Hence, there is a need to understand how the moral and political dimension of human rights, in particular the indivisibility of human rights, can contribute to breaking the cycle of gender-based violence.