Women’s Literacy Crucial Element to Development in Afghanistan

Heretofore, the western world has identified Afghan women as victims of violence and oppression in need of rescue; however, an emerging perspective now promotes Afghan women as agents of change, placing the future of Afghan prosperity within their power.  Women’s literacy is crucial to this move toward empowerment and enhanced development.
In an ActionAid Development report entitled “Preparing the Future—Women, Literacy, and Development”, Lalage Bown presents 43 case studies that show an increase in women’s literacy to promote substantially increased use of child health-care techniques, readiness to send children to school, as well as enhanced hygiene and nutrition in the family. According to the UN Children’s Fund, only 15% of Afghan women can read and write. The U.S. branch of Save the Children compiled a study naming Afghanistan as the country with the world’s second highest infant mortality rate, with sixty out of every 1,000 babies dying as newborns, and 1 in 4 children dying before the age of five. Adding to these staggering statistics, more than 25,000 Afghan women die during pregnancy or childbirth every year.

While some critics question the causal relationship between the two, there is a definite and clear correlation between the lack of women’s literacy and the rising death toll among women and children and its effect on perpetuating poverty within the war-torn country.  In his book Development as Freedom, Amartya Sen points to female literacy as having “an unambiguous and statistically significant reducing impact on under-five mortality.”(197) When women are literate, they are more likely to seek out healthcare for themselves and their children because they are aware of the symptoms of particular illnesses and available treatments.  Literate and educated women are also better equipped to make decisions regarding their reproductive health through awareness and access to birth control and family planning.  Decreased child mortality rates coincide with a lower fertility rate; and with fewer mouths to feed, more resources can be used to improve the family’s quality of life.

In addition to health benefits, women’s literacy also translates into better-educated children.  In a speech before the Subcommittee on International Operations and Organizations, Human Rights, Democracy and Global Women’s Issues, Ambassador Melanne Verveer pointed out that under a Taliban rule that brutally repressed women, no girl children and less than 900,000 boys were enrolled in school.  However, no longer under such oppressive rule and with Afghan women becoming more educated, there are now more than 6.2 million students enrolled in Afghanistan’s schools, and over 2 million of those are female students.  Although these are large gains, women’s literacy has far to go—approximately 21% of Afghan women are literate and as low as 10% in rural areas.  As these numbers rise and women become more literate, they will be more likely to send their children to school and encourage children of both sexes to excel and achieve academically.

From an economic perspective, the ActionAid report asserts that women’s literacy promotes “a greater willingness to use banks, mobilize credit, and opens up a new capacity to influence family decisions”.  Literate women can move beyond the household to earn money for their family.  In Afghanistan, enhanced status and independence for women via economic viability would create major social change necessary to pull the country out of poverty.  The U.S. government recognizes the empowerment of Afghan women through literacy and education as crucial to development in Afghanistan, as well as a major influence in ending the war between the two nations.  Unveiling the Women’s Action Plan as part of the U.S. Afghanistan and Pakistan Regional Stabilization Strategy, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton championed women’s empowerment as “inextricably linked to security, economic opportunity, effective governance, and social development” in Afghanistan.  One of the first objectives in the Women’s Action Plan is to initiate programs to improve women’s and girl’s access to education and literacy. Clinton sees investing in female education as “the single most effective development decision a country can make” as it doubles the skilled workforce, results in healthier young women and delayed marriages with fewer and healthier children.
In the USA Today article “The No. 1 Killer in Afghanistan? Poverty.”, Khaled Hosseini claims that poverty forces young Afghans to join the insurgency,  arguing that “when people have a roof over their head, food on the table and a school to send their children to, they are not as vulnerable to exploitation by extremist groups.”  The socio-economic effects of increasing women’s literacy and education may be the key in creating an Afghanistan that prefers prosperous peace to violence.

Afghan women are the keepers of the household, preparing their children for the future.  When these women are educated and literate, they have the opportunity to contribute income and manage finances, healthcare, and schooling in a more informed and effective manner.  The future of Afghanistan lies not on the shoulders of soldiers, but with the women who shape their children and the realities around them.

Sources:
Bown, Lalage.  Preparing the Future: Women, Literacy and Development. The Impact of Female Literacy on Human Development and the Participation of Literate Women in Change. England: ActionAid Development Report, 1990. ERIC. Web. 27 Mar. 2010.

Clinton, Hillary. “Advancing the Rights of Women and Girls: Keys  to a Better Future for Afghanistan”. U.S. Department of State. 29 Jan. 2010. Web. 27 Mar. 2010. http://www.state.gov/s/special_rep_afghanistan_pakistan/2010/136250.htm

Esfandiari, Golnaz. “Afghanistan: Mortality Rates Remain High for Mothers, Newborns”. Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty. 10 May 2006. Web. 27 Mar. 2010. http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1068295.html

Hosseini, Khaled.  “The No. 1 Killer in Afghanistan? Poverty.”. USA TODAY. Web. 27 Mar. 2010. http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2010/01/column-the-no-1-killer-in-afghanistan-poverty-.html

Sen, Amartya. Development as Freedom. New York: Anchor, 2000.

Verveer, Melanne. “Afghan Women and Girls: Building the Future of Afghanistan”.  U.S. Department of State. 23 Feb. 2010. Web. 27 Mar. 2010. http://www.state.gov/s/gwi/rls/rem/2010/137184.htm

“ Women’s Literacy Program“. Afghanistan Relief Organization.Web. 27 Mar. 2010. http://www.afghanrelief.org/aro-projects/women2019s-literacy-program

Photograph courtesy of www.embassyofafghanistan.org

© 2010, ElizabethGilbert. All rights reserved.

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