This was an interesting and thought provoking article, and I was originally going to make a comment, but found it growing large so I thought I would post this up myself with a link to the original. Please go and read it before you read this, if you can.

Here is my response:

Interesting. Forgetting the old maxim for one minute “educate a man, you educate an individual, educate a woman, educate an entire family” (or indeed a nation),  I have one or two things to say..

It has been proven, time and time again in nations that are developing (or recovering) that educating women is of primary importance. Literacy within the home, for example, is rarely passed down via the male… and in order to ensure a generational passing on of this most vital of basic educational needs, then teach the mother how to read and write.

However, firstly, why not educate both genders at the same time? It’s a very simple idea – give both genders an equal playing field. Basic education is not expensive but the value and worth of it in future life is. Priceless.

Then, you forget about that great divider – class. Are you saying that every boy should be educated in the country before any of the girls? That won’t happen and you know it. As you no doubt know, class is of high importance in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Are you saying that those in power should ignore their daughters’ educational needs? I very much doubt it. Indeed, in Pakistan, a woman could have risen to power very recently, had it not been for her assassination. Whatever the people in charge say for *you* to do, they will continue to educate their daughters. Ask yourself why.

Next, you seem to want to change the male-centered education of your country (and, incidentally, I have educated many, many Afghans and Pakistanis both male and female and so feel qualified to write and talk about this). The only way to do that is to have equality. It is a transparent inequality which must be addressed, pursued and gained – and soon. Without it, Afghanistan will sink even lower than the point it is now – a point which, I do not have to remind you, has been reached purely and solely by men.

I know that many, many girls have been killed in Afghanistan simply for going to school and that many teachers, too, have been killed for teaching them. I speak from safety, of course, but is that not the more reason to continue to teach them? Easy, I know, for me to say.

However, if teaching only boys is done, if you wish to keep the male-dominant education then by all means, just teach the men to read and write. Keep the women in ignorance any longer and Afghanistan (and almost by the domino effect, its neighbors) has no chance to rise above where it is today. The country will remain poor, and desperately, desperately isolated.

Let us not blame where Afghanistan is today on anyone in particular (just for a moment). What we need to concentrate on is how it must progress. However, Afghanistan can learn both from Europe and from other Islamic nations, such as Turkey, where the role of democracy in terms of being a realistic alternative to a complete theocracy (if you can call the anarchy that is the Taliban that) has resulted in a measured society that can both think and question and worship at the same time. Pivotal to this is the role of women. Without them there is no real progress.

The real age of European enlightenment started with universal suffrage – an effort (at the very least and still not perfected by any means – please do not think this is an “attack” on only Afghanistan.) to pursue equality between the genders. While the European model is certainly almost impossible to promote and reproduce in Afghanistan, we must keep in mind that Afghan women continue to leave the country in order to pursue their education (and some may say liberty) in large numbers. This is a figure that cannot be denied. So, too, in the Turkey of Ataturk where equality in education has resulted in a delightful, enlightened generation who stretch their arms out both east and west: sometimes to the suspicion of both.

I am a teacher and lecturer of many years’ experience. I find it abhorrent that, should this model be followed, I would deny girls the basic human right of education and the ability to better themselves (what many men fear is that their women, with education, will outgrow them – and sure, such laziness is often rewarded thus). Any holy book can be misinterpreted as a textbook for treating women like dogs and men who do this are a shame on their culture and their religion.

Boys and girls learn well together. Boys often develop a boxed in logical train of thought that the presence of girls humanize and train: girls show the way in terms of societal belonging and how to fit it – hugely important and vital in a country that has been cut in to parts by civil strife – never mind interference from without).

How will the wives of Afghanistan stand a chance if they cannot teach their children, boys and girls alike, to read? Education starts at home and it is primarily with the mother. If they cannot read or write, articulate opinion and encourage their children to do better than they themselves have done (a parental preoccupation anywhere in the world) then what hope is there for Afghanistan?

Without her education my mother would not have been fulfilled as a human being, could not have functioned fully or attained any sort of ambition in life. That, incidentally, involved raising two boys to be loving, caring, men who question (but certainly do not question equality between the sexes, that is simply taken for granted), argue and *listen* to what others say – and have brought up their own families likewise.

Without women we men are nothing. Without educating women, we are less.

In peace and love.