In this brief note I would like to discuss the socio-religious perspectives on the social transformation through girls’ education and the radicalization of views on this issue in Pakistan. In order to contextualize this discussion I present a summary of the findings of several reports on the issues relating to girls’ education in Pakistan.
1. High percentage of illiteracy among Pakistani girls, higher than boys
2. High percentage of girls not going to school
3. High percentage of girls not completing primary school (drop outs)
4. Poor quality of literacy among girls with primary education
Analysis
Reported Causes for ‘absence’ and ‘drop-out’ [2]
1. Overall gender disparity
2. Girls’ early marriages
3. Girls are not given support at home for their education
4. Girls’ need to work to help their families
5. Lack of transportation to school
6. Lack of school, and lack of facilities at schools
General discourse on girls’ education in
Pakistan finds gender disparity and social conservatism as the main
causes for the above-mentioned situation and tends to attribute the
radicalisation of views on the subject to Muslim religious beliefs and
practices. Violent destructions of girls’ schools by Taliban and
opposition to girls’ education by other religious groups reinforce such
conclusions. Consequently it is considered essentially a religious issue
and strategies for social transformation are designed accordingly. The
religious scholars are requested to lead the society as agents of
change. Dissemination of ‘correct’ Islamic teachings on girls’ education
is stressed. Reform and modernization of Madrasas in Pakistan become
priority. The whole effort ends in further radicalization of the views.
I will comment later on the reasons for this radicalization and the
need for revisiting this approach to socio-religious perspectives on
girls’ education. Let me first stress the need to revisit the
assumptions that inform the above socio-religious perspective and the
ensuing approaches to social transformation.
The Education Emergency Pakistan 2011 Report,
for instance, refers to several such assumptions as myths and refutes
them. The following three are quite pertinent to our discussion:
1. Parents do not want girls’
education. [According to the survey report only 4% parents said that
there was no use in educating girls.]
2. Madrasas play a greater role in
education in Pakistan. [According to the survey report only 6% of the
students go to Madrasas.]
3. Poverty is the real cause of
illiteracy and lack of education. [According to the report, poor
countries have more children in primary schools than there are in
Pakistan].
While the first and second assumptions
belong apparently to socio-religious perceptions of education in
Pakistan the third pertains to socio-economic conditions. One wonders
why we hasten to accept such myths. I would like to suggest that we tend
to rely on such assumptions because they seem to support our perception
of religion, positive or negative. The religious minded take these
myths (‘Parents’ resistance to girl education’ and ‘greater role of
Madrasa in education in Pakistan’) as statements of confirmation. They
find these assumptions validating their religious perspectives on
education. We often hear such general statements as “We are suffering
because we have drifted away from religion”, and declaring “Solutions
for all our problems lie in returning to Islam”. These statements are
deliberately vague and simple; they simplify the otherwise extremely
complex issues. These are general statements and unless they are
substantiated with empirical studies and practical solutions they only
strengthen the current mis-perception of problems. In my view, this
credulity reflects polarization in our society. Both sides, namely the
liberal and the religious groups find these assumptions supporting their
views. Both believe them as manifestation of our religiosity. We hasten
to attribute all our failings to religion but we are not prepared to
take religion seriously because we want to leave it entirely to the
religious leadership to take this responsibility.
I will take up this issue shortly but
let me here underscore the significance of the third myth or
mis-perception because, even though it does not refer to a religious
issue, it points to a very significant socio-political factor. We are
too obsessed with the socio-religious perspectives to pay attention to
it. If poverty is not the real cause of illiteracy then why is Pakistan
staying behind other poorer countries in the region? Perhaps, we do not
have political but also social commitment to education. Perhaps,
education is not on our list of priorities. I will suggest taking this
observation seriously because it is structurally connected with several
other assumptions in dealing with problems such as terrorism,
radicalization, extremism, gender disparity, conservatism and national
solidarity. In my view, such assumptions prevent us from revisiting our
socio-religious assumptions critically.
The above observations in the report
point to a wide gap between our perceptions of the issues and awareness
of the social transformation that is taking place in Pakistani society.
Various researchers have offered valuable empirical insights and
observations that merit further discussion and research for effective
education policies. For instance:
1. There is a growing realization of the importance of girls’ education in Pakistan.[3]
2. Only a small minority is opposed to girls’ education.[4]
3. Even in the so-called
‘radicalized areas’, parents and teachers have been continuously
resisting the radicalists’ opposition to girls’ education. [5]
4. Madrasas for girls and their
steady growth shows that the religious groups also recognise the
significance of girls’ education.[6]
Coming back to the socio-religious
perspectives, it is necessary to remind ourselves that girls’ education
is a vital part of the process of social transformation, which is a very
complex phenomenon. Opposition to this phenomenon is mostly
socio-political more than socio-religious. Religious arguments are
employed often to reinforce the socio-political perspectives. It is
therefore, imperative to develop a multiple perspective approach paying
equal attention to social, religious, economic and political factors in
analyzing the situation. Multiple critique approach requires analyzing
each of these factors from these diverse perspectives. Apparently,
present studies have not paid due attention to this need in analyzing
radicalization of religious views on girls’ education. These views must
also be studied as socio-political statements on these issues. Studying
socio-political perspectives of the religious views two points need
special attention. First, gradual politicization of religious groups has
transformed them into formidable socio-political organizations in south
Asia in general and in Pakistan in particular. Second, the polarization
between the religious and the liberal is preventing both from a
meaningful discourse. Both factors are dialectically supporting each
other. The liberals do not take religion seriously and appeal to the
religious when they face what they consider a religious issue. Due to
their lack of detailed knowledge about religion and their belief in the
marginal relevance of religion they leave it to the religious groups to
define religious issues. What separate them further from each other are
their different world-views. Liberal ideas of development, progress and
social transformation are quite opposite to the ideas of the religious
groups.
This conservatism developed strongly
during the nineteenth century when religious leadership largely came
from small towns with limited life world, compared to the earlier
leadership that came from urban centers and had broader worldview. The
socio-political conditions of the time also led the nineteenth century
religious leaders to believe that modernization was in fact
Westernization. Hence, they chose to preserve the tradition and to
oppose modernity, instead of responding to its challenges. The liberals
have not able to appreciate the concerns and anxieties of the religious
groups. The modernist indifference to the anxieties of the religious
groups has not only widened the gap but has also strengthen their
perception of life under perpetual colonial rule and of modern
development as Westernization of their religious values. Consequently,
religious groups have been able to establish and defend their religious
authority in terms of consensus and agreement that exclude other
segments of society. They are thus able to dismiss interpretations that
disagree with their consensus. Let me explain this point with some
examples.
Opposition to girls’ education by the religious groups is ascribed to the following issues:
- Disregard of Purdah
- Co-education
- Women’s working in offices and public places
- Teaching and learning non-Islamic sciences
- Disregard of parental and family authority
- Movement in public space
- Assumption of public offices
I need not go into the discussion
because these issues have been debated among the Muslim jurists since
early Islam and different opinion do exist despite a largely
conservative consensus. It is precisely due to this continued debate and
difference of opinion that the religious groups have insisted on the
authority of the agreement of the scholars rather than on the
possibility of varying interpretations of the Qur’an and hadith. I have
annexed some extracts from a treatise written by a seventeenth century
Ottoman fatwa about women going to mosque. The Mufti cites authentic
sayings of the Prophet about women coming to the mosque even in
conditions when they were not obliged to perform the worship rituals.
Apparently, the purpose was women education and keeping them informed
about the challenges facing the then Muslim community. The Mufti argues
that the Imams and later jurists decided against it and withdrew this
obligation due to social disruptions and to protect women from harm.
This fear of corruption and the resolve to protect women continues to be
the reason for several restrictions on the movement of women. The Mufti
argues that if the original ruling in the Qur’an and Sunna does not
mention any reason and the jurist decide against that ruling for some
reasons, their decisions stays even if that reason ceases to exist. This
fatwa provides insight into how the religious authority evolves on
socio-political matters.
The Council of Islamic Ideology, in its
various reports (in 1976-7, 1977-8, 1980-1, 1982-3, 1988-9, 1992-3,
1997-8), while stressing the Islamic obligation to provide for girls’
education never failed to underscore the harms of co-education. The
Council’s set of recommendations about women education in 1993, for
instance, included the following:
1. For women, separate institutions of learning must be established. Co-education is not acceptable in an Islamic country
2. The courses for women should
include subjects relating to their needs in life: beliefs, rituals,
domestic duties and rights, raising children, solution of domestic
problems, rules of Purdah, nursing, home economics, budget, sewing,
embroidery, industrial skills such as carpet, poultry, preservation of
food and so on.
3. The girls may not be allowed
admission in such fields as Geography, Botany, Engineering etc., in
higher education as they are not useful in their life to them after
graduation. The Prophet has warned against such knowledge that is not
useful in life[7].
The Council in 2004 decided to revisit
the Jurists’ views on the status and rights of women. An important study
by an Egyptian researcher Abdul Halim Abu Shuqqa had comprehensively
studied these issues exclusively relying on the Qur’an and Sunna as
sources. His conclusions on veiling and segregation differed from the
prevailing views of the religious scholars[8]. The Council decided to translate this four-volume book int
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