Higher education opportunities and challenges in Afghanistan: Afghan women’s perspective

Abstract

Education for women has been a critical topic for the last four decades in Afghanistan. In this country, the literacy rate for women is significantly low compared to its neighboring and any Asian country. In the past two decades, several educational development attempts were taken to increase literacy rate among men and women. However, access to education, particularly higher education, is still a serious issue for women in the country. This study is conducted to investigate the perception of Afghan women regarding the opportunities and challenges of higher education in Afghanistan and how to address this issue. The data for the study was collected through qualitative research and the finding uses focused group discussion (FGD) and in-depth interview as a tool to ascertain Afghan women’s attitude and understanding of higher education. The central finding of this paper is that there is a critical link between girls’ access to higher education and their families’ support and background. Another major finding is lack of facilities and resources of higher education in provinces and remote regions that have direct or indirect influence on girls’ access to higher education in Afghanistan. Community awareness programs, investing on girl’s higher education and scholarly investigation can help Afghan women in obtaining higher education