Dispelling Misconceptions of Islam that Prevent Girls from Accessing Education in Pakistan

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Wednesday IV)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Religious influence and girls’ education: perspective from Malala fund partners

Proposal

Areebah Shahid is Executive Director at Pakistan Youth Change Advocates (PYCA). PYCA works to connect the public to the rich cultural heritage of Pakistan; educate the public on the importance of violence-free education, democracy and human rights; and also advocates for reforms that ensure good governance and strengthened democracy and democratic institutions in the country. Through the platform of PYCA Areebah has taken lead in reaching out to young people to help them peacefully counter extremism and promote development in their own communities.


Areebah has worked in the development sector for eight years, and has an additional five years of experience as an educationist, content developer and broadcaster. She is a powerful spokesperson and has written extensively on issues of gender-based violence, child rights and sexual and reproductive health rights.

In 2017, Malala Fund selected Areebah as a Gulmakai Champion. Areebah is using her Malala Fund grant to support the training of girls attending university to campaign to increase secondary education opportunities for girls in northwest Pakistan. As there are twice as many boys’ schools as girls' schools in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, they advocate for legislators and policymakers to allocate greater resources to girls’ education.

In Pakistan, almost all policy and narrative is derived from religion. Accordingly, whether it is democracy or a woman’s right to education and her economic independence, the strongest, most reliable strategy to garner widespread support almost always lies in in religion. Unfortunately, in Pakistan’s case, extremist misinterpretations have been tolerated and even allowed in the mainstream for far too long. If we take the case of girls’ right to education, Islam has very clear injunctions outlined both in the Holy Quran as well as the hadith of Prophet Muhammad emphasizing the importance of education for both men and women, yet misconceptions around these teachings still leads to parents keeping their girls out of school.

Areebah’s presentation helps to identify strategies that girls’ education advocates across the Muslim world can use when faced with a scenario in which local sub-narratives use religion to denounce girls’ right to education. Ranging from engaging with the highest body on Islamic jurisprudence in her country to speaking with local clerics to propagating counter-narratives in the mainstream, Areebah’s presentation urges rights’ defenders in the Muslim world to garner widespread support by developing and disseminating strong arguments that are neither contradictory, nor offensive; neither shallow or nor overwrought.

Author

• Areebah Shahid, Pakistan Youth Change Advocates