Asia Foundation

Women & Local Tradition: Burkha

v Perspective on the wearing of the burkah varies amongst the public on the following grounds; gender, location (rural vs. urban), education and regions

v More females, urban dwellers and people who have higher education think the burkah is UNNECCESSARY

v More people living in the eastern, south central and northern south-western regions feel the burkah is NECESSARY

v 52% of people thought the burkah was more related to local afghan traditions as opposed to Islam. 46% thought vice versa to this.

v More people from central Kabul and western regions thought the burkah was more related to tradition than Islam. Other regions were divided on this

Education

v 56% of people strongly agree that women should have equal opportunities to men in education

Women and Work

v 70% of people said women should be allowed to work outside of the home

v 28% of people were negative towards this

v Men and women answered this differently

v 58% of men said women should be allowed to work outside of home, whilst 82% of women said this

Politics: Voting

v 53% of people strongly agree that the new constitution says men and women have equal rights.

v 59% of people strongly agree that in elections, that everyone must vote for themselves and that a man CANNOT vote in place of a woman

v 56% of people said that women should decide ALONE when voting

v 25% of people said that men should ADVISE a woman when voting

v 19% of people said that women should decide themselves when voting but in CONSULTATION with men

v More women than men said that women should decide alone when voting

Political Participation

v More than 50% of people said that men and women should have equal opportunities to political leadership positions

v However more females than males believe this

v 27% of people said that mostly women should hold these positions

v 21% of people said that ONLY MEN should hold these positions ***Controversial due to significant amount of people

v People in the eastern and south-western regions think political leadership positions should be mostly for men

v 47% of people said it would not make a difference if they were represented by a male or female in the Provincial Council whilst 35% of people said a man was preferable

v A significant amount of people do not want to be represented by a woman in the District Development Assembly or Community development Assembly

v Most people are ok with being represented by a female in the National Assembly

Potential areas we should focus on:

v Islam’s view on the education of women

v The reality of Hijab & Burkah

v Can women work in Islam?

Note: there is quite a lot of information on the politics regarding women in the survey. Our current piece on political participation by one of our researchers, is fairly thorough- is there anywhere we could develop this area?

Summarised by Zeenat Islam, Marketing Officer for Femin-ijtihad