Education of rural girls in Yemen requires greater attention

The education of girls in rural areas is governed by fluctuating factors, as well as continuously growing demand, and the unjustified unwillingness by some to educate girls. Every year, schools in rural areas receive large numbers of young girls into the lower grades, but this is counteracted by the departure of scores of young girls from the higher grades, resulting in the conclusion of education for many.  Most young girls do not choose to leave voluntarily, but are forced by family pressure, often held up by the tribal system.

The removal of these girls from education is kept under the cover of official silence, despite international support for  education. 

There is a very serious situation targeting young girls in rural Yemeni areas that deny them the right to continue their education.

The Yemen Observer sought to investigate the causes of this serious problem, which now see millions of rural girls deprived of their rights to secondary and university education. 

We met Ghozlan Abdullah (13) currently in the 8th grade, who said that she is sure she will not to be allowed to continue her education. On asking her why, she turned in embarrassment to her mother and said “my family won’t allow me.” 

Her mother, Atiqa Qaid, 47, an illiterate, responded to her daughter’s comment saying that “my daughter learned the Koran and learnt how to do her prayers and that is quite enough for my quittance before God. I want her to dedicate herself to helping me with the house work until she becomes a bride.”

We spoke to many girls that had excelled at secondary school, obtaining certificates of distinction, yet were unable to continue their university education because of social and family reasons.  

Aman Ahmed, 25, is one of the girls who ended their education at secondary school, which she considers apart from the exceptional few, to be the end of a rural girls’ schooling.

She said that she used to dream of studying medicine; however her rural community failed her, when some of her relatives began blaming her parents for allowing her to continue her secondary education after the age of maturity.  She said that she felt annoyed and urged her family not to listen to them, because education is not a disgrace, however they hardly let her finish secondary school; she obtained 83 percent.  When she married and suggested to her husband the idea of continuing her education, he didn’t like the idea, and made her give it up and she had to content herself with the memories of her school days.

Marriage versus the grave
 Parents have their own views regarding the education of girls. Most believe that preventing their girls from continuing their education to secondary school or university is justified. 

Haj Saleh who is 60, and illiterate, began by saying that it is not necessary for a rural girl to attend secondary school. He said that they have more important duties to perform outside of school such as the house work, tending the farm and raising the children.  All that is required is that they know enough language to understand their religious affairs, such as the prayers and fasting.  He added that allowing a grown-up girl to go to secondary school is a disgrace and against the community’s recognized honor, customs and traditions.  He cited the words from a television actor who said, women are a blemish who have only two choices; a husband or the grave.

Ambition should only exist in the home 

Mohammed Zaied, 50, who reads and writes, said that he could allow a girl’s education, but only under certain conditions.  That she should attend a university specifically for girls and she should be provided with special buses to and from the university, taking into account that the women should not travel without a male chaperone (a brother, husband, etc). He added that a woman should not be allowed the freedom to travel as she please before the age of 45-50. On asking him for the reason behind his views on a women’s movement, he said that the women at this age are not prone to harassment, unlike young girls. On asking him if he would give one of his daughters the chance to achieve her ambition and attend university, he turned the idea down, saying that he feared for his daughter, no matter how strong her chastity and honor may be, stating that the temptations would be too great. This is particularly in light on the growth of satellite channels. He ridiculed the word “ambition,” saying that she should achieve her ambition in her fathers or husband’s house.

Education is perversity
 Mohammed Ali al-Sheikh, 52, an illiterate, agrees with Zaied, however he has developed a more philosophical perspective.  He believes that the education of girls’ has contributed to corruption in the community. He clarified “it is sedition to allow our girls and adult women to go to schools because this contributes to the dissemination of perversity” he continued, “we often hear of love stories between youths, harassment and indecent assaults.”  He continued “tribal morals, customs, traditions and Islamic sharia law as well don’t recognize this.”  He accused university of being a safe place where young men and women meet away from their parents, imitating what is happening in Arab universities which are shown on our satellite channels.

Education is a sin
 Ahmed Hussein 40, believes that in education, priority should be given to male children because the girls should have other duties. He cited the public satire, which describes the female as a camel even if she bellowed, because rural people believe that only male camels make the bellowing sound. He went on to explain his viewpoint by saying that a female is weak and has limited powers, even if she became a learned women and were to brag about her education. He reiterated his point and wondered how it would be possible to undertake the education of girls’ given the high cost of living, adding that education these days, especially at the university level, which requires transportation, accommodation, fees and books.  He finalized that it is reason enough to prevent a girl’s education in order to provide greater resources for the boys, because a boy’s education is more useful to the family.  

Intellectual and psychological burial
 Ali Abdullah Hamian, 40, a public employee, supports the education of girls and thinks that the denial of a rural girls’ right to higher education is the result of wrongful concepts rooted in the community.  Their denial is born out of our tribal inheritance, from our forefathers and is presented by parents in the effort to discredit the woman and confine her role to the house.  He referred to the old saying which states that “the house is a woman.” He said that most women in rural areas are oppressed since early childhood, with all sorts of degrading idioms.  The first remark of congratulations to the father of a newborn girl wishes him that the child be “a good shepherd,” rather than a teacher or doctor. Hamian said that most parents in rural areas live with the mentality of the seventh century, when fathers used to bury their young daughters before the age of maturity to prevent dishonor.  Today the girls’ burial is practiced psychologically and intellectually, suppressing the girl’s will, freedom and ambitions and by getting the girl forcibly married as early as possible for fear of dishonor, in the same manner as the seventh century.  Amal Radman a 33 year old teacher working in rural schools, said that most of the girls attending rural schools, leave for unknown reasons and against their will. Radman believes that the reasons for such a high dropout rate among girls’ are due to coercion from their parents or because of social circumstances.  She summarized these reasons in the following: the family thinks that the girls’ education is of little use because contrary to the boys, they leave for their husband’s house. Another reason may be attributed to the advent of a suitor, or the arrival of the groom, with the result being that the girls are forced to leave school in order to prepare them for the marital home so as not to be accused by their husband’s families as incapable of house work. It is not only the girls though that are targeted in rural areas, most rural families make their boys leave school early too to take other jobs, such as agriculture so they might earn a living.  What minimal education the girl does receive is only a matter of conscience clearing in rural areas, and it is widely believed that it is enough for her to read and write.  “The lack of parental awareness due to the spread of illiteracy and discrimination against women are also factors which add to the reasons denying the rural girl the right to educational,” adds Radman. Thirty year old Jamila is another teacher in rural schools. She spoke indirectly about girls’ education, explaining that the woman is a base for establishing a successful family. She added that this can only be achieved through encouraging her to acquire her simplest humanitarian rights as realized through education.   Such education is key to helping a girl deal successfully with many of her family requirements, for example, teaching to her religious duties, raisng her children, and helping them with their studies. The knowledge to generate harmony at home with her husband will create a coherent family. She added that if the wife found a job, she would contribute to lifting some of the husband’s burden. She added that parental negligence to girls’ education ignores and disrupts the development and the constructive role of half of the community.  She wondered if this community could achieve progress or development if women and girls remained idle in the house providing nothing but the unregulated reproduction of children, aggravating the problems of over-population facing both families and government.  She proposed that studies should be carried out to encourage the development of the educational process which is the base of community building. We at the Yemen Observer visited a school to identify the problems disrupting girl’s education. We noticed that the number of newly admitted girls exceeded that of mature ones. Abdo al-Qobati, 45, a teacher said that the large number of newly registered girls is not a good measure for the educational process, because the results are counterproductive due to the fact that a similar number of adults’ continue to drop out of school.  He added that the number of the girls enrolled for this year is nearly the same as  boys’. There are 35 girls in comparison with the 37 registered boys, however the girls will decrease gradually because of the continuous dropout rate at the primary and secondary levels.  Hussein Saleh, the school’s headmaster said that the dropout starts at level 7 and continues through to level 11, at a rate of (4-5) every year. He confirmed this by showing us the grades statistics.  The statistics show 63 girls present in grade 6, 22 in grade seven, 17 in grade 8, and 9 girls in grade nine. In grade 10, which is the beginning of secondary school, there are 10 girls for the first time in the school’s history, he said. He continued that there are five girls in the second grade of the secondary level and three in the third grade, adding that none graduated from third grade last year, 2008, because there were no girls.  When asked about the reasons for such a high dropout rate and the possible solutions to the problem the headmaster said: the parents’ refusal to support coeducation is one of the reasons of dropout, in addition to the embarrassment which the coeducation causes to the girls, because they find it uneasy to express themselves freely in the presence of the boys.  A secondary reason is the lack of female staff, both teaching and administrative.  Schools also fail to cater to female activities and there is a lack of awareness and educational guidance, which aggravates the problem.  He proposed building separate girls’ schools in rural areas with female staff including, teachers, administrators and inspectors, which should be accompanied by awareness programs to educate on the importance of girl’ s education.  Abdo Mohammed Ali, a teacher who is 40 years old said the low rate of girls’ literacy has negative impacts on the family and the community, resulting in weak, incoherent families which believe and deal with witchcraft and superstition, leading to aggressive generations who observe tribalism and who are ungoverned by law.  Given this environment such generations will often resort to damaging behaviors such as revenge, kidnapping, and the targeting of public services. He attributed this particularly to the lack of awareness concerning the importance of educating girls, because they have a vital role to play in raising the awreness of coming generations.


Official response
 We turned to the officials at the Ministry of Education to understand the measures being taken to overcome the problems facing the education of rural girls.  We met Fozia Ahmed Mohammed Noman, the Deputy-Minister for the Girls Education’s Sector. She started by speaking about the sector, which was established in 2005 by a presidential decree, a step that reflects the leadership’s recognition of the difficulties that disrupt girls’ education, especially in rural areas.  She added that the girl’s sector at the ministry is endeavoring to address the problem in three main areas: The weak rate of female enrollment in education, the high dropout rate, and the weak communal awareness of the importance of the education which would be addressed through a series of educational programs and plans in coordination with the different ministry sectors. Regarding the problems facing the educational sector and the solutions adopted to solve these problems, Fozia said that first and foremost the ministry had seen weak communal awareness in the more remote rural areas towards girls’ education.  Additional factors that were detailed in a report by the ministry into the sector included:  Economic factors and issues of poverty, including a family’s inability to meet the costs of a basic education for their children. Social and cultural factors including communal literacy, ignorance regarding the importance of the girl’s education, early marriage and customs and traditions. The report also detailed other factors which are linked to the educational process including a rarity of educated girls in remote areas, and a lack of female graduates in these areas.  Schools are often far from homes and geographical factors such a bad roads and natural relief can also inhibit the attendance at schools.  Fozia explained that to combat these issues the government needs the cooperation of all public and official efforts, pointing out that the educational process is not only the responsibility of the Ministry of Education, but it is a shared responsibility among all the other ministries.  The need for a fully combined effort to combat the failings in girl’s education is the reason behind the establishment of a joint link which involves all the countries ministries as well as civil society organizations, she said.  We have also established the Parents’ Board’s initiative in the sector and trained participants in the tasks that they will need to undertake.  These include: Helping the school administrations with awareness promotion over the importance of education, which they hope will encourage girls’ to enroll and also help in the return of dropouts to school.  She explained that the sector is preparing to establish 4,000 Parents’ boards in order to activate public participation in girl’s education and overcome obstacles, alongside the establishment of 12 governorate coordinative councils in 2009.  She added that they are now putting the final touches to the five new governorate councils in al-Maharah, Raima, Mukala, Sayoun and al-Baidha, explaining that the coordinating heads of these councils are the Governors themselves and they include all the executive offices in the governorates in addition to the civil society organizations. The new councils hope to activate the role of the motherhood and childhood organizations alongside efforts launched by UNICEF, in a joint effort with the private sector, to launch awareness campaigns.   The private sector hopes to support the efforts of the government and UNICEF through a series of advertisements on products to promote the spread of the slogan “education is a religious and national duty.” This is in addition to the state support for the education of girls through the provision of cash and in-kind incentives.   The announcements of cash incentives for basic education came in a recent report, which stated that incentives will be paid to girls in education, dependent on the grade achieved.  Girls in grades (4-6) would receive YR 7,000 and girls in grades (6-9) would receive YR 8,000.  The amounts are being paid to the girls’ guardians in three installments.  The report said that the program’s implementation started in 2008 with a pilot scheme of 5,794 girls from 100 schools in 18 districts, results said that the girls had benefited from this program.  As an empirical measure, it has been applied to 66 schools in Hodeidah and it will be spread across the country if the scheme proves to be a success.  The report included the results of a JACA project in Taiz which started in 2005 and ended in 2008. It included 59 schools in the districts of Sammie, Maghbna, Mawia, Mocha and Thibab.  The project’s cost was $ 86,292,850, 79 percent of which was provided by the JACA, 15 percent by the governorate and 6 percent by the civil society.   The project, according to the report helped to deal with educational issues, including the contracting, supporting, and training of 931 of the secondary schools’ female graduates who were sent to the rural areas between 2007 -2009.  Of these contracts, 380 were donated by UNICEF, and 551 by the World Bank.  “These are the official efforts to overcome the difficulties that face rural female education in Yemen. We will not comment on our aspirations and we will leave it to the future to find out what developments are achieved in the education system both generally and in girls education in particular.” She concluded.

The religious opinion
 Finally we want to discern how religious opinion affects education and understand whether there were any limits placed on the education of girls. The Prophet said that we should be educated from the cradle to the grave. Have the guardians of girls the right to deny them education if they desire to continue their education? We put these questions to cleric Abdullah Naji, who answered briefly that education is the legal right of both sexes and a girl’s guardian does not have the right to deny her secondary or university education if she desires to complete it, unless there are legitimate excuses. These include, a fear of sedition, a desire to remain with her parents in case they need her services, or at the advent of the groom and his insistence on marriage during the period of her education. We remind people that the issue of education of girls in rural is cry for help to everyone in order that we join in efforts to find an adequate solution.   

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