In Afghanistan, it is thought that only 39% of children in school are girls and in some provinces that proportion is as low as 15%. Throughout Afghanistan, only 37% of female youths and 19% of adult women are literate, compared to 66% of male youth and 49% of adult men.
The report highlights the barriers girls face to getting an education, including:
- Lack of infrastructure, including a shortage of schools, teachers, sanitation facilities in schools
- Gender norms which sometimes cause ideological opposition to girls’ education, and compound infrastructure shortages (as norms demand girls and boys be taught separately).
- Child marriage is a major factor in school dropout among girls, as well one of the only alternatives career paths families identify if their daughter is unable to attend to school.
- A worsening security situation which makes travel to and from school dangerous. Girls face acid attacks, abduction, and harassment on the way to school. Schools themselves are being targeted by Taliban and Isis, and some schools are even occupied by both government military or insurgents, where the school is the only reinforced building in the area.