Protective Factors Against Illiteracy for Women in Afghanistan: Results from a Nationally Representative Survey

Overview: In conflict-affected Afghanistan, girls have historically been particularly vulnerable and disadvantaged in terms of accessing education, and literacy in the country is low. Conducting logistic regressions with nationally representative survey data, we identified predictors and protective factors related to literacy for girls in Afghanistan.Proposal text:

Background: Afghanistan has been ravaged by a decades-long war that has shifted in its dynamics and intensity throughout the years, but nonetheless has remained a prohibiting factor for investment in basic social services throughout the country, such as education. Girls in Afghanistan have been particularly vulnerable and have been historically disadvantaged in regards to accessing education. Although significant amounts of funding and political will have focused on girls’ education throughout the past two decades, literacy rates remain astoundingly low for women and girls throughout the country. Girls face a myriad of barriers for achieving even basic literacy, ranging from challenging terrain and distance to schools to cultural norms such as child marriage.

Methods/Methodology: We used nationally representative, Demographic Health Survey (DHS) data to conduct a logistic regression with robust standard errors to account for clustered data within regions of Afghanistan. We restricted our analysis to younger women in the sample (under 30 years of age). Co-variates in the model included demographic variables, conflict severity in province of residence, and empowered decision-making. Using the existing province variable in the survey, we inputted the conflict severity score into each province and recoded this variable into a three-level, conflict variable. Based on results from a separate factor analysis, we created a scale of empowered decision-making based upon independent items in the DHS.

Results: Women of Tajik and Hazara ethnicity were much more likely to be literate than the Pashtun women (the ethnic majority), with 282% and 472% higher odds, respectively. Compared to the poorest quintile of wealth, women in the highest quintile of wealth had 1630% higher odds of being literate. Finally, a one-unit change on the scale of empowered decision-making signified an additional 1008% greater odds of being literacy. Other significant covariates included high conflict severity, age, and age married.

Conclusions: After the fall of the democratically elected regime, access to education and literacy for girls remains threatened. In order to better serve girls in Afghanistan and in other conflict-affected communities throughout the world, it will be critical to examine the protective factors against illiteracy, and ultimately, lack of economic opportunity. For global social workers seeking to engage with complex social problems in conflict-affected zones such as Afghanistan, an understanding of existing protective factors can deepen their understanding of the contexts within which they work. This can facilitate a strengths-based approach in the development of productive program-design and implementation. Through collaborative partnerships with international donors and community-based organizations, global social workers can harness these protective factors to better meet the need of the most vulnerable and marginalized.