In school, Merab studied Islamiyat instead of Ethics, a subject offered to non-Muslim students as an alternative. She took Islamiyat in college as well. After learning that Merab is Christian, the Muslim girl sitting beside her inquired, “Why don’t you study the other subject?”

“I have been studying Islamiyat since I was in school, I scored good marks and I am comfortable with it,” replied Merab.

“Do you know the kalma?” asked the Muslim girl. No, Merab replied.

“How can you study Islamiyat when you do not know the kalma?” the Muslim girl shouted.

Girls who belong to religious minorities in Pakistan face multiple jeopardies on the basis of their religion, sex, age and weak economic status in their access to education

The next day, after break time, Merab returned to the classroom to find her bag on the floor, whereas she had left it on her chair.

“How dare you put your bag on the floor? Don’t you know the book of Islamiyat is in it? Why have you taken Islamiyat if you cannot respect our religion?” the Muslim girl disparaged her.

“I did not put it on the floor, I left it on my chair,” Merab replied.

Merab was very scared when she reached home and refused to go back to college. Her father Perveze Masih complained to the administration, but was afraid to disclose the name of the Muslim girl. The parents then managed to move her to another college.

Shazia, Merab’s mother, is a schoolteacher. She told Eos that it was very hard for them to arrange for Merab’s admission at a new college. “We did not have enough money after paying her fees to the former college. Thank God my husband got a loan from a friend, and we succeeded in securing Merab’s academic year.”

Asiya recalls a similar experience.

“Back when I was in college, I had a hard time adjusting to the environment,” she says. “I still remember the first day, when my classmate passed her register over to me with a small written note inquiring ‘Why don’t you believe in our prophet?’. I barely had anything to say. She was instantly ready to offer me the way to Islam by writing certain verses.”

The girl told Asiya, “Read these and turn yourself over to the religion of peace.”

Education is the fundamental right of every child, and it should be provided without any bias or discrimination. Article 25A of the Constitution of Pakistan promises free and compulsory education to all children between 5 to 16 years. However, the implementation of this article remains a huge challenge.

Pakistan has the world’s second-highest number of out-of-school children — an estimated 22.8 million children are not attending school. The majority of these children are girls and there is a 20 percent gap in educational attainment between male and female children.

Approximately two million girls who belong to religious minorities in Pakistan face multiple jeopardies on the basis of their religion, sex, age and weak economic status. Their vulnerabilities to several human rights violations — as religious minorities, as females, as children and as economically deprived — hold them back from utilising their human potential and enjoying their basic right to education.

The girls belonging to minority groups in particular are exposed to different types of psychological and emotional, physical and developmental, and systemic and attitudinal violations in the field of education.

FINANCIAL INHIBITIONS AND DISPARITY

Girls belonging to minority groups usually belong to financially poor families. Economic circumstances and family environments inhibit the chances of many families educating female children. According to a research study, “Life on the Margins”, Hindu and Christian women face higher malnutrition, which leads to a higher infant mortality rate among these groups in Pakistan.

One cannot ignore the importance of health and nutrition with regards to education. The government’s recent data on social and economic wellbeing in the province of Punjab shows that about one third of religious minority women go to school as compared to two-thirds of women from the religious majority. According to this survey carried out by the Punjab Commission on the Status of Women, in comparison to the literacy rate of majority women in Pakistan, generally minority women lag by 28 percent.

BIAS AGAINST MINORITIES IN CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT

Another systemic issue is the biased syllabus against minority religions. The biases and prejudices inherent in the curriculum result in religious discrimination, intolerance and hatred towards religious minorities, leading to exclusion.

The school curricula include a compulsory teaching of Islamic studies, Arabic and Quran for Muslim students. In 2020, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) government prepared to offer alternatives to minority students to study seven other religions as an alternative to Islamic studies due to the changes made through the Single National Curriculum. However, their books are not in the market yet.

Nonetheless, Islamic content continues to bleed over to compulsory subjects such as languages, history, social studies and general knowledge. Minority students are thus compelled to study Islamic education in these subjects.

This is despite the fact that Article 22 of the Constitution states that “No person attending any educational institution shall be required to receive religious instruction, or take part in any religious ceremony, or attend religious worship, if such instruction, ceremony or worship relates to a religion other than his own.”

Since the preparation and implementation of the education policy of 1972, successive governments have allowed religious material and instructions to be further entrenched at the schools.

PRESSURE TO CONVERT

Education for girls is about more than just access to school. It’s also about girls feeling safe, content and comfortable in classrooms. Girls and women from religious minorities face social discrimination and stigmatisation in everyday life, as school environments often maintain a religious preference and discrimination based on religion. They live under fear of being subject to coercive advances — repeated invites or forceful demands to change their religion.

Unfortunately, they are subjected to even more persistent pressure to convert than minority boys. There are incidents where students are discriminated against even in the use of drinking water. All these factors cause many of them to feel despondent and rejected; this affects their performance in school and some of them even drop out.

The fear of forced conversion, also linked with forced and early marriages, impacts minority girls’ education and other rights enormously. According to the non-profit Centre for Social Justice, the number of incidents of forced conversions surged once again in 2021.

In general, the year saw an increase of 80 percent of such reported incidents as compared to 2020 and 50 percent as compared to 2019. This phenomenon steals the right to education from the girls in minority groups by restricting access to schools and driving minority religious communities to insecurity.

FEAR OF ASSAULT AND HARASSMENT

Furthermore, the fear of sexual harassment and abuse makes parents scared and forces families to become over-protective, often depriving girls of school education and other development opportunities. Many parents withdraw their daughters from schools, leading to early marriages, unhealthy children and a continuing cycle of poverty.

THE WAY FORWARD

It is apparent that, without active effort being devoted to improve the rights of women who belong to disadvantaged groups, the right to education of religious minority girls and women will continue to be compromised. The important factors of affordability, accessibility and social and religious discrimination will have to be addressed.

To give women their due opportunities in education, a behavioural change at the societal level, and a systematic change at governmental level is extremely important. A comprehensive set of legal, policy and administrative measures is required to prevent and eliminate religious and gender discrimination in the education system.

Girls’ access to education needs to be improved. Inclusive and equitable quality education will have to be achieved to enable our younger generations to live healthier and safer in a more prosperous and inclusive society.

The poverty cycle can only be broken by ensuring a better educated next generation and providing more girls with education. Experience has shown that, given half a chance, they outshine the boys easily.

The writer is a human rights activist and columnist

She tweets @NabilaFBhatti and can be reached at nabilaferoz@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, EOS, October 30th, 2022