“Every one has the right to have access to training and education…technical training should become public and high level studies should be available to all equally so every one can equally enjoy their existance.” (1)

            The establishment and expansion of educational centers, and providing its various requirements that gives all the members of society the opportunity to have access to education is the primary responsibility of every accountable state.  In this case, the disadvantaged and under-developed regions must become governments’ top priorities.  Such an initiative while accommodates the fundamental rights of a segment of society, it is also a step forward in constructing growth and developmental basis of society in all dimensions.  But unfortunately, as a result of lack of commitments of government ruling Kurdistan, in this situation, we currently observe a huge segment of our society who due to various obstacles has been deprived from pursuing their studies and developing their talents.

            The issue of deprivation of rural girls from continued schooling has existed in the last two decades, despite the growing literacy in Kurdish villages, and other deprived areas.  The prolongment of such situation has increased the number of girls deprived from higher education.  It should also be noted that discussing rural girls does not mean that other groups are in a better condition.  Such analysis, on one hand, is the indication of the existance of several layers of oppression that rural girls are trapped in, and on the other, the important impact that increasing rural girls literacy level will have in changing current public relations, growth and development in society.            In analyzing the condition of continuing studies of these girls, we find several obstacles that are related and work together to create such a deprivation for rural girls:

Lack of necessary attention from authorities and their economic planners in the growth of educational center networks, particularly in providing accommodation for upper studies (secondary and post-secondary education) in rural areas, despite the fact that every year the majority of students in rural areas finish their elementary school, has resulted in the deprivation of a notable segment of society, especially girls in senior elementary and secondary school.  Of course, in this case not all the girls are in the same situation; despite the fact that senior elementary schools have been created in some rural areas, many of these female students face such problems after finishing basic elementary school.  A research done in one of the Kurdish provinces is a good support for such claims: “From girls in Kurdistan province only 23 773 were active in senior elementary that were mostly from urban areas.  In school year 1997, for the first time one 24-hours female high school with the capacity of 124 students in one of the rural areas of the province was established”. (2)

            If shortage or lack of educational and training facilities is one of the obstacles ahead of many girls going beyond their elementary studies, there are also other reasons that in many cases work side by side to create the current situation: traditional, religious thinking of many rural families in regards to the issue of literacy of girls in general, and going beyond elementary in particular, and lack of girls independence (and women in general) along with material impoverishment, and country’s economic crisis are also the reasons for rural girls early drop-out.  It is the results of such realities that the average of female literacy level in rural areas is at its lowest (4 years).  But if the illiterate girls of rural areas are put into the equation, there we find even a more disturbing result.

            As it is evident, rural girls lack of access of necessary education and training has resulted in destructive consequences for them and society in general.  In such conditions, we will constantly observe the repeated and renewed oppression and deprivation on one hand, and under-development of huge segment f our society’s population on the other.  They cannot develop their talents and creativity due to shortage of scientific and technical knowledge and training, and at the end, they will be unable to change political climate in unequal conditions that have been mounted on them by family and society.  Consequently, they will be unable to obtain their individual rights and freedom as their ancestors.  This situation will result in continuing under-development of rural areas and society in general in cultural, economic and social aspects.

            Here, we can conclude that oppression and deprivation that is used in regards to the rural girls of Kurdistan, aside from being an subjugation directly against them, it is an oppression against the Iranian Kurdish society in general.  For ending such and creating conditions that they can obtain their human rights and become an active force in the service of development and growth of Kurdish society, educational networks in deprived areas need to be expanded as soon as possible, and rural girls should acquire necessary material and moral facilities for continuing their studies.  The unfavourable conditions that they are situated in must be identified and known, and attempts must be made to increase the level of rural families knowledge considering the importance of education in general and for girls as an important segment of society in particular.

            One last point that the deprivation of rural girls from their most basic rights in this age that other societies have obtained astonishing achievements and wonderful developments, is a sorrow reality that has become the characteristics and an indication of under-development in our society.  Of course this is an indication of situation filled with oppression and tyrannical ruling that the enemies of Kurds and Kurdistan have been the main cause of such a tragedy.  Maybe the day of its extinction will come in the victory and the Kurdish peoples’ attainment of their legitimate rights and demands (freedom, democracy, and ethnic rights).

Sources:

(1) A selection from Article 26, part 1 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 13 of UN Convention on Economic, social, and cultural.

(2) "Women in Iran's Labour Market", page 253

Article translated from KURDISTAN, Organ of the Central Committee of PDKI