Education and Emergency: Women in post-2001 Afghanistan

This paper examines the potential significance of investing in female education in the fragile and frequently violent context of post-invasion Afghanistan. Recent and chronic challenges to female education are examined through the lens of transitional priorities. The economic and social benefits promised by human capital theory and their limitations in Afghanistan are considered, alongside arguments emerging from Amartya Sen’s capability approach. Beyond economics and politics however, the criterion of basic human capabilities provides a measure of the nature of the society being built – in terms of the ethical demand that no group be denied the capacity to exercise agency. In sum, this paper contends that prioritizing female access to education in transitional Afghanistan, for all the pragmatic and attitudinal obstacles, is a critical choice for the maturation of civic and economic development.