Education

The contradiction between legal texts and the lived reality of Egyptian women is strikingly manifest in the realm of education. Article 18 of Egypt’s Constitution states that education is a right guaranteed by the state and is compulsory at the primary level.

The low rate of females in all educational levels is reflected in the gender structure of literacy in Egyptd The picture is more gloomy in the countryside, particularly in Upper Egypt (the south), where illiteracy is more common among females because of conservative cultural and social structures which underpin discrimination against women in education at a higher level in rural than in urban areas. Recent studies reveal that the drop-out rate of girls at the pre­paratory and secondary school stages is especially high in rural areas, where families may prefer to keep girl children at home after the compulsory primary stage of education, to work in the house and help with agricultural work.⁵ Early marriage is another obstacle that hampers a female’s educational process. Em­pirical studies on women in Egypt show a number of pertinent facts that may be summarized as follows (Abdul Rahman 1999):

1. The imbalance in quality, quantity and geography in Egypt’s educational map varies significantly, with a negative impact on the size and quality of female participation throughout the different educational levels.

2. There is a large number of illiterate females in rural areas and in poor and slum areas of the cities, by reason of the sway of inherited cultural values and traditions, which give males priority over females when it comes to education, in addition to high levels of poverty.

3. There are shortcomings in educational curricula in regard to women’s position and rights; these curricula are dominated by a male vision that reproduces a traditional view of women, their roles and responsibilities, and does not seek to correct conceptions that contradict women’s real status and their historical and contemporary role in constructing civilization.

4. The local media also have failed to play a positive role in eradicating female illiteracy and contributing to raising and developing women’s awareness of their rights, especially rural women.

5. Although women’s participation in the educational process has increased over the past four decades, their contribution to the workforce and to political activities has not witnessed a similar increase. This removes the social content from the educational process with regard to women, making it more of a tool that shows some degree of progress on the surface but that in essence aims to maintain the traditional situation for educated women.