{"id":14322,"date":"2014-04-03T14:18:19","date_gmt":"2014-04-03T19:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/among-afghan-public-mixed-support-for-womens-rights\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:22:01","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:22:01","slug":"among-afghan-public-mixed-support-for-womens-rights","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2014\/04\/03\/among-afghan-public-mixed-support-for-womens-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Asia Foundation: Among Afghan public, mixed support for women\u2019s rights"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Hispanic<\/a><\/p>\n
\"Afghan<\/a>
Afghan women wait to receive their voter cards at a voter registration center in Kabul on March 30, 2014.
Credit: Shah Marai\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

The debate about women\u2019s participation in Afghanistan\u2019s political process has intensified ahead of this weekend\u2019s elections, in part due to the unusually high level of women\u2019s involvement in campaigns<\/a>. A record number of women are running for provincial council seats, according to the New York Times<\/a>, and Habiba Sarobi<\/a> is the first female vice presidential candidate on a leading ticket.<\/p>\n\n

Sarobi, however, has reportedly received numerous death threats<\/a>, and despite some visible gains for women\u2019s rights \u2013 especially since the days of Taliban rule from 1996-2001 \u2013 surveys show mixed feelings among the Afghan public about women\u2019s role in society. For example, there is a stark contrast between the share of Afghan women (60%) and men (35%) who support equal representation for men and women in elected government positions, according to a 2013 survey of Afghans conducted by The Asia Foundation<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

\"Asian<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

On one hand, 90% of Afghans in that survey agreed that everyone should have equal rights under the law (regardless of gender), and 83% agreed that women should have the same opportunities as men in education \u2013 including a strong majority (78%) of Afghan men. (The survey also found that 76% of Afghan women have received no education, an area Sarobi cites as a key priority.)<\/p>\n\n

But at the same time, a significant minority of Afghans (36%) said that women should not be allowed to work outside the home \u2013 a share that had grown from 27% in 2006. While 82% of Afghan women said in 2013 that women should be allowed to work outside the home, just 51% of men agreed.<\/p>\n\n

Among those registered to vote in Afghanistan, only 35% are women, the New York Times reports<\/a>. And just 45% of Afghan men in The Asia Foundation survey said that women should decide themselves for whom to vote (compared with 62% of women). Nearly half (46%) of Afghans overall said that men should have some role in how women vote, either by advising them (25%) or by consulting with them before they decide (21%).<\/p>\n\n

A Pew Research survey of Muslims in 39 countries<\/a> conducted in 2011 in Afghanistan found that Afghan Muslims \u2013 nearly 100% of the population<\/a> \u2013 are very conservative on women\u2019s issues relative to Muslims in other nations.<\/p>\n\n

In our survey, only 30% of Afghan Muslims (including 40% of women) said women should decide if they wear a veil, among the lowest levels of support<\/a> for this in the countries surveyed. A similar share (30%) said sons and daughters should have equal inheritance rights, and nearly all Afghan Muslims (94%) said they completely or mostly agreed that a wife must always obey her husband.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As national elections in Afghanistan approach. surveys show mixed feelings among the Afghan public about women\u2019s role in society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":null,"sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"apple_news_api_pending":"1713063868","relatedPosts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0},"categories":[326,172,410],"bylines":[854],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[499],"research-teams":[517],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-14322","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-news-media-trends","category-religion-politics-1","category-rural-urban-suburban-communities","bylines-michael-lipka","formats-short-read","regions-countries-afghanistan","research-teams-religion"],"label":"Short Read","post_parent":0,"word_count":437,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2014\/04\/03\/among-afghan-public-mixed-support-for-womens-rights\/","art_direction":{"A1":{"id":26711,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/04\/FT_14.04.03_WomenVoteAfghanistan-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/04\/FT_14.04.03_WomenVoteAfghanistan-jpg.webp?w=564&h=300&crop=1","width":564,"height":300,"chartArt":false},"A2":{"id":26711,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/04\/FT_14.04.03_WomenVoteAfghanistan-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/04\/FT_14.04.03_WomenVoteAfghanistan-jpg.webp?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"A3":{"id":26711,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/04\/FT_14.04.03_WomenVoteAfghanistan-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/04\/FT_14.04.03_WomenVoteAfghanistan-jpg.webp?w=194&h=110&crop=1","width":194,"height":110,"chartArt":false},"A4":{"id":26711,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/04\/FT_14.04.03_WomenVoteAfghanistan-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/04\/FT_14.04.03_WomenVoteAfghanistan-jpg.webp?w=268&h=151&crop=1","width":268,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"XL":{"id":26711,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/04\/FT_14.04.03_WomenVoteAfghanistan-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/04\/FT_14.04.03_WomenVoteAfghanistan-jpg.webp?w=640&h=300&crop=1","width":640,"height":300,"chartArt":false},"social":{"id":26711,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/04\/FT_14.04.03_WomenVoteAfghanistan-jpg.webp","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2014\/04\/FT_14.04.03_WomenVoteAfghanistan-jpg.webp?w=640&h=300&crop=1","width":640,"height":300,"chartArt":false}},"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"Afghanistan, women's rights, and public support","description":"As national elections in Afghanistan approach. surveys show mixed feelings among the Afghan public about women\u2019s role in society.","og_title":"Asia Foundation: Among Afghan public, mixed support for women\u2019s rights","og_description":"As national elections in Afghanistan approach. surveys show mixed feelings among the Afghan public about women\u2019s role in society.","schema_type":"Article","noindex":false,"canonical_url":"","primary_terms":[],"custom_schema":[],"og_image":26711,"indexnow_submitted_at":null,"gsc_index_status":null},"prepublish_checks":{},"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"relatedPostsOrdered":[],"bylinesOrdered":[{"key":"8501f648822e97159d40e0da1c94a68e","termId":854}],"acknowledgementsOrdered":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read\/14322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/short-read"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14322"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read\/14322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103725,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/short-read\/14322\/revisions\/103725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14322"},{"taxonomy":"bylines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bylines?post=14322"},{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=14322"},{"taxonomy":"datasets","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/datasets?post=14322"},{"taxonomy":"_post_visibility","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_post_visibility?post=14322"},{"taxonomy":"formats","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/formats?post=14322"},{"taxonomy":"_fund_pool","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_fund_pool?post=14322"},{"taxonomy":"languages","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/languages?post=14322"},{"taxonomy":"regions-countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions-countries?post=14322"},{"taxonomy":"research-teams","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-teams?post=14322"},{"taxonomy":"workflow-status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/workflow-status?post=14322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}