Muslim traditions and attitudes to female education

It has been suggested that girls and women coming from a Muslim background in the Asian sub-continent are disadvantaged in the educational sphere. In this study two particular aspects of this suggested disadvantage are investigated. First, the importance of educating males rather than females and secondly, the issue of parental and husband's control over the rights of women to education and work. Twenty-six Muslim females living in a large Scottish town but of a Pakistani Punjabi background were interviewed in depth. The findings, that these women considered that it is as important to educate girls as it is to educate boys, and that they acquiesced in parental and husband's control over the rights of females to be educated and work, are discussed within a cross-cultural perspective. It is concluded that such issues cannot be isolated from traditional values about the importance of upholding family honour.