EPQ

Is gender inequality more of an issue in Afghanistan in comparison to the United Kingdom?

·         Automatically, everyone would assume yes as living in the UK can be seen as a privilege with access to the NHS and education up until the age of 18 and now women have the same career prospects as men and it is not frowned upon in society.

·         Writing an academic plan allowed me to set key deadlines with an exact word count to follow. This ensured that I would fit my project into the right time scale as I aimed to write a section per month, this allowed me to research the topic thoroughly and receive feedback from Dave and Ron. This was successful as it ensured that everything was completed and up to scratch and it set clear goals for me to achieve.

Mind maps also let me look at my initial ideas and decide what sections to follow and look into further, this created clear sections for my project: Education, healthcare and employment. 

·         Over the past 100 years, both in the UK and Afghanistan have developed a lot in terms of gender equality but still we live in a society where women are viewed as the inferior sex.

UN women created a series of ads which reveal the widespread prevalence of sexism and discrimination against women.

·         Kareem Shuhaibar a copy writer states that “The ads are shocking because they show just how far we still have to go to achieve gender equality. They are a wake up call, and we hope that the message will travel far,”

·          Here is a short clip showing how women’s rights have progressed over the past 200 years.

·         There has been a large progression over the past 200 years, from women not having a say in society to women taking leadership roles in society, the video is self-explanatory but still there are many issues with gender inequality in the modern world.

·         Should we live in a world where people are treated inferior because of our gender? Is it okay for males to have an education whilst females do not? Should women not have a choice on whom they marry? 

·         HeForShe is a solidarity movement for gender equality that brings together one half of humanity in support of the other half of humanity, for the benefit of all specifically works towards a future where your gender will not determine the way you live your life.

·         Emma Watson, a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador made a famous speech specifically tackling the issues of gender inequality and towards the end of the speech she stated “Because the reality is that if we do nothing it will take 75 years, or for me to be nearly a hundred before women can expect to be paid the same as men for the same work. 15.5 million Girls will be married in the next 16 years as children. And at current rates it won’t be until 2086 before all rural African girls will be able to receive a secondary education.”

·         Laws have been enforced in both countries to promote equality, in the UK The Equal Pay Act (1970) states that an individual working in UK has the right to the same pay and benefits, as a person of the opposite sex would expect to receive in the same or related employment.

·         In Afghanistan the laws are a lot different, “women are offered very little protection under the law and certain legislation actually undermines women’s security.” “Some of the law’s provisions include the ability for rapists to avoid prosecution if they pay money to the victim’s family, husbands to not give their wives food and water if they refuse his sexual demands, that the sole custody of children is granted to their fathers and grandfathers and that women must receive permission from their husbands if they want to work.”

·         This alone shows that gender inequality is more of an issue in Afghanistan, in the UK both girls and boys, men and women are by law In education up until the age of 18 whereas in Afghanistan only 12.6% of the 28.1% literary are women. 

·         There has been a lot of conspiracy over the past 1000 years regarding religion and gender inequality.

·         Demonstrated from my research, it is clear that often religion is outdated in both Afghanistan and the UK.

·         In Afghanistan the main religion is Islam and in the UK it is the Church of England however gender inequality is shown a lot more through Islam as it states:

·         Throughout my extended project, I became aware of the importance of planning in essays and to ensure my piece is completely relevant and doesn’t become like a narrative. My plan allowed me to follow a clear structure especially with the word count, but in future I need to take into consideration the importance of content in my essay and the relevance of my research.

·         Currently, issues with gender inequality are being tackled and there was plentiful research on the internet and social media with organisations such as HeForShe. However, this was hard to follow as there were so many sources that it was hard to narrow down the relevant ones, I overcame these issues.

·          To conclude, I do believe that gender inequality is more of an issue in Afghanistan with traditional views on women to the extent that it is expected for women to be attacked by fathers, husbands and male children - however the issues in the UK do need to be tackled such as the gender pay gap.