Analysis of discourses in the Islamic World about the ban upon women's education by the Taliban in Afghanistan

Abdul Qahar Sarwari and Hamedi Mohd Adnan
University of Malaya, Malaysia

The women's education ban in Afghanistan is a vital issue for people in the country and also a challenging issue for the Islamic world. The researcher used critical discourse analysis to analyse the mediated discourses in the Islamic world regarding the women's education ban in Afghanistan. An online search was applied by using key terms and headings such as "girls deprived from education in Afghanistan"; "women education ban in Afghanistan"; "women education bans by the Taliban in Afghanistan"; and "the ongoing discourses in the Islamic world regarding the women education ban in Afghanistan". A total of 62 articles were recorded, and after the exclusion of duplicated and irrelevant articles, 20 news articles were selected, reviewed, coded, and analysed. The Foucauldian viewpoint was adopted to consider the relationship between discourse and power, and the three-dimensional model of Fairclough (1993) was applied to guide the critical discourse analysis. Based on the results from the analysis, almost all countries, organisations, and key leaders in the Islamic world called education a fundamental right for all human beings, including women. They condemned the women's education ban by the Taliban in Afghanistan. However, the Taliban ignored the reactions of the Islamic world and focused on their destructive decision to deprive women of education in Afghanistan. The results indicate that just condemning the Taliban's decision on women's education is not enough, and the Islamic world needs to take practical actions to secure equal rights to education and work for women in Afghanistan.
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Authors: Dr Abdul Qahar Sarwari is currently a Post-Doctoral researcher at the Department of Media and Communication Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Malaya (UM), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He obtained his PhD in Human Communication and Humanities Technology from University Malaysia Pahang (UMP), his Masters degree in English Language and Professional Communication also from UMP, and his Bachelor degree in Journalism from Kabul University, Afghanistan. He is a former Chancellor, Al-Beruni University, Afghanistan. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8473-5167 Email: qaharesarwari@gmail.com Dr Hamedi Mohd Adnan is Professor and former Head of Department of Media and Communication Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Malaya (UM), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Dr Adnan obtained his PhD in magazine publishing from University of Malaya, his MA in Book Publishing & Book Marketing, and BA in Creative & Descriptive Writing also from UM. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7096-5225 Email: hamedi@um.edu.my Please cite as: Sarwari, A. Q. & Mohd Adnan, H. (2023). Analysis of discourses in the Islamic World about the ban upon women's education by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Issues in Educational Research, 33(3), 1148-1160. http://www.iier.org.au/iier33/qahar-sarwari.pdf