The Dilemma of Women's Education in Pakistan:An Investigation into the Various Socio-Religious and Political Constraints in Women's Educational Empowerment in Pakhtoon Society of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan

Education is one of the basic religious as well as human rights of each and every individual and it is the responsibility of a welfare state to provide equal chances of education to both the genders. Women in the third world countries are compelled to spend the miserable lives where education has the undeniable potential m their socio cultural, political, economic and religious empowerment. Constraints to women's educational empowerment exist m most of the world societies; however, the nature and shape of these constraints differ from culture to culture and society to society. The present study was undertaken on Socio-Rehgious and Political Constraints m Women's Educational Empowerment m a traditional Pakhtoon society of Chakdara Town, District Dir (Lower) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan. The researchers conducted a survey of female primary and middle schools and selected 50 female teachers randomly from a population of 239 teachers belonging to twenty-seven primary and nine middle schools of the town. The data was collected through questionnaire and has been classified, graphically figured while discussions have been made over the empirical information m the form of percentage. The study shows existence of various constraints m women's educational empowerment, which are mostly the outcome of male dommancy, patriarchy, male control over rehgion and gender-biased political system. The study also highhghts that traditionalism (norms, values, customs and traditions), misinterpretation of rehgion, and Pakhtoon code of life known as Pakhtoonwali are the main hurdles in women's educational empowerment in the area.