Afghanistan
NRVA 2005 15
Figure 5: Net enrolment in primary education, both sexes 6-13 years old
Figure 6: Net enrolment in primary education, girls 6-13 years old
With improved access to schools for both girls and boys and changes in cultural attitudes, the female to male literacy ratio should increase. These changes are
already evident in the urban areas with higher exposure to non-traditional sources of information.
Afghanistan
NRVA 2005 16
3.3. Access to information
The NRVA 2005 questionnaire included six groups of sources of information: x
Mass media: radio, television, national network and internet. x
Social network: relatives, local market, group or associates, business or work associates.
x Local leaders: mullah and community leaders.
x Local media: community bulleting board and local newspaper.
x Official staff: government officials and NGOs.
x Political: political party.
Overall, the social network accounts for most of the diffusion of information, 74 of all households. Mass media is also an important source 60, followed by local
leaders 39. Other forms of information such as local media 9, official staff 12 and political parties 1 are far less important.
Table 5: Most important sources of information
Radi o, TV,
national n e
twork
Internet Relati
ve, local market. grou
p or
busi ne
ss o r work
asso ciate
s Mullah,
comm unity
leade rs
Comm unity
bulletin boa rd
,
local n e
wspa per
NGO Govern
ment Political party
Categories Mass
Media Social
Network s
Local Leader
Local Media
Official Staff
Political
Kuchi 45 76
38 5
10 Rural 57
77 44
7 14
1 Urban 75
60 16
18 6
1 National
60 74
39 9
12 1
Mass media in Paktika and Laghman is the most important source of information 92, Sar-I-Pul 29 and Bamyan 26. In Kapisa and Takhar, the social network
forms the most important source 93. Local leaders as a source of information are as high as 83 in Nuristan, Badghis 82 and Sar-I-Pul 80 or as low as in Logar
3, Zabul 5 and Nimroz 6.
In the rural areas the figures match closely with the national figures. The social network is the most important source of information 77, followed by the mass
media 57 and local leaders 44. When these figures are compared with urban data, there is an interesting difference. Because urban life is more anonymous than
that in rural areas, it is no surprise that the social network 60 is less important than the mass media 75. The role of local leaders in urban areas is even less
important 16.
The figures for Kuchi households are similar to those in the rural areas, with the main difference that Kuchi households have less access to mass media 45. When
radio is taken into consideration, these figures do not differ much from the overall mass media figures. Therefore, within the various forms of mass media, radio takes
the most prominent position Table 5.
Afghanistan
NRVA 2005 17
3.4. Health care
Women marry young, the most common age being 20. However, NRVA 2005 data show 52,700 cases of girls 10 or 11 years old being married 13 girls out of 1000
women.
9
Only 19 of the deliveries are born in suitable health facilities such as government hospitals or NGO health centres. The rest are home-delivered or by
female neighbours or relatives; out of them 57 were delivered by female relatives or friends, and 41 were delivered by a traditional birth attendant. The map in Fig. 7
shows the distribution of married women in the households up to age 49 with knowledge on how to avoid pregnancy.
Figure 7: Married women in the households up to age 49 with knowledge of how to avoid pregnancy
In general, urban households have higher knowledge of methods to avoid pregnancy. The provinces of Kabul and Hirat, with a high literacy rate and urban populations,
show the highest knowledge of birth control methods.
Overall, only 31 of the married woman up to 49 years of age know or have heard about methods to avoid pregnancy. Of those, 44 said that they are using them.
Specifically, 44 use the pill, 37 use injection, and 8 use condoms, 6 use early withdrawal, and 3 use sterilization. The percentage use of condoms, restricted to
the married woman up to 49 years of age who stated that they are using contraceptive methodes, is 9 in urban areas, 7 in rural and 17 among the
9
Afghanistan registers 1600-2200 death women per 100,000 live births GOA, 2005 and each woman averages 6.6 live births in her life UNESOC, 2006, compounding to an 11-15 chance of dying due to
motherhood. The World Health Organization has expressed that a nutritional gap, early marriages and domestic violence are other factors that exacerbate female mortality Technical Working Group No. 4,
meeting held on 19 June 2005, Maternal Health, Millennium Development Goal No. 5, http:www.ands.gov.afmdgsgroups.asp. Furthermore, about 60-80 of the marriages in the country
are forced marriages; many of those, especially in the rural areas, involve girls below the age of 15 and child marriages are about 40 of all marriages UNESOC, 2006 and Amnesty International, 2005.
