On July 2, when the president of Sierra Leone signed a new law banning child marriage, his 8-year-old daughter was at his side. “I have always believed that the future of Sierra Leone is female,” said President Julius Maada Bio.
On July 15, when an all-male legislature in Gambia voted not to end a ban on genital cutting of girls – after first favoring the move – it was because of lawmakers like Gibbi Mballow. “I am a father, and I can’t support such a bill,” he said.
On July 17, something similar was revealed about the fathers of daughters in Afghanistan, an isolated country where the ruling Taliban has barred girls’ education beyond the age of 12. A new survey finds that fathers, especially those whose eldest is a daughter, are very likely to favor rights for girls and women.
The survey, conducted for researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, could upend the approach of the international community to restore full education for Afghan girls. Trying to persuade or threaten the Taliban to change has only hardened their position in the three years since they retook power after the American withdrawal. Instead, researchers suggest that fathers with eldest daughters be “primed” by outside groups to use their authority in a male-dominated society to overturn the education ban.
In the campaign to restore women’s rights in Afghanistan, fathers whose first-born is a girl might be the best ally of activists. “I will be proud of myself that I will fight for women’s rights,” one father said in responding to the survey.
This news may not be new to the Taliban. Many fathers have been detained and beaten for helping their daughters violate the regime’s restrictions on girls. One young Afghan woman told The New Humanitarian that her father is her greatest advocate: “He told me, ‘You must study. You are the futuremaker of your country. You have to help your people, your homeland’.”
One father has even given money for his eldest daughter to start her own school for girls, one that teaches only about Islam, according to the Afghanistan Peace Campaign. While the daughter waits for final approval, she says she hopes the Taliban “will find a way” for all Afghan girls to “finish high school and even go to university, if they want to.”
In many countries, from Africa to the Middle East, freedom for girls often starts with a father’s love.