Daughters of the Tharu: Gender, Ethnicity, Religion, and the Education of Nepali Girls (Reference Books in International Education)

This book explores the complex structural institutions in society, individual attitudes towards, beliefs about and values of those institutions, and the process by which the relationship between the social structure and individual agency conditions and governs girls' educational participation in Nepal.--Amazon.com Daughters of the Tharu identifies and examines the cultural conditions and circumstances that influence the process of educational decision-making for girls in Nepal, recognizing and studying the significant, yet often forgotten, voices of women. Situating women's lives within the context of their families, neighborhoods, region, and country, Maslak explores the cultural and sociopolitical conditions that shape, mold, and dictate individual agency, conditions that determine the educational choices women make for their daughters. This book seeks to go beyond the existing educational participation literature by exploring how ethnic identity, ethnic interaction, religious beliefs, and religious rituals function as interweaving sociocultural forces in the community, and how familial relations in the home are influenced by the power structures that subsume gender roles. By examining the process of educational participation with special reference to ethnic and religious culture, and linking macro-structural perimeters and micro-individual agency of attitudes and beliefs, this book paints a much broader and more nuanced picture of the varied forces that govern and influence girls' participation in school. This book identifies and examines the cultural conditions and circumstances that influence the process of educational decision making for girls in Nepal