Rhetoric or Rights?: When Culture and Religion Bar Girls' Right to Education

This paper examines states' obligation to provide education. The author looks to the relationships between religion, culture, and education and outlines the historical development of the right to education in international treaties. She reviews states' related obligations to make education available and accessible and suggests that the interaction between religious dogma and the state may be detrimental to attempts to ameliorate female literacy and education. The article also considers the question of how gender bias in religion and culture further the gender gap. Ultimately, the author suggests that human rights organizations may use innovative human rights education to deconstruct inequities.