Study Environment
With the high population growth rate of Afghanistan and the security situation, providing reasonable jobs to people becomes challenging because lower security condition makes it difficult to conduct businesses and decreases the incentive to start a new business and to purchase equipment. According to Afghanistan Living Conditions Survey 2016–2017 (
The security condition in Afghanistan is getting worse. According to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, in 2017, the middle year in the experiment, approximately 59.7% of the country's 407 districts were under Afghanistan government control or influence; 11.1% of total districts were under insurgent control or influence; 29.2% of all districts were contested districts. (
 In terms of education, there is a substantial disparity between males and females, depending on the area. For example, in urban areas, 66.9% of males and 40.8% of females are literate, whereas in rural areas these values decrease to 45.6% and 13.1% for males and females, respectively. The poverty rate is also severe in Afghanistan. In 2016, it was reported that 54% of households had expenditure less than the poverty threshold.Gender roles in both intra-household and business in Afghanistan are influenced by socio-political aspects (
The "Purda" principle restricts women's mobility outside the house. This principle is derived from the Pashtunwali; a quasi-legal system practiced among the Pashto ethnic in Afghanistan and Pakistan (particularly in the so-called Tribal Areas of the Northwest Frontier Province). (
women are inferior beings who are subordinate to men and must be strictly protected for males' honor (
The implementation of the Salafi (a branch of Sunni Islam) religious sect has negatively impacted women's access and control over resources at both domestic and community levels. Therefore, this interpretation emphasizes restoring the lifestyle and tradition of the Prophet Muhammad (from the 7th century AD) and fighting against any religious innovation (so-called bidah) in terms of interpretation (
Due to those two aspects, there were no changes in individuals' attitudes about women's role in the intra-household decision-making and the general status of women in society in the past two decades. Meanwhile, increasing insecurity exacerbated restrictions on women's mobility. Furthermore, no positive effect was found concerning the positive attitude toward women's participation in the village governance in Pashto-majority areas, and this attitude difference was significant compared with other ethnolinguistic districts. (
