Afghanistan Mortality Survey 2010 - Measure DHS

The data also show that more than half of interviewed women (54 percent) were married at thetime of the survey. The proportion of women divorced or separated is negligible, and widows constituteonly 1 percent of respondents.The place of residence is another characteristic that determines access to services and exposure toinformation pertaining to reproductive health and other aspects of life. The majority of respondents residein rural areas, with only one-fifth of interviewed women residing in urban areas. More than one-third ofrespondents reside in the Central and Southern zones of the country (36 and 35 percent, respectively). Theremaining 30 percent live in the Northern zone.The distribution of respondents by region shows that about one in five women are from theCapital region, and the same proportion is from the Eastern region. Sixteen percent live in the Northernregion, 14 percent are from the North Eastern region, and 13 percent are from the Western region, withnearly 10 percent from the South Eastern region. In each of the remaining regions, the proportion ofrespondents is less than 10 percent. Women are least likely to be from the Central Highland region (3percent).2.9 EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT OF WOMENStudies have shown that education is one of the major socioeconomic factors that influence aperson’s behavior and attitudes. In general, the higher the level of education of a woman, the moreknowledgeable she is about the use of health facilities, family planning methods, and her health and thatof her children.Women in Afghanistan have long been deprived of education. Their literacy level is one of thelowest compared with other countries. However, there has been improvement over the past several yearswith Article 44 of the Constitution that legally protects the rights of women to education (IslamicRepublic of Afghanistan, 2006).Table 2.13 shows the percent distribution of women age 12-49 by the highest level of schoolingattended or completed according to age, residence, zone, region, wealth quintile, and remoteness quintile.Survey results show that more than three-quarters (76 percent) of women have no education. Educationdecreases with age. Younger women are more likely than older women to be educated, indicating somesuccess in the recent initiatives of the Afghan government to provide girls with access to education. Themajority of women in rural areas (83 percent) have no education; in comparison, half of women in urbanareas have some education.Women who live in the South zone are most likely to have no education (87 percent) comparedwith women who live in the Central (67 percent) and North (75 percent) zones. The proportion of womenwho have no education ranges from a low of 62 percent in the Capital region to a high of 96 percent in theSouth Eastern region.34 | Household Population, Household and Women’s Characteristics