As its name suggests the Asian University for Women is a pan-Asian all-female institution. Let us start with the first particularity. Why the need for a university that gathers students from all over Asia?

If we look at the history of the region, the great issues have been ethnic-religious clashes and violence. Furthermore, in the globalisation process, while on one hand there is a trend towards the collapse of sovereignty, on the other hand there is the assertion of ethnic, religious and linguistic identities and much violence has occurred in the asserting these identities. Our project is to try and respond to this situation, by acknowledging that at the end of day our community is larger than the sectarian ideas that fill our heads. As a result, the university is attended by women from 13 different Asian countries. The idea is that, it is only when you live with someone you have always perceived as different that you understand that there is really nothing separating you. We are trying to create a new sense of tolerance and community.

Why a university focusing only on women?

In spite of progress made, there still remains the big issue of disempowerment of women, so we wanted to create an institution which actively cultivates leadership potential in women and nurtures the idea that they can become anything that they want to be. For an Afghan, Pakistani, Bangladeshi girl the real barrier involves aspirations. They cannot imagine not following in their mothers’ footsteps. There is a need for educational institutions reserved to women, and our choice was to target families who had never previously sent their girls to university.

Would you not agree that an all-women university in the 21st century appears to be a step back in the history of emancipation?

It is not a return to the Middle Ages, but rather an acknowledgment of how little we have changed since then. This may be sad, but it is nonetheless a fact that women are still subject to violence. For example, as a study by Amartya Sen suggests, there are 37 million girls missing in India alone because of infanticide or infant mortality. To state, theoretically, that modernity demands co-educational schools is to deny the basic realities. If we did not have an all-women institute, the eight girls from Afghanistan who are students at our university would certainly not have been permitted to enrol. And it’s not just Muslims, the same applies to conservative Indian or Nepali families to whom the idea of a co-educational residential university would be unacceptable.

In some Asian Islamic countries women’s education is neglected, if not condemned by various elements of society. How much support has the Asian University for Women had from these countries?

For a girl from a conservative country moving away to study is psychologically difficult. In Afghanistan, for example, we organised a campaign and encountered no resistance, both the government and NGOs supported us. Most importantly students and their families were receptive, and we had 200 Afghani applicants.

Bangladesh is also a Muslim country, what is the condition of women’s education there?

The Bangladesh government has been very committed to women education. Some years ago it adopted a program to ensure all girls attend primary school. There is also a program for girls in secondary schools. If attendance reaches 70%, their families receive economic incentives. The point is that now almost 100% of girls are enrolled in primary schools and 45% go on to secondary education. In the last 20 years society has changed profoundly. Bangladesh is probably the only Muslim country in the world with a large number of women working in the formal sector with three million working in textile factories. Due to a combination of factors, including micro-financing programmes, about 15 million women are organised at grassroots levels . These women are earning salaries for the first time ever in the history of their families and that gives them a different kind of power.

Some developmental or gender experts have been suggesting that women are the key engine to take developing countries out of poverty. Do you share this point of view?

This is true not only for developing countries but also for developed countries. Look at Japan. Without women as an active part in the workforce, it would have to bring in many immigrants. It is the same everywhere; if one denies half the population an opportunity to contribute to the economy, one is depriving the country of half the talent in the community. This has economic repercussions. Quite often women’s education it is justified as something a woman must do for somebody else’s benefit, for example for their children. Rarely is education for women discussed as a human right.