Patriarchy and Women's Pursuit of Higher Education Abroad: The Case of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

This study examined how patriarchal norms shape women's decisions to study overseas by conducting semi-structured interviews with 28 women aged 22–35 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The analysis drew on Connell's theory of gender, Crenshaw's intersectionality, and the mobilities paradigm to examine factors shaping women's educational mobility, including familial honor (izzat), male guardianship, and surveillance. The five themes were izzat as a mobility regulator, conditional male guardianship, transnational surveillance, negotiation of limited agency, and class and family structure. The study portrays international education as a revocable privilege shaped not only by direct restrictions but also by monitoring technologies, emotional pressure, and reputation policing. Women from urban and nuclear-family backgrounds reported somewhat greater mobility, but family and community expectations still shaped their educational choices. The study recommends gender-sensitive advocacy in social work and policy. It highlights limitations, including the exclusion of women who could not pursue study abroad and the absence of male family members’ perspectives.