Pakistan can be a dangerous place if you don't fit in. You're not going to fit in if you're in the wrong branch of Islam in the wrong place (Sunni in a Shiite region and vice versa) and in Three Cups of Tea, you probably won't fit in if you're a woman, no matter what your beliefs are. Women are basically seen as inferior in many parts of the country, and are simply used as commodities: wives, mothers, dishwashers.
Greg Mortenson is building schools to educate all of Pakistan's children, but he especially wants to educate the young girls in these remote regions. Simply by being women in a land of fundamentalist Islam, they're at a disadvantage in life. And yet, you may note, that women all play peripheral parts in this narrative—and are often (and repeatedly) introduced by their hair color. Huh.
Questions About Women
- Why does Mortenson focus his efforts on educating girls?
- By focusing on educating girls simply because they're girls, does Mortenson also use them as a commodity, just in a different way than their own culture does?
- Think of some of the stories in the book, like Jahan's, in which girls pursue their education. Why are they so motivated?
- How do the village women's attitudes toward Mortenson change over the course of the book? Why do they change?