Mary Ann Maslak 
Daughters of the Tharu [PDF ebook] 
Gender, Ethnicity, Religion, and the Education of Nepali Girls

Daughters of the Tharu identifies and examines the cultural conditions and circumstances that influence the process of educational decision making for girls in Nepal, recognizing and studying the significant, yet often forgotten, voices of women. Situating women’s lives within the context of their families, neighborhoods, region and country. Maslak explores the cultural and sociopolitical conditions that shape, mold and dictate individual agency, conditions that determine the educational choices women make for their daughters. The book seeks to go beyond the existing educational participation literature by exploring how ethnic identity, ethnic interaction, religious beliefs, and religious rituals function as interweaving sociocultural forces in the community and how familial relations in the home are influenced by the power structures that subsume gender roles.By examining the process of educational participation with special reference to ethnic and religious culture and linking macro-structural perimeters and micro-individual agency of attitudes and beliefs, this book paints a much broader and more nuanced picture of the varied forces that govern and influence girls’ participation in school.