Educating Girls

Canadian troops, along with other NATO and ISAF troops viewed it as a high priority to ensure that girls in Afghanistan be able to attend school.  That was not the initial focus of the united incursion into Afghanistan to be sure, but this objective became a high-focus one that gave pride to international troops.

Ousting the Taliban whose misogynistic agenda kept girls and women in isolation was incidental to the purpose at hand, to destroy the equanimity and safe haven of al-Qaeda.

Religious zealotry, its violence and anti-humane focus destroyed the lives of Afghan women.  Afghan girls banned from receiving an education could only anticipate an early marriage, a life of drudgery and child-bearing, hidden in the confines of a home they could not venture beyond without the presence of a male relative, and completely covered, head to foot.

Much of that still exists in the far rural and mountainous areas of the country, but in the urban centres matters improved immeasurably, with schools being built, and health clinics, most with international funding and many with the co-operation of international troops and humanitarian groups.

Women were forbidden from working outside the home to support themselves if they were widowed, under Taliban rule. Music, colour, happiness was also forbidden.  The resilience of the Taliban was unexpected.  They have managed, year after year, to reappear for yet another spring offensive, growing bolder and more numerous, more heavily armed, capable of constructing more complex IEDs than previously.

And while international military trainers are doing their best to turn the Afghan army and police into capable professionals, no one is under any illusions that with the eventual dispersal of foreign troops the Taliban will again present as a formidable, fearful and fear-inspiring presence in the country.  Even now, they have almost complete control of some provinces.

Just recently a hundred mixed or girls' schools were closed in Ghazni province as a result, according to the Ministry of Education which describes the matter as a result of a Taliban campaign against educating girls.  When any of the schools defiantly reopen despite threats from the Taliban, parents of girls are fearful of permitting them to return to class, in the face of threats.

In eleven provinces where the Taliban have popular support, 550 schools have been closed.  "Most of these are girls' schools and it is obvious that the Taliban are responsible for the threats against them,"  said a ministry spokesperson.  Attackers burned down a large girls' school in Khogiani district on the border with Pakistan.  Five additional schools have since closed.

A roadside bomb in an eastern province targeted the vehicle of five education department workers but they survived.  They were later gunned down in a firefight, according to local officials.  In southern Helmand province where the Taliban are strongly represented, 100 of the 170 schools that were forced to shut have been re-opened.  For how long is anyone's guess.

President Karzai has urged the Taliban to make a halt to their campaign against the education of girls.  "I call on the Taliban elders to avoid this and let our children get educated", he appealed in a radio address last week.  Appealing to the Taliban, those whom he has taken to calling 'brothers'.