Biding Time
"That's not to say they have become wildly liberal. I think they know that education is the will of the people. Every community we work in tells us that education is important to them." David Haines, Mercy Corps Afghanistan director
Afghan girls and young women are benefiting from a British-funded enterprise teaching computer and English classes. The Mercy Corps. appears to feel that the Taliban have somehow become less hostile to the concept of girls attending school. The school system they have initiated is for older girls and young women teaching various courses including practical skills such as tailoring and embroidery.
The British charity that operates these vocational colleges has heard from local tribal leaders that the Taliban are fully aware of what is happening, and that they don't appear to be too exercised over it. They take this as a silent assent, despite the fundamentalist Taliban when it governed the country outlawing education for girls and enacting punishments for those who defied their edicts.
The Government of Afghanistan itself appears to have claimed that the Taliban has abandoned their opposition to female education. Despite which there are many who have doubts about this, and consider it to be a holding pattern. "I'm not sure it's a softer stance; I think you would call it a more politically aware stance about their previous shortcomings on education", claimed David Haines.
To qualify, girls must be over fifteen. Currently a thousand girls have already been involved in taking classes, with many more on the waiting list. The attendance of girls and women in schools meant to expose them to a personal education and to modernity (they are being taught to use computers) is a far cry from what had pertained under Taliban rule.
Schools for girls are held as a indication of how greatly foreign humanitarian involvement has improved the lives of ordinary Afghans.
Schools are still being destroyed in Afghanistan, however. And threats continue to be made against teachers and girls attending schools. Mass poisonings have taken place at girls' schools in an obvious attempt by the Taliban to convince parents to withhold sending their children to school. Clearly, the opposition is there, and will continue to be expressed in varying ways.
The Government of Afghanistan has little presence and authority in many areas of the country. And it is there, where the Taliban continue to rule and make their impression on the locals.
Additionally, in a few years' time when NATO troops are completely withdrawn and the country becomes completely reliant on its own national police and military, it is not inconceivable that a monumental clash with the Taliban will rout government forces and return the Taliban to power.
And that is when the clock will turn back once again on the girls and women of Afghanistan under the relentless oppressive dominance of the fanatical Islamists that the Taliban represent.
Labels: Afghanistan, Britain, Conflict, Education, Islamism, Political Realities, Traditions
posted by Pieface @ Monday, July 09, 2012
<< Home