Wednesday, March 14, 2007
The Taliban
The things we take for granted...
By Massoud Ansari and Gethin Chamberlain in the Sunday Telegraph:
"The notice pinned to the board outside the Mohammed Hussain Maila girls' school in Dara Adamkhel was uncompromising: 'We have decided to bomb the school building. If any of the students shows up and dies as a result, she will be responsible for her own death.'
It was a warning the young pupils at the school in Pakistan's North-West Frontier knew should be taken seriously. Four other schools in the lawless tribal region area had already been bombed. Within a matter of days, half of the 506 pupils at the school had been withdrawn.
Parents of young girls are fearful to send them to class
Across the border in Afghanistan, the Taliban's antipathy towards the education of girls is well-documented, and has led to the murders of at least 61 teachers in the past 18 months and the razing of 183 schools. But now hard-line Islamists in Pakistan - known as local Taliban - have launched their own campaign against girls' schools, claiming the pupils are being 'westernised'.
Parents have been warned to keep their daughters home and drivers who transport pupils to schools have been threatened with dire consequences unless they desist."
