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Return of The Taliban School for Boys
The Taliban announce that they will open schools in Afghanistan
The Associated Press
Published: January 22, 2007
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan: The Taliban said they will open their own schools in areas of southern Afghanistan under the group's control, an apparent effort to win support among local residents and undermine the Western- backed government's efforts to expand education.
The announcement follows a violent campaign by the fundamentalist Islamic group against state schools in the five years since its rout by U.S.-led forces. The Taliban destroyed 200 schools and killed 20 teachers last year, and President Hamid Karzai said Sunday that 200,000 children had been driven from the classroom.
The announcement by the Taliban that they will open schools "is like putting salt into the wound," said Mohammad Hanif Atmar, Afghanistan's education minister.
Abdul Hai Muthmahien, a spokesman for the militants, said the group would begin providing Islamic education to students in March in at least six southern provinces, funded by $1 million allotted by the Taliban's ruling council. Textbooks would be the same ones used during Taliban rule, he said.
Education would be available to boys first and later to girls, but he did not explain if there had been a change in Taliban thinking about schooling girls. During its rule, the hard-liners banned girls from schools in Kabul, the capital, although elsewhere they sometimes permitted their schooling until age 8 — but only to study the Koran, Islam's holy book. Muthmahien said the program had been approved by tribal elders.
"The U.S. and its allies are doing propaganda against the Taliban," he said in a telephone interview from an undisclosed location late Saturday. "The Taliban are not against education. The Taliban want Shariah education," he said, referring to the legal code of Islam based on the Koran.
The United Nations mission in Afghanistan derided the announcement, saying it could not be taken seriously.
"No one can say the Taliban has a particularly good track record in developing Afghanistan's schools," said Aleem Siddique, a United Nations spokesman.
The Taliban's attacks on state schools in the past few years have chipped away at one of the main successes of Afghanistan's democratic revival: a huge foreign-funded development drive that has seen a fivefold increase in the number of children attending school.
According to a report by the aid group Oxfam, late last year, more than five million boys and girls attend school in Afghanistan, up from less than a million students during the Taliban rule. The report said, however, that seven million children still did not receive any formal instruction.
Analysts said the Taliban's announcement appeared aimed at undermining the standing of Karzai's elected government and challenging its power in southern areas where insurgents have a foothold.
The Associated Press
Published: January 22, 2007
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan: The Taliban said they will open their own schools in areas of southern Afghanistan under the group's control, an apparent effort to win support among local residents and undermine the Western- backed government's efforts to expand education.
The announcement follows a violent campaign by the fundamentalist Islamic group against state schools in the five years since its rout by U.S.-led forces. The Taliban destroyed 200 schools and killed 20 teachers last year, and President Hamid Karzai said Sunday that 200,000 children had been driven from the classroom.
The announcement by the Taliban that they will open schools "is like putting salt into the wound," said Mohammad Hanif Atmar, Afghanistan's education minister.
Abdul Hai Muthmahien, a spokesman for the militants, said the group would begin providing Islamic education to students in March in at least six southern provinces, funded by $1 million allotted by the Taliban's ruling council. Textbooks would be the same ones used during Taliban rule, he said.
Education would be available to boys first and later to girls, but he did not explain if there had been a change in Taliban thinking about schooling girls. During its rule, the hard-liners banned girls from schools in Kabul, the capital, although elsewhere they sometimes permitted their schooling until age 8 — but only to study the Koran, Islam's holy book. Muthmahien said the program had been approved by tribal elders.
"The U.S. and its allies are doing propaganda against the Taliban," he said in a telephone interview from an undisclosed location late Saturday. "The Taliban are not against education. The Taliban want Shariah education," he said, referring to the legal code of Islam based on the Koran.
The United Nations mission in Afghanistan derided the announcement, saying it could not be taken seriously.
"No one can say the Taliban has a particularly good track record in developing Afghanistan's schools," said Aleem Siddique, a United Nations spokesman.
The Taliban's attacks on state schools in the past few years have chipped away at one of the main successes of Afghanistan's democratic revival: a huge foreign-funded development drive that has seen a fivefold increase in the number of children attending school.
According to a report by the aid group Oxfam, late last year, more than five million boys and girls attend school in Afghanistan, up from less than a million students during the Taliban rule. The report said, however, that seven million children still did not receive any formal instruction.
Analysts said the Taliban's announcement appeared aimed at undermining the standing of Karzai's elected government and challenging its power in southern areas where insurgents have a foothold.
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