WUNRN
The UN Special Rapporteur on the
Right to Education has issued Multiple Press Releases on Education in
Afghanistan, WIth Specific References to Girls' Education.
"I am deeply concerned that schools, especially
girls' schools, seem to be systematically targeted by terrorist groups with the
apparent objective of forcing parents to refrain from sending their children to
school and thus the authorities to close those schools."
............................................................................................................................
"Although girls' schools and boys' schools seem to be
targeted indiscriminately, the attacks have a disproportionate impact on girls
because of the lower number of girls' schools and the particular reluctance of parents
to expose their daughters to insecure schools and schools' areas."
______________________________________________________________________
"Taliban
insurgents oppose female education and work and have frequently torched
schools, killed school employees and circulated letters warning parents not to
send their children, particularly girls, to school."
KANDAHAR, 22 September 2008 (IRIN) -
Zulaikha, 14, was the top student in her class last year but has been unable to
attend school this year because of increased attacks on schools, rampant
insecurity and threats to students and their families.
"I wanted to become a doctor and treat poor and ill
people," she told IRIN at her home in the outskirts of Kandahar city in
southern Afghanistan.
Taliban insurgents oppose female education and work and
have frequently torched schools, killed school employees and circulated letters
warning parents not to send their children, particularly girls, to school.
"We don't object to our daughter's education but we
also don't want her to be killed on the way to school or her family members
killed because of her going to school," said Zulaikha's father, Abdul
Rahman.
Afghanistan has made impressive progress in primary and
secondary education since the downfall of the Taliban regime in late 2001.
At least 3,500 schools have been built since 2002 and
hundreds more are planned. More than six million students, about 30 percent
girls, are enrolled in 11,000 schools across the country, compared with about
one million boys only in 2000, according to the Ministry of Education (MoE).
However, resurgent Taliban and worsening security have
put the country's hard-won educational achievements at serious risk.
Education denied
More than 600 primary, secondary and high schools are
closed, mostly in the volatile southern provinces, because of prevalent
insecurity and attacks on formal education, the MoE said.
"In 45 districts of 12 provinces about 610-620
schools have been closed," Hamid Elmi, a spokesman for the MoE, told IRIN,
adding that efforts were under way to re-open some schools through community
support.
Most of the closures are in the four southern provinces
of Helmand, Kandahar, Zabul and Urozgan, where the conflict is having a greater
effect than elsewhere. "Up to 80 percent of schools are closed in these
four provinces," Elmi said.
In the worst-affected Helmand Province, only 54 schools,
primarily for boys, are functioning, against 223 schools that were open in
2002, according to MoE statistics.
Consequently, more than 300,000 students have been
deprived of an education in 12 provinces, according to MoE officials.
Punishments
The MoE said 99 schools have been attacked, torched
and/or destroyed by armed assailants this year and 117 similar cases were
reported in 2007.
Dozens of students, some as young as seven, and teachers
have been killed or injured by armed assailants over the past two years.
Armed men associated with Taliban insurgents reportedly
cut off the ears of a teacher in Zabul Province on 14 September as a sign of
punishment to those who support education.
In addition, Taliban insurgents in August reportedly
attacked trucks carrying textbooks from Kabul to Kandahar province and burnt
tens of thousands of books, the MoE said.
Taliban denial
A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yosuf Ahmadi, denied
the insurgents' involvement in attacks on schools and students.
"Our Mujahideen have not attacked schools and
schoolchildren," Ahmadi told IRIN via telephone from an unidentified
location.
"Criminals - whom the government cannot stop - are
carrying out such attacks," he said.
The Taliban imposed a strict ban on females' education
and employment and enforced an Islamic curriculum for boys during their reign
(1996-2001).
IRIN last year received a warning letter ostensibly
issued by the Taliban in which attacks on schools and students were supported.
The government blamed the Taliban for attacks on
educational facilities and school employees.
"The Taliban are attacking everything related to
education because they need illiterate youths to join their ranks," Elmi
of the MoE said.
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