WUNRN
Afghanistan -
Kandahar Schools Empty After Acid Attack on Girls
Arrest of alleged Taleban militants for attack on schoolgirls fails to reassure nervous and angry population.
By Mohammad Ilyas Dayee in Kandahar (ARR No.
307, 12-Dec-08)
The
Mirwais Meena girls’school used to be a bustling place with over 1300 students.
But now the halls and grounds are nearly empty, the swings hang motionless on
the recreation field.
On a late November morning, there were only a dozen or so girls and three
female teachers to be seen. The rest, traumatised by a vicious attack on November
12 that left several girls disfigured and two blinded, have chosen to stay at
home.
A middle-aged teacher, her burqa draped over her arm, was making her way slowly
out of the building. The click of her high heels echoed in the halls, and she
wore a very sad expression. She said her name was Najila.
“That Wednesday was a very, very bad day,” she said. “Some girls fainted; they
were so afraid that the next day it would be their turn. We had never heard of
anything like this before. I want to ask those who did this, ‘Why?’ Girls
should be able to go to school and study. I do not know when this country will
ever be okay.”
The attack came as the girls and their teachers were leaving the school,
according to eyewitnesses. Men on motorbikes, wielding what appeared to be
water pistols, squirted acid on several groups of girls and their teachers.
Many were wearing burqas, but they were targeted just the same. School
officials say that most of the girls were related, and they all came from the
same village.
Atifah was one of the group that was attacked. She escaped with injuries to her
hands, but her cousins were not so lucky.
“There was a man with a black pistol in his hand, and he was glaring at me,”
she recalled. “Then he pointed the pistol at me and squirted acid at me. It got
on my hands, but my cousins had acid thrown on their burqas. One of my cousins
is in very bad shape now. She got acid in her eyes. They have now sent her to
India for treatment.”
The attacks shocked the country, and the world. Footage of the injured girls
was shown on CNN, the BBC, and other international media, in addition to
topping the news in Afghanistan.
But despite the government’s well-publicised late-November arrest of ten men
who have been accused of involvement in the incident, feelings are running high
in Kandahar.
The principal of the school, Mahmoud Qaderi, told IWPR that his student body
had been severely traumatised by the attack.
“First of all, I have to say that this was one of the saddest things I have
experienced in my life,” he said. “Our students and teachers were saying ‘there
is no security, there is no police.’ They were very upset, because they no
longer feel like they can come to school. We used to have 1300 pupils here.
Nowadays we get only around 30. Three female teachers showed up. This is
nothing.”
Fatima, whose daughter had acid thrown on her face, has pushed her to go back.
“I will never let my daughter refuse to go to school,” she said, standing with
the girl on the school grounds. “The government has to find a way to provide
transportation for the students, particularly for the girls. Look at Pakistan
and Iran. They send their girls to school, but we cannot. I will never block
the way for my daughter to go to school. Those who did this thing should know
that is not human. My daughter even wore hijab, but they threw acid on her
face.”
Mothers like Fatima are rare. Many parents are keeping their children at home,
say sources close to the department of education.
Mohammad Anwar Khan, who heads Kandahar’s department of education, would not
speak with journalists. But one official spoke on condition of anonymity.
“The number of children in school all over Kandahar has dropped dramatically,”
he said. “Attendance is down about 30 per cent. If the people responsible are
not arrested and hanged, I do not think that girls will go back.”
On November 25, the governor of Kandahar, Rahmatullah Raufi, announced that ten
men had been arrested in connection with the attack. “Several of them” had
confessed, he added.
Mohammad Daoud Daoud, deputy interior minister, told the media in Kandahar that
the men had been paid the equivalent of 2,000 US dollars for each girl they
attacked. He said that, once the investigation was completed, the men would be
punished to the full extent of the law.
While the world press and much of the Afghan media has rushed to put the blame
squarely on the Taleban, the insurgents deny responsibility. Their objections
to girls’ schooling have been well-documented, but such attacks, say Taleban
officials, are to be condemned.
Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, spokesperson for the Taleban in the south, told IWPR that
his group was not involved in the outrage.
“This criminal act was not done by the Taleban,” he said. “We condemn this. I
say it again – we have not done this thing, and those who were arrested are not
our people. This government will say anything, and they punish people who are
not even guilty.”
Abdul Ahmad Mohmmadyar, a member of Ruhi cultural society in Kandahar, is
sceptical of the government’s claims that they have the perpetrators behind
bars.
“I think that the authorities are just trying to pull the wool over our eyes,”
he told IWPR. “I am sure that they have arrested some people. But how do we
know they are the real criminals? They have not shown us these men. Those who
are responsible should be hanged right in the main intersection of Kandahar.”
Education and security officials are now coming under pressure to take measures
to protect the students. Many parents and girls are adamant that the province
should provide buses to take them to the school, to avoid the dangers of the
road.
“Our students come from very far away,” said Mirwaid Meena’s principal, Qaderi.
“If there was a transportation system, 80 per cent of the problem would be solved.
I have asked about this many times, from the government. But nobody has done
anything about it.”
Atifah is also eager to get back to school, along with her classmates. She
agrees with her principal that transportation is the answer.
“I think a good way to get all those girls back to school is to give them
buses,” she said.
But until the problem is solved, the residents of Kandahar remain angry. They
are looking for someone to blame, and for many the main culprit is the weak
central government.
“I and my family are very upset,” said Zahra, whose daughter was a pupil at
Mirwais Meena. “If girls cannot go to school, I am worried that my daughter and
others will remain illiterate. The government and [President Hamed] Karzai
should take serious steps. Karzai will ask us for votes in the next elections?
While a girl cannot go to school? How would we vote for him?”
Afghanistan’s presidential elections are scheduled for next year, with Karzai
facing stiff opposition.
Qaderi just wants his school back the way it was.
“Our school was a good school,” he said. “But these things happen. This is
Afghanistan, after all. I think it will take time to raise people’s morale. And
then, God willing, we will have our students back.”
____________________________________________________________________
WUNRN
Article Includes VIDEO. WUNRN notes that some video segments on serious human
rights issues, now include an advertisement commercial first!
AFGHANISTAN - ARRESTS AFTER ACID
ATTACK ON SCHOOLGIRLS
Police
in southern Afghanistan have arrested 10 men in connection with an acid attack
on schoolgirls earlier this month, officials say.
The men are
all Taleban insurgents and some have confessed to taking part in the attack,
the authorities say.
Several
girls received severe burns when acid was thrown in their faces on 12 November
in Kandahar city.
The Taleban
denied involvement in the attack, which brought condemnation from around the
world.
President
Hamid Karzai has called for those involved to be arrested and publicly
executed.
'Led by
the Taleban'
Deputy
Interior Minister Gen Mohammad Daud said the men had been arrested in recent
days.
"The
attack was the work of the Taleban and we have not finalised our
investigation," Gen Daud told reporters in Kandahar.
Gen Daud
said the men were Afghans who had travelled from Pakistan.
|
Some of the girls were
offered some protection by veils |
"They
were led by the Taleban," he said. "They were taking orders from the
other side of the border from those who are leading terrorist attacks in
Kandahar."
Kandahar
Governor Rahmatullah Raufi said the attackers had been paid up to $2,000
(£1,300) by the Taleban to carry out the attack.
He did not
say how many of the men had confessed. The men's names were not disclosed and
they were not shown to reporters.
At least 15
schoolgirls and female teachers had acid sprayed at them by two men on a
motorcycle near the Mirwais Nika Girls High School in Kandahar.
Officials
say the attackers used a toy gun to spray the acid and fled as soon as people
came to the assistance of the girls.
Most of the
victims suffered severe burns and at least one of them will have to have her
face and neck reconstructed by plastic surgery.
Some of the
girls were wearing Islamic burkas or veils which provided them with some
protection.
The attack
shocked ordinary Afghans.
Correspondents
say it is likely to have been carried out by those opposed to the education of
women.
The former
Taleban government, which was ousted in 2001, banned girls from attending
school.
A spokesman
for the movement denied having anything to do with the attack when it took
place two weeks ago.
But the
BBC's Sanjoy Majumder in Kabul says many Afghans blame the Taleban for
continued arson attacks on girls' schools.
Only two
million girls attend school in Afghanistan, with many conservative families
still preferring to keep them at home despite a government push to encourage
female education, he says.
Hundreds of
schools - and students - have been attacked by insurgents in recent years.
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