[BBC] Afghan Taliban end opposition to educating girls

[s land balla]

Afghan Taliban end opposition to educating girls

The Taliban are ready to drop their ban on schooling girls in Afghanistan, the country's education minister has said.

Farooq Wardak told the UK's Times Educational Supplement a "cultural change" meant the Taliban were "no more opposing girls' education".

The Taliban - who are fighting the Kabul government - have made no public comment on the issue.

Afghan women were not allowed to work or get an education under the Taliban regime overthrown in 2001.

Mr Wardak made his comments during the Education World Forum in London.

He told the TES: "What I am hearing at the very upper policy level of the Taliban is that they are no more opposing education and also girls' education.

"I hope, Inshallah (God willing), soon there will be a peaceful negotiation, a meaningful negotiation with our own opposition and that will not compromise at all the basic human rights and basic principles which have been guiding us to provide quality and balanced education to our people," the minister added.

The apparent relaxation of the Taliban's policy towards education doesn't seem to be part of a formal deal with the Afghan government.

Hundreds of schools, for boys and girls, have been attacked and destroyed since the Taliban regime was toppled in 2001.

But in recent years public pressure has partially forced the Taliban, at least at local level, to change their minds about education.

The Taliban did not publicly oppose female education when they were in power in the 1990s.

Their position was they did not have the resources to establish separate female educational institutions with all female staff.

The Taliban now say they don't oppose education, but are against any use of the educational sector as a political and ideological tool against them.

The Taliban appears to have reconsidered many of their views since they were ousted, including acceptance of video technologies they once considered un-Islamic.

The Taliban also once banned opium poppy cultivation, but now farmers grow it in areas under the militants' control.

Across the country agreements have been struck at a local level between militants and village elders to allow girls and female teachers to return to schools, the BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Kabul reports.

Last October, Afghan President Hamid Karzai confirmed unofficial talks with Taliban leaders were under way in an attempt to end the bloody insurgency that has wrecked the troubled country for more close to a decade.

Mr Wardak's words suggest the negotiations have gone beyond issues like the release of prisoners to touch on areas of government policy, correspondents say.

However, the education minister admitted historical opposition to schooling extended beyond the Taliban to the "deepest pockets" of Afghan society.

"That is the reason that in many provinces of Afghanistan we do not have either male or female teacher," he said.

"During the Taliban era the percentage of girls of the one million students that we had was 0%. The percentage of female teachers was 0%. Today 38% of our students and 30% of our teachers are female."

Female MPs greeted with disbelief the Taliban's supposed softening of stance on schooling for girls.

Roshanak Wardak, a member of parliament from the central-eastern Afghan province of Wardak, told the BBC: "The Afghan government is saying that, but it's not true.

"I don't believe in this because in Wardak we have six Pashtun-dominated districts and all the girls' schools are closed and have never been open. There are only schools open in two Hazara-dominated districts."

Marman Gulhar, MP for the north-eastern province of Kunar, was also sceptical.

"This is not true and it will never happen," she told the BBC. "The Taliban will never be ready for that [girls' education].

"In fact they are fighting against that. The girls' schools are closed and still are closed."

[FranchiseBlade]

Huge step in the right direction.

[weslinder]

Great! Now let's declare victory and bring our troops home.

[AroundTheWorld]

Originally Posted by FranchiseBlade Huge step in the right direction.

You are very quick to believe this.

I don't see it.

[DaDakota]

Originally Posted by FranchiseBlade Huge step in the right direction.

Did you read the last 2 people that said it was bogus?

Sounds like a political step to me, but not a real switch in position.

DD

[FranchiseBlade]

Originally Posted by AroundTheWorld You are very quick to believe this. I don't see it.

OK fine don't believe it then. It's no sweat off my back.

[AroundTheWorld]

Originally Posted by FranchiseBlade OK fine don't believe it then. It's no sweat off my back.

It's just interesting because depending on whether the news fit your ideological leanings, you come up with long-winded posts about why something is not the way it seems, but here you are like OH YES THE TALIBAN MADE A HUGE STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR THE TALIBAN PLEASE, obviously disregarding the full article. Read the end of it.

[FranchiseBlade]

Originally Posted by DaDakota Did you read the last 2 people that said it was bogus? Sounds like a political step to me, but not a real switch in position. DD

Yes but one of them said the school hasn't reponed, and the other just said she doesn't believe they ever will, probably because of the Taliban's longstanding backwards stance on this and other issues.

I don't think it means everything has changed overnight and all of a sudden every school has been staffed, and funded, and is ready to go.

I don't know whether it will ever be put into widespread good use, but it's a step in the right direction even if it's just that the Taliban realizes that there is legitimate opposition to some of their backwards oppressive practices.

[FranchiseBlade]

Originally Posted by AroundTheWorld It's just interesting because depending on whether the news fit your ideological leanings, you come up with long-winded posts about why something is not the way it seems, but here you are like OH YES THE TALIBAN MADE A HUGE STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR THE TALIBAN PLEASE, obviously disregarding the full article. Read the end of it.

I didn't applaud anyone. I mentioned that it was a huge step in the right direction and it was.

It's not really about my ideological leanings either. I praised, Boehner, Jan Brewer, and other Republicans recently regarding events surrounding the AZ shooting.

I applaud progress no matter where it is coming from. Obviously I have political leanings and am influenced by those, and there's no doubt they filter the way I look at politics.

[Carl Herrera]

First you let them go to school, next thing you know they are running around like little harlots and the society falls apart!

[adeelsiddiqui]

Originally Posted by FranchiseBlade OK fine don't believe it then. It's no sweat off my back.

LOL...

[JuanValdez]

Omg, I agree with ATW! Seriously, the Taliban can offer this as a concession in negotiations, but you can't think this reflects a change in what the Taliban believes about the role of women in society. If they concede it but don't believe it, you can count on them reversing themselves again when the political winds change. Who knows if the Taliban could even enforce this concession among their rank-and-file. They might go burn down girls' schools anyway.

[AroundTheWorld]

Originally Posted by JuanValdez Omg, I agree with ATW!

When did we not agree? I don't remember having had any arguments with you.

[bnb]

these were pretty squishy comments from the education minister to a UK paper in connection with the minister's attendance at an education conference in London. With no tangible policy or program changes being made. Comments refuted by other minsters in Afghanistan.

Sort of like the guy who beats his wife, saying he's thinking, maybe, perhaps, he'll stop doing that. Soon. Or at least he's not opposed to the idea.

[FranchiseBlade]

Originally Posted by JuanValdez Omg, I agree with ATW! Seriously, the Taliban can offer this as a concession in negotiations, but you can't think this reflects a change in what the Taliban believes about the role of women in society. If they concede it but don't believe it, you can count on them reversing themselves again when the political winds change. Who knows if the Taliban could even enforce this concession among their rank-and-file. They might go burn down girls' schools anyway.

I think it's a step in the right direction but not a problem remedied. The fact that they are even willing to admit it can be changed is a move from their previously ridiculous position.

Should it become even more formal and start to be put in practice it won't be uniformly pretty, and there will still be plenty of room for criticism. It's not like once the voting rights act of 1964 was past everything was all of a sudden equal. There are still warts. That doesn't mean that the legislation wasn't a move in the right direction.

While this compromise by the Taliban doesn't mean there's no longer oppression of women, it is a step in the right direction.

[AroundTheWorld]

Originally Posted by FranchiseBlade While this compromise by the Taliban doesn't mean there's no longer oppression of women, it is a step in the right direction.

Show me where the Taliban actually said they are making any compromise.

[FranchiseBlade]

Originally Posted by AroundTheWorld Show me where the Taliban actually said they are making any compromise.

The article mentioned this.


"What I am hearing at the very upper policy level of the Taliban is that they are no more opposing education and also girls' education.

[AroundTheWorld]

Originally Posted by FranchiseBlade The article mentioned this. "What I am hearing at the very upper policy level of the Taliban is that they are no more opposing education and also girls' education.

You are quoting hearsay as proof of a "huge step in the right direction"?

You really do believe what you want to believe...

[FranchiseBlade]

Originally Posted by AroundTheWorld You are quoting hearsay as proof of a "huge step in the right direction"? You really do believe what you want to believe...

I was commenting on the article. I think one if not both of us definitely believes what they want to believe.

In this case I want to believe there is progress, and you want to believe there isn't progress.

[AroundTheWorld]

Originally Posted by FranchiseBlade I was commenting on the article. I think one if not both of us definitely believes what they want to believe. In this case I want to believe there is progress, and you want to believe there isn't progress.

I would like to believe there is progress, but I am realistic, whereas you are delusional.