Kabuli reported that Afghan parents were turning away from extremist madrasas. His dispatch led to the opening of at least two schools in his native Kapisa province where local mullahs and religious scholars teach children. One of these schools has been established in Tagab district and the other in Alasai district. It is only a beginning. Many more such schools are necessary and new schools means more funding to education, a sector which is generally receives low priority in developing countries like Afghanistan.
But the trend that has begun may not be reversible – the trend of parents unwilling to send their children across the border to Pakistan to study in the madrasas which offer free boarding and lodging besides free teaching. Taliban is a product of such religious schools. In that broad sense the parents are aware of the dangers of picking up radical ideas from Pakistani madrasas.
After the report (of Arash Kabuli) was published, “many people are no longer sending their children to Pakistani schools. Some have brought their children back from religious schools in Pakistan and enrolled them locally”, says Abdol Rasul Safi, deputy director of the local education department.
The governor of Kapisa province, General Mehraboddin Safi gathered tribal elders and spoke to them. “I told them that the problem was now clear and that we needed to find solutions for it. They agreed with me and as a consequence, two religious schools were established in Alasai and Tagab districts. Now we are trying to establish similar schools in other areas of Kapisa as well, so that our children will not be exploited by our enemies.”
He has acknowledged that there is demand to set up more religious schools so that no one would be tempted to send their children to Pakistan any more.
In a country where media penetration is limited and where journalism is still a ‘green’ profession, IWPR report has come in for expected praise from the officials and public as well. It also became a topic for animated discussion on local TV and Radio stations.
Hajji Khoshal, from Alasai district, said, “When the IWPR report was published by various media outlets, people really woke up, because they realized what their children were learning in Pakistani religious schools and how these vulnerable boys were being sacrificed in this manner. We therefore made an effort to bring all the children back from Pakistan.”
Taj Gol of Arku area in Kapisa is among the fathers who brought back their sons. “When I heard that many people were bringing their children back (from Pakistani schools), I too called my 16-year-old son Hayatollah back from Pakistan,” he said. His son is now enrolled in a local religious school and he is happy that the media had alerted him and others to the danger of turning their wards into suicide bombers.
Arash Kabuli’s report and its local impact should force Afghan’s allies and well wishers to put on their thinking cap. The problem of Taliban insurgency is as much a political problem as it is a side effect of educational backwardness and the stranglehold of the religious orthodoxy. It is for no reason that a philosopher had called religion as the opium of masses. Within Pakistan also education received a lot priority in the government scheme of things. And as a part of its state policy and strategic depth concepts, Pakistan army and its extended arms like the ISI have been encouraging religious groups and militant outfits to fill the vacuum with their jihad factories.
Washington will do well to hear the voices from the ground, and not merely limit itself to interactions with the GHQ Shura in Rawalpindi. As of now such a prospect appears dim with the US State Department walking the extra mile to open a dialogue with the Taliban through the good offices of the GHQ.
