AFGHANISTAN: Teachers risk their lives to educate future generations of girls

The warning to stop teaching issued by Taliban militants did not deter two female teachers of a village in the Narang district of eastern Kunar province from continuing their profession. Like many other teachers, they knew the risks they were facing in a country where, despite the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, many of the old regime bans and rules are still forced upon Afghans -- sometimes at the cost of their own lives. One month after receiving a letter in which the two sisters were threatened with 'facing the penalty' if they didn't quit teaching, gunmen climbed into their house and shot them dead together with three other members of their family. "They (gunmen) entered the house at midnight and killed four women and one man. Two kids were injured. I arrived thirty minutes after the incident and saw four women dead on their beds. They were killed when they were asleep, we took the two wounded children to the hospital in Jalalabad city," said Sayeed Mohammad, a relative of the victims. A report from the Afghani Education Ministry shows that, only in 2006, about twenty teachers have been killed in similar attacks -- and more than a hundred schools set on fire in many different areas of Afghanistan. Taliban militia, which banned girls from going to school during its rule, opposes any education for females and non-religious education for anyone. Mahmoud Nayel is a twenty-year-old female teacher at the Aino secondary school in the restive town of Kandahar, a former Taliban stronghold, where she teaches to dozens of girls. Although Nayel is still teaching, she fears for her life everyday. "When I leave home in the morning I feel scared walking to school. Everyday I feel that I may not return home alive, the security situation is getting worse day by day. Most of our students don't want to come to school, most of our teachers are scared of the threat (of being killed), they don't want to come to school because they don't feel safe; you see these blasts and suicide bombs increasing everyday. Overall there is no security here," Nayel said. This year has seen the worst fighting in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led war on terror overthrew the Taliban rule five years ago. Around 4,000 people have been killed, around a quarter of them civilians. This state of insecurity in the country has forced many families to stop sending their daughters to school, especially after cases of the Taliban targeting female educators were reported throughout the country. Sohila Jan is a 13-year-old former student who stopped attending her sixth class at the Kandahar girls' school after her mother withdrew her from the college amidst fears for her safety. She now works at home with her mother and resents the fact that studying and pursuing a career perspectives are no longer possibilities. "I am really sad that I could not continue to go to my school. My studies are not completed because of threats (of being killed) and the bad (security) situation here. I was hopeful to be a doctor or a teacher in the future but my mother banned me from going to school because she was feeling scared about my safety," Sohila Jan said. The volatile security situation and the consequent risks teachers have to face are a main concern for many international organisations based in the country, who sometimes provide themselves staff for different girls' schools around Afghanistan. "Security is a concern to many families and I think the recent increase in violence and especially threat to education and threat to female teachers, male teachers, teaching in schools is alarming, I think it is a bigger issue than just education, I think education is an easy target," said Anita Anastacio, Chief Director of Care International educational programme. "I think it is a very sad incident (the killing of female teachers) and probably not the only one, we are worried about our own teachers and we are worried about our own staff security, as an organization we are trying to ensure the safety of our staff so if there are incidents like these we are taking measures to even reduce the presence that we have," she added.

ITN Source | December 24, 2006

Tags:. .incidents. .alive. .wounded. .suicide. .sad