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Girls’ schools under threat in NWFP

DARRA ADAM KHEL: The small town of Darra Adam Khel, long known for its flourishing trade in manufactured arms, is becoming increasingly known for attacks on girls’ schools, resulting in many female pupils being prevented from pursuing their education.

“We want her to be educated. It is important these days, but we are too scared to send her,” says Azmat Khan, as his daughter, Faria, aged nine, helps her mother knead dough for rotis. Faria hast not been to school for the last two weeks.

Teachers, too, share the same fears. Surriya Bibi, 50, who until recently had taught at a private school in the area, confirms: “We are too scared to go back to our schools, even though we worry about the students who will suffer because there are no classes to go to.”

Over the past two months, at least two schools in the area have been bombed: the Government Girls’ High School at Akharwal and the under-construction Girls’ Degree College at Sheraki.

According to a spokesman at the Peshawar office of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP): “There have also been notices affixed on the gates of schools, asking people to stay away. The situation is very bad.”

Parents, pupils, teachers, school heads and bus drivers bringing children to school have also been threatened and warned to stay away. In addition, militant extremists have also telephoned local school authorities to demand that female students wear the burqa.

But some observers have pointed out that the targeting of girls’ schools is neither limited to Darra Adam Khel nor limited to militant action. They cite the example of the October 30 military strike on a Bajaur Agency madrassa that left 82 dead.

Analysts describe the developments – which have also included attacks on music and video shops, threats to barbers not to shave men and warnings to female heath workers and teachers to leave specific areas of the NWFP – as part of a growing ‘Talibanisation’ across the province, which, they believe has been spurred on by the resurgent Taliban militancy in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Many blame the ruling Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) government for not providing security to women or girls wishing to go to school. irin

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