Taliban Says it Will Open Schools in Afghanistan
21 January 2007 | 13:58 | FOCUS News Agency
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Kandahar. The Taliban movement said Sunday it will open schools in areas under its control, despite waging an insurgency that last year saw scores of attacks on Afghanistan's students.
A spokesman told AFP the schools would open this year and follow a curriculum used during the 1996-2001 rule of the Taliban government.
"From March to July this year, the Taliban movement will open all the schools in the districts under their control," the man identifying himself as Taliban political spokesman Abdul Hai Mutmayn said in a statement read over the telephone.
"In the schools, all the textbooks and subjects which were being taught under the Taliban government will be taught. This will cost one million dollars and the Taliban movement will pay for that."
The spokesman did not say which districts were involved. "There are lots of districts in southern and southeastern Afghanistan where the government has no presence and we are in control," he said.
Taliban claims to control certain far-flung areas of Afghanistan are dismissed by military officials, who say they are only able to assert a presence for brief periods before being removed.
The movement regularly uses propaganda and threats in its campaign.
The Taliban government destroyed Afghanistan's already war-shattered education system.
It prevented girls from going to school and women from working, which meant most teachers had to give up their jobs.
Lessons were focused on the Taliban's extremist version of Islam.
Since it was toppled, the group has launched scores of bomb and arson attacks on schools, destroying many.
Education Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar said in August suspected Taliban attacks had killed at least 41 teachers and students in the previous 12 months, and security concerns had forced 208 schools to close.
Educating Afghanistan's mostly illiterate population is a priority for the new government, but not for many rural Afghans struggling to get by, especially where girls are concerned.
More on link
21 January 2007 | 13:58 | FOCUS News Agency
Article Link
Kandahar. The Taliban movement said Sunday it will open schools in areas under its control, despite waging an insurgency that last year saw scores of attacks on Afghanistan's students.
A spokesman told AFP the schools would open this year and follow a curriculum used during the 1996-2001 rule of the Taliban government.
"From March to July this year, the Taliban movement will open all the schools in the districts under their control," the man identifying himself as Taliban political spokesman Abdul Hai Mutmayn said in a statement read over the telephone.
"In the schools, all the textbooks and subjects which were being taught under the Taliban government will be taught. This will cost one million dollars and the Taliban movement will pay for that."
The spokesman did not say which districts were involved. "There are lots of districts in southern and southeastern Afghanistan where the government has no presence and we are in control," he said.
Taliban claims to control certain far-flung areas of Afghanistan are dismissed by military officials, who say they are only able to assert a presence for brief periods before being removed.
The movement regularly uses propaganda and threats in its campaign.
The Taliban government destroyed Afghanistan's already war-shattered education system.
It prevented girls from going to school and women from working, which meant most teachers had to give up their jobs.
Lessons were focused on the Taliban's extremist version of Islam.
Since it was toppled, the group has launched scores of bomb and arson attacks on schools, destroying many.
Education Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar said in August suspected Taliban attacks had killed at least 41 teachers and students in the previous 12 months, and security concerns had forced 208 schools to close.
Educating Afghanistan's mostly illiterate population is a priority for the new government, but not for many rural Afghans struggling to get by, especially where girls are concerned.
More on link
