The Symbolism of Education as Threat

The feared and universally detested Taliban - other than for the respect accorded them by other fundamentalist Islamists - denied education to girls and women when they were the ruling power in Afghanistan. Educators who attempted to defy the Taliban prohibition against educating girls were targeted for execution.

As were women who attempted to gain an education, or to make themselves a place in the workforce, or elect to abstain from wearing full burkas and niqabs, or to refuse multi-marriages to elderly strangers approved by mullahs, or those who might exercise the effrontery to religious dogma to engage in singing or dancing or listening to music in public places.

There is a new government in Afghanistan, albeit a struggling and troubled one, fighting its own internal and external corruption among its members. But dedicated withal to a new kind of country and a more responsively responsible government more aligned with a type of democracy than the former theocratic dictatorship.

The Taliban, although ousted from power, is resurgent and continues to have support from hard-line, traditional Muslims in the provinces, particularly Kandahar.

A world away lived a child of Slovakian refugees to Canada, a man who trained and worked as an expert carpenter, in Vancouver. This man, Mike Frastacky, was a world traveller who visited countries as remote as the Western Sahara, Yemen and Madagascar, as well as Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan. But he always came back to Vancouver, to Canada, where his home was, although he was particularly taken with the mountainous regions around Afghanistan.

He was aghast at the endemic poverty he saw in Afghanistan, a country that needed all manner of civic infrastructure, a country mired in a deeply conservative religious tradition, suspicious of foreigners, prey to foreign-funded Islamist groups, and where resistance to change, to any alteration in the traditional way of life was as fierce as their violently antagonistic response to interlopers.

But he decided to dedicate himself to helping out as much as he could in one small corner of that benighted country, to help the children who could not help themselves. He decided he would be directly instrumental in furthering the futures of Afghan children by providing them with the means for an education. He raised money, hired local people and began to build the galvanized steel structures that would become the Maktab Hazrat Osman School in northern Afghanistan's Baghlan province.

He used the skills of his trade and money he himself contributed and also collected from friends and supporters, some US$80,000 in all. He built classrooms, a well and a library stocked with books. He organized seminars for teachers, as well as an adult women's education class. He continued to work in Vancouver as a cabinetmaker and finishing carpenter, and returned to Nahrin, Afghanistan each year for several months at a time.

At the school there are 20 instructors teaching math, science, English, history and geography, along with Pashto, Dari, Arabic, the Koran, poetry and physical education. The school teaches grades 1 to 6, with an additional grade scheduled to come on line with each succeeding year. The students come from ten nearby villages; some 600 in number. Needless to say, Mr. Frastacky is held in the highest esteem in the area.

The school is thriving, children are happy to be able to learn, many have aspirations to go on to higher learning, some set their sights on medicine, the law, teaching; one child suggests she would like to become president of her country. "All of Nahrin knew and loved Mr. Mike," said Abdul Qadir, who runs the local pharmacy. "What a good man, and God bless him."

In this volatile area, programmes meant to disarm militant groups have been poorly implemented, and warlords busy with illegal poppy crops, and crimes taking place on a daily basis. The province began slowly descending into lawlessness. The police were not to be trusted; underpaid, poorly trained and bribe-prone, close to warlords, gangs and insurgents.

On June 23, 2006, Mike Frastacky was murdered by intruders into his home, situated close by the school he loved. His bodyguard wasn't able to protect him, nor his many friends. The villagers, alerted to his plight, came too late to apprehend the black-headscarved attackers. Mr. Frastacky knew he might be in danger as a foreigner, but he thought he might be safe in the village where he was known and respected.

Alas, fundamentalist Islamists do not respect nor acknowledge the humanity of other people, of foreigners, and most particularly teachers, or those who conspire to enable the teaching of Afghan girls.