Insurgent Threats
Canada is doing truly commendable work in Afghanistan. Through CIDA and the funding of other humanitarian agencies, along with volunteer work on the part of Canadians from various walks of public life, and the dispatching of Canadian Armed Forces personnel to the country, the commitment to aid and assist a backward nation is ongoing.
Above all, the future lies in the country's children. And the need to have those children well educated is fundamental to the future of the country. Which is precisely why the Taliban - the "scholars" - have no wish to have Afghan children educated, other than within the precincts and the confines of the very same madrassas and divine scriptures in a language foreign to Afghanistan, where they themselves received their education.
Ensuring that the message of surrender to the will of Allah through the will of the Taliban is paramount. Boys may attend school, girls may not, for the place of women and girls in a Sharia-led society has always been and will continue to be confined to the home. Penalties can be harsh by any standards; death, dismemberment, acid attacks.
Traditionally in fundamentalist Muslim societies such as Afghanistan - particularly in the provinces - the presence of women was confined to the home. In public that presence was muted and shrouded, and even then there was the requirement of being escorted by a male family member. The modesty of Muslim women was ensured by completely cloaking their femininity, ensuring that no stray male eyes could assault her status as a possession of a father or a husband.
The Canadian military, tasked with the construction of schools for Afghan children to attend in their mountain villages, are bemused, puzzled and angered that such schools remain unused. In villages where the residents fear the backlash of permitting their children to become educated. Where lurking in the dark of night are neighbours who support the Taliban and who may themselves be Taliban and who bear threats.
These same villages where the elders during an arranged shura will assure their interlocutors that there are no IEDs in the area, and if there were any, their presence and purpose would be a complete mystery to them. And sometimes the information that as long as the Taliban are present, there cannot possibly be any collaboration with foreign troops because the penalty is so dire; life itself.
Canadian and Afghan patrols arrive in remote villages to ask the impossible of the villagers. Allow us to employ you in building useful public structures. Allow us to assure you that your children will be safe if you permit them to attend school. There is great remorse among some villagers as they bemoan the fact that they cannot and may not, for the Canadian and the Afghan military and police will depart.
And the Taliban will then arrive under cover of night, to threaten and to exact their method of justice in the battle for the 'hearts and minds' of Afghans.
Above all, the future lies in the country's children. And the need to have those children well educated is fundamental to the future of the country. Which is precisely why the Taliban - the "scholars" - have no wish to have Afghan children educated, other than within the precincts and the confines of the very same madrassas and divine scriptures in a language foreign to Afghanistan, where they themselves received their education.
Ensuring that the message of surrender to the will of Allah through the will of the Taliban is paramount. Boys may attend school, girls may not, for the place of women and girls in a Sharia-led society has always been and will continue to be confined to the home. Penalties can be harsh by any standards; death, dismemberment, acid attacks.
Traditionally in fundamentalist Muslim societies such as Afghanistan - particularly in the provinces - the presence of women was confined to the home. In public that presence was muted and shrouded, and even then there was the requirement of being escorted by a male family member. The modesty of Muslim women was ensured by completely cloaking their femininity, ensuring that no stray male eyes could assault her status as a possession of a father or a husband.
The Canadian military, tasked with the construction of schools for Afghan children to attend in their mountain villages, are bemused, puzzled and angered that such schools remain unused. In villages where the residents fear the backlash of permitting their children to become educated. Where lurking in the dark of night are neighbours who support the Taliban and who may themselves be Taliban and who bear threats.
These same villages where the elders during an arranged shura will assure their interlocutors that there are no IEDs in the area, and if there were any, their presence and purpose would be a complete mystery to them. And sometimes the information that as long as the Taliban are present, there cannot possibly be any collaboration with foreign troops because the penalty is so dire; life itself.
Canadian and Afghan patrols arrive in remote villages to ask the impossible of the villagers. Allow us to employ you in building useful public structures. Allow us to assure you that your children will be safe if you permit them to attend school. There is great remorse among some villagers as they bemoan the fact that they cannot and may not, for the Canadian and the Afghan military and police will depart.
And the Taliban will then arrive under cover of night, to threaten and to exact their method of justice in the battle for the 'hearts and minds' of Afghans.
Labels: Afghanistan, Crisis Politics, Peace, Poverty
posted by Pieface | 2:27 PM
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