According to media reports, the Taliban have recently reached undisclosed agreements with the international community, notably the United States, where girls’ schools will be transformed into religious schools and reopened. This plan will be implemented gradually, aiming to achieve an accomplishment for the Biden administration regarding the situation in Afghanistan and serving as a conduit for the Taliban to gain international legitimacy. So far, some girls’ schools have been reopened in certain southern provinces under the same name. Ghazni province has also reported that some private schools have converted their girls’ section into a madrasa and obtained school licenses. For the shareholders of these schools, reopening girls’ schools under any name and with any educational program is profitable. This deal benefits both sides in the short term, but for the people of Afghanistan, especially girls, it is an illogical and dangerous scheme.
A religious school operating under the Ministry of Education under Taliban control undoubtedly aligns with their educational agenda. This group, which had formed a committee to review the academic curriculum before the fall of the previous government of Afghanistan, meticulously scrutinized school subjects and, after months of work, presented a comprehensive plan for its “Islamization” under the leadership of this group. The removal of certain subjects from the curriculum, such as culture, drawing, and civil education, is a subset of this Islamization plan. It should be noted that subjects like culture and drawing are considered un-Islamic by the Taliban. On the other hand, this group has established centers called “Jihadi Schools” in various provinces, which are said to primarily focus on training military forces and preparing them for death. The plan to build thousands of other religious schools in all districts and provinces of Afghanistan is being implemented alongside this. This is while even before the Taliban’s takeover, thousands of religious schools were active throughout the country. According to the National Statistic and Information Authority (NSIA), “In 2021, 794 madrasas, 219 Dar al-Hifaz, and 110 Dar al-Ulums were active under the Ministry of Education.” Ministry of Education statistics for 2021 also state that “only in registered public and private religious centers under this ministry, 318,072 students, including 84,015 girls, were engaged in traditional education.” More than 84,000 female students only received traditional education in public religious schools in 2021, while it can be asserted that more than half of the schools in Afghanistan were not registered with the government at all. Considering the estimated number of female students in public and private religious schools, approximately 200,000 girls were receiving religious education by the end of the Republic era. When we look at these statistics, the greater absurdity of the proposal to establish madrasas becomes more prominent.
Now that the Taliban have manipulated university curriculums and school syllabuses, removing civil and humane values and replacing them with content promoting Taliban ideology, the situation in religious schools has become even more dire. These schools, due to their adaptation to the Taliban’s curriculum, directly contribute to the promotion of extremism in Afghanistan.
Due to the existence of thousands of religious schools in the country, the plan to convert modern school systems into madrasas is not only a blatant regression in the field of education but also an unnecessary and illogical scheme. Educating millions of men and women in a society currently tainted by mullahs makes no sense. Graduates of these schools neither acquire sufficient literacy nor possess the skills to create employment opportunities. They cannot even work in private companies or domestic and international organizations. Within the government bureaucracy, they cannot perform specialized and professional tasks. Educating millions of unskilled individuals and releasing them into a job market already stagnant makes no sense. If this plan is implemented under any pretext, it only serves to promote extremism in society through the curriculum crafted by the Taliban and the teachers they employ. No other outcome can be expected from these centers.
Another illogical aspect of this plan is the Taliban’s opposition to Ja’fari jurisprudence. Afghanistan is the common land of all its citizens, and in national-level plans, all residents of this land must be considered. As soon as they seized control of the country, the Taliban banned the teaching of Ja’fari jurisprudence at universities. Ja’fari jurisprudence was previously taught in a few select universities that had Shia students, especially in Bamyan University. Not long ago, Mullah Neda Mohammad Nadeem, the acting head of the Taliban’s Ministry of Higher Education, claimed that all Afghans are followers of the Hanafi school of thought, while Afghan Shias roughly estimate their population to be around 20 percent. Although there are no precise statistics in Afghanistan, no one can deny the existence of followers of various religions in the country, except for Mullah Nadeem. Therefore, if modern girls’ schools across the country are converted to religious schools, considering the Taliban’s hostility and opposition to Ja’fari jurisprudence, what will be the fate of Shia girl students? There is a strong possibility that the Taliban will not allow them to learn religious teachings based on Ja’fari jurisprudence. In that case, what logic can be found in teaching Hanafi jurisprudence to Salafis or Shias? Someone who studies in a religious school cannot aspire to anything beyond religion and sect, and if someone cannot learn religious teachings based on their religion, then the absurdity of this plan becomes even more evident.
If the Taliban teach Sunni jurisprudence to Shia female students, they will undoubtedly refuse to attend those madrasas, resulting in their exclusion from the country’s educational system. Even if they allow the teaching of Ja’fari jurisprudence, the Taliban’s hand in it is already evident, precluding any logical justification. Even if the Taliban refrain from their obstinacy and allow the teaching of this jurisprudence, educating millions of women without skills for society makes no sense. Therefore, the proposal to establish a madrasa is a terrifying, illogical regression aimed at promoting extremism and terrorism, regardless of the curriculum or jurisprudence.
This article in Persian:
طرح غیرمنطقی مدرسهسازی مکاتب دخترانه؛ دختران شیعه حذف میشوند؟
