Recently, there has been a significant escalation in the debate surrounding converting modern girls’ schools into Madrasas. Reports suggest that the Biden administration, on the verge of elections, aims to achieve progress in Afghanistan to mitigate the fallout from its tumultuous withdrawal and present a compelling narrative for American voters. This endeavor encompasses the reopening of girls’ schools for students beyond the sixth grade. As a result, recent events have focused Afghanistan’s challenges on the closure of girls’ schools, aiming to highlight this issue and attain a milestone by resolving it. Conversely, the reopening of girls’ schools stands as one of the prerequisites set by Western governments for deeper engagement with the Taliban faction and, ultimately, the formal acknowledgment of their authority. Given the Taliban’s ideological stance against reopening girls’ schools or dissenting from their leadership’s directives, Taliban officials are seeking a middle ground to appease both Mullah Haibatullah and the group’s militants while fostering increased interaction with other nations. This compromise, seemingly endorsed by the United States, involves repurposing girls’ schools into religious institutions and reopening their doors—a scheme that already appears highly precarious.
However, the educational problem in Afghanistan is not solely summarized by the closure of schools and universities for girls. While this is a significant part of the issue, it is not the entirety. In Afghanistan, currently, more crucial than the absence of professional teachers and standard schools is the debate over the curriculum. The situation in universities mirrors that of schools. When the Taliban regained power, they established a committee to review the curriculum. This committee scrutinized all subjects from the first to twelfth grades and aligned them with the group’s ideology. Anything deemed contrary to their ideology, traditions, or Sharia law was struck off the curriculum. Instead, it was suggested to include “jihadist values” to instill a spirit of jihad in students, essentially indoctrinating them in the Taliban’s worldview. Jihad, according to the Taliban, encompasses the massacre of the people of Afghanistan, a reality witnessed throughout the nearly three decades of this group’s existence. With their return to power, the Taliban initiated changes to the curriculum of schools and universities. Increasing weekly class hours of Islamic culture from one hour to four in universities was one of their initial steps. Following that, they made numerous alterations to the university and school curriculum. This situation poses a fundamental question to the people of Afghanistan: Is keeping schools open with a Taliban-influenced curriculum beneficial, regardless of whether they are girls’ or boys’ schools? The same question arises regarding universities.
Now, the middle-ground solution to the issue of girls’ schools lies precisely in converting them to religious schools better known as madrasas. When people are concerned about the educational curriculum in schools and fear the radicalization of their children by fundamentalists, the situation in religious schools run by the Taliban, as the executors and founders, becomes much more perilous. The curriculum of these religious schools will undoubtedly be designed to bear little difference from the jihadist schools of this group. In Taliban-run schools, students are taught combat skills and indoctrinated with the necessity of suicide attacks. No output from a Taliban school can be deemed normal; those innocent children will eventually become fundamentalists and terrorists. The entry of girls into such centers and years of education there will also radicalize them. Thus, terrorism and fundamentalism will find their way into people’s homes.
Another problem is the unnecessary nature of this endeavor. While Afghanistan was already saturated with clerics even before Taliban rule, and perhaps had more than necessary, training more clerics only means removing capable individuals from the workforce and turning them into unproductive members of society. Those graduating from religious schools rarely can provide for their families through work and economic activities, if we don’t consider religion as a source of sustenance apart from clerical duties. They do not contribute effectively to factories, commerce, agriculture, industry, and other useful fields. Taliban clerics’ only productive output lies in producing barrel bombs. The education of a significant number of such individuals affects the economic situation and per capita production. However, this is the least of the damages brought to Afghanistan by educational initiatives. The major damages lie in the promotion of violence, proliferation of fundamentalism, and expansion of terrorism, resulting in numerous bloodshed and destruction.
Moreover, educating clerics to become clerics themselves is futile. If it were profitable, the Taliban wouldn’t start to give official educational certificates to enter the formal system of modern education and utilize its credibility. In other countries like Iran, we see clerics entering the formal education system to break out of stagnation and even attend universities. Even in the Taliban regime, the output from religious schools cannot be used, except for a few subjects. Therefore, this group is compelled to gift their affiliated seminary students with educational certificates and documents from universities and schools to utilize the credibility of these official educational institutions, nothing else. Those who obtain these documents through charity and generosity have no voice in practical matters and cannot enter industries, commerce, and other specialized professions. The government bureaucracy, as the Taliban regime is not accountable to anyone, might be the only option for these clerics. Therefore, converting modern schools to religious schools—whether for girls or boys—in practice, is a futile endeavor. It benefits neither the country nor society nor the individuals receiving education there. Such schemes are political ploys with destructive consequences and compounded damages.
Religious education in the country is not at a level to even reasonably teach religious matters to students. Hence, they are forced to go abroad to continue their religious studies. The makeshift options are Pakistan and Iran. Particularly in Pakistan, most of them are trained as terrorists, taught bomb-making, and transformed into suicide bombers. Thus, establishing religious schools perpetuates terrorism. Even this option is not available for girls. Considering the policies of the Taliban, a girl who graduates from a madrasa and wishes to continue her religious studies has no option. However, ultimately, this is in their favor. Therefore, by attending schools, especially under Taliban supervision, their time is wasted. There is nothing beyond this waiting for girls who attend or wish to attend school. They will go to the madrasas, practice fundamentalism, bring it home, and ultimately become unproductive.