Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Tuesday, March 19th, 2024

The Harm of Taliban’s Anti-Education Discourse and Tradition

A nation should not be let down by hardships and difficulties. As the country is to transition to democracy and embrace modern values of citizenry and human rights, education comes to play an important role. An educated person can be a better citizen and share the burdens of the society. After the fall of the Taliban, Afghanistan has taken some tremendous strides in the field of education.

But it still encounters huge challenges that deprive Afghan children of education. Education can instill life and spirit into the society. That is why it is mandatory upon both male and female Muslims in true Islamic teachings.

The eternal and everlasting miracle of Islam is the Holy Quran that is supposed to guide Muslims how to live. The first verse of this Holy Book of Islam revealed to the holy Prophet concerns reading, which is possible through schooling and education.

In principle, it should provide enough incentives for Muslims in general and Afghans in particular to surpass in education, which can help them build an ideal society. Distancing from the true spirit and message of Islam, there are people in Islamic societies that oppose education or specific type of education or education for girls and women.

The Taliban militants lie in this category of Muslims and look askance at education and do not allow girls to go to school. They allow only the sort of education that teaches how blow oneself up to kill innocent people.

Unfortunately, in our Islamic society of Afghanistan, Muslim girls are either deprived of education or face many threats. In Islamic society of ours, girls have lost their eyes and faces in acid attacks just because they were going to school to fulfill an obligatory instruction of their conspicuous faith of Islam and to exercise a very basic human right.

Now the Ministry of Education has said that insecurity and tradition deprive Afghan children of schooling. According to the ministry, around 500 schools remain closed across the country and as a result about 4 million Afghan children do not have access to education.

The anti-education discourse of Taliban together with tradition, which also makes a key component of Taliban's line of thinking, continue to deal an irreparable harm to Afghanistan, which is leaving a generation uneducated. Afghan government must leave no stone unturned to prevent this.