Taliban Violently Campaigns Against Girls' Education in Northwest Pakistan

August 27, 2008 (WorldPolitics) - The Swat valley, a picturesque region in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan, was once a tourist destination. Two years ago, however, it became a Taliban haven when Maulana Fazlullah, a hardline cleric turned militant Taliban commander, launched a vicious campaign against the education of girls.

Unlike much of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) to the east, along the 1,400-mile border with Afghanistan, the Swat valley has historically been known for the relatively liberal values and traditions of its people, as well as its mesmerizing natural scenery.

When Buddhism was the primary influence in the area, from about the 1st century B.C. to the the 9th century A.D., the Swat valley was a regional seat of learning, a destination for knowledge-seekers from central Asia and China.

Under Miangul Abdul Haq Jehanzeb, the last Wali (ruler) of the princely state of Swat, then part of India, who ruled from 1949 until the Swat state was dissolved and became part of Pakistan in 1969, special attention was paid to education in general and the education of girls in particular.

In fact, Fazlullah himself received his intermediate education at the Government Post Graduate Jehanzeb College in Mingwara, an institution established by the benevolent Wali in 1952.

The last Wali of Swat considered girls' education essential for socioeconomic development, and he introduced co-education in all state schools, according to local history professor Sultan-e-Room.

Almost 50 years after the end of the progressive Wali's rule, however, Islamist militant groups in the region appear bent on denying an education to thousands of young girls in Swat and neighboring districts of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Fazlullah's campaign against girls' schools, which he has fostered via broadcasts on a pirate FM radio station, is among the most damaging.

At the outset of his crusade, in 2006, Fazlullah decreed that women should remain within the four walls of their homes and refrain from attending school. He also discouraged female health workers from performing their duties in nearby health facilities, and interfered with a polio vaccination campaign in the Swat valley. He claimed that the vaccination effort was "a Western conspiracy to make Muslims infertile so that their numbers could not grow," according to the Jamestown Foundation's Terrorism Focus.

During his nightly radio broadcasts, Fazlullah routinely announced the names of female students who had stopped attending school and promised them a high place in paradise.

"Girls' education leads to obscenity and vulgarity in the society. This is a conspiracy of the United States and other 'infidel' nations to deviate our younger generations from the right path of Islam," he said in one of his many radio sermons, which can be heard within a 40-kilometer radius of his base of operations.

In November 2007, then-Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf sent 25,000 security forces to fight Fazlullah's militants in Swat. The military action achieved partial success by dislodging militants from Fazlullah's headquarters in Mamdheri. Subsequently, the militant leader established bases in the towns of Matta and Kabal and opened Shariah courts in Gat Peuchar, in upper Swat.

Earlier this year, Pakistan military officials claimed that the area had been cleared of Fazlullah's influence and that a number of his militants had been killed. However, Fazlullah subsequently launched a new campaign and began targeting girls schools in different parts of the valley.

According to government officials, more than 90 girls' schools have been either burned or bombed by militants associated with Fazlullah. Other independent sources claim that a total of 135 girls' schools have been destroyed since July 2006.

In a mid-July telephone interview from the Mingawara Press Club, Fazlullah spokesman Muslim Khan, contradicting earlier denials, admitted his group's involvement in attacking girls' schools.

"These schools were used by the security forces as bunkers. That's why we attacked them," he said.

In the wake of Pakistan's Feb. 18 general elections, the Awami National Party, a Pashtun nationalist party, came to power in the NWFP. As part of a changed anti-terror policy, the new government signed a peace agreement with Taliban militants in the Swat valley on May 21, 2008.

The peace agreement failed to restore peace to the volatile region, and many believe that it strengthened the militants' hand. Khadim Hussain Amir, an Islamabad-based political analyst, says the agreement gave the militants the time and opportunity they needed to regroup and strengthen their positions against government security forces.

"The peace agreement emboldened militants to re-establish their contacts with militant groups in Pakistan's chaotic tribal areas and to challenge government authority in the adjoining districts of Buner, Dir and Shangla," Amir explained. He added that Fazlullah attacks schools as a way to guarantee future recruits for his movement.

The prevailing fear in the Swat valley has forced thousands of girls and young women to become prisoners in their homes and has put an end to their educational careers, though some brave parents have shifted their children to other schools in the province.
Zia-ud-Din Yousafzai, secretary of the Swat Schools Association, says that the education of the area's girls is the main casualty in the conflict between the Taliban and Pakistan security forces. She estimates that 80,000 girls have been affected by the Taliban "jihad" against female education.

"The majority of the children are suffering from acute psychological trauma and they have lost interest in their studies," Yousafzai said.

From:http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/article.aspx?id=2599