[Peace-discuss] Fwd: Gunmen Close Girls School in Afghanistan

[Margaret E. Kosal]

sigh ...

Feminist Daily News Wire
October 15, 2002



Gunmen Close Girls' School in AfghanistanIn the seventh incident in a 
series of attacks on girls' schools in Afghanistan, gunmen recently forced 
a school in the Wardak province that served 1,300 girls to close. The 
government-run newspaper, the Arman-e-Millie Daily, reported that the 
gunmen threatened students at the school southwest of the Afghan capitol, 
Kabul, according to Reuters.

This attack follows the burning of two girls' schools in the northern 
provinces as well as three in the southeastern province of Zabul over the 
past few weeks. The schools in the northern provinces were burned shortly 
after pamphlets were distributed around mosques in those areas warning 
women to continue wearing their burqas. Among the two dozen people arrested 
in connection with that incident were four local clerics sympathetic to the 
fundamentalist Taliban, according to Reuters. Under the Taliban, girls were 
prohibited from attending school.

In addition, a girls' school was bombed in the Ghazni province last month. 
There were no casualties, but the school had to be closed for several days, 
delaying the education of Afghan girls, according to Reuters.

Despite the continued violence in Afghanistan, the State Department last 
month issued a report questioning the expansion of peacekeeping troops 
outside of Kabul. Afghan women have indicated that security is their top 
priority. Threats to Loya Jirga delegates who have spoken out for human 
rights, including Minister of Women's Affairs Dr. Sima Samar; the 
assassination of two government ministers; violence against women in the 
Northern provinces; violence against humanitarian aid workers; and the 
continued use of tactics of intimidation against the return of girls to 
school show the need for expansion of peace keeping forces both within and 
beyond Kabul is desperate.

Feminist.org: Your daily source for the feminist perspective on national 
and global events. Media Resources: Reuters 10/14/02; Feminist Daily News Wire