The Miseducati0n 0f Afghan Refugees:
The Miseducati0n 0f Afghan Refugees:
A brief review 0f hist0ry illustrates the effects 0f
neglecting educati0n in Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan. When
Afghans first came t0 Pakistan as a way t0 escape
the h0rr0rs 0f war in their 0wn c0untry, they were placed in refugee camps in
the N0rth West Fr0ntier Pr0vince (NWFP) and Bal0chistan,
the tw0 western pr0vinces that b0rder Afghanistan. Quite than create secular
“m0dern” sch00ls in the refugee camps, the c0nservative,
Islamist military g0vernment 0f
Zia-ul-Has set up Madaris (s: madrasah; religi0us
seminary) (Haqqani, 2002). During the C0ld War, supp0rt f0r these sch00ls n0t 0nly came fr0m the Pakistani g0vernment, but als0 fr0m Saudi Arabia as well as the United States
as they pr0vided a way t0 c0ntinue the supply 0f recruits f0r the U.S. backed Afghani resistance against
the S0viets (Haqqani, 2002). 0nce the S0viet-Afghan war ended, the imp0rtance 0f these
madaris t0 the Western w0rld diminished[1].
H0wever, funding c0ntinued t0 c0me fr0m Saudi Arabia and the number 0f madaris
grew. In an Fr0ntline (2001) interview Pr0fess0r Vali
Nasr, referring t0 madaris in Pakistan, suggests: Due t0 their
d0gmatic nature, these sch00ls are 0ften a p00r pr0vider 0f educati0n. Students, wh0 are typically male, are taught t0 mem0rize
the Qur'an. Additi0nally, the curriculum may include further
religi0us educati0n such as Islamic jurisprudence, sayings and
acti0ns 0f Pr0phet Muhammad, and interpretati0ns 0f the
Qur’an (Anzar, 2003). Subject’s bey0nd the sc0pe 0f religi0n, h0wever, are rarely included. Whether students
are functi0nally literate at the end 0f their studies is highly questi0nable. M0re w0rris0me is
the fact that graduates fr0m a number 0f these seminaries have been resp0nsible
f0r many 0f the terr0rist activities in recent years. The f0rmer
Taliban leader, Mullah Umar, and many 0f his c0mpatri0ts were in fact graduates 0f 0ne 0f the
largest and m0st extremist seminaries in Pakistan, Darul-ul00m-
Haqqania, l0cated in NWFP in cl0se pr0ximity t0 many Afghan refugee camps (Haqqani, 2002). In the f0ll0wing pages, I argue that because 0f a
lack 0f attenti0n given by the internati0nal c0mmunity t0 Afghan refugees and their educati0n
during and after the S0viet-Afghan war peri0d,
madaris, particularly vi0lent 0nes, have gr0wn in number and have been able t0 find a c0ntinu0us supply 0f students and recruits f0r vari0us causes ar0und the w0rld. T0day these seminaries are l0cated thr0ugh0ut Pakistan and number in the th0usands,
0f which an estimated five th0usand preach a vi0lent, hateful f0rm 0f Islam (Singer, 2001; Stern, 2000). A recent study fr0m
Harvard University challenges this figure arguing that it is a greatly inflated number based 0n und0cumented s0urces. Yet, even the auth0rs 0f this study admit that in NWFP, the regi0n where the bulk 0f Afghan refugees live, the number 0f Madaris has in fact gr0wn 0ver the
past fifteen years[2]. M0re0ver,
they suggest that there is link between events 0ccurring
in Afghanistan and the increase
in numbers 0f students attending Madaris: “The largest
jump in Madrassa enr0llment (in NWFP)
is f0r the c0h0rt aged 10 in the peri0d 1989- 93 c0inciding with the drawl 0f the S0viet Uni0n and the rise 0f the Taliban”. 0f m0st c0ncern is their finding that the likelih00d that parents will send their children t0 Madaris
increases when they have
n0 0ther sch00l 0pti0ns. The cl0sing d0wn 0f sch00ls in the Afghan refugee camps and the l0w pri0rity 0f educati0n am0ng d0n0r c0untries is an invitati0n t0 the Madaris t0 step in 0nce again and help c0ntinue
the trend t0wards functi0nally illiterate pe0ple at
best and new empl0yees f0r the terr0rist Islamic.
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