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July 9th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
The Afghan
government has already claimed that the insurgents have dropped their
opposition to female education, however the Taliban position remains unclear
and many doubt the fundamentalist group has mellowed.
Schools continue to be attacked and closed by force in some areas.
Analysts debate how much is because of ideology and how much local power
struggles with the government.
“I’m not sure it’s a softer stance, I think you would call it a more
politically aware stance about their previous shortcomings on education,”
said David Haines, Mercy Corps’ Afghanistan director.
“That’s not to say they have become wildly liberal.
“I think they know that education is the will of the people. Every
community we work in tells us that education is important to them.”
Being transparent about what the colleges are offering and using
well-connected local staff have been the secrets of success so far, he said.
Benefsha, a 16-year-old, described her computer class in Lashkar Gah as “a
great benefit for our future.”
“Everything works by computers these days,” she explained in
excellent English, standing before a class of veiled girls seated at
computer monitors.
“Also many families don’t want their daughters taught by men, so the more
females learn, the more female teachers there can be.”
Girls must be over 15, though many look far younger, and classes are due to
spread from Lashkar Gah and Gereshk to areas like Musa Qala, Marja and
perhaps even Sangin.
Boys are taught too, at separate colleges, in extra skills such as wiring,
motorcycle maintenance and carpentry.
Roughly a thousand girls already take part in classes and there are far more
on the waiting list. Some of the girls’ brothers and husbands still wait
outside the college during lessons to escort them home and ensure
impropriety is avoided.
As Nato troops leave Afghanistan and hand over fighting the insurgency to
Afghan forces, education is seen by some as a bellwether for the nation’s
future after 2014 and developments in Helmand will be closely watched.
After the repression of the Taliban era, the fact that millions of girls have
been able to attend school is seen as one of the great successes of the past
decade.
But the Taliban have not been defeated and their position remains crucial to
how girls’ education fares in large parts of the country where the
government has little power.
The current stance of the Taliban remains obscure. Many are convinced a wave
of apparent mass poisonings at girls’ schools is continuing evidence of
Taliban opposition to girls schooling.
The Taliban have denied the attacks. The World Health Organisation, which has
studied 32 such incidents, has found no conclusive evidence of poisoning and
believes the fainting attacks are probably mass hysteria.
Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, appeared to concede the
movement had shortcomings over education during its government, seemingly
blaming a lack of money. However he also said the current system of
education was unacceptable.
“During our government in Afghanistan we were busy with battles and in
that time we couldn’t provide an Islamic environment for female education.
In that time even the educational environment for boys was difficult.”
He claimed the government had asked for funding from the United Nations and
international community to provide female education, but didn’t receive it.
“More than that, they have used female education as a political device
against us,” he added.
The Taliban were not opposed to girls’ education “in an Islamic framework”,
he said, but added “now in this situation in Afghanistan the school s
and other educational environment are not in an Islamic frame”. He did
not elaborate on what such a framework would include.
Wazhma Frogh, a women’s rights activist, rejected that a change had genuinely
taken place.
She said claims of a softening Taliban stance, or protestations that school
poisonings were not real, were a political move to encourage acceptance of a
quick peace deal with the insurgents.
“They claim they have changed but it’s fabricated. It’s become
politicised to push reconciliation. There’s been no formal indication from
Mullah Omar [the Taliban leader], or his team. What we see on the
ground is that they are scaring and attacking more and more people.”
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