Civil Fights

All of which highlights the irresponsibility of the Afghan Independent Election Commission's plans to set up polling stations in schools and health centers, especially in the country's unstable east and south.

Earlier this year international and nongovernmental organizations cautioned that bringing ballots into clinics would endanger patients and health workers by exposing them to attack. Insurgents have already destroyed two health centers, in Kunar and in Kandahar, because they were being used for voter registration. In May, the Afghan government dropped its plan to use health centers as polling stations. But no such decision has been made—yet—about schools.

This means that the insurgents, who have already thrown acid in schoolgirls' faces, attacked others with poison, and repeatedly threatened educational institutions with violence, will have one additional reason to target schools. This situation could be avoided in the most volatile parts of the country by housing the polling stations in banks or courthouses (where these exist) or, in extreme cases, by putting them in tents, as was done in Bosnia.

A humbling postscript: during my visit, I went to the Bibi Aisha High School in the eastern town of Jalalabad. It has 4,900 pupils, all female. We did not discuss military offensives or the election; instead, I asked them what they wanted to do after graduation. Half of them said they aspired to be teachers. I was elated by such a defiant response; these young women are bound to bring positive change and some gender equality to Afghanistan, despite the insurgents' best efforts. Yet when school was over and the girls got up to leave, I was stunned to see every single one of them reach under their desks for a blue burqa. It was a potent reminder of the way things still work in Afghanistan.

Anna Husarska Is Senior Policy Adviser At The International Rescue Committee, Which Has Been Working In Afghanistan Since 1988.

© 2009