A War on Schoolgirls

Nevertheless, the Kabul government is losing popular support, in part because it seems unable to prevent such attacks. U.N. and AIHRC officials say few if any school arsonists have been arrested. People in Laghman province tend to blame President Hamid Karzai as much as they blame the Taliban for their vulnerability. "The authorities haven't done anything to help us," says Abdul Rauf, the principal in Mandrawar. Rabi, his colleague just up the highway, adds: "When we look at what Karzai and the local government are doing for us, we are not optimistic about our future. In terms of education and security, I'd say we're making zero progress."

Ordinary Afghans seem especially angry at their local police. The country's law enforcers have a reputation for crookedness, and people say that the schools get little or no protection. "The police spend their time patrolling for money, but not protecting citizens and schools," says Mulvi Said Rahman, a member of Parliament from Laghman. A year ago, Rahman says, he persuaded several fighters from the province to quit the Taliban and come home, but before long they rejoined the extremists--fed up with incessant police shakedowns. "Two years ago there were no Taliban around here," Rahman adds. "Now a lot of people support the Taliban. They are tired of official corruption and abuse of power." The arsonists may be trying to muddy the cops' name even more: at two of the Laghman schools that were torched, the watchmen say the attackers wore police uniforms.

All the same, the people of Laghman province are refusing to give up what their daughters have gained. Security forces are stretched too thin to assign sentries to every school, even with U.S. and NATO backup, but the province's elders have signed letters of support for their girls' schools, promising that villagers will post their own guards if they have to. "The Taliban are cowards," says Col. Tom Collins, the U.S. military spokesman in Kabul. "They operate in places where there's not much government presence to stop them." In response to the recent surge of school burnings and other Taliban attacks, U.S., NATO and Afghan forces have launched a major counteroffensive deep into the lawless high country of southern Afghanistan. One measure of Operation Mountain Thrust's success or failure will be whether Nooria is back in class next fall. She certainly hopes to be.

© 2006