Taliban continue war against girls

Times:

The Taliban have ordered the closure of all girls’ schools in the war-ravaged Swat district and warned parents and teachers of dire consequences if the ban is flouted.

In an announcement made in mosques and broadcast on radio, the militant group set a deadline of January 15 for its order to be obeyed or it would blow up school buildings and attack schoolgirls. It also told women not to set foot outside their homes without being fully covered.

“Female education is against Islamic teachings and spreads vulgarity in society,” Shah Dauran, leader of a group that has established control over a large part of Swat district in the North West Frontier Province, declared this week.

Teachers said that they had little choice but to comply. The Taliban have destroyed more than 125 girls’ schools in the area in the past year. Swat, once a relatively liberal area and a popular tourist destination, has in the past few years become a heartland for Pakistan’s Islamic militancy, which fashions itself on the conservative Taliban movement in Afghanistan.

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The lack of intelligence among the men in the Taliban must make them fear an educated woman. Muslims educate women elsewhere in the world, but it is the unenlightened Taliban who are willing to murder and terrorize to keep women ignorant. That is both sad and outrageous. Note that Swat is on the Pakistan side of the border. Apparently, no one is willing to tell the Taliban they are idiots.