The activities of the religious fundamentalists to discourage education of the girls in Afghanistan continue as around 70 other schoolgirls have been poisoned in western Herat province. In about a couple of weeks more than 400 school girls have been poisoned in the province.

According to the reports around 70 girls were poisoned on Monday, September 07, 2015, in Naveen Safli School in Injil district at around 8am. Previously, 190 schoolgirls were poisoned at the Habib Al-Mustafa School in the same district and another 160 were poisoned in Abdul Ali Tokhi School in Herat City.

This is really alarming and shows the ill intentions of the religious fundamentalists, mostly Taliban. With their activities they want to discourage female education as much as possible, which has had considerable development after the downfall of Taliban. It is really imperative to have a check on the impunity with which they target the female schools and the continuation of such activities. There are fears that a wave of such attacks may start throughout the country and it would be really difficult to control the situation. 

Afghanistan is one of the countries that are highly influenced by such people who aim to block all the ways to improvement and modernization. Blinded by religious extremism and outdated tribal values, they are always ready to oppose any sort of efforts that are devoted to spread education to the people of Afghanistan, as they know that the modern education that has been spread in the country to a certain level may encourage evolution and modern changes. In particular, they are against the modern education for the females. The destiny-makers of this society know that if the girls are given modern education, they may question about their roles in rights. They may question the prejudiced rules and regulations. They may challenge the religious dogmas and in due course challenge the Mullahs and the illiterate tribal leaders. They may change the scenario and that is what the makers of the society do not want them to do. They want them to be passive and compliant, as in such state they would be easier to tackle and ruled over.   

Taliban are among the same kind of people. They have been trying to eliminate all the efforts that are targeted at spreading girls’ education in Afghanistan. They, still, live in the era that is ancient and obsolete, but they are not capable of realizing this fact. They, as a matter of fact, strive to obstruct the rising sun, which is impossible, as sun has to rise some day and show its light to the people. And, the people have to follow the light of the sun as walking in dark would never help them and show them their destination.

There have been incidents when they have bombed schools, killed the guiltless students and teachers, poisoned the students and even thrown acid on the faces of innocents girls who go to school. Last couple of years witnessed so many incidents wherein many innocent school girls were poisoned in mysterious ways that even took the lives of some of them.

Earlier, as well, when such incidents took place, the officials were not able to find out the actual reason. There were only a couple of cases when they were able to reach close to actual fact; otherwise, mostly they remained clueless.

It is required from the government, especially security forces, to investigate these sorts of incidents and must make efforts to introduce concrete measures to check the situation.

Reproving the incident alone would not be adequate to dispirit such ruthless activities and would in the long run deprive the people of Afghanistan from better opportunities to get education. It is important that the government must indoctrinate within our people the worth and importance of modern education and must encourage it as much as possible. Modern education is essential for Afghan society if it has to change in true sense. Education is one of the factors responsible for making these changes possible. It is education that ensures smooth evolution of the society and welcomes the new ideas and processes. The nations of the world that have given value to modern education and have made efforts to develop their education systems on the basis of modern and scientific systems have been able to earn astonishing growth and reputation. Simultaneously they have assimilated innumerable amenities of life for their people and have made them capable of living their lives with poise and decency.

Same is the case with the condition and position of women; they can only change when they are given modern education. Afghan government needs to keep this thing in mind that they have to neutralize all the efforts that are exerted to nullify the gains regarding modern education, especially of the girls. Providing a sustainable and modern education system to the children of Afghanistan without any discrimination of gender will be the greatest of the services to Afghanistan.