afghanistan canada

The Taliban (or at least some sect of the notoriously fragmented movement) seems to have changed its stance on girls' education. Insurgents have been directed to stop intimidating schoolchildren (There was no clarification if this means the Taliban will actually stop beheading teachers and burning down schools).

Thanks a lot, Taliban. We appreciate it. Now you only have 9,999 and arbitrary excuses to brutalize the population. We feel much safer now.

The details on this story from the CBC:

The Taliban declares this after brutally denying two whole generations of females an education, and we're all supposed to be grateful?

This is the same Taliban that, when it held power in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, banned all females from attending schools or colleges and largely imprisoned an entire female population within the home and under the hijab. Girls were forbidden to take part in "outdoor activities."

It is the very same Taliban that in 2008 ordered acid thrown in the faces of 15 girls and their female teachers as a warning to others to avoid schools. Last year alone, it launched more than 500 attacks on schools in which 169 pupils and teachers were killed and 527 were wounded.

Now, however, the Taliban's "supreme leader," Mullah Omar, has issued a decree ordering insurgents not to intimidate schoolchildren. Washing his hands of former policy, Omar now declared that such attacks "are the work of enemies of Afghanistan and Islam."

Presumably, the Taliban has no intention of retroactively punishing those who carried out such attacks, since that would leave very few left to carry on the courageous jihad against aid workers, teachers and civil servants.

An interesting new BBC poll in Afghanistan demonstrates the progress that has been made in some areas as well as the difficult road ahead. Some highlights:

"The public is still very much opposed to the Taleban, seeing
them as the country's biggest threat.

Most do not want to see the militants return."

Pakistan must cut its ties with the Taliban, argues Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani expert on the Taliban in a recent article in the International Herald Tribune. Without this essential step, the mission to help bring Afghanistan back from the brink will face insurmountable challenges. Read the article below.

A prophetic voice on Taliban calls out
again

By Tylere Couture (First appeared in Campbell River Mirror - March 28, 2008)

Although the major work of the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team (KPRT) is supporting and building the capacity of the Afghan government, there are several ways where the help we provide is more direct.

Even if these small interventions have little impact on the country as a whole, they provide us with something where the results of our help are more quickly evident, and that win the hearts of individual Afghans.