After Acid Attacks, Students Too Afraid to Attend School
Friday November 14, 2008
What's the price of education for girls in Afghanistan? Being doused with acid by men who don't want them to learn. The New York Times reports that fifteen girls and teachers were attacked by men on motorcycles on Wednesday:
The men squirted the acid from water bottles onto three groups of students and teachers walking to school Wednesday, principal Mehmood Qaderi said. Some of the girls have burns only on their school uniforms but others will have scars on their faces.Afghanistan has struggled to move past five years of oppressive rule under the Taliban. From 1996-2001, girls were not allowed to attend school. Today, 2 million girls are receiving an education.One teenager still cannot open her eyes after being hit in the face with acid.
''Today the school is open, but there are no girls,'' Qaderi said Thursday. ''Yesterday, all of the classes were full.'' His school has 1,500 students.
Yet not everyone is happy with the greater freedom women and girls are enjoying. Schools for girls have been targeted by arsonists, and last year two students outside a girls' school were murdered by gunmen.
Comments
We need to get those girls here, get them the help they need and see about hiring some guns to guard those schools. I don’t understand how this is not already happening. How many churches and humanitarian agencies in any of our major cities are already there and no one is stepping forward?