Girl School's Out in Afghanistan
From feminist wire and Ms. magazine comes this disturbing report:
A teacher from Afghanistan was murdered recently for disobeying Taliban orders to stop educating girls. Mohammed Halim, a 46 year-old man from Ghazni, was taken from his home and partly disemboweled before his limbs were tied to motorcycles and torn off, according to the New Zealand Herald. Halim is the fourth teacher to be murdered by Taliban extremists in Ghazni, a center of violence among the Taliban, US, and Afghan militaries, reports The Independent.
The number of attacks on students, teachers, and girls' schools have risen dramatically this year, with 108 assaults occurring between January and June, reports the New Zealand Herald. Many educators are still under attack, receiving warnings to stop teaching girls. Fatima Mustaq, the director of education in Ghazni, says she has received many death threats, due to her gender and her unwillingness to stop educating girls, The Independent reports. "I think they killed him that way to frighten us, otherwise why make a man suffer so much?" said Mustaq, according to The Independent.
And there's this:
Today [in Afghanistan]…girls' schools are under attack. The United Nations estimates that every single day a girls' school in Afghanistan is burned down or a female teacher killed. In four southern provinces, more than 100,000 children are being denied an education because of school closures.