Thursday, 24 May 2012
Monday, 21 May 2012
Saturday, 12 May 2012
The Hindu : Opinion / Lead : Curator of a hollowed conscience
The Hindu : Opinion / Lead : Curator of a hollowed conscience
On his hundredth birthday, Manto stands taller on the literary horizon than others who wrote about the mass migrations of 1947. Where he needs greater appreciation is in the role he played as a witness to history through his chilling narratives of partition. In a country where history as a discipline has suffered from calculated neglect in the interests of projecting statist ideology, Manto's partition stories are an excellent entry point for enquiring minds eager to understand the past that has made their present fraught with such uncertainty and danger. The ever-percipient Manto had anticipated the problems of treating religion as a weapon rather than a matter of personal faith and ethics, which have over the past three decades surfaced with a vengeance in Muslim Pakistan. His words of warning have a resonance that is louder than when he said: ‘Our split culture and divided civilization, what has survived of our arts; all that we received from the cut up parts of our own body, and which is buried in the ashes of Western politics, we need to retrieve, dust, clean and restore to freshness in order to recover all that we have lost in the storm.' Ayesha Jalal
If there is a birthday present Pakistanis and Indians can jointly give Manto, it is to admit the reality of the problems he spelt out in his writings on partition. It may then become possible for them to take the requisite steps towards recovering what has been lost by the myopic refusal of their respective nation-states to understand each other's position, rectify past errors, and strike a mutually beneficial and sustainable historical compromise.
Sunday, 6 May 2012
Curtailing ‘immodesty’: Ex-lawmaker ‘decrees’ against female education
Curtailing ‘immodesty’: Ex-lawmaker ‘decrees’ against female education
A former lawmaker and cleric from Kohistan district, Maulana Abdul Haleem, termed formal education for women un-Islamic and asked parents to pluck their daughters from school, or else they would be ‘doomed’.
The nonagenarian, who was elected to the National Assembly from Kohistan on the now-defunct Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal’s ticket in 2002, also railed against non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working in the region in his Friday sermon, calling them ‘hubs of immodesty’.
Nestled in the Himalayas, the Kohistan district is picturesque, but also one of the least-literate and least developed in the country.
Fiery sermon
Maulana Haleem, who was an office-bearer of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl until recently, was delivering a Friday sermon, at Jamia Masjid Komila, on who is dayoos, or those liable to be condemned to hell.
“It’s beghairti (immodesty) to equip girls with secular education,” the cleric said, adding that those Kohistani parents who were sending their girls to schools were acting against ‘Islamic shariah’ and the local customs.
“The Kohistani culture does not allow parents to send their pardadar (modest) girls to schools,” the former lawmaker said.
He did not spare female NGO workers either.
“Some women from these NGOs visit our houses frequently, mobilising naïve Kohistani women to follow their agenda in the name of health and hygiene education,” he said, adding that this was ‘unacceptable to Kohistani culture’. He threatened them with ‘dire consequences’, saying that married female NGO workers will be sent back to their husbands, and the unmarried ones will be wedded to Kohistani men.
During his stint as a parliamentarian, Maulana Haleem had also declared poppy cultivation in Kohistan ‘in accordance with Islam’.
Keeping women at home
When approached for comments, the cleric stood by the contents of his sermon, and insisted that several Hadith books prohibit girls from receiving degrees and certificates in ‘secular education’.
He did not actually quote any reference though. Asked to explain how parents would be doomed for their daughters’ education, the cleric said that formal education paves the way for girls to enter the job market. “When they permit their women to work, they give them a free hand to mix with na-mehrum (men they are not related to by blood) – by doing so, the girl’s father, brother or husband become dayoos in the eye of the shariah,” he said.
Such people will never enter Paradise, he added.
The only responsibility men owe to women is their sustenance, and not education, he said. In return, the women should stay at home and look after their children and family members, he added.
Asked if Islamic states like Saudi Arabia and Iran were violating shariah by spending billions on women’s education, Maulana Haleem termed their steps un-Islamic.
If the government is serious about bringing development to Kohistan, it should utilise NGOs’ funding itself with the help of local men.
Men working for these NGOs can continue their work though, he said, saying that is not against the shariah and local culture.
He claimed that 97% of girls schools in Kohistan were closed and the few girls that were enrolled, only visited their schools to collect cooking oil which the education department was distributing with the support of foreign donors.~Express Tribune, Pakistan, 6 May, 2012
A former lawmaker and cleric from Kohistan district, Maulana Abdul Haleem, termed formal education for women un-Islamic and asked parents to pluck their daughters from school, or else they would be ‘doomed’.
The nonagenarian, who was elected to the National Assembly from Kohistan on the now-defunct Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal’s ticket in 2002, also railed against non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working in the region in his Friday sermon, calling them ‘hubs of immodesty’.
Nestled in the Himalayas, the Kohistan district is picturesque, but also one of the least-literate and least developed in the country.
Fiery sermon
Maulana Haleem, who was an office-bearer of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl until recently, was delivering a Friday sermon, at Jamia Masjid Komila, on who is dayoos, or those liable to be condemned to hell.
“It’s beghairti (immodesty) to equip girls with secular education,” the cleric said, adding that those Kohistani parents who were sending their girls to schools were acting against ‘Islamic shariah’ and the local customs.
“The Kohistani culture does not allow parents to send their pardadar (modest) girls to schools,” the former lawmaker said.
He did not spare female NGO workers either.
“Some women from these NGOs visit our houses frequently, mobilising naïve Kohistani women to follow their agenda in the name of health and hygiene education,” he said, adding that this was ‘unacceptable to Kohistani culture’. He threatened them with ‘dire consequences’, saying that married female NGO workers will be sent back to their husbands, and the unmarried ones will be wedded to Kohistani men.
During his stint as a parliamentarian, Maulana Haleem had also declared poppy cultivation in Kohistan ‘in accordance with Islam’.
Keeping women at home
When approached for comments, the cleric stood by the contents of his sermon, and insisted that several Hadith books prohibit girls from receiving degrees and certificates in ‘secular education’.
He did not actually quote any reference though. Asked to explain how parents would be doomed for their daughters’ education, the cleric said that formal education paves the way for girls to enter the job market. “When they permit their women to work, they give them a free hand to mix with na-mehrum (men they are not related to by blood) – by doing so, the girl’s father, brother or husband become dayoos in the eye of the shariah,” he said.
Such people will never enter Paradise, he added.
The only responsibility men owe to women is their sustenance, and not education, he said. In return, the women should stay at home and look after their children and family members, he added.
Asked if Islamic states like Saudi Arabia and Iran were violating shariah by spending billions on women’s education, Maulana Haleem termed their steps un-Islamic.
If the government is serious about bringing development to Kohistan, it should utilise NGOs’ funding itself with the help of local men.
Men working for these NGOs can continue their work though, he said, saying that is not against the shariah and local culture.
He claimed that 97% of girls schools in Kohistan were closed and the few girls that were enrolled, only visited their schools to collect cooking oil which the education department was distributing with the support of foreign donors.~Express Tribune, Pakistan, 6 May, 2012
Saturday, 5 May 2012
Monday, 23 April 2012
Tuesday, 10 April 2012
Refugees Education in Pakistan and Afghanistan
http://archives.dawn.com/weekly/books/archive/071118/books2.htm
Educating refugees
Reviewed by Muhammad Ilyas Khan
'Atle Hetland is a Norwegian social scientist, with over 25 years of experience in development and refugee education work in Africa and Asia, including over four years experience of working with UN organisations dealing with refugee issues in Pakistan. Not being able to let go of his memorable experience of the unique Afghan and Pakistani people, Hetland embarked on a major book project which resulted in three volumes of Learning Away from Home book series. The project became larger than initially planned for the author did not plan to write three books, ‘But now I am through with my job’, says Hetland.
The ‘Expanded Volume’ of the series describes and analyses refugee issues, emphasising on education with a special focus on the Basic Education for Awareness, Reform and Empowerment (BEFARe) project in Peshawar. The 93-page ‘Introduction Volume’, on the other hand, gives a summary of key issues prevailing in that area. It introduces the readers to the project’s key partners and donors and gives profiles of some refugee pupils, teachers, and other stakeholders. Most of the data has been extracted from refugee camps and villages near Peshawar and Quetta.
After the launch of the book, the author also visited several universities and NGOs all around the country to introduce the book and the many issues it explores. Heltand maintains that young people are always interested in issues related to refugees who have to go through voluntary or forced migration, including human trafficking and smuggling.
Readers are given glimpses of the efforts made and problems solved in the day to day lives of the refugees. Although Hetland commends the work done by the government and people of Pakistan, as well as UNHCR and its partners, he repeatedly says that ‘we didn’t do enough’, and, ‘we should not reduce aid to education and skills training when repatriation begins; we should increase the help at the time of repatriation, in the host country and the home country’.
Hetland documents that research from other countries shows that education is a key tool in repatriation. It allows the returnees to be able to go home with certain competencies and skills to get employment, and education provides them with the courage and confidence to return to their homelands, which is a crucial step after being in exile for many years.
Hetland is also impressed by the good work that has been done regarding refugee education in Pakistan, but more should have been done, and more can still be done, he adds. After all, there are 2.4 million Afghan refugees registered with the government of Pakistan, and a good number may not even have been registered, and there are some who will not be able to return but seek permanent residence in Pakistan or resettlement in another country. They need education and skills so that they can look after themselves and contribute to their host country’s economy.
Hetland reminds us of our responsibility to assist the refugee-hosting areas and host communities. The international community must enhance its assistance to Pakistanis, and mixed Pakistan-Afghan communities, for many of them need such assistance.
It is also important that the Afghan authorities, with increased assistance from the international community, expand programmes for returnees. That means practical and financial assistance with housing, employment, skills training and primary and secondary education for children and youth, and better health services.
Hetland has included a special section in the annex of the ‘Expanded Volume’ about the earthquake, since refugee education and assistance have many similarities to assistance required after natural disasters like earthquakes.
Another useful annex in the book is the list of international instruments and conventions concerning the right to education. The references in the annex to selected specialists and detailed footnotes at the end of each of the 10 chapters in the book include essential details for students, researchers, teachers and others who want to continue studies of refugee education in Pakistan.
There are still many areas left to study, as Hetland underlines, and many lessons to learn for mainstream education too, in Pakistan and Afghanistan. ‘We must still remember that it is the teachers and the education authorities who are the specialists, while the rest of us should play a supportive and monitoring role,’ Hetland adds.
He hopes others will dig deeper into the many important issues in education and other refugee, returnee and refugee-hosting issues. ‘I find it important that we study the situation of the urban refugees. I have only been able to write scant stories about them, but their number was usually larger than that of camp refugees. Their history is important and we can learn lessons from it, as we can from the other refugee history. Pakistan has done well, and the Afghan refugees have also made their contributions to their own upkeep and lives, and many times even to the host country.’ Books and Authors, DAWN, Pakistan
Educating refugees
Reviewed by Muhammad Ilyas Khan
'Atle Hetland is a Norwegian social scientist, with over 25 years of experience in development and refugee education work in Africa and Asia, including over four years experience of working with UN organisations dealing with refugee issues in Pakistan. Not being able to let go of his memorable experience of the unique Afghan and Pakistani people, Hetland embarked on a major book project which resulted in three volumes of Learning Away from Home book series. The project became larger than initially planned for the author did not plan to write three books, ‘But now I am through with my job’, says Hetland.
The ‘Expanded Volume’ of the series describes and analyses refugee issues, emphasising on education with a special focus on the Basic Education for Awareness, Reform and Empowerment (BEFARe) project in Peshawar. The 93-page ‘Introduction Volume’, on the other hand, gives a summary of key issues prevailing in that area. It introduces the readers to the project’s key partners and donors and gives profiles of some refugee pupils, teachers, and other stakeholders. Most of the data has been extracted from refugee camps and villages near Peshawar and Quetta.
After the launch of the book, the author also visited several universities and NGOs all around the country to introduce the book and the many issues it explores. Heltand maintains that young people are always interested in issues related to refugees who have to go through voluntary or forced migration, including human trafficking and smuggling.
Readers are given glimpses of the efforts made and problems solved in the day to day lives of the refugees. Although Hetland commends the work done by the government and people of Pakistan, as well as UNHCR and its partners, he repeatedly says that ‘we didn’t do enough’, and, ‘we should not reduce aid to education and skills training when repatriation begins; we should increase the help at the time of repatriation, in the host country and the home country’.
Hetland documents that research from other countries shows that education is a key tool in repatriation. It allows the returnees to be able to go home with certain competencies and skills to get employment, and education provides them with the courage and confidence to return to their homelands, which is a crucial step after being in exile for many years.
Hetland is also impressed by the good work that has been done regarding refugee education in Pakistan, but more should have been done, and more can still be done, he adds. After all, there are 2.4 million Afghan refugees registered with the government of Pakistan, and a good number may not even have been registered, and there are some who will not be able to return but seek permanent residence in Pakistan or resettlement in another country. They need education and skills so that they can look after themselves and contribute to their host country’s economy.
Hetland reminds us of our responsibility to assist the refugee-hosting areas and host communities. The international community must enhance its assistance to Pakistanis, and mixed Pakistan-Afghan communities, for many of them need such assistance.
It is also important that the Afghan authorities, with increased assistance from the international community, expand programmes for returnees. That means practical and financial assistance with housing, employment, skills training and primary and secondary education for children and youth, and better health services.
Hetland has included a special section in the annex of the ‘Expanded Volume’ about the earthquake, since refugee education and assistance have many similarities to assistance required after natural disasters like earthquakes.
Another useful annex in the book is the list of international instruments and conventions concerning the right to education. The references in the annex to selected specialists and detailed footnotes at the end of each of the 10 chapters in the book include essential details for students, researchers, teachers and others who want to continue studies of refugee education in Pakistan.
There are still many areas left to study, as Hetland underlines, and many lessons to learn for mainstream education too, in Pakistan and Afghanistan. ‘We must still remember that it is the teachers and the education authorities who are the specialists, while the rest of us should play a supportive and monitoring role,’ Hetland adds.
He hopes others will dig deeper into the many important issues in education and other refugee, returnee and refugee-hosting issues. ‘I find it important that we study the situation of the urban refugees. I have only been able to write scant stories about them, but their number was usually larger than that of camp refugees. Their history is important and we can learn lessons from it, as we can from the other refugee history. Pakistan has done well, and the Afghan refugees have also made their contributions to their own upkeep and lives, and many times even to the host country.’ Books and Authors, DAWN, Pakistan
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