Source: CounterTerrorism Blog

By Farhana Ali
I’ve been fascinated by the way girls are treated in Pakistan since I was a girl myself and traveled there to visit extended family. Still, I never quite understood their predicament until I stepped inside a madrasa in
Quetta in 2005. “I realized that there was nothing for these girls,” the local imam told me. “When the madrasa opened, I convinced the men — mostly of Afghan origin — to allow their girls an education.”

An encounter with these young women was like reliving ancient history. Behind the iron gates, girls as young as 8 memorized the Koran; they also mended clothes and cooked their own food. “Don’t you want to see life outside of the school?” I asked a young teacher. Her response still stings me: “Of course we have desires, but we learn to suppress them.”

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Tags: education, girls, imam, madrassa, treatment