Afghanistan struggles to keep girls' schools open

[unhappycamper]

Afghanistan struggles to keep girls' schools open
By Hal Bernton, The Seattle Times
Stars and Stripes online edition, Sunday, January 3, 2010

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan — In late September, Julia Bolz got disturbing news about the first girls' school she'd helped build in Afghanistan.

A young militant, recently returned from Pakistan, was whipping up opposition to the school in the small village outside the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif. At night, he and his allies put leaflets on doorsteps. During the day, they patrolled the street in front of the school on motorbikes and warned the girls to stay away.

The principal was told to shut down the seven-year-old school or face assassination. To reduce the risk of beheading, he moved out of his home.

When Bolz heard about the threat, her initial impulse was to attend the community meeting set up to confront the militants.

"I wanted to be a voice for these girls," recalls Bolz, a Seattle attorney. "But I was told that if someone from the West came, it would show that this school was a Western idea. It was important that this be an Afghan meeting."


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=66999