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TODAY'S PAPER | NOVEMBER 12, 2020

Women’s education
Editorial | 08 Nov 2020    

DISTURBING reports have emerged

from Lower Dir regarding the possible
reappearance of some extremist
elements in the area. According to a
report published in the media, a poster
pasted outside the main gate of a
women’s college in Samarbagh
threatened students with death if they
did not give up their pursuit of higher
education. College officials attributed
the poster to the banned Tehreek-i-
Taliban Pakistan that opposes women’s
education, although the group
distanced itself from it. However, while
it is difficult to confirm the identity of
the perpetrators in this case, the
incident should cause concern, for it
shows that, despite the military
operations that defeated the TTP and
others of its ilk in KP including former
Fata, extremist elements — whether
groups or individuals — still lurk in the
area, seeking to sow fear among the
people and retard progress.
Condemning the incident is not enough
and those responsible for people’s
security should be extra vigilant at a
time when reports of sporadic attempts
to threaten the public are emerging in
several areas. Other reports have also
emanated from Lower Dir of how
radical elements have been putting up
posters in mosques and madressahs
calling for ‘jihad’ and the
implementation of their interpretation
of the Sharia.

The education of girls has been particularly

targeted in the past, with hundreds of schools
either blown up or closed down by the TTP that
strongly opposed women’s education and
issued frequent warnings to those who dared to
defy its diktat and go to school, Nobel laureate
Malala Yousafzai being the most well-known
victim of its nefarious designs. Years of
education have been lost and the authorities
should immediately take steps to counter the
extremists’ influence so that they are prevented
from staging a comeback. Clerics in the area
should also be taken on board to oppose such
regressive instincts. Any attack on women’s
education is an attack on education as a whole;
women are, after all, equal partners and
stakeholders in the progress of a nation.

Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2020