- News>
- Asia
Tribal elders ban entry of female teachers in NW Pakistan
Peshawar, July 14: Tribal elders in North West Pakistan have banned aid organizations from sending women to teach girls in their homes and have threatened to burn down the houses of anyone harboring the women, a tribal elder said today.
Peshawar, July 14: Tribal elders in North West Pakistan have banned aid organizations from sending women to teach girls in their homes and have threatened to burn down the houses of anyone harboring the women, a tribal elder said today.
``We have banned the entry of only those women who
were violating our traditions by visiting houses in the garb
of teachers,'' said Maulvi Mohammed Amin.
The aid organizations are trying to educate girls who are kept by their families from attending schools in the tribal regions.
Amin said the decision was taken at a Jirga, or grand council meeting, Friday in Orakzai tribal region, 250 km southwest of Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's deeply conservative North West Frontier Province, where a coalition of radical Islamic groups is in power.
Kamal Khan, a federal government official in the region, said the government is trying to persuade the tribal elders to reconsider their decision.
``We want to know why they took such a decision,'' he said.
Pakistan's federal government has limited access and control in the tribal regions.
The provincial government has set up schools in the tribal regions, but many families still forbid their daughters to go outside their houses to get an education.
Bureau Report
The aid organizations are trying to educate girls who are kept by their families from attending schools in the tribal regions.
Amin said the decision was taken at a Jirga, or grand council meeting, Friday in Orakzai tribal region, 250 km southwest of Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's deeply conservative North West Frontier Province, where a coalition of radical Islamic groups is in power.
Kamal Khan, a federal government official in the region, said the government is trying to persuade the tribal elders to reconsider their decision.
``We want to know why they took such a decision,'' he said.
Pakistan's federal government has limited access and control in the tribal regions.
The provincial government has set up schools in the tribal regions, but many families still forbid their daughters to go outside their houses to get an education.
Bureau Report