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Afghan Girls Risk Their Lives to Go to Secret School
自几年前阿富汗重建工作展开以来，女孩受教育成了阿富汗最让世界瞩目的成就之一，虽然它一直在困难中前进，并不时面临表面看上去的倒退。
过去在阿富汗，女孩子是不上学的，因为传统的伊斯兰教观点对女性受教育持非常保守的态度。这种观点现在在逐步改变，但如果女孩子要上学，仍要克服重重困难。
首先，在阿富汗某些地方仍有地方军阀和民兵，仍有帐篷和校舍被焚事件以及学校附近的爆炸案，女老师也经常遭到生命威胁。家长们担心如果他们的女儿去上学，很可能会遭遇不测。
其次，城市和农村对待女童上学问题的态度一直有较大差异，这种偏差至今依然存在。在喀布尔等大城市，女学生占学生人数的比例可达35%至55%，但在农村地区，就只有20%甚至更低，而在阿富汗南部过去被塔利班控制的地区，这一比例低于10%。
最后，校舍的式样也能决定一个女孩能否上学。在阿富汗南部地区，校舍一定要有隔离墙，只有这种能把女生和男生分开的学校才算“合格”。
In a small, sunlit room, 20 little girls seated on rush mats 1)sketched a flower drawn on the blackboard. In a darker, interior room, 15 older girls recited passages from the 2)Koran. Upstairs was a class of teenage girls, hidden from view.
The location of the mud-walled home school is a close secret. The students include 5 girls who attended another home school that was burnt down three months ago. The very existence of these classes is a challenge to the insurgents who have attacked dozens of schools across Afghanistan in the past year, especially those teaching girls. “We are scared. All the home schools are scared. If I even hear a dog bark, I don’t open the gate. I go up on the roof to see who is there,” said Mohammed Sulieman, 49, who teaches in Wardak province.
Children’s education was once 3)touted as a success in this new democracy. Within two years of the 2001 overthrow of the Taliban, who banned girls’ education, officials 4)boasted that 5.1 million children of both sexes were 5)enrolled in state schools, including hundreds of village tent-schools erected by UNICEF.
Now that positive tide has come to a halt in several provinces where Taliban insurgents are battling NATO troops. President Hamid Karzai said last week that some 200,000 Afghan children had been forced out of school this year by threats and violence. According to UNICEF, 106 attacks or threats against schools occurred from January to August. They included one 6)missile attack,11 explosions, 50 7)arson attacks and 37 threats.
In the southern city of Kandahar, all schools are closed in five districts. Attackers have hurled 8)grenades into classrooms and threatened to throw acid on girl pupils. In Helmand province, a head teacher was 9)beheaded, another teacher killed by gunmen, and six schools burnt down. Three districts have closed all schools.
In the1990s, civil conflict and religious repression 10)hampered education. Many teachers fled the country. Families who could afford to do so educated their children abroad. In rural areas education became virtually inaccessible, especially for girls, and in some places female literacy fell to less than 1%. State education remains controversial for girls, especially once they reach 11)puberty and custom forbids them to mix with boys. In northern provinces, where the Taliban threat is minimal and customs more moderate, many communities have welcomed foreign offers to build schools for girls. One such community is in Parwan, a lush but 12)impoverished province of rushing streams and terraced fields. This summer the US Army built an eight-room school for 300 girls in Mollai village, the first in the area. In one class every child is the first girl in her family to attend school.
“There are still a few parents who don’t want their daughters to come, but we keep talking to them,” said the teacher, Mahmad Agul, 25. “We lack everything here——paved roads, electrical power, deep wells, clinics. But this school was our highest priority.”
Gul Khanum, 11, said that her parents were illiterate farmers, but she hoped to become a doctor. Nazia, 10, stood to recite a poem. Afterwards, she said she had learnt to read at home but had not attended school before. “Before, we were just sitting in the dust. Now we have desks and chairs and a roof.”
Where schools are too distant or too dangerous to attend, hundreds of communities set up home schools. With the revival of the Taliban threat, they are becoming an important alternative.
Sulieman, headmaster of a boys’ high school, showed off several home schools where girls were studying art and math. In one village, a three-room home school was 13)crammed with students, but another had just closed after an arson attack.
“Once I was walking late in my village when three Taliban warned me to stop educating girls,” he said. “I told them the Koran says girls should be educated as well as boys, and that my school was teaching young girls to memorize the Koran and pray five times a day.”
在一间狭窄的、有阳光直射的屋子里，
20个坐在灯心草席子上的小女孩正临摹黑板上的花儿。在一间更暗一点的内屋，15个稍大一点的女孩正背诵可兰经。楼上，还有一班躲起来偷偷学习的少女。
这间用泥墙围成的家庭式学校坐落在一个极为隐蔽的地方。这些学生，包括5位女学生在内，曾在另一间家庭式学校读书，那所学校三个月前遭人焚毁。这些学校的存在，本身就是对阿富汗反政府武装的挑战。去年，武装分子已经袭击过阿富汗境内的几十所学校，尤其是女校。“我们很害怕，所有家庭式学校里的人都很害怕。如果我听见狗叫，我不敢去开门，我只能爬到屋顶去看是谁来了，”在瓦尔达克省教书的49岁教师穆罕默德·苏里曼说道。
儿童教育曾被吹捧为阿富汗新生的民主政权所取得的成就之一。2001年，禁止女童接受教育的塔利班政权被推翻。此后两年，新政府吹嘘说在公立学校就读的男女学生已达510万人，这些学校包括由联合国儿童基金会在村庄里兴建的数百所帐篷学校。
然而，这股进步潮流已在某些省份终止，因为塔利班叛军在那里与北约军队正面交火。上周阿富汗总统哈米德·卡尔扎伊说，今年已有20多万阿富汗儿童由于恐吓或暴力被迫离开了学校。根据联合国儿童基金会的统计，从1月至8月，针对学校的袭击或恐吓共有106起，其中包括1起导弹袭击，11起爆炸，50起纵火袭击以及37起恐吓。
在阿富汗南部的坎大哈市，有五个区关闭了区内全部学校。袭击者把手榴弹扔进学校，还威胁说要往女学生身上泼硫酸。在赫尔曼德省，一位校长被斩首，另外一位老师被持枪匪徒杀害，六所学校被烧毁，三个区关闭了区内所有学校。
上世纪九十年代，国内冲突和宗教压迫严重阻碍了阿富汗教育的发展。许多教师逃离阿富汗。有经济能力的家庭把孩子送到国外去念书。偏远的农村地区几乎不存在教育，尤其对女孩子而言。在某些地区，女性识字率下降到1%以下。在当今的阿富汗，女孩的教育问题依然颇具争议，尤其是当她们到了青春期的时候，习俗禁止她们和男孩子在一起。在北方省份，塔利班的势力很小，习俗也相对宽松，许多地区对来自国外的有关建女校的援助表示欢迎。帕尔旺省就是这样的地区之一，这个省河流湍急、梯田满布、植被丰富却极度贫困。今年夏天，美军在该省的莫莱村为300名女童建了一间八个课室的学校。这是当地的第一所学校，其中一个班里，所有的女学生都是她们家里第一个上学的女孩。
“仍有一些家长不愿送他们的女儿来学校，但我们一直在劝说他们，”25岁的教师马哈曼德·安吉尔说，“这里什么都缺，没有铺好的公路，没有电，没有深井，没有诊所，但教育依然是我们工作的重中之重。”
11岁的吉尔·卡哈南说她的父母都是目不识丁的农民，她希望日后可以成为一名医生。10岁的纳兹亚正站着背一首诗。背完了诗，她说她在家就学会了阅读，上学却是第一次。“以前，我们只能坐在泥地里学习，现在我们有了书桌、椅子，课室还有屋顶呢。”
有些地区学校太远，或者形势太危险，便开设家庭式学校，这样的地区有几百个。随着塔利班愈发显出卷土重来之势，家庭式学校就成了一种重要的替代。
一位男子高中的校长苏里曼满怀自豪地带大家参观了几所家庭式学校，女童正在里面学习美术和数学。在其中一个村庄，一间有三个课室的家庭式学校里挤满了学生，另外一间则因为有人纵火而刚刚关闭。
“有一天夜里，我在村里走着，突然有三个塔利班的人走上来警告我不要再给那些女孩上课了，”苏里曼说道，“我告诉他们，可兰经上说女孩也应该和男孩一样要接受教育。我的学校教小女孩背诵可兰经，并且每天祈祷五次。”
Afghan Girls Risk Their Lives to Go to Secret School
自几年前阿富汗重建工作展开以来，女孩受教育成了阿富汗最让世界瞩目的成就之一，虽然它一直在困难中前进，并不时面临表面看上去的倒退。
过去在阿富汗，女孩子是不上学的，因为传统的伊斯兰教观点对女性受教育持非常保守的态度。这种观点现在在逐步改变，但如果女孩子要上学，仍要克服重重困难。
首先，在阿富汗某些地方仍有地方军阀和民兵，仍有帐篷和校舍被焚事件以及学校附近的爆炸案，女老师也经常遭到生命威胁。家长们担心如果他们的女儿去上学，很可能会遭遇不测。
其次，城市和农村对待女童上学问题的态度一直有较大差异，这种偏差至今依然存在。在喀布尔等大城市，女学生占学生人数的比例可达35%至55%，但在农村地区，就只有20%甚至更低，而在阿富汗南部过去被塔利班控制的地区，这一比例低于10%。
最后，校舍的式样也能决定一个女孩能否上学。在阿富汗南部地区，校舍一定要有隔离墙，只有这种能把女生和男生分开的学校才算“合格”。
In a small, sunlit room, 20 little girls seated on rush mats 1)sketched a flower drawn on the blackboard. In a darker, interior room, 15 older girls recited passages from the 2)Koran. Upstairs was a class of teenage girls, hidden from view.
The location of the mud-walled home school is a close secret. The students include 5 girls who attended another home school that was burnt down three months ago. The very existence of these classes is a challenge to the insurgents who have attacked dozens of schools across Afghanistan in the past year, especially those teaching girls. “We are scared. All the home schools are scared. If I even hear a dog bark, I don’t open the gate. I go up on the roof to see who is there,” said Mohammed Sulieman, 49, who teaches in Wardak province.
Children’s education was once 3)touted as a success in this new democracy. Within two years of the 2001 overthrow of the Taliban, who banned girls’ education, officials 4)boasted that 5.1 million children of both sexes were 5)enrolled in state schools, including hundreds of village tent-schools erected by UNICEF.
Now that positive tide has come to a halt in several provinces where Taliban insurgents are battling NATO troops. President Hamid Karzai said last week that some 200,000 Afghan children had been forced out of school this year by threats and violence. According to UNICEF, 106 attacks or threats against schools occurred from January to August. They included one 6)missile attack,11 explosions, 50 7)arson attacks and 37 threats.
In the southern city of Kandahar, all schools are closed in five districts. Attackers have hurled 8)grenades into classrooms and threatened to throw acid on girl pupils. In Helmand province, a head teacher was 9)beheaded, another teacher killed by gunmen, and six schools burnt down. Three districts have closed all schools.
In the1990s, civil conflict and religious repression 10)hampered education. Many teachers fled the country. Families who could afford to do so educated their children abroad. In rural areas education became virtually inaccessible, especially for girls, and in some places female literacy fell to less than 1%. State education remains controversial for girls, especially once they reach 11)puberty and custom forbids them to mix with boys. In northern provinces, where the Taliban threat is minimal and customs more moderate, many communities have welcomed foreign offers to build schools for girls. One such community is in Parwan, a lush but 12)impoverished province of rushing streams and terraced fields. This summer the US Army built an eight-room school for 300 girls in Mollai village, the first in the area. In one class every child is the first girl in her family to attend school.
“There are still a few parents who don’t want their daughters to come, but we keep talking to them,” said the teacher, Mahmad Agul, 25. “We lack everything here——paved roads, electrical power, deep wells, clinics. But this school was our highest priority.”
Gul Khanum, 11, said that her parents were illiterate farmers, but she hoped to become a doctor. Nazia, 10, stood to recite a poem. Afterwards, she said she had learnt to read at home but had not attended school before. “Before, we were just sitting in the dust. Now we have desks and chairs and a roof.”
Where schools are too distant or too dangerous to attend, hundreds of communities set up home schools. With the revival of the Taliban threat, they are becoming an important alternative.
Sulieman, headmaster of a boys’ high school, showed off several home schools where girls were studying art and math. In one village, a three-room home school was 13)crammed with students, but another had just closed after an arson attack.
“Once I was walking late in my village when three Taliban warned me to stop educating girls,” he said. “I told them the Koran says girls should be educated as well as boys, and that my school was teaching young girls to memorize the Koran and pray five times a day.”
在一间狭窄的、有阳光直射的屋子里，
20个坐在灯心草席子上的小女孩正临摹黑板上的花儿。在一间更暗一点的内屋，15个稍大一点的女孩正背诵可兰经。楼上，还有一班躲起来偷偷学习的少女。
这间用泥墙围成的家庭式学校坐落在一个极为隐蔽的地方。这些学生，包括5位女学生在内，曾在另一间家庭式学校读书，那所学校三个月前遭人焚毁。这些学校的存在，本身就是对阿富汗反政府武装的挑战。去年，武装分子已经袭击过阿富汗境内的几十所学校，尤其是女校。“我们很害怕，所有家庭式学校里的人都很害怕。如果我听见狗叫，我不敢去开门，我只能爬到屋顶去看是谁来了，”在瓦尔达克省教书的49岁教师穆罕默德·苏里曼说道。
儿童教育曾被吹捧为阿富汗新生的民主政权所取得的成就之一。2001年，禁止女童接受教育的塔利班政权被推翻。此后两年，新政府吹嘘说在公立学校就读的男女学生已达510万人，这些学校包括由联合国儿童基金会在村庄里兴建的数百所帐篷学校。
然而，这股进步潮流已在某些省份终止，因为塔利班叛军在那里与北约军队正面交火。上周阿富汗总统哈米德·卡尔扎伊说，今年已有20多万阿富汗儿童由于恐吓或暴力被迫离开了学校。根据联合国儿童基金会的统计，从1月至8月，针对学校的袭击或恐吓共有106起，其中包括1起导弹袭击，11起爆炸，50起纵火袭击以及37起恐吓。
在阿富汗南部的坎大哈市，有五个区关闭了区内全部学校。袭击者把手榴弹扔进学校，还威胁说要往女学生身上泼硫酸。在赫尔曼德省，一位校长被斩首，另外一位老师被持枪匪徒杀害，六所学校被烧毁，三个区关闭了区内所有学校。
上世纪九十年代，国内冲突和宗教压迫严重阻碍了阿富汗教育的发展。许多教师逃离阿富汗。有经济能力的家庭把孩子送到国外去念书。偏远的农村地区几乎不存在教育，尤其对女孩子而言。在某些地区，女性识字率下降到1%以下。在当今的阿富汗，女孩的教育问题依然颇具争议，尤其是当她们到了青春期的时候，习俗禁止她们和男孩子在一起。在北方省份，塔利班的势力很小，习俗也相对宽松，许多地区对来自国外的有关建女校的援助表示欢迎。帕尔旺省就是这样的地区之一，这个省河流湍急、梯田满布、植被丰富却极度贫困。今年夏天，美军在该省的莫莱村为300名女童建了一间八个课室的学校。这是当地的第一所学校，其中一个班里，所有的女学生都是她们家里第一个上学的女孩。
“仍有一些家长不愿送他们的女儿来学校，但我们一直在劝说他们，”25岁的教师马哈曼德·安吉尔说，“这里什么都缺，没有铺好的公路，没有电，没有深井，没有诊所，但教育依然是我们工作的重中之重。”
11岁的吉尔·卡哈南说她的父母都是目不识丁的农民，她希望日后可以成为一名医生。10岁的纳兹亚正站着背一首诗。背完了诗，她说她在家就学会了阅读，上学却是第一次。“以前，我们只能坐在泥地里学习，现在我们有了书桌、椅子，课室还有屋顶呢。”
有些地区学校太远，或者形势太危险，便开设家庭式学校，这样的地区有几百个。随着塔利班愈发显出卷土重来之势，家庭式学校就成了一种重要的替代。
一位男子高中的校长苏里曼满怀自豪地带大家参观了几所家庭式学校，女童正在里面学习美术和数学。在其中一个村庄，一间有三个课室的家庭式学校里挤满了学生，另外一间则因为有人纵火而刚刚关闭。
“有一天夜里，我在村里走着，突然有三个塔利班的人走上来警告我不要再给那些女孩上课了，”苏里曼说道，“我告诉他们，可兰经上说女孩也应该和男孩一样要接受教育。我的学校教小女孩背诵可兰经，并且每天祈祷五次。”