Afghan school girls have been targets of the Taliban ever since the group starting gaining power in the country in 1994 and the group remains vigilant in stopping women from gaining access to such basic rights, especially an education. The Taliban have burned down hundreds of girl schools in the past few years and has even sprayed acid on the faces of young girls heading to school, all of this to discourage young women from getting an education. Early last week things may have gotten even worse, as a third incident occurred featuring a large group of school girls falling ill at school because of some unknown gas in the country’s northeast.
Sick girls in Kapisa Province
There were multiple incidents in the province of Parwan a couple weeks ago, with the most recent occurring in the city of Charikar last week, where dozens of girls started to feel nausea, irritable, and confused for unknown reasons. It is suspected, but unconfirmed, that extremist elements may have put a poisonous gas into the three schools ventilation systems causing the illnesses, with the purpose of scaring girls and their families away from the schools. This apparently has been working. “I am scared because of this chemical thing happening in our school. My mother isn’t allowing me because she is scared too,” said 10-year-old Manila, a fourth grader at Aftabachi who stayed home.
Blood tests were being to examined to find the true reason behind the illnesses. Gas attacks are extremely frightening as in many cases they cannot be discovered by normal human senses, such as sight and smell, before it is too late. I couldn’t imagine trying to learn while worrying about this! The sad part of these incidents is that they are occurring in the relatively peaceful and girl-friendly northeast region of Afghanistan, where the Taliban do not have a strong hold. Confidence needs to be restored in the safety of the schools as soon as possible as staying home is the worst thing for these young girls. Well check that, suffering from unknown poisonous gases is worst.
These horrifying attacks come at the same time the country is attempting to come to terms and investigate the accused deaths of about 140 Afghan civilians by US air strikes and the apparent wrongful death of an Afghan civilian by American security contractors in Kabul. Apparently, four Xe Services, formerly known as Blackwater, employees have been fired and in custody for killing a Kabul man during a traffic accident. At least this case seems to be heading somewhere rapidly instead of being shoved under the table for months before a real investigation occurs.
