Girls educated in Pakistan!

At least about one subject: "Islam is enough. It is a complete code for modern life."

"Pakistan's Islamic girl schools," from the BBC, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

In the Jamia Hafza Madrassa (religious school) in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, hundreds of girls are taking their exams.

But although they are taught subjects like maths and geography, they are not tested on them. Their exams are only on matters relating to Islam.

Many of the 2,000 girls here are draped in black from head to toe. Others cover their hair with brightly coloured scarves.

International concern about madrassas breeding Islamic militants has quite naturally focussed on madrassas for boys.

In any case, Islamic radicals have in the past objected to girls' education. In Afghanistan, the Taleban banned girls from going to school.

But now, some groups ideologically close to the brand of austere Islam preached by the Taleban appear to be changing their strategy. Islamic clerics in Pakistan are expanding the number of madrassas for girls....

Gul Shaida, an earnest-looking young woman in black, who has been studying at the madrassa for five years, told me she enjoyed her studies.

"I want to read and what I want I can find here," she said. "After I graduate I want to teach all over the world and I want to tell the world what is Islam and what is Muslim."

The madrassa teachers claim the girls diplomas are equivalent to a master's degree, and that they can go to other more secular institutions.

In reality, very few girls get jobs outside the madrassa system. The hope of the clerics is that some of them will go back to their villages and set up madrassas there.

The teachers were eager to show me the computer room. With five computers, they have one for every 400 girls.

When I ask if they have access to the internet, the teachers laugh. "No, that is not possible for us," says Binte Rafiq.

"[We teach them] just only how to shut down the computer, and how to start it. Basic IT."...

The madrassa's vice president, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, says there has been a change of thinking among religious leaders about girls education.

"We are told that we, religious people, are against women's education. But we have proved that we are not."

Asked about the curriculum, he said, "Islam is enough. It is a complete code for modern life."

Changed views

But women's rights activist, Tahira Abdullah, argues that the madrassas' aim is not to educate but to promote a narrow, intolerant world view.

"It stifles the spirit of inquiry, it stifles the powers of reasoning and logic," she said.

"Just like these girls look like ninja turtles - in that all encompassing veil, just like they look like that, their brains are like that. They're atrophied. Totally rusted.

"The IQ levels must be going down all the time if someone was to do tests on them. They're not allowed to think for themselves, to question, they're not allowed to reason. Their spirit of inquiry is stifled."

The Jamia Hafza Madrassa was raided by police in July as part of an operation to round up militants after the suicide bombings in London.

At least one of the bombers had visited a madrassa in Pakistan a few months before the attacks.