By Mahdi Hashemi
In an exclusive investigation, Hasht-e-Subh media reports that the Taliban is proposing wide-ranging changes to the education curriculum.
Hasht-e-Subh obtained a report prepared by the Taliban’s Committee for Reviewing the School Education Curriculum. The committee made 26 observations and recommendations for change in the school curriculum, including dropping some subjects and changing the contents of others to make them compatible with Taliban ideology.
According to the Hasht-e-Subh article, the committee began its work after the Taliban and the United States signed the Doha peace agreement in February 2020. The objective of the recommended changes seems to be to indoctrinate school children into the Taliban’s worldview and ideology. (The report describes the United Nations as a satanic force.)
In particular, the committee wants all images of living things to be eliminated for all curriculum material, including photos of people and animals. Also, it believes that drawings, paintings and all cultural items should be removed. In addition, the committee believes that any discussion of democracy or human rights, and the freedom of women should be banned.
The report demands wholesale revisions about the role of women in the education curriculum, including that the new system should teach women’s social role from the perspective of Islam and that teachers should not encourage women’s work outside home. According to the Taliban, women should not work outside home and therefore, school textbooks should never mention women working outside the house.
A serious issue is marriage without the consent of girls and boys. The Taliban want subjects related to marriage to be revised in the educational curriculum as the group considers the marriage of an underage boy or girl to be legitimate if their fathers or grandfathers consent. This change in the curriculum would recognize the reality in Afghanistan: forced marriages and child marriages have increased sharply since the Taliban regained power.
The report stresses the need to teach the implementation of hudud and qisas, including amputations, stonings and executions. It also wants the educational system to promote and defend the virtues of jihad. For example, the report says the current curriculum promotes Western, non-Islamic ideas toward war and peace and they are demanding a distinction between war and jihad, and that Taliban wars and actions should be praised as jihad.
The proposal also wants to change the curriculum on issues related to the media. The Taliban refers to radio as “colonial media” and wants educators to teach the “negative role” of a diverse media landscape and that students be warned about the dangers of the Internet. And also wants youths to avoid going online.
