Suspected poisoning at girls' schools in Afghanistan

Bad news from northern Afghanistan: over eighty schoolgirls in the Kunduz province — a region where militants openly oppose the education of women — fell sick after they were exposed to a strange smell in their classrooms. This happened in three schools within a couple of miles of each other — nobody died, and the Health Ministry is conducting blood tests to try to figure out what happened.

In Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, girls were not allowed to go to school, period. This has changed, but the extreme right's opposition to the education of girls is no secret; in 2008, for example, 15 students and teachers were sprayed with acid as they walked to their school in Kandahar. The effects of this type of terror act tend to ripple outwards; a lot of parents who were not directly affected by these incidents hear about them and decide it's not worth the risk, and keep their girls at home.

Afghan schoolgirls 'poisoned' [Al Jazeera]

• [Anonymous]

  I have made photographs for the UN in those schools in and around Kunduz since the American invasion, and these have been available on the internet for years. My photographs of Kunduz traveled to over 100 museums in the US when the Russians were there, but now they sit idle in their crates, because of the current witch hunt. There are so many other ways that those kids could have been poisoned by things in the environment, from paint or fumes. The Afghans are awash in new industrially produced products that they are not used to dealing with. Unless you have specific proof of an attack of some sort, the odds are way greater that this was someone’s honest mistake or carelessness. Again and again throughout this fiasco the press go after “The Taliban” when all that is going on here is a tribal people once again driving out industrial powers that want to dominate them. All the Afghans ever wanted was to be left alone. Luke Powell

• [Ambiguity]

  [a] lot of parents who were not directly affected by these incidents hear about them and decide it’s not worth the risk, and keep their girls at home.

  I would never criticize a parent’s decision when it comes to the safety of their children, but it’s a shame that they’re not being driven to the opposite decision: that educating girls is good, and that it is the Taliban that isn’t worth the risk. The less support they have, the less relevance and power they have.

• [Richard]

  It was announced Sunday that the Taliban denied being involved in this incident:

  ‘Mass illness’ hits Afghan schoolgirls in Kunduz
  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8642806.stm

  Over 80 Afghan school girls fall ill in suspected gas-poisoning
  http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/health/news/article_1550822.php/Over-80-Afghan-school-girls-fall-ill-in-suspected-gas-poisoning

  But you never know who is doing this, as it’s an ongoing problem.

  Scores of Afghan girls ill in third school poisoning – May 12, 2009
  http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE54A1IR20090512

• [pyster]

  question; how do you deal with a group of people who do not respect the rights of others to exist and choose their own destinies?

  How does one apply rational conflict resolution to irrational people?

  The underlying values here include an individuals right to life and to live that life in accordance to ones own will. One side values this, the other side does not. One side’s goals concern themselves with this world/plane of existence, the other is concerned with following some rules to get to the next world/plane of existence (heaven).

  Any ideas?

  • [nutbastard]

    “How does one apply rational conflict resolution to irrational people?”

    Easy – you shoot them.

    That may sound flip, but consider this – if every young woman in the middle east was given a pistol, and shown how to use it, how long would this sort of thing really drag on for?

    • [Anonymous]

      Not long, but most of the women probably wouldn’t end up both in school and alive anyways. Did you know there’s a difference between wanting something and being willing to die in a firefight over it?

• [inkfumes]

  So perhaps all women in Afghanistan should flee the country and leave the Taliban to slowly grow old and die alone? Just an idea.

• [Pantograph]

  Strange smell, entire schoolclass feeling ill, no serious consequences and no cause found. This seems to happen world wide and usually warrants no more that a single line in the news. It’s strange and may be a classic case of mass hysteria (is there a more neutral word for that?)

  • [nutbastard]

    pssst! militant feminists everywhere would prefer you spelled it “histeria” :P

    • [kc0bbq]

      Isn’t it wymynists, or some variation thereof?

  • [kc0bbq]

    With the Taliban’s record, it’s better to err on the side of crazies doing something vile and work your way back from there. I’d rather the Taliban get accused for something they didn’t do than not be extra-paranoid and not catch them attacking girls’ schools like they do.

• [Anonymous]

  a less loaded alternative to the term mass hysteria is Mass Psychogenic Illness
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_Psychogenic_Illness

  also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_hysteria (which really should be merged with MPI article)

• [nutbastard]

  “but the extreme right’s opposition to the education of girls is no secret”

  Lisa… do western concepts of ‘the right’ and ‘the left’ have any relevance whatsoever when discussing middle eastern factions? can’t we just agree to call those guys ‘assholes’ so as not to muddy the waters?

• [The Rational Fool]

  @Pantograph

  Mass hysteria, really? Have you read this – Afghan girls poisoned at school?

  And, this:

  Police said they had made no arrests and did not know who was responsible. While the growth of the Afghan school system is seen as one of the successes of the past seven years, Taliban-led insurgents opposed to the central government or girls’ education continue to attack schools and teachers.
  In 2008, there were 292 attacks on schools, with 92 people killed and 169 injured.

  Go ahead, google poison – girls – afghanistan!

  • [Pantograph]

    I’m not denying that there are very real attacks on women in Afghanistan, and not only by the Taliban. A climate of fear is probably a prerequisite for this kind of panic to occur.

• [Gloria]

  Yeah, I was pretty sombre yesterday because of this. Meanwhile, my local news station was providing hourly live updates on Boobquake (yes, really).