06/23/2002
EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-09962

REFORM AT KABUL UNIVERSITY

The U.S.-led war on terrorism has ousted the repressive Taleban from power in Afghanistan. As a result, schools and universities have reopened with girls and women again permitted to attend. At Kabul University, a new American-educated administrator has replaced a radical mullah. Mohammad Akbar Popal [AHK-bahr po-PAHL] has a degree in agronomy from the University of Nebraska. In an effort to overcome the legacy of Islamic extremism, he has rehired professors who were purged by the Taleban and ended the censoring of books.

"Afghanistan has been ruined, mentally and physically," said Mr. Popal. "It should concentrate on training and educating very fine experts for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of [Afghanistan]." Clearly, many students agree. Four-thousand new freshman have arrived, swelling the student body to seven-thousand.

But not everyone is happy with greater educational freedom. Under the Taleban, hundreds of men from radical Islamic religious schools, or madrassas, were admitted to Kabul University. Most of them are not academically qualified to be there. And they resent the presence of women in the classroom as well as any efforts to modernize the curriculum. As Zahir Wahab [zah-HEHR wah-HAHB], an adviser to Afghanistan’s minister of higher education, said, "There are a lot of closet Talebans." The struggle for the hearts and minds of young Afghans is by no means over.

With a new faculty and student body enrolled at Kabul University, the next step will be to reconstruct various academic departments. Already, Purdue University in Indiana has been authorized to rebuild Kabul University’s agriculture, engineering, and technology departments, using U.S. and other international aid funds. As Sherif Fayez [sheh-REEF FYE-ez], Afghan higher education minister in the interim government, said, such assistance is vital to overcoming the Taleban legacy. Many young Afghans have been cut off from modern ideas, studying in war-ravaged schools or madrassas led by semiliterate mullahs. They are ripe for manipulation by extremists. "You need modern education to change these things," said Mr. Fayez.

After more than two decades of war, Afghanistan has the potential to build a peaceful, tolerant, and more prosperous society. A well-educated workforce is critical to this goal. Moreover, schools and universities can help promote freedom of thought and speech -- the foundations of a free society.