Strenge religiøse forordninger betyder, at elevernes pensum ændres i religiøs retning, drenge og piger skal undervises hver for sig, gå i særligt tøj og bede hyppigt – foreløbig har 5.000 elever taget benene på nakken, væk fra islamisterne.
BAMAKO, 22 June 2012 (IRIN): Strict Sharia, or Islamic religious laws, imposed by the Islamist rebels controlling vast swathes of northern Mali are driving thousands of students out of schools.
Dress codes have been imposed, boys and girls are forced to learn separately, and subjects deemed to promote “infidelity” (utroskab) have been struck off the curriculum (pensum).
Outraged parents are transferring their children and some students are opting to miss examinations rather than learn under these conditions.
“We simply took our two children from the school,” said Mariam Touré, who lives in Timbuktu, one of the northern towns seized by the Islamists and other insurgents, adding: “We will send them to Bamako [the capital of Mali, in the south] to continue learning.”
“I decided not to sit my second-term examinations under those conditions and my parents agreed with me. They transferred me to Sikasso [a town southeast of Bamako], where I am now pursuing my studies,” said Almoustapha Cissé.
Boubacar Sissoko, a schoolmaster in Timbuktu – a UNESCO World Heritage site – said the Islamists “terrorize the children” with the new laws.
“They have introduced their own programme and new subjects like Islamic education, or collective prayers that they themselves conduct,” he said.
The arrival of the Islamists in the north in March and the unrest that followed have left only 107 students out of 429 at the school.
Mali’s education ministry estimates that around 5.000 students have fled to schools in Bamako and other southern towns since Islamist fighters of Ansar Dine, an Islamist group that wants to apply Sharia law throughout Mali.
The Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), a small Islamist group; and the Azawad National Liberation Movement (MNLA), who want to create a separate secular state in the north, seized northern Mali when a military coup on 22 March ousted president Amadou Amani Touré in Bamako.
Although schools have taken the brunt of the draconian Islamic laws, they also have other consequences. On 20 June, a Timbuktu couple was flogged 100 times in public for having a child out of wedlock (udenfor ægteskab), sparking condemnation by shocked and angry residents.
“I was really shocked to see these poor youths undergo such punishment simply because of having a child. It made me cry. It is a shame,” said Mariama, a schoolgirl.
“We are living in another world,” said Attaher Maiga, a Timbuktu resident, pointing out that the Koran does not forbid football, tobacco or shaving one’s beard.
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