Afghanistan has been the victim of ideological extremes throughout its history, from the Taliban’s puritanical Islamic movement to the communists’ far-left progressive reforms. Pushing Afghans towards either end of the spectrum too aggressively has resulted in instability, providing foreign powers with pretext to intervene.
Mahmud Tarzi, one of Afghanistan’s greatest intellectuals who served under two kings during the early 1900s, understood how crucial it was to balance Islam and modernism to achieve educational reform. Education was the key, Tarzi believed, to achieving true Afghan independence and national solidarity.
Tarzi also realized that unity was a precursor to social change - in order for Afghanistan to achieve any of its reforms and legitimate independence the Afghan nation first had to be united.
According to a paper by Dr. Bashir Sakhawaz, until the unification of Afghanistan in 1919 the British had argued against Afghan independence, claiming that Afghanistan was inherently unstable and, because of the acephalous nature of its tribal society, the country was little more than centrally ungovernable states within states ruled locally by warlords and feudal chiefs. As a result, the British concluded that they had to be the “protector” of Afghanistan.
Because a unified and modern Afghan state was a threat to Britain’s imperial designs, the British often fueled disunity among warlords and fanned the rage of Islamic fundamentalists in the rural areas against the “un-Islamic” reforms of the central government, in order to retain its hold on the country.
Tarzi had been fortunate that the “Iron Amir”, Abdur Rahman Khan, who ruled from 1880 until 1901, united the Afghan people, established a central government and created a civil administration.
The Iron Amir focused his efforts on uniting the country, and did not prioritize social reforms in areas like education.
But the stage had been set for Tarzi's reforms. He believed education was the key to future stability and the lack of it was the source of all evils that led to Afghanistan being dominated by cunning invaders.
With hardly any schools and universities, Afghans were continuing to live in poverty while lacking knowledge of any of the advancements of the modern world, enabling them to be misguided and manipulated by ruling authorities, including their mullahs.
Tarzi had influenced Amir Habibullah to allow modern education in Afghanistan, which became the king's most significant achievement. The Department of Education was established in 1913 to modernize and broaden the curriculum of the traditional schools.
Education and school supplies were provided free of charge and stipends were awarded to students as an incentive to pursue formal education.
Tarzi was also a major proponent of women's education, an amazing revelation considering today's Taliban movement has destroyed over 20,000 girls' schools. According to Dr. Sakhawaz:
It was during Habibullah’s reign that a school for girls with English language medium started to function in Kabul. In his quest to make Afghanistan free of foreign influence, he thought that women must take part in liberating Afghanistan as much as the men.
He thought that women deserved full citizenship and claimed that educated women were an asset to future generations and concluded that Islam did not deny them equal rights. In his newspaper Siraj ul Akhbar, Tarzi devoted a special section on women’s issues entitled “Celebrating Women of the World,” which was edited by his wife, Asma Tarzi.
Tarzi challenged religious leaders to allow Afghans to enjoy a modern and holistic education, because the education in the mosque seemed one-dimensional, confined to the Holy Quran and often appeared tantamount to brainwashing that hindered Afghan progression - and Habibullah agreed.
Not to mention, many of the mullahs who taught in the madrasas were often not adequately educated themselves.
Amanullah Kahn, Habibullah's son, became the most progressive king Afghansitan has ever had, but he made a tragic mistake that was repeated by the communists, Taliban and Americans by trying to implement societal change too quickly.
He ordered people in rural areas to send their children to school and was so determined to educate the nomadic population that he sent teachers to travel with them.
Tarzi advised the young king to go slow but Amanullah was impatient to bring change and misjudged the ability of the British to incite anti-modern Islamist upheavels, which led to the end of his rule.
It helped that Tarzi understood Islamic teachings better than most of the radical Muslims, which is not surprising considering Tarzi studied under the great Muslim philosopher Sayyed Jamal al-Din Al-Afghani’s Afghani for seven months. Tarzi claimed the time he spent in the presence of his master was equivalent to 70 years of formal study.
While being able to win the respect of many religious hard-liners and anti-modernists, Tarzi boldly pointed out to fellow Afghans the reason European countries were more advanced was not just because of their military might, but also because of their understanding and utilization of science and technology.
Although Tarzi and the group of intellectuals which he led were against the shallow traditional curriculum of the madrasas, they were well aware of the primacy and influence of Islam in Afghan life and wisely worked in synergy with Islamic theories, trying to avoid appearing like a threat to religion.
They actually used Islam’s teachings to bolster their cause for a well-rounded education, as Tarzi’s right hand man, Abdul Hadi Dawi, did when he wrote an article using a Quranic quote in the Siraj al Akhbar newspaper: “even if knowledge is in China a Muslim must seek it.”
These intellectuals certainly understood Afghan society much better than reformers who appeared later in the 20th century like the communist government that took power in 1979, who tried to impose radical socialist ideas and programs on the populace much too rapidly, while attempting to implement a secular value system that was anathema to most Muslims.
In 1980 the communists made education compulsory for all Afghan citizens, which included sensitive issues that were interpreted as un-islamic. As Dr. Sakhawaz wrote:
However, failing to give assurance to the muslim community of Afghanistan that modern education was in line with Islamic values gave a contrary impression to the people of the rural areas that formal education was anti Islam.
The Mujahideen leaders who themselves were educated and graduates of the universities used such negative feelings of conservative people and directed their energy towards rejecting modern education, preaching only for traditional madrasa type of education.
It’s easy to draw parallels from the past with the current situation. For one, like the British Empire before it, the U.S. doesn’t believe Afghanistan is qualified to be independent.
The U.S. does not trust that it’s stable enough to prevent itself from becoming a terrorist breeding ground and allowing Al Qaeda to once again use Afghanistan as a launching pad for transnational attacks. Hence, the U.S. continues its occupation.
Educational reform was deemed un-Islamic when a secular communist puppet government attempted to impose its will on the Afghan people. Today, the corrupt government of President Hamid Karzai is seen as an illegitimate puppet installed by the United States.
Occupation and corruption have caused Afghans in the rural areas to abandon the classroom and join the Taliban insurgency, which has burgeoned tremendously in the past few years.
In the process, many young men are educated under the Taliban-run madrasas on the borderlands or in Pakistan’s western provinces where the teachers are barely literate. But they are able to warn students about the evils of modernism. According to Dr. Sakhawaz:
In describing education as an evil instrument of the West the mullahs had done the damage. This approach by mullahs does not confirm that they are committed to Islam in a selfless way but it shows that they are trying to have a good grip on society. It is in fact a power struggle between modernism and backwardness.
Until these issues are addressed, Afghanistan will be hard-pressed to achieve unity, without unity it will be near impossible to implement modern education.
The Afghans could use someone like Tarzi today – an Afghan native nationalist respected by religious leaders with a wise and balanced approach to implementing reform.
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Mr. Hughes is also the Geopolitics Examiner.
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