This post originally appeared on the Barakat, Inc. blog on January 20th, 2011. Barakat is an NGO focused on providing education for women and children throughout Afghanistan and Pakistan.

A recent article by the New York Times on indentured servitude in the brick-making industry in Afghanistan highlights the crushing cycle of poverty many families are caught in. For kiln workers with limited skills, the only way to take out a loan is to use their manual labor and that of future generations as collateral. This system unfortunately traps the workers when they are forced to borrow from their employers, who do not pay them enough to settle their debts.

According to the article, Mohammad and his four sons are paid $10 for a day’s labor—roughly 2,500 bricks.  The kiln owners can sell this amount of bricks for up to $160. The owners say they are helping the families of kiln workers, noting that many were stranded as refugees in Pakistan and that employees are usually provided with “houses, electricity, beds, blankets, water and cash for workers’ family expenses” in addition to further loans for emergencies. For the workers, however, this situation perpetuates their problems as they live lives of great poverty and hardship but still have enough to lose if they choose to stand up to their employers.

The predicament faced by these workers is symptomatic of larger problems related to economic development and poverty. While Mohammad and his children may have to endure terrible circumstances, the job does provide a much needed income. The District Governor of Surkhrod, when interviewed for this article, said, “I know this is not good for kids, but we have to build our buildings [and] our country”. Sarah Crowe, UNICEF’s regional communication director for South Asia offers a similar gloomy assessment of the costs and benefits of child labor in the brick making industry, pointing out that it offers supplemental income for the family.

Unfortunately, while education offers one of the few opportunities to break the chains of poverty for families and communities, the decision to invest in the long-term benefits of education over short-term survival needs is a hard and life-changing one.  Thus, without support and economic assistance and the opportunity to learn, Zar Mohammad’s 8-year-old son Neyaz will have to continue beginning his twelve-hour workday before dawn as he makes the bricks that are rebuilding Afghanistan. While the world may be tough on him, Neyaz continues to dream big.  He says, “I want to go to school and to become a doctor to serve my people and my country.”

This post originally appeared on the Barakat, Inc. blog on January 20th, 2011. Barakat is an NGO focused on providing education for women and children throughout Afghanistan and Pakistan.

UNICEF announced on Friday that survivors of last year’s deadly floods in Pakistan are now facing another tragedy as rates of malnourishment in children are skyrocketing in affected areas. According to a report in Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper, “six months on from Pakistan’s deadly floods, nearly a quarter of children in the worst-hit province of Sindh remain acutely malnourished.” According to the government of Sindh, this amounts to 90,000 children between the ages of six months and five years.

These malnourished children are a symptom of a larger problem – to provide relief to the 20 million people affected by the floods. The UN issued a call for $2 billion in emergency relief in September but has only raised about half that amount so far. Speaking at a press conference in Islamabad, Rauf Engin Soysal, the UN’s Special Envoy for Assistance to Pakistan said that only 39 percent of early recovery projects have been funded, adding that the remaining billion dollars in relief is “urgently needed.”

While the initial fear of waterborne diseases may have faded, new crises now loom. With 1.7 million homes damaged and 5.4 million acres of arable land affected, getting the country’s agricultural sector back on track is a priority. To that end, Soysal announced that the UN was “providing them [farmers] with seeds, fertilizers and tool to accelerate the rehabilitation process.” As this process continues, seven million people remain dependent on monthly food rations to survive.

This announcement will hopefully refocus international attention on the need for a sustained commitment to Pakistan. With the country’s own government facing massive budgetary shortfalls and the international community struggling to respond to more and more disasters in a time of less and less money, the onus falls on common citizens of all countries to step in and extend a sorely-needed hand of friendship to their Pakistani brethren.

photo courtesy Muhammad Ghafari

As Egypt has been engulfed in chaos over the past few days, questions remain about the future of Egypt and the situation throughout the Middle East. To help us digest this information, the TRCommons has put together a brief backgrounder on events over the past few days as well as in the years and months leading up to the protest. We’ll attempt to update this as often as possible with information as more becomes available.

Mubarak – the History:

Hosni Mubarak, a former Commander of the Egyptian Air Force, took over as President of Egypt in 1981 following the assassination of his predecessor Anwar Sadat. Citing the assassination, Mubarak imposed a state of emergency upon the country when he took over – a state of emergency that has continued with some adjustments since 1981. The imposition of this emergency has been used by the Egyptian government at various times to limit freedom of speech and assembly as well as to curtail political activity. While elections have been held periodically since Mubarak took office – with referendums in 1987, 1993 and 1999 – they have generally not been considered free and fair, with no candidates running against Mubarak. In 2005 multi-party elections were held, though activists and monitors claimed mass rigging and vote-buying took place, with Mubarak securing 78-80% of the vote according to official results.

At 82 years old and considered to be in poor health, it was widely believed that he would not seek re-election in Presidential elections that are scheduled for later this year. This has naturally fueled many questions about his succession, as until earlier today he had not named a vice-president throughout the decades of his rule. Many believed that Mubarak was grooming his son, Gamal Mubarak to take over the reins from him and run for office as the candidate of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP). The choice was s controversial one, not only because of the hereditary aspect of it, but also because Gamal, a former investment banker, is not believed to be popular amongst the old guard of the armed forces. The old guard was crucial in Mubarak’s rise to power and early years as well as in maintaining order. They were generally believed to favor Omar Suleiman or Mohammad Hussain Tantawi as successors to Mubarak. Suleiman, a former head of Egypt’s Intelligence Agency, was named Vice President earlier on Saturday by Mubarak.

Tunisia – the first Domino?

Egypt was – and is – not the only state in the Middle East ruled by an ageing autocrat who has ruled for decades and stifled freedoms. In December of last year, protests began in another authoritarian North African state – Tunisia – protesting government autocracy, a lack of employment and economic opportunities and corruption. The protests in Tunisia began after Mohammad Bouazizi – a young fruit and vegetable seller in the small town of Sidi Bouzid – set himself on fire to protest repeated harassment by government officials. His self-immolation started protests in his hometown that quickly spread throughout the country. At first the government resisted the protests, using law enforcement to attempt to break them up.

On January 12^th however, Tunisia’s long-ruling President Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali sacked the country’s interior minister, ordered the release of arrested protestors and the formation of a committee to investigate corruption. These moves failed to quell protests however, leading Ben Ali to announce that he would grant more political freedoms to the people, lower food prices and not seek re-election (after ruling since 1987) in elections scheduled for 2014. The day after this however, on January 14^th, after sacking the government, Ben Ali announced he was “temporarily” stepping down and fled to Saudi Arabia with his family. For more on the situation in Tunisia,  the BBC and Al Jazeera have very in-depth coverage.

The protests in Tunisia also set off small-scale protests in Yemen, Algeria and Egypt as well as a string of self-immolations. Reportedly, after Ben Ali announced his departure, crowds gathered in Cairo chanting “Mubarak Next.”

This post originally appeared on the Barakat, Inc. blog on January 20th, 2011. Barakat is an NGO focused on providing education for women and children throughout Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Girls attend computer class at a Barakat school in Afghanistan.

Afghan education minister Farooq Wardak has said a paradigm shift may be coming in the battle for women’s education, telling the media recently that the Taliban had undergone a “cultural change” and decided to end their opposition to girls’ education in the country. While Wardak is close to Afghan President Hamid Karzai – and involved in reconciliation talks with the Taliban – members of the militant group have not confirmed his statement.

Indeed, even within the Taliban it appears there are contrasting views on the issue, with the Taliban’s former Ambassador to Islamabad, Mullah Zaeef, telling the BBC that the ban imposed by the Taliban was “a temporary measure” due to the group’s disapproval of co-education and of male teachers teaching women. In addition to the Taliban, others in Afghan society have also opposed educating women for various reasons. As the education minister said, “In the deepest pockets of our society, not only the Taliban, there was not very friendly behavior towards education.”

Beyond these cultural obstacles identified by the minister, millions of Afghans who brave violence and tackle prejudices to send their children to school, face even more challenges. With the country ranked amongst the world’s poorest and still recovering from thirty years of conflict and war, schools are struggling to make ends meet and provide a quality education to their students.

Despite the hardships, Afghans of all ethnic groups – including parents of Barakat students – are determined to provide their children with previously unimaginable opportunities through the power of education. As Wardak went on to say, “During the Taliban era the percentage of girls of the one million students that we had was zero percent. The percent of female teachers was zero percent… today 38 % of our students and 30 % of our teachers are female.” Hopefully, with the minister’s announcement, Afghanistan can look forward to these numbers rising in years to come.

-Faris Islam

Here’s a piece I wrote for the All Things Pakistan blog on the appointment of a media ombudsman for one of Pakistan’s newest media networks. For the article in it’s entirety (with comments, links and pictures) follow the link.

Earlier today, the Express Tribune announced via their website and newspaper that retired Justice Fakhruddin G Ebrahim, a former Law Minister, Attorney General and Governor of Sindh would be the newspaper’s inaugural ombudsman. According to the announcement, the highly respected constitutional expert will “act as arbitrator” and as a link between the newspaper and its readership to promote accurate, fair and balanced reporting.

The appointment comes at a time where the role of the media and media coverage has come under increasing scrutiny and criticism. Following the recent “media explosion” which witnessed the launching of dozens of private media outlets of all mediums, many have complained that media standards, accuracy and accountability have failed grow with the number of media outlets. Indeed, two weeks ago the country was (once again) thrown into frenzy with after TV channels aired rumors that the government was considering the ouster of the judiciary and triggered a firm response from the judiciary.

Unfortunately, in such a competitive market and with a twenty-four hour news cycle, the urge to be the first to break the news – even if it is unverified – as well as the desire to sensationalize can be all too tempting. At the end of the day, news organization across the world and especially those operating in a new mediascape, like those in Pakistan, are fighting for profits and ratings, the pursuit of which often threaten fair, balanced and accurate reporting.

The Express Tribune’s appointment of Justice Ebrahim is a welcome example of steps media networks can take to address the dilemma. A highly-respected and neutral outsider can go a long way in putting their coverage in perspective and providing an outlet for readers to address their concerns.

While setting up this institution is an important step for the Pakistani media establishment, its effectiveness will have to be determined in the days to come, once it becomes more clear what the scope and power of a Pakistani media ombudsman will be.

My piece from the Dawn.com blog, on last night’s  terror attacks in Lahore  and subsequent rioting.(Follow the link for the original story)

Watching the footage of the aftermath of the Lahore blast, it’s tragic how familiar a sight this has become across Pakistan. Too often, our national discourse been filled with angry citizens taking the law into their own hands. Before the Lahore bombings, we witnessed the gruesome lynching of two teenagers in Sialkot, a few weeks earlier Karachi erupted into flames of arson and looting following the murder of MPA Raza Haider. Prior to that, my home city of Karachi also burnt and bled after the Ashura blasts and of course, the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

Scenes of citizen-led violence are becoming a common part of terror attacks in cities across Pakistan, with ordinary citizens going on fury-filled rampages of murder, arson and looting. Indeed, the violence perpetrated by ordinary citizens is causing more damage and death than the original attack – something militant groups increasingly rely on. Following the Karachi attacks, it was shown that the post-attack violence was planned and incited to further the toll of the original attacks. More disturbing than this complex planning or even the tepid response from law enforcement agencies has been the willingness of citizens to embrace this private justice and join these rampages. This willingness to embrace violence is an expression of the deep reservoirs of frustration and injustice coursing through the veins of Pakistanis.

With a galore of pundits tracing the route of this – and all other problems – to the aftermath of the Afghan war, it’s important to acknowledge our own failings as a nation in dealing with violence. Balochistan had been engulfed in the fires of insurgence long before the Afghan war, and East Pakistan even before that. The violence of the ’80s and ’90s in Karachi also had roots in grievances present long before the Afghan war. Like the angry citizens rampaging across Lahore and Karachi, these insurgencies were driven by a deep-seated frustration at injustices and a feeling – perceived or real – that those responsible would escape justice unless citizen took force into their own hands.

Now however, the visibility of force and violence across the country has made us accustomed to private justice, with citizens – or their armed guards – administering ‘justice’ on their own without involving the state. Violent footage flash on our television screens; armed guards at houses and shops, snipers guarding schools and ‘sensitive’ buildings now fortified behind layers of barriers and barbed wires. Now, it seems ‘might is right’ and the best way to deal with threats, injustice and insecurity is through weapons and force.

These weapons and the use of force are increasingly become privatised, with the populace feeling the state can’t deliver justice or keep the peace, ironically further eroding the state’s monopoly on the use of force. Events in Lahore and in Karachi have shown us a citizenry that is brimming with anger and fury, doubting justice will be served and accustomed to seeing force wielded privately. When this anger and the perception that vigilantism is acceptable in society mixes with miscreants eager to spread chaos, anarchy has always ensued.

The crucial question remains – where do we go from here? What can we learn from the anguish and anger of those setting building ablaze on Lahore’s Mall Road? What can the torching of Karachi’s Bolton Market possibly serve to teach us? In an increasingly dangerous world, threats abound. Our need for security and justice, our feelings of helplessness and anger and the visibility of violence around us cannot allow us to continue taking violence and force into our own hands. Regardless of how senseless this violence may seem and how little this mob action may appear to have to do with justice, as long as we continue to privatise armed resistance at any level, and deny justice at all levels, the risk of citizens being seduced into using weaponry and vigilante justice, lingers. Gandhi was right that, “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind” – our challenge must be to strengthen the vision of justice.

Faris Islam is studying political science and history at Tufts University, Massachusetts.